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Configure & deploy site /Domains /

Why Netlify DNS

Netlify DNS offers advanced subdomain automation and deployment features and ensures that your site uses our CDN for the apex domain as well as subdomains like www.

# Netlify DNS domain support

You can delegate many different types of domains to Netlify DNS, including apex domains or subdomains, which include stand-alone subdomains.

For example, you can delegate a subdomain to Netlify DNS without the need to bring your apex domain to Netlify DNS. So you can delegate just docs.company.com to Netlify without bringing over company.com too. Learn more about stand-alone subdomain support.

# Netlify DNS key benefits

Besides the convenience of managing your domains along with your site and app hosting, Netlify DNS offers the following benefits:

  • Wildcard SSL certificate: If your repo has multiple branches all serving different content, you can have a subdomain for every single branch in your repo, and a wildcard SSL certificate will cover them all. This will happen automatically, with one click.

  • Branch deploys: Netlify DNS allows you to set up branch deploys for each branch in your repo, which can serve as an ongoing staging environment for each branch or alternative version of your site.

  • Standalone subdomains: Netlify DNS allows you to have standalone subdomains for each branch in your repo so you can delegate docs.company.com to Netlify DNS and keep company.com delegated to another DNS provider.

  • Custom subdomains for preview URLs (also called Automatic deploy subdomains): Netlify DNS allows you to customize subdomains for all Deploy Previews and/or for all branch deploys so you can unify your site's URLs across all branches and share deploy-preview-42.company.com instead of deploy-preview-42--yoursitename.netlify.app. This ensures deploys can be "trusted" and in the "allowed domain list" for any third-party scripts or services that require this. This also allows you to use third-party services the way you do for your production site, such as auth flow services that rely on a custom domain.

# External DNS key benefits

Netlify does not allow inbound DNS zone transfers. If you have a lot of existing DNS records, it's simplest and safest to use an external DNS provider.