# Custom developer portals (/deploy/custom-portal)
Related: [Authentication setup](/deploy/authentication-setup.md), [CI checks](/deploy/ci.md), [Deployments](/deploy/deployments.md), [Offline export](/deploy/export.md), [GitHub Enterprise Server](/deploy/ghes.md), [GitHub](/deploy/github.md)
Custom portals require an [Enterprise plan](https://mintlify.com/pricing?ref=custom-portal) and a [self-hosted deployment](/deploy/self-host). Reach out to your account team to scope one.
For some platforms, documentation is one surface of a larger product—an API marketplace, a partner portal, or a developer experience with sign-in, credentials, and support built in. Mintlify supports those use cases by designing, building, and maintaining a custom presentation layer that replaces your existing portal front end, while your team authors content through the Mintlify editor or a Git-backed workflow.
The portal integrates with your existing APIs, gateway, and downstream systems, which remain owned and operated by your team.
## Features [#features]
| Feature | What ships | Backed by |
| ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Custom presentation layer | A full front-end application in your design system, deployed inside your environment | Mintlify, alongside the self-hosted platform |
| Product and catalog pages | Marketplace, product discovery, and documentation surfaces | Content maintained on Mintlify |
| Sign-in | Authenticated sessions across the portal | Your identity provider |
| Applications and credentials | Application registration and credential management | Your backend APIs |
| Subscriptions | Product and plan subscriptions | Your backend APIs |
| Profiles and notifications | User profiles and notification centers | Your backend APIs |
| Support | Support ticket creation and tracking | Your backend APIs |
| Search | Login-aware search scoped to what the user can access | Mintlify platform |
| Personalized content | Entitlement and group-based filtering applied server-side at render time, so users only see the products and pages they have access to | Mintlify platform and your identity provider |
| Ongoing releases | Versioned releases with upgrade guides, the same operating model as any [self-hosted deployment](/deploy/self-host#updates) | Mintlify |
## Authoring flow [#authoring-flow]
The custom front end doesn't affect how content gets written. Maintain content with the editor or a local Git-based workflow. Every change flows through your repository's review process with a full audit trail, and publishing triggers builds that update the portal automatically. Content changes do not require a front-end deploy.
## Architecture [#architecture]
The custom presentation layer integrates with the self-hosted Mintlify platform for content, search, and personalization; your API gateway for applications, subscriptions, and support; and your identity provider for authentication.
```mermaid
flowchart TD
U[Users] --> CDN[CDN and WAF]
CDN --> PORTAL[Custom presentation layer]
PORTAL --> PLAT[Mintlify platform
content, search, personalization]
PORTAL --> GW[Your API gateway]
GW --> BE[Your backend services
applications, subscriptions, support]
PORTAL --> IDP[Your identity provider]
W[Writers] --> ED[Editor and Git workflow]
ED --> PLAT
```
The custom presentation layer and Mintlify platform run inside your network boundary, using your cluster, data stores, and observability stack, with no third-party egress. Your downstream systems of record remain unchanged; the portal accesses them through your existing APIs.
## How the engagement runs [#how-the-engagement-runs]
Your account team maps the portal surfaces, your design system, and the backend APIs the portal consumes, and agrees on an integration contract with your platform team.
The engagement typically implements your design system and public content surfaces first, so you can validate the experience against your existing portal before cutover.
Sign-in, credential management, subscriptions, and other logged-in experiences follow, integrated with your identity provider and backend APIs.
Login-aware search and server-side personalization complete the core experience. Optional AI features remain disabled until your security or AI governance team approves them.
Throughout, your team reviews releases in non-production environments and controls every cutover.
## Next steps [#next-steps]
Scope a custom portal engagement and plan your launch.
The deployment foundation a custom portal runs on.