How do you delegate DNS management?

Maybe your team is growing and a developer wants to own DNS. Maybe you're moving infrastructure to a new provider. Either way, delegating DNS management means two things: changing who controls the records and (sometimes) changing where those records live. They're related but not the same.

Here's what's actually happening when you delegate DNS. Your domain registrar (where you bought the domain) stores a pointer called nameservers. Those nameservers tell the internet "go ask this DNS host for the actual records." When you delegate DNS management, you're updating that pointer so a different DNS host takes over.

The process breaks down into four steps.

Step 1. Pick your DNS host. This is the platform that will actually manage your records going forward. Common choices are Cloudflare, AWS Route53, or your hosting provider's built-in DNS. Each has trade-offs worth knowing, especially for email.

Step 2. Recreate all your records at the new DNS host first. This is the step people skip and regret. Before you flip anything, log in to your new DNS host and manually add every record that exists today: MX records, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, any CNAME or A records your site or email relies on. If a record doesn't exist at the new host when you make the switch, whatever it supports goes down the moment propagation completes.

Step 3. Update the nameservers at your registrar. Your registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.) has a nameserver field in your domain settings. Replace the current nameservers with the ones your new DNS host gives you. It usually looks like ns1.cloudflare.com and ns2.cloudflare.com, or something similar.

Step 4. Wait for propagation. DNS changes don't apply instantly everywhere. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours for the updated nameservers to spread across the internet. During that window, some visitors and mail servers will still query the old records, and some will hit the new ones. That's normal. You can track how propagation is spreading with tools like WhatsMyDNS.

And one thing worth understanding: delegation is all-or-nothing for a domain. You can't split your MX records to one DNS host and your website records to another (unless you're delegating a subdomain specifically). All records for the same domain live at whichever DNS host your nameservers point to.

If you're delegating because someone else on your team will own this going forward, make sure they have login access to the DNS host (not just the registrar) and a record of every setting that currently exists. A quick export or screenshot of current records before you touch anything is always a good idea.

Not sure what records you currently have, or worried your email authentication might break in the switch? You can check your SPF and DKIM with our free tools at reviewmyemails.com/tools, or hit our SOS hotline if you're mid-migration and something's gone wrong.