Nameservers decide where your domain’s DNS is managed. DNS records are the individual settings inside it that point your website, email and other services to the right place. For most jobs, such as moving a website or setting up new email, you change one or two DNS records. Change nameservers only when you want a different company to manage all of your DNS, and copy every record across first.
Key takeaways
- Nameservers are the address of your DNS. DNS records are what’s written there.
- Changing nameservers moves every record at once. Any record you don’t recreate stops working.
- The classic mistake is switching nameservers for a new website and losing the email records.
- When a provider says “point your domain to us”, ask whether they mean nameservers or specific records.
What’s the difference between nameservers and DNS records?
Think of your domain as a business listed in a directory. The nameservers tell the world which directory holds your listing. The DNS records are the details in that listing: where your website lives, where email goes and which services are allowed to send email for you.
You set nameservers at your registrar, the company you pay for the domain. The records live in a DNS “zone” at whichever company the nameservers point to. That might be your registrar, your web host or a service like Cloudflare. As Google’s Workspace help notes, the registrar isn’t always where your domain records are managed.
Our guide to DNS records explained covers each record type in plain English, so we won’t repeat it here.
Which one should I change? A decision table
| What you want to do | Change this | Leave alone |
|---|---|---|
| Move your website to a new host | A record (and www CNAME) | Nameservers, MX records |
| Move email to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace | MX and TXT records | Nameservers, A record |
| Verify a service like Google Search Console | Add one TXT record | Everything else |
| Hand all DNS to your web host or Cloudflare | Nameservers, after copying every record | Nothing: all records move |
| Transfer the domain to a new registrar | Usually nothing | Check where DNS is hosted first |
The pattern is simple. If one service is moving, change that service’s records. If you want one company to manage everything, change the nameservers.
Why does changing nameservers take email down?
Because nameservers move the whole zone. Say a new web developer asks you to switch nameservers to their host. The new zone has an A record for the website, but nobody copied your MX records. Mail servers now ask the new DNS host where to deliver your email, find nothing, and the messages bounce or queue.
Cloudflare’s own setup guide warns that its automatic scan “is not guaranteed to find all existing DNS records” and asks you to check email records against your provider’s values (Cloudflare Docs). Any host’s import tool deserves the same caution.
Changing a single record is far more contained. When you update your MX record, all new email for your domain goes to the new provider, as Microsoft explains. Your website isn’t touched.
How do I change nameservers safely?
- Export every record. Screenshot or download the full zone at your current DNS host, including MX, TXT and any subdomains.
- Recreate them at the new host. Compare each record with your export, line by line.
- Turn off DNSSEC if it’s on. Cloudflare warns that changing nameservers while DNSSEC is active can make the domain unreachable.
- Change the nameservers at your registrar. Expect the update to take up to 24 hours to spread.
- Test. Load the website, send and receive email, and check any forms or online bookings.
Nameservers are public in WHOIS, along with the registrar. Our guide to domain privacy Australia covers what else a lookup shows.
Where should my DNS live?
Keep it wherever someone is actively looking after it. For many small businesses that’s the registrar or the web host. If you hold extra names from defensive domain registration, keeping them all on the same DNS host makes redirects easier to manage.
Moving hosts? Our free website migration moves the site for you, and we can check your DNS records at the same time. Our page on domain and DNS management explains how we look after domains, and you can register your domain with WMS in the same account as your hosting.
Frequently asked questions
What are nameservers?
Nameservers are the servers that hold your domain’s DNS records and answer questions about them. Your registrar lists them for your domain, usually two to four, with names like ns1.example.com. Change them and a different company answers for your domain.
Should I use my host’s nameservers or my registrar’s?
Either works. Using your host’s nameservers lets the host manage records for you. Using your registrar’s means you change records yourself when you switch hosts. What matters is that someone knows where DNS lives and keeps a copy of the records.
How long do DNS changes take?
A single record usually updates within the record’s TTL, often an hour or less. Nameserver changes can take longer, and Cloudflare says to allow up to 24 hours. Some visitors may see the old setup during that time.
My developer wants me to change nameservers. Should I?
Ask why first. If they only need the website, an A record change is enough and your email stays untouched. If they do need the nameservers, send them a full export of your current records and confirm email still works afterwards.
Sources
- Identify your domain registrar, Google Workspace Admin Help
- Change your nameservers (full setup), Cloudflare Docs
- Connect your domain by adding DNS records, Microsoft Learn, 2026