DNS Records Explained: A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT in Plain English

If you've ever opened a DNS panel and felt your eyes glaze over, you're not alone. The dropdown has A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT, NS, SRV, CAA and a few more, and most guides start by explaining how DNS resolution works recursively. That's like teaching driving by explaining the internal combustion engine.

Let's just look at what each record actually does.

A record — "this domain lives at this IP"

The most common record. Maps a domain (or subdomain) to an IPv4 address.

yourdomain.com.    A    123.45.67.89

If you want yourdomain.com to load the website on your hosting, this is what you set. The IP is whatever your host gives you.

AAAA record — same thing for IPv6

An "A" for IPv4. An "AAAA" (quad-A) for IPv6. They're called that because IPv6 addresses are four times longer.

yourdomain.com.    AAAA    2001:db8::1

You only need one if your host supports IPv6 (most do). Setting both is the polite, modern thing to do.

CNAME — "this name is an alias for that name"

Maps one domain to another domain (not an IP). Useful when:

• Pointing www.yourdomain.com at yourdomain.com
• Connecting a custom domain to a SaaS service (e.g., shop.yourdomain.com → yourdomain.myshopify.com)

The important rule: you can't have a CNAME on the root domain (yourdomain.com itself) — only on subdomains. Most providers offer "ALIAS" or "ANAME" records as a workaround.

MX record — "send my email here"

Mail servers do their work by looking up your domain's MX records to find where to deliver email. If you use Google Workspace, the MX records point to Google's mail servers. If you use your hosting's email, they point at your host's mail servers.

yourdomain.com.    MX  10  mail.yourdomain.com.

The number (10) is the priority — lower wins. Multiple MX records give you failover.

If your email suddenly stops working, the first place to check is whether the MX records changed (or got removed by accident during a panel cleanup).

TXT record — "I'm putting a note here, look at it"

A TXT record is just text. It exists so other systems can publish information about your domain. The big four uses:

• Domain verification — Google, Microsoft, Stripe, Facebook all hand you a string and say "put this in a TXT record to prove you own the domain."
• SPF — "these are the servers allowed to send email as my domain." Reduces email spoofing.
• DKIM — a public key that lets receivers verify emails were really signed by your servers.
• DMARC — tells receivers what to do with email that fails SPF/DKIM.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the three records that decide whether your email actually lands in inboxes or in spam. Worth taking the half hour to set up properly.

NS record — "ask these servers for everything else"

NS (nameserver) records say which servers are authoritative for your domain. When you point your domain at a hosting provider, you're usually updating NS records to theirs — and the host then manages all the A, MX, TXT records inside their own panel.

CAA record — "only these CAs can issue certificates"

An optional but recommended record that says which certificate authorities are allowed to issue SSL certs for your domain. Stops anyone else from quietly getting a cert in your name.

yourdomain.com.    CAA    0 issue "letsencrypt.org"

SRV record — "this service is on this port"

Rare unless you're setting up specific services like SIP, XMPP, Microsoft Exchange autodiscover. If you don't know what SRV records are for, you probably don't need them.

The 30-second mental model

• Website → A (and AAAA)
• Subdomain pointing at another service → CNAME
• Email delivery → MX
• Verifying ownership or sending email → TXT
• Pointing the whole domain at a host → NS

The single most useful debugging tool for DNS is dnschecker.org — paste in your domain, pick a record type, see what the world is actually seeing. Nine times out of ten, "my DNS isn't working" is "it's still propagating, give it twenty minutes."

If you're moving your site to us and the DNS panel looks intimidating, send us a screenshot of your current records — we'll tell you exactly what to change and what to leave alone.