Configuring DNS Providers

This guide assumes you've added your domains to the corresponding Render service. If you haven't done this yet, follow the steps to add custom domains to your service.

This page explains how you can configure DNS providers to point your Custom Domain to Render. Some of these steps might not apply to your provider. We have specific guides for popular DNS providers:

• Configuring Cloudflare DNS
• Configuring Namecheap DNS

We’re also more than happy to help you set things up — just drop us a line in our user community or at support@render.com.

Make sure to remove any existing AAAA records for your domains when you update your DNS settings. AAAA records map a domain to a corresponding IPv6 record, but Render does not support IPv6 addresses yet. As a result, AAAA records can interfere with Render hosting your custom domains.

Configuring Root domains

Using an ANAME or ALIAS Record

When you’re pointing a root domain like example.com to your Render subdomain, you can use ANAME or ALIAS records if your DNS provider supports them. These records are not part of the standard DNS protocol but are implemented by some providers to make it easy to point root domains to other domains.

DNSimple, DNS Made Easy, Name.com and NS1 all support one or both of these record types.

• ANAME records let you refer to other domains just like CNAME records, but behave like A records in that they ultimately resolve to an IP address. This is also often called CNAME flattening. Read more here.

• ALIAS records map a root domain to another domain while coexisting with other record types for the root domain. Read more here.

To configure your custom root domain for Render, add an ANAME or ALIAS record for your root domain to point to your app’s Render subdomain. For example, if your app subdomain is example.onrender.com and your custom domain is example.com, you should add an ANAME or ALIAS record for example.com and point it to example.onrender.com.

Using an A Record

If your DNS provider does not support ANAME or ALIAS records or CNAME flattening, you will need to add an A record to point to your Render app. A records point to IP addresses, and you can use 216.24.57.1 to point your root domain to Render’s load balancer IP.

If you are using Cloudflare as a DNS provider, you must use a CNAME record instead of an A record. See configuring Cloudflare DNS for instructions.

Configuring www and other subdomains

For non-root domains, you should always add a CNAME record pointing to your app’s Render subdomain. For example, if your Render subdomain is example.onrender.com and your custom domain is www.example.com, you should add a CNAME record for www and point it to example.onrender.com.