Registrar DNS vs Host DNS reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- quirktheory · 2023-11-21 07:12 Let's say I have a domain from Namecheap called example.com I also have a VPS from Hetzner at the IP 12.34.56.78 I want to link one to the other. The simple way is just to add an A record in namecheap that's points "@" to "12.34.56.78" (the nameserver is Namecheap BasicDNS). This works! However Hetzner wants me to add there authoritative nameservers (e.g. hydrogen.ns.hetzner.com). My question is: what is the advantage of doing this over sticking with the NamecheapDNS? It is very likely I have fundamental misunderstandings about how these things work so please feel free to correct me. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 07:21 The advantage would be that you could control your DNS settings under the Hetzner control panel too, and not just your other VPS setings. All-under-one-hood so to speak. You dont need to keep your domain being controlled by Namecheap, even tho you bought it from them and keep paying them over the years. You can configure Namecheap to hand over control to Hetzner, by entering the Hetzner nameservers into Namecheaps panel. Few hours later, Hetzner has the control. You can go back at any time by changing the option again at Namecheap. Namecheap stays as the "owner" of the domain, but you can hand off the control to another party. If controlling DNS through Hetzner vs Namecheap is better for you, i have no idea. One scenario would be that one provider doesnt offer a lot of options for various DNS records, so switching might be a good idea then. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- quirktheory · 2023-11-21 07:26 Thanks so much for the reply. I already have a bunch of records (CNAME, MX, etc.) setup in namecheap. Say these records propagate to hetzner and then maybe I delete a CNAME record in the hetzner control panel; what happens now that it's out of sync with namecheap? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thekrautboy · 2023-11-21 07:32 Typically they are not synced, at least not by default. The records at Namecheap would become "frozen", or maybe even removed completely (im not sure, never used Namecheap). Only the records at the active nameservers have any real effect, in this example, Hetzner. There are features to "copy" records from one server to another, but if Hetzner and Namecheap can be set to work together like that and become sort of a "sync"... maybe. **Like i said, never used Namecheap so i have no idea what options they offer in their control panels. But plenty of people here seem to use and praise Namecheap, so just give it a few hours and others are likely to reply too.** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- quirktheory · 2023-11-21 07:33 I see. Thank you so much! This was really helpful to me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chilanvilla · 2023-11-21 07:51 In summary, they’re qualitatively the same, but you’ll find for convenience it easier to be on Hetzner as you’ll probably already be logged on there as you deploy new servers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- quirktheory · 2023-11-21 08:00 Understood. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- codeagency · 2023-11-21 08:55 Seems like you are mixing some terms. There is a "domain" and there is a "DNS (zone)" aka DNS hosting. To host a website or basically anything, you need both products to make it work. In a typical setup, your domain vendor also offers DNS zone/hosting because they are always tiedly coupled. Any domain seller also has their "nameservers" and it's the nameservers that decide where the traffic control exist for your domain aka the DNS records. In most cases, most people just stick them together from same vendor. Some people decide they want to seperate them and use different tools or platforms for different reasons. 1. the DNS zone quality could be better at a different vendor B but the domain name itself is cheaper from vendor A. A better "quality" could refer to faster DNS lookup times, better reliability, better uptime, etc... Check eg Cloudflare DNS which is one of the fastest DNS providers available in the world 2. technical reasons: some DNS providers are limited in terms of record types, or the number of records (because they are so cheap). Or maybe you want to automate your DNS records and need an API from your vendor which may or may not exist for some vendors 3. security improvement: Some DNS providers have much better protection against DDoS attacks (again see Cloudflare, ClouDNS, etc...) 4. geographical better: Some DNS providers (again Cloudflare, ClouDNS, ...) offer premium DNS options for handling geographical load balancing features straight from DNS level. 5. whitelabel options: some companies want to whitelabel their DNS levels because they offer some sort of webhosting reselling. ClouDNS is a good example here, which allows you to whitelabel their nameservers into [ns1.yourdomain.com](https://ns1.yourdomain.com), [ns2.yourdomain.com](https://ns2.yourdomain.com), ... and gives you a whitelabeled URL, login, dashboard to create subaccounts and let your clients manage their DNS records via your whitelabel vendor such as ClouDNS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WitShortage · 2023-11-21 10:04 So, my domains are registered with Ionos. And they use Ionos nameservers, and all the DNS configuration is with Ionos. I have a couple of domains, however, where I've moved the nameservers to Microsoft, because (at the time at least) it was easier to do this for the Microsoft365 configuration. So I manage those domains' DNS entries using the Microsof365 admin portal. To be honest, both portals (Ionos's and Microsoft's) are functionally very similar, and there's little reason to move from one to the other(\*). One thing I've noticed, however, is that if I have my @/www DNS pointing to a webserver that is on the Ionos service, and Ionos changes the IP of that webserver, then they will automatically update the DNS on domains for which they have the nameserver. Whereas if the nameserver is on the Microsoft DNS, I have to update the DNS manually. So, overall, my advice would be to have your hosting provider manage the DNS for domains that point to resources that the hosting provider is managing. ​ (\*) I have recently discovered that Ionos has a DNS API that allows setup of DNS 01 for local behind-the-NAT SSL. I haven't discovered this on the Microsoft side. So in my case there is a functional difference between the two DNS providers. Your mileage, of course, may vary. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SchindlersIgnoreList · 2023-11-21 22:35 It might sound thrilling (it does to me) to host your own NS because it's your own NS you've configured by yourself. But it's not worth the pain. Registrars NS has redundancy. Yours doesn't. I've seen servers going down just because NS was hosted there. Better yet, use cloudflare instead. And having your own NS makes sense only if you have a big company or you're a paranoid nerd.