---
title: Registrar vs DNS host
sidebarTitle: Registrar vs DNS host
description: Why buying a domain at one company and managing DNS at another is common — and where to add Reloop records.
---
> For the complete documentation index, see [llms-docs.txt](/llms-docs.txt) or the site index [llms.txt](/llms.txt). Full docs corpus: [llms-full-docs.txt](/llms-full-docs.txt). Prefer markdown URLs (append `.md`) for agent consumption. Product skill: [skill.md](/skill.md).


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.com
```

Add 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

1. In Reloop, open the domain — we show the detected provider when nameservers match a known host.
2. Or look up nameservers — see [Find your DNS provider](/docs/guides/connect-domain/find-dns-provider).
3. 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](/docs/guides/connect-domain/troubleshoot/wrong-nameservers).