Free Tool

Free DNS Provider Lookup

Find out which DNS provider actually serves a domain, read from its nameservers. Returns the exact record name that provider's form expects, whether it can point a root domain, and the settings that quietly break custom domain setups. No signup.

Need this as an API?

DNS Provider Lookup API · no key, CORS-enabled

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How it works

Enter a domain or hostname

Subdomains work too. We walk up to the zone that actually holds the NS records.

We fingerprint the nameservers

The NS hostnames are matched against 31 known providers, scored by how many match.

Get the record details for that provider

The name field written their way, apex support, where the record editor lives, and the gotchas.

Nameservers tell you who to give instructions to

Every zone publishes NS records naming the servers authoritative for it. Those hostnames are a fingerprint. abdullah.ns.cloudflare.com means Cloudflare, ns-520.awsdns-01.net means Route 53, dns1.p04.nsone.net means NS1 or Netlify. This tool reads them and maps them to the provider.

The registrar is often not the answer. Plenty of domains are bought at one company and served by another, and the DNS provider is the one whose control panel the user has to open. Checking godaddy.com itself is the clearest illustration: it is on Akamai, not on GoDaddy's own DNS.

Why the record name field is where setups die

Providers disagree about how to write a record name, and there is no error when you get it wrong. Type the full hostname into a form that already appends the zone and you get blog.example.com.example.com, which resolves to nothing and looks, in the UI, exactly like a record that was entered correctly.

Provider	Apex	`blog.example.com`
Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap	`@`	`blog`
Route 53	leave the record name blank	`blog`
Google Cloud DNS, Akamai	`example.com`	`blog.example.com`
Porkbun, Name.com, Dynadot	leave the host field blank	`blog`

This tool returns the name already written the way the detected provider's form wants it, so there is nothing to translate.

Root domains are not universally supported

A CNAME cannot legally sit at a zone apex, so providers either emulate one (ALIAS, ANAME, CNAME flattening) or they do not. Where they do not, the root can only hold A records.

Route 53 is the trap. Its Alias record looks like the answer and is genuinely good, but its targets are restricted to AWS resources and same-zone records, never an arbitrary third-party hostname. GoDaddy, DigitalOcean, IONOS and Azure DNS have no equivalent at all. The tool reports which case a domain is in before someone spends an afternoon on it.

Provider-specific settings that silently break things

Correct records are not sufficient. Each provider has at least one setting that produces a working-looking zone and a broken site:

Cloudflare proxies by default. An orange-clouded record makes Cloudflare terminate TLS itself, so the platform you pointed at never completes certificate issuance. It has to be grey, "DNS only".
GoDaddy adds a parked A record at @ on new domains and leaves it there. It keeps answering alongside whatever you add.
Namecheap ships a URL Redirect and CNAME on the parking page that conflict with the first real record.
Wix locks records it manages, so a root pointed at a Wix site has to be disconnected first.

If you are the platform asking customers for a record

This tool is a preview of your support burden. Every customer is on a different provider, a good fraction will put the name in the wrong field, some will leave the proxy on, and a handful cannot point their root at you at all.

Domainee is a custom domains API for SaaS with a native MCP server, 50 domains and 100 GB free. The same detection behind this page is available per-customer through GET /v1/domains/{id}/instructions, which returns the record, the steps and the quirks already written for whichever provider that customer happens to be on.

From the command line

Keyless, no signup:

curl -s "https://api.domainee.dev/v1/tools/dns-provider-lookup?domain=example.com" | jq

Rate limits are per IP and there is no uptime commitment, so it fits scripts and audits rather than a production dependency.

Frequently asked questions

Is the DNS provider the same as the registrar?+

Often not. You can buy a domain at one company and have another serve its DNS, and the DNS provider is the one whose control panel you need. godaddy.com itself is a good example: the domain is GoDaddy's, but its DNS is served by Akamai.

Why does the record name differ between providers?+

Some forms append the zone for you, so you enter only the label (blog). Others want the fully qualified name (blog.example.com). At the apex some want @, some want the domain, and some want the field left blank. Entering the wrong form produces a record like blog.example.com.example.com with no error message.

What does 'apex support' mean?+

Whether the provider can point a root domain at a hostname. A CNAME is illegal at a zone apex, so providers either emulate one with ALIAS, ANAME or CNAME flattening, or they cannot do it and the root can only hold A records.

Does Route 53 support apex aliasing?+

Only for AWS targets. Route 53 Alias records can point at CloudFront, ELB, S3 website endpoints, API Gateway and other records in the same hosted zone, but never at an arbitrary third-party hostname. For a root domain pointed at a SaaS platform you need A records or a provider that does true flattening.

My provider wasn't recognised. Is the result wrong?+

No. Detection is best-effort and covers 31 providers. When nothing matches, the record name falls back to the most common convention and the values are still correct. The nameservers are shown so you can identify the provider yourself.

Why does Cloudflare's proxy break custom domains?+

With the orange cloud on, Cloudflare terminates TLS itself and serves the request from its own edge. The platform you pointed the record at never sees the traffic it needs to complete certificate issuance, so the certificate is never issued. Set the record to DNS only, the grey cloud.

Every customer is on a different DNS provider

Domainee detects which one, then returns setup steps written for it, including the record name their form actually expects.

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