A Record
An A record maps a hostname to an IPv4 address, such as 203.0.113.10. This is one of the records browsers use to find the server for a website.
Common Record Types
Common DNS record types used by websites, mail routing, verification, and reverse DNS.
AAAA Record
An AAAA record maps a hostname to an IPv6 address. It is the IPv6 equivalent of an A record.
CNAME Record
A CNAME record makes one hostname an alias of another hostname. For example, www.example.com might point to example.hosting-provider.net.
MX Record
An MX record tells other mail servers where to deliver email for a domain. MX records include a priority value, so mail can fall back to another server if the preferred one is unavailable.
TXT Record
A TXT record stores text data in DNS. TXT records are commonly used for domain verification and email authentication records such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
CAA Record
A CAA record tells certificate authorities which providers are allowed to issue TLS certificates for a domain. It can help reduce the risk of certificates being issued by an unexpected authority.
PTR / Reverse DNS
A PTR record maps an IP address back to a hostname. Reverse DNS is often checked by mail systems and operational tools, especially for servers that send email.
Wildcard Record
A wildcard record matches names that do not have their own explicit record, such as anything.example.com. Wildcards can be useful, but they can also hide missing or mistyped DNS records.
CNAME Flattening / ALIAS / ANAME
These are provider-specific features that let an apex domain behave as if it points at another hostname. They are often used when a service asks for a CNAME but the domain apex cannot use a normal CNAME record.