A client portal for website owners, without rebuilding the site
A client login does not have to be a development project. Point a link or a subdomain at FirmHello and your site has a portal that matches your brand.
Free for 14 days, no credit card. Your portal carries your firm's name from the first client you add.
Onboarding documents
4 of 6 received1 item overdue — FirmHello is chasing
- Company details Received 9 Apr
- Photo identification Received 9 Apr
- ! Proof of address Overdue
- Bank details form Reminder tomorrow
- Terms of business Approved 7 Apr
Ardley & Frost's portal, as their client sees it.
Adding a client area to a site usually means one of two bad options: building authentication and file handling into the site itself, or bolting on a plugin that becomes your responsibility to patch forever. Both put your clients' documents inside your marketing site.
FirmHello runs the portal separately and wears your identity. A "Client login" link in your navigation, or a subdomain such as portal.yourfirm.com, takes clients to something that looks like part of your site and is maintained by us. Your website stays a website.
Why building it into the site goes wrong
Authentication is not a weekend feature
Logins, password resets, session handling and access control are the parts of a web application that are genuinely hard to get right.
Client documents end up in your marketing site
A brochure site and a document store have completely different security requirements. Combining them raises the stakes on both.
Somebody has to patch it forever
A portal plugin is a permanent maintenance commitment, and the day it is not patched is the day it matters.
A redesign should not take the portal down
Rebuilding your website should be a marketing decision, not a migration of every client's documents.
Three ways to connect it
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Step 1
Add a link
Put "Client login" in your navigation pointing at your FirmHello address. Nothing about your site changes.
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Step 2
Use a subdomain
One CNAME record gives you portal.yourfirm.com. To a client it is simply part of your firm's site.
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Step 3
Match your brand
Logo, colors and sender address, so the portal reads as a continuation of your site rather than a different product.
What on your website use most
Every featureYour brand, your domain
Your logo, your colors, your subdomain and notifications from your address, so the portal is indistinguishable from part of your site.
Intake forms
Embed or link a public intake form on your website that turns an enquiry into a client record and a first request list.
Request lists
The portal your clients log into is a checklist of what you need, not an empty file area they have to work out.
Audit trail
The access logging and permission model you would have had to build yourself, maintained by somebody whose job it is.
Client vault
Client documents in a system built to hold them, rather than inside the site you redesign every three years.
Roles and per-client access
The per-client permission model you would otherwise have had to build into your own site, maintained by somebody whose job it is.
Client documents are the most sensitive thing a firm holds
So the portal is built to hold them properly: encrypted, access granted one client at a time, and every action recorded. Nothing travels as an email attachment.
How FirmHello is built- Encrypted in transit and at rest
- TLS 1.3 on every connection and AES-256 encryption for stored documents, with keys managed separately from the data they protect.
- Access is per client, not per firm
- A client can only ever load their own space. Staff access is granted per client, so a junior can be given three files and nothing else.
- No documents in email
- Notifications tell a client that something is waiting and link them to the portal. The material itself never leaves it as an attachment.
- Complete audit trail
- Views, uploads, downloads, approvals and permission changes are all recorded with actor, time and IP, and the log is exportable.
- Retention you control
- Set how long documents live per client or per matter, and hold or purge on request, so the portal matches the retention policy you already have.
- Hosted in your region
- Choose United States, Canada, the EU or the United Kingdom, and your firm's data stays in that region.
Questions from on your website
Do I need to change my website?
No. The minimum is a link in your navigation. A subdomain needs one DNS record and no change to the site itself.
Will it look like my site?
It carries your logo, colors and domain. It will not replicate a bespoke design pixel for pixel, but clients read it as your firm.
What platform does my site need to be on?
Any. WordPress, Squarespace, Webflow, a static site or something bespoke — the connection is a link or a DNS record either way.
What happens if I redesign my website?
Nothing. The portal is separate, so a redesign or a platform change does not touch your clients' access or their documents.
Can I put the login in my site navigation?
Yes, and it is what most firms do. Clients expect to find it there.
Related
Where to go next
Every page on the site, grouped by the question it answers.
- File sharing
- On your website — you are here
- WordPress sites
Ready when you are
Send us your site and we will tell you exactly what connecting it involves.
No card and no sales call. If you would rather tell us about your firm first, use the longer form.