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DNS records
How DNS will work on a web hosting account: create a zone with sensible defaults, add and edit records, and what each record type is for.
Last reviewed 2026-10-04
DNS is what turns example.com into an address a browser can reach. You can host your zone with us, or leave it where it is.
Hosting a zone with us
Create the zone for your domain and we fill it in with sensible defaults, including the records your site needs and the mail and DKIM records.
Then, at your domain registrar, point the domain's nameservers at ours. That part happens at the registrar, not here, and it can take a few hours to take effect worldwide.
The advantage of hosting the zone with us is that the records for your site, your certificate and your mail are set up correctly without you having to know what they should be.
Editing records
Each record has:
- A type, such as A, AAAA, CNAME, MX or TXT
- A name, which is the part before your domain. Use
@or leave it blank for the domain itself,wwwforwww.example.com - A value, which is what it points at
- A TTL, how long other servers may cache it, in seconds
- A priority, for MX records only
You will be able to add, edit and delete records, and see the zone's serial number, which goes up each time something changes.
What the common types are for
| Type | What it does |
|---|---|
| A | Points a name at an IPv4 address |
| AAAA | Points a name at an IPv6 address |
| CNAME | Points a name at another name |
| MX | Says which server handles mail for the domain |
| TXT | Holds text. SPF, DKIM and DMARC all live in TXT records |
| SRV | Points at a service on a particular port |
About TTL
A low TTL, say 300 seconds, means a change takes effect quickly but other servers ask yours more often. A high TTL, say 86400, means fewer questions but a change takes a day to spread.
Lower the TTL a day before you plan to move something, then raise it again once the move is done and working.
Deleting a zone
Deleting a zone removes every record in it. If your domain's nameservers still point at us, your site and your mail stop resolving immediately.
Move the domain's nameservers elsewhere first, wait for that to take effect, then delete the zone.
Keeping DNS elsewhere
You do not have to host your zone with us. If your DNS is at Cloudflare, your registrar or anywhere else, just add an A record there pointing at the address we give you, plus the mail records if you use our mail.
That works perfectly well. You simply have to keep the records right yourself.