Ask HN: DNS Zone Management for Subdomain?

Hi,

I am accustomed to using my registrar (Google Domains, IONOS, etc) as my DNS nameserver. However, as part of my journey to learn more about DNS, I'd like to try delegating a nameserver for a subdomain. That got me wondering if there was a way to get started by using an online service that manages a zone for me.

Are there any services that can be a nameserver for a subdomain without being the registrar for the domain as a whole? I looked at Google and Cloudflare and it appeared to me that they only let you use DNS services for domains where that service is also the registrar, but I could be missing something. And of course, maybe I've stumbled onto the type of service which only enterprise-facing services address currently. But thought I'd ask the community if you're aware of any alternatives here besides spinning up my own nameserver.

2 comments

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anderiv 3y ago ↗

I do this with Route53. Create a hosted zone with your subdomain - R53 will populate NS records automatically. Then, go back to your top-level zone and add those NS records for the subdomain.

theschmed 3y ago ↗

Thank you!

After a little research, I was also able to discover FreeDNS from Namecheap (https://www.namecheap.com/domains/freedns/). Once I set up 5 NS records in my main zone for my subdomain and waited a half a day, the subdomain's DNS records were manageable from my Namecheap dashboard.