Tabern

Subdomains & URLs

Your site's public addresses, subdomain rules, what changing your subdomain breaks, custom domains, and tap-card links.

How your URL works

Every venue gets a free address at yourvenue.tabern.app, created with the venue. Your public pages all live under /restaurant on that address, and opening the bare address takes guests to /restaurant.

  • yourvenue.tabern.app/restaurant — your homepage: hero, menu, deals, About, reviews
  • /restaurant/menu — every menu on one page
  • /restaurant/menu/fish-tacos-1a2b3c4d — one page per menu item
  • /restaurant/deals — all active deals
  • /restaurant/deals/happy-hour-5e6f7a8b — one page per deal
  • /restaurant/contact — locations, hours, map, and the contact form
  • /restaurant/booking — booking and online ordering
  • /restaurant/rewards — the guest rewards page (paid plan, with an active rewards card)

Menu item and deal addresses are the name plus an 8-character ID. Rename an item or deal and its address changes, but the old address redirects to the new one, so shared links keep working. The menu and deals pages only exist once you've published at least one item or deal.

Kiosk URLs

Each kiosk you add in Customers → Kiosks gets its own link on your venue address. Open it from the kiosk's card on that page rather than typing it.

  • Full-screen Menu — public kiosk: /restaurant/kiosk/ followed by the kiosk's ID.
  • Rewards Scanner — PIN kiosk: /restaurant/kiosk/ followed by your venue's ID and the kiosk's ID.

Files for search engines and AI assistants

Tabern also serves /sitemap.xml, /robots.txt, /llms.txt, /menu.md, and /menu.json on your address. They're generated from your published site; you don't need to do anything with them.

Subdomain rules

  • 3 to 63 characters: lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.
  • Can't start or end with a hyphen.
  • Must not already be used by another venue.
  • Reserved names can't be used: www, api, app, admin, dashboard, tabern, static, assets, cdn, mail, smtp, support, help, blog, status, docs, dev, staging, prod, production, ecom, store, and shop.

Changing your subdomain

  1. Open Settings → Website Settings.

  2. Expand Subdomain Settings and type the new subdomain.

  3. Select Save, then confirm.

If the name is taken, reserved, or breaks the rules above, the save fails. Otherwise the change is immediate, even before you publish: your live site moves to the new address and your browser is sent there too.

What keeps working:

  • Tap cards — they go through tabern.app/c/… and find your venue at tap time, so they follow the new name.
  • A live custom domain — it stays connected. If its setup isn't finished yet, the CNAME record has to point at your new address; Continue setup shows the updated value.
  • Rewards members and saved wallet passes — they belong to the venue, not the address.

Custom domains

On the paid plan you can put your public site on a domain you own, like joesbar.com. Open Settings → Website Settings, expand Subdomain Settings, and select Connect a domain under Custom domain. Typing joesbar.com sets up www.joesbar.com and forwards joesbar.com to it; a name like menu.joesbar.com is used exactly as typed.

The domain shows one of these statuses:

  • Waiting for DNS — add the DNS records shown in setup at your domain company. Tabern checks every few minutes, or select Check again.
  • Securing — DNS found; HTTPS is being set up, usually within a few minutes.
  • Live — your Tabern address now forwards visitors to your domain.
  • Needs attention — setup stopped. Select Continue setup to see which record needs fixing.

On a live custom domain:

  • Your public pages keep the same paths, like www.joesbar.com/restaurant/menu.
  • Sign-in, the dashboard, kiosks, and the rewards page stay on yourvenue.tabern.app. Links to them on your domain send guests there.
  • Remove moves your site back to its Tabern address right away.
  • If the venue leaves the paid plan, visitors see your Tabern address until you upgrade again; the domain then comes back on its own.

Full setup, including DNS help: Custom domain.

Tap-card URLs

Every Tabern tap card, stand, and dot holds a permanent link, tabern.app/c/ followed by the card's own code, in its chip and QR code. The link never changes; what it opens depends on the card:

  • Linked to a published venue — guests go straight to that venue's site.
  • "Activate this card" — nobody has activated it yet. Sign in to add it to your account.
  • "Link this card to a venue" — shown to you, the owner, when your card isn't linked yet.
  • "This card isn't live yet" — what guests see on an activated card that isn't linked to a venue.
  • "… is coming soon" — the card is linked, but the venue isn't published or has no plan.
  • "This card is turned off" — the owner deactivated it.
  • "This card is no longer in service" — the card was retired and can't be used again.
  • "We don't recognise this card" — the code doesn't match any Tabern card.

Activating and linking cards: Orders & cards.