Point Your Domain to Hosting: Nameservers vs A Records

You have a domain and you have hosting. Now the two need to be connected, and the registrar's DNS page offers two very different ways to do it. Pick the wrong one and your website or your email can go quiet for a while. This guide explains the difference between changing nameservers and editing A records, when to use each, and what to expect while the change spreads.

How DNS finds your website

When someone types your domain into a browser, their device asks a DNS resolver for the server's address. The resolver works its way down the DNS hierarchy until it reaches the authoritative nameservers for your domain: the servers that hold your domain's records. Those records answer questions like "what is the IP address of example.com?" and "which server receives mail for example.com?"

So there are two levels you can change:

• Nameservers decide who holds your domain's records.
• Records, such as A and MX, are the answers themselves.

Option 1: change the nameservers

You tell your registrar that a different provider now holds all your DNS records. From then on, you manage every record at the new provider.

Good for:

• New domains with nothing else attached.
• Domains where everything, website and email, moves to the same host.
• Getting extra features your host offers through its DNS, such as a CDN and managed SSL.

Watch out for: any records you have at the old provider that the new one does not know about. Typical examples are verification TXT records for other services, records for a separate mail provider, or subdomains pointing elsewhere. Copy them to the new provider before you switch nameservers.

How to change nameservers

1. Find your new nameservers. At Zebra, with Zebra's Cloudflare, they are shown in your client area under Domains.
2. Log in to the registrar where you bought the domain.
3. Open the domain's nameserver settings and choose custom nameservers.
4. Replace the existing entries with the new ones and save.

Our article on nameservers and propagation has more detail.

Option 2: keep your DNS and edit records

You leave the nameservers where they are and only change the records that matter for your hosting.

Good for:

• Domains already managed in your own Cloudflare account or another DNS service you like.
• Domains with many records for other services that you do not want to move.
• Moving only the website while email stays with another provider, or the other way round.

The records you usually need

• A record for the bare domain (shown as @) pointing to your hosting server's IPv4 address.
• A record or CNAME for www, so www.example.com also reaches the site.
• Mail records if your hosting also handles your email: a record for the mail server and an MX record pointing to it, plus SPF and DKIM.

If the domain is in your own Cloudflare account, keep the website records proxied (orange cloud) and set the mail record to DNS only (grey cloud). At Zebra, the client area lists the exact records to create, shows our server's address, and has a DNS check that confirms each record points to us. Our guide to DNS records explains each type.

Which should you choose?

• New domain, everything with one host: change nameservers.
• Want managed CDN and SSL from your host: change nameservers to the host's Cloudflare.
• Already on your own Cloudflare or a DNS service you like: keep it and edit records.
• Website and email with different providers: either works, but editing records keeps things simple.

Propagation: why changes are not instant

DNS answers are cached by resolvers around the world for as long as each record's TTL (time to live) allows. After a change, some visitors get the new answer straight away while others still have the old one cached.

• Record changes usually spread within the TTL of the old record, often minutes to an hour.
• Nameserver changes can take longer, commonly a few hours and occasionally up to a day or two, because the information is also cached at the domain's top-level registry.

Two tips make this smoother. Lower your TTL a day before a planned move, and keep the old hosting running until the change has spread fully, so nobody hits a dead end in the meantime.

A checklist before you switch

• Write down or export every record at your current DNS provider.
• Decide where email will live, and make sure its records will exist after the switch.
• Lower the TTL on records you are about to change, a day in advance.
• Make sure the website is already set up on the new hosting, so visitors find something when they arrive.
• Keep the old hosting active until you have confirmed that everything works.

Common problems

• Site works without www but not with it: the www record is missing.
• Email stopped after a nameserver change: the MX and mail records were not recreated at the new provider.
• SSL certificate will not issue: the domain does not yet point to the server issuing it. Wait for propagation and try again.
• Old site still appears: your own device or network cached the old answer. Try another network, or flush your DNS cache.
• Registrar says the nameservers are invalid: check for typos and that you entered all the nameservers given to you.

Connect your domain to Zebra

When you order shared or WordPress hosting from Zebra, you choose at checkout who runs your DNS. Pick Zebra's Cloudflare and we create every record, set up Full (strict) SSL and give you a DNS editor, stats and cache clearing in the client area. Or keep your own DNS or Cloudflare, create the records we show you and issue a free Let's Encrypt certificate. You can switch between the two later.