What’s the difference between registrar and DNS host?

You've bought a domain, you need to add an SPF record, and now someone's telling you to log into your "DNS host" but you're staring at your registrar account. Sound familiar? These two things often live in the same place, which is exactly why people mix them up.

Your domain registrar is where you bought your domain name. It handles ownership, renewal, and one critical setting: which nameservers your domain points to. That's it. GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, Squarespace (after the Google Domains acquisition) are all registrars. Their job is to say "yes, you own that domain."

Your DNS host is where your actual DNS records live. MX records (which tell the world where your email goes), TXT records (where SPF, DKIM, and DMARC live), CNAME records, A records. This is the place you edit when you're setting up email authentication.

The connection between them is nameservers. Your registrar holds a pointer that says "for DNS queries about this domain, go ask these nameservers." Those nameservers are run by your DNS host. Change the pointer at your registrar, and you've switched your DNS host entirely.

Here's the part that trips people up: your registrar and DNS host are often the same company. If you registered at GoDaddy and never changed your nameservers, GoDaddy is also your DNS host. You add your SPF record inside GoDaddy's DNS editor. But if your nameservers point to Cloudflare, your DNS records live in Cloudflare's dashboard, not your registrar's. Logging into GoDaddy and editing DNS there won't do anything.

So if your SPF record isn't working, the first question to ask is: where are my nameservers pointing? You can check that with a quick DNS lookup tool. Once you know which nameservers your domain uses, you know which dashboard to open.

If you're not sure where your DNS records actually live, our free SPF checker can help you see what's published for your domain right now. Or if you want to understand where to manage your DNS records across different setups, that question covers the most common scenarios.