Delegation · Registrar step · 10 minutes plus propagation
How to point a domain to your hosting — Which Nameservers Answer for Your Name, and How to Change Them
Editing records at a provider your name no longer delegates to is the commonest wasted afternoon in domain management.
The short answer
Pointing a name at hosting is one of two edits: either you change the nameservers at the registrar so your host's DNS answers for the whole name, or you leave delegation alone and change a single A record in whichever zone is already authoritative.
Take the first route unless something specific forces the second. Handing over the nameservers gives the host the whole zone, which means the certificate, the mail records and the subdomains all follow without a second conversation.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 24 August 2026
Beginner
Level assumed
Quick
Budget for it
5
Stages at the registrar
24/7
Support, at any hour
Two layers are involved and they are edited in two different places. Delegation lives at the registry and is changed at your registrar. Records live in a zone and are changed wherever that zone is hosted. Almost every stuck job in this area is somebody editing the second while the first still points elsewhere.
Read the section on what to write down first. Once delegation moves, only the new nameservers reply, and anything you failed to copy simply no longer exists.
Delegation decides who is even asked
The registry publishes a set of NS records for your name. Those records are the delegation: they tell every resolver in the world which nameservers are entitled to answer questions about the name. Nothing you type into a DNS panel matters unless that panel belongs to the servers named in the delegation.
This is why the classic failure is invisible. The old provider's panel accepts your new A record, saves it, shows it in the list — and no resolver ever asks that server anything, because the delegation sends every query somewhere else.
Two ways in, and when to use each
Handing the nameservers over is the simple route: your host becomes authoritative for the whole name, the certificate issues by itself, mail records live in the same place as the web records, and adding a subdomain is one action rather than two. For a first move, this is the right choice almost every time.
Changing a single A record suits the case where DNS must stay where it is — a marketing team on another platform, a corporate zone, or a name whose mail routing you would rather not touch. Note the limitation before you plan around it: the root of a domain cannot hold a CNAME, so if your host publishes a hostname rather than an address you will need whatever apex alias your DNS provider offers instead.
What to record before you touch the registrar
Take a full copy of the existing zone: A and AAAA records, every CNAME, the MX set with its priorities, and all of the TXT entries. The TXT records are the ones that get abandoned, and they are the ones carrying SPF, DKIM selectors and the verification tokens that quietly hold your other services together.
If mail is answered somewhere other than the new host, that MX set has to exist in the new zone before delegation moves, not after. Send the details across in advance and the zone can be built ready, so the changeover is a single edit rather than a scramble.
The certificate follows DNS, never the reverse
A certificate is issued after the name resolves here, not before. Issuance happens automatically once queries arrive, so the right response to a padlock warning in the first few minutes is to wait rather than to start configuring things.
One record can block it outright. A CAA record in the zone lists which certificate authorities are permitted to issue for the name, and a CAA left behind by a previous supplier will refuse every request from anybody else. If the certificate never appears while DNS clearly resolves, look for CAA before you look at anything else.
Reading the result honestly. Query the parent first: a public lookup of the NS records tells you whether the delegation itself has changed. That is the change you actually made. Everything after it is other people's caches counting down to their own timetable.
The TTL on the previous records is what governs the wait, and it was set before you touched anything. Most networks are across within an hour or two; the stragglers can run to a day. Test from a second network or a phone on mobile data rather than refreshing the same browser and drawing conclusions from it.
Where these instructions were checked
Every walkthrough in this library is checked against the panel your account actually opens — cPanel's Zone Editor, the client area's domain settings, the same defaults on the same screens.
A free certificate comes with every plan and reissues itself before the old one lapses, so the padlock is never a date you have to keep in a diary.
- Every step checked against the live panel
- The trap named before you reach it
- What the clock is doing, at every stage
- Support that answers mid-job, not next week
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
The two layers kept apart
Delegation at the registrar, records in the zone — named separately, so you always know which panel the change belongs in.
Both routes, with the trade-offs
Nameservers or a single A record: what each one gives you, and the apex restriction that decides it for some names.
The mail records handled first
What to copy before delegation moves, because after it moves only the new nameservers reply.
Certificate behaviour explained
Why issuance follows DNS, how long to wait, and the one record that can block it indefinitely.
Checked the way a resolver checks
Query the parent, then the source, then the world — in that order, so the answer means something.
Someone on the desk during the changeover
Support answers at any hour, including the hour you moved delegation and would like a second pair of eyes.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Write down the zone you have now
Export or photograph every record at the current provider: A, AAAA, CNAME, the MX set with priorities, and every TXT entry. Delegation moves in one instant, and anything not copied across stops existing at that instant.
- 2
Copy the nameserver pair exactly
The ns1 and ns2 addresses appear in your welcome email and again in the client area. Paste them rather than retyping — a nameserver hostname with one wrong character fails in a way that looks like a propagation delay for hours.
- 3
Replace the whole delegation at the registrar
In the registrar's panel for that name, remove every existing nameserver entry and enter the new pair. A mixed set, part old provider and part new, gives you a name that answers correctly one day and wrongly the next.
- 4
Check the parent, not your browser
Run a public NS lookup for the name. When the delegation shows the new pair, the edit you made has taken effect; anything still wrong after that is a cached answer somewhere, not a mistake on your side.
- 5
Confirm the certificate issued and mail still flows
Load the site over https to confirm the free certificate has been issued, then send a message in from an unrelated account. Those two checks together prove both halves of the zone, and take about two minutes.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- Full zone control — A, CNAME, MX and TXT — from the panel
- Free SSL on every plan, reissued before the old certificate lapses
- Mailboxes that answer at the name you hold
- Spam and virus screening in front of every mailbox at your name
- Your existing site brought across by our engineers, at no charge
- NVMe storage on every tier, not only the expensive ones
- LiteSpeed caching in the server itself rather than bolted on by plugin
- cPanel, which is what most of the industry already runs
- People on the support desk every hour of every day
- 99.9% uptime as the target, watched around the clock
Frequently Asked
Questions we field again and again
Does changing nameservers change who my registrar is?
No. Delegation and registration are separate things. You can hold the name at one company and have its DNS answered by another indefinitely — changing nameservers moves only the answering, and the registrar carries on billing you and holding the lock.
I edited an A record and nothing happened. Why?
Almost certainly because the name does not delegate to the provider whose panel you edited. Look up the NS records for the domain: whichever nameservers come back are the only ones the internet asks. Any zone elsewhere is a document nobody reads.
What is a CAA record, and do I need one?
It lists the certificate authorities permitted to issue certificates for your name. You do not need one, but if a stale CAA from a previous supplier is sitting in the zone it will silently block every issuance attempt from anyone else — which is why it is the first thing to check when DNS resolves and the certificate never appears.
Can I point the website here but keep mail where it is?
Yes. Move the nameservers, then recreate the existing MX records, along with the SPF and DKIM entries, in the new zone before the change. Web and mail are separate record types, so they can point at different providers as long as both sets exist in whichever zone is authoritative.
Keep reading
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