What Is Apex Domain?

Why It Matters

The apex domain is the simplest, most memorable version of your domain — example.com without any prefix. When someone types your domain into a browser without www, they’re requesting the apex domain.

For domain forwarding, the apex domain presents a unique technical challenge: you can’t use a standard CNAME record on it. This limitation is baked into the DNS specification and affects how you point your domain to redirect services.

How It Works

In DNS, your domain exists as a zone with required records at the apex:

• SOA record — Start of Authority, defines the zone
• NS records — Name servers for the zone
• Optionally: A records, MX records, TXT records

The DNS spec says a CNAME cannot coexist with other record types at the same name. Since SOA and NS records must exist at the apex, a CNAME at the apex is invalid.

This means you need either:

1. A records pointing to specific IP addresses
2. ALIAS/ANAME records (a non-standard but widely supported workaround)

Common Mistakes

Forgetting to set up the apex domain. You forward www.example.com but leave example.com without a redirect. Visitors who type the bare domain see an error.

Using a CNAME at the apex. Some DNS providers allow this but it can cause unpredictable behavior with email (breaking MX records) and other services.

Not testing both variants. Always verify that both example.com and www.example.com resolve and redirect correctly.

How Domain Forward Handles This

Domain Forward provides A record IPs for apex domain setup and supports ALIAS records where available. Our setup guides walk you through configuring both the apex and www subdomain to ensure complete coverage.