Registrar vs DNS host
Why buying a domain at one company and managing DNS at another is common — and where to add Reloop records.
Two different jobs are easy to confuse:
| Role | What they do | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Registrar | Sells/renews the domain name; stores who owns it | Namecheap, GoDaddy, NameSilo, Cloudflare Registrar |
| DNS host | Answers DNS queries for the domain (hosts the zone) | Cloudflare DNS, Route 53, Vercel DNS, the registrar’s own DNS |
Reloop records must be added at the DNS host — the place your nameservers point to — not necessarily the place you paid for the domain.
Common setups
Same company for both
You bought the domain at Namecheap and left default Namecheap nameservers (registrar-servers.com). Add Reloop records in Namecheap Advanced DNS.
Split (very common)
You bought the domain at GoDaddy, but pointed nameservers to Cloudflare:
ada.ns.cloudflare.com
bob.ns.cloudflare.comAdd Reloop records in Cloudflare, not GoDaddy’s DNS UI. Changes in GoDaddy’s zone editor will be ignored while NS point elsewhere.
Website host as DNS
Domains on Vercel, Netlify, or Squarespace often use that product’s nameservers. Manage Reloop records in that product’s domain/DNS settings.
How to tell which you have
- In Reloop, open the domain — we show the detected provider when nameservers match a known host.
- Or look up nameservers — see Find your DNS provider.
- Or check your registrar’s “Nameservers” page: if it lists Cloudflare/AWS/Vercel hosts, use that host’s panel.
Rule of thumb
Edit DNS where the nameservers live.
If Auto-populate or verification fails after you “added records,” you almost always edited the wrong panel. See Wrong nameservers.
Was this page helpful?
- Need help? Contact Support.
- Chat with Reloop developers on Discord.
- Check out our changelog.
- Questions? Contact Sales.
- LLM? Read llms.txt.