{"id":589,"date":"2020-02-27T09:49:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T08:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=589"},"modified":"2026-05-18T14:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:25:23","slug":"what-is-a-cname-record-how-do-i-create-change-it","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/kb\/what-is-a-cname-record-how-do-i-create-change-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a CNAME-record? How do I create \/ change it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Canonical Name Record or CNAME-record is a type of DNS-record that links an alias name to a real, or canonical, domain name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CNAME-records are used to link a subdomain, such as &#8220;www&#8221; or &#8220;mail&#8221;, to the domain in which the content of that subdomain is hosted.<br>The most famous example of a CNAME-record is the redirect from www.mydomain.com to mydomain.com. This way the website can be called up in two ways, with and without www. before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-ht-block-toc  is-style-outline htoc htoc--position-wide toc-list-style-plain\" data-htoc-state=\"expanded\"><span class=\"htoc__title\"><span class=\"ht_toc_title\">IN THIS ARTICLE<\/span><span class=\"htoc__toggle\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\"><g fill=\"#444\"><path d=\"M15 7H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1z\"><\/path><path d=\"M15 1H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1zM15 13H1c-.6 0-1 .4-1 1s.4 1 1 1h14c.6 0 1-.4 1-1s-.4-1-1-1z\"><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/span><\/span><div class=\"htoc__itemswrap\"><ul class=\"ht_toc_list\"><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-\">Set up a CNAME record<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-1\">Why can\u2019t a CNAME record be used on my root domain?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-11\">Alternatives to a CNAME record on my root domain<\/a><\/li><li class=\"\"><a href=\"#htoc-111\"><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-\">Set up a CNAME record<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Follow these steps in the <a href=\"https:\/\/my.easyhost.be\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">control panel<\/a> to set a CNAME-record:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>Go to &#8220;My products&#8221;> &#8220;DNS &amp; forwarding management&#8221;> Click on the &#8220;Manage DNS&#8221; button to the right of your domain name.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Select &#8220;CNAME-records&#8221; in the menu on the left. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Click \u201cAdd\u201d to add a new CNAME record.<br>To modify an existing CNAME record, click the three dots on the right and then click \u201cEdit record\u201d.<br><br><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22277\" style=\"width: 750px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-06-at-3.23.32-PM.png\" alt=\"\"><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enter a subdomain for the record, for example: www.<br><strong>Please note<\/strong>: a CNAME record cannot be set for the root domain name (without a subdomain).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enter the destination and click the button to confirm.<br><strong>Tip<\/strong>: you can leave the TTL at the default value of 3600.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The changes are being activated. You can check the active records via: <a href=\"http:\/\/whois.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/whois.net<\/a><br><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-ht-blocks-messages wp-block-hb-message wp-block-hb-message--withicon is-style-info\"><strong>Changes to your CNAME records will only take effect after 1 to 4 hours<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-1\">Why can\u2019t a CNAME record be used on my root domain?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A CNAME record cannot be used for a root domain or apex domain, such as yourdomain.com without a subdomain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a limitation defined by the DNS standard. A CNAME record replaces all other DNS records for the same hostname. Because of this, a CNAME record is not allowed on the root domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A CNAME record can however be used for subdomains, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>www.yourdomain.com<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>shop.yourdomain.com<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>mail.yourdomain.com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-11\">Alternatives to a CNAME record on my root domain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to connect your root domain to an external service or server, you can use an alternative to a CNAME record, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>an A record to point to a (traditional) IPv4 address<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>an AAAA record to point to an IPv6 address<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>an ALIAS record<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Some external services mention a CNAME record by default in their documentation. These instructions are often intended for a subdomain such as www. Always check whether the settings are meant for a subdomain or for the root domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"htoc-111\"><span style=\"vertical-align: inherit;\"><\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Canonical Name Record or CNAME-record is a type of DNS-record that links an alias name to a real, or canonical, domain name. CNAME-records are used to link a subdomain, such as &#8220;www&#8221; or &#8220;mail&#8221;, to the domain in which the content of that subdomain is hosted.The most famous example&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[6,11],"ht-kb-tag":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3074,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/589\/revisions\/3074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-category?post=589"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyhost.be\/en\/help\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-tag?post=589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}