Subdomain vs Reverse Proxy

This help doc is designed to guide you in selecting the best setup for your Partner Fleet-powered marketplace. Below is a breakdown of three implementation options: using a subdomain, using a reverse proxy (which produces a subdirectory URL), or taking a phased approach that starts with a subdomain and transitions to a subdirectory over time.

A quick note on terminology: a reverse proxy is the mechanism — typically Cloudflare Workers, nginx, Vercel rewrites, or a similar tool — that you use to achieve a subdirectory URL (e.g., customer.com/marketplace/). When we say "reverse proxy" and "subdirectory" in this doc, we're referring to the same setup from two different angles.

If you are migrating from an existing marketplace under different URLs, old URLs will need to be 301-redirected to the new ones in either setup to avoid broken links and preserve SEO equity.

---

1. Subdomain (something.customer.com)

Fast and simple to launch your marketplace. Minimal engineering effort, fully supported out-of-the-box.

Pros

• Rapid deployment
• Lightweight development
• Technical isolation from the main site
• Low risk to existing infrastructure

Considerations

• Often treated as a separate property for analytics and tracking unless cross-domain tracking is configured
• Generally splits SEO signals from the main domain in practice (see SEO note below)

Estimated Effort & Timeline

Time to Launch: ~1 day

---

2. Reverse Proxy / Subdirectory (customer.com/something/...)

Hosts your marketplace under the main domain — best for long-term SEO and domain consolidation.

Pros

• Concentrates SEO signals under one domain (see SEO note below)
• All website data and traffic are tracked in one place
• Consistent experience for visitors, all under the main domain

Considerations

• Requires more technical setup by the customer's engineering team
• Configuration gotchas to plan for: asset and path rewriting, cookie and auth scoping, caching headers, and CSP rules
• Longer implementation timeline

Estimated Effort & Timeline

Time to Launch: 1–2 weeks minimum (depending on internal capacity)

---

3. Phased Approach: Subdomain → Reverse Proxy

Launch quickly on a subdomain, then migrate to a stronger SEO setup later with a reverse proxy under the main domain.

Pros

• Fast initial go-live
• Delivers benefits now, upgrade later
• SEO-preserving — follows domain migration best practices (301s, sitemaps, canonical tags)

Considerations

• Requires two phases of implementation and redirects
• Potential temporary SEO split between the subdomain and main site
• Greater coordination needed between Partner Fleet and the customer

Estimated Effort & Timeline

Time to Launch:

• Initial Launch: ~1 day
• Full Migration: +1–2 weeks

---

A note on SEO: subdomain vs subdirectory

You'll often hear that subdirectories are better for SEO than subdomains. Google's official position (stated repeatedly by their Search team) is that subdomains and subdirectories are treated equivalently for ranking. In practice, however, many sites still see subdirectory setups outperform subdomain setups — likely because authority concentrates more naturally through internal linking when everything lives on one domain. If long-term SEO is a top priority, a subdirectory remains the safer bet.

---

SEO & Setup Comparison

---

Which Option is Best for You?