DNS: records, domains, and pointing things at us

DNS is the address book of the internet: it maps names like example.com to the servers that actually answer.

This page is about shared hosting. If you’re on Candor Deploy, see custom domains and HTTPS instead.

Two ways to run your DNS

Hosting and domain registration are separate decisions on purpose — you can register or transfer a domain with us, or keep it wherever it lives today. Either way, there are two workable setups:

Use our DNS. At your registrar, set the domain’s nameservers to ns1.candorhost.com and ns2.candorhost.com, and manage all records from the portal’s DNS editor. The upside: one dashboard, and the records our platform needs (including SPF and DKIM for email) are configured automatically.

Keep DNS where it is. Leave your nameservers at your registrar or DNS provider and point individual records at your Candor Host site. This is completely fine — plenty of customers do it. We hand you the exact records to add; if you don’t have them, ask and we’ll send them for your account. The one extra chore: if your email is hosted with us, you also need to publish the mail records there (see below).

The DNS Records tab

Every plan includes the DNS editor. Log in at my.candorhost.com, open your hosting service, and go to DNS Records. You’ll see the full zone for your site’s primary domain: a table of records with Type, Name, Value, and TTL columns, each with a delete button.

A few records show a lock icon instead — those are system records (the NS records at the domain root) that keep your domain delegated to our nameservers. You can’t delete them, on purpose: removing your own nameservers is the DNS equivalent of sawing off the branch you’re sitting on.

To add a record:

1. Pick a Type — the editor supports A, AAAA, CNAME, TXT, MX, SRV, NS, CAA, and SPF.
2. Enter the Name — use @ for the domain root, or a label like www for a subdomain.
3. Enter the Value — an IP address, a target hostname, or the text you were given.
4. Optionally set a TTL in seconds (e.g. 3600). Leave it blank for automatic.
5. Click Add.

Changes to zones hosted with us take effect within a few minutes. We don’t cap the number of DNS records on any plan.

One quirk worth knowing: for MX and SRV records, the priority goes at the start of the value — e.g. 10 mail.example.com. — not in a separate field.

Common records, honestly explained

You want to…	Record	Name	Value
Point the domain at a server	A	@	the server’s IPv4 address
Same, over IPv6	AAAA	@	the server’s IPv6 address
Make www follow the root domain	CNAME	www	example.com.
Receive email	MX	@	10 mail.example.com. (priority first)
Authorize senders (SPF)	TXT	@	v=spf1 …
Sign outgoing mail (DKIM)	TXT	selector._domainkey	the long key your mail provider gives you
Prove ownership to a service	TXT	whatever they specify	the exact string they give you

Three honest footnotes:

• CNAME has a rule: you can’t put a CNAME at the domain root (@) alongside other records — that’s a DNS-wide constraint, not ours. Use an A/AAAA record at the root and CNAME the subdomains.
• Publish SPF as a TXT record. The editor offers a separate SPF record type for completeness, but the standalone SPF type is deprecated across the DNS ecosystem — mail servers read the TXT version.
• If your DNS and email are both with us, don’t hand-craft mail records. SPF and DKIM are configured automatically for every domain; editing them by hand is how deliverability breaks. Details in the email guide.

TTL: lower before, raise after

TTL (time to live) is how long the rest of the internet caches a record. High TTL means fewer lookups and slower change; low TTL means changes take effect quickly.

Before a planned change — moving a site, switching servers, a migration — lower the record’s TTL to something short like 300 (five minutes), and do it at least one old TTL in advance, so the caches holding the old value expire. Make the change, confirm it works, then raise the TTL back to something like 3600. In our editor there’s no edit button — to change a record’s TTL, delete the record and re-add it with the same name and value and the new TTL. If you left TTL blank in our editor, it’s on automatic, which is fine for normal life.

The one change no TTL can hurry: nameserver changes at your registrar can take up to a day or two to be seen everywhere, because resolver caching of NS delegations is outside anyone’s control. Plan migrations accordingly — our migrations guide covers the sequencing.

Subdomains and domain aliases

Subdomains and extra domains are managed on the Domains tab (separate from DNS Records). It lists every domain mapped to your site; the primary and preview mappings are protected and can’t be removed. To add one, enter the domain or subdomain (e.g. blog.example.com), choose a type — Subdomain, Alias, or Addon domain — and click Add domain.

Two practical notes from the tab itself: subdomains of a domain you already host here work automatically, no DNS edits needed. A brand-new external domain must have its DNS pointing at your site before you add it.

Per-plan allowances, same numbers as the platform page:

	Solo	Studio	Org
Subdomains	10	25	50
Domain aliases	5	15	30

Once a domain resolves to us, SSL is handled for you — free Let’s Encrypt certificates, issued and renewed automatically.

If your email is with us but your DNS isn’t

When your DNS is hosted elsewhere, the mail records for your domain — the MX record and the TXT records for SPF and DKIM — have to be published there, at your DNS provider. Contact us and we’ll hand you the exact records to add. The email guide covers what each one does; if a value looks off, ask rather than guessing.

When it doesn’t resolve

DNS problems are almost always one of three things: a typo in the value, a change still inside its TTL window, or nameservers pointing somewhere unexpected. Check the record in the portal first, then give it the few minutes our zones need — or the day or two a nameserver change can need. If it’s still wrong, open a ticket; Candid Support explains exactly how fast we respond, in writing.