# Move your DNS to veldhost > Keep your domain at your registrar; point its DNS at us with your records copied first. Source: https://veldhost.eu/docs/move-your-dns-to-veldhost You do not have to move your domain to veldhost to host with us. The normal way in is to **keep the domain at the registrar you already use** and point its DNS at our nameservers. The portal's *Move your DNS to veldhost* wizard (Domains → *Use a domain you already own*) does that in five steps, and the order of those steps is the whole point: your current records are copied here **before** anything changes, so your website and email carry on without a gap. ## Before you start - You need a site on veldhost. We hold DNS for domains that have somewhere to point; if you have not created a site yet, do that first (it takes a few minutes) and come back. - Have the login for your registrar to hand — the company that sends you the yearly renewal invoice for the domain. Step 4 happens there. - Nothing in the wizard talks to your registrar. The one change that moves things is made by you, in step 4, and until then your domain is untouched. ## Step 1 — Which domain? Type the domain as people see it (`yourbrand.com`, no `www`). If one of your sites should show on it, pick the site; if you want to keep your website where it is for now, leave that at "not yet". We then look the domain up on the public internet — the same resolvers your visitors use, never our own nameservers — and tell you who answers for it today and whether DNSSEC is switched on at your current provider. ## Step 2 — The zone we would serve This is a preview of the records we found and what we would write, each with a reason. We ask for the names almost every domain uses — the apex and `www`, `mail`, `shop`, `blog`, `api`, `app`, `cdn`, `ftp`, the autodiscovery names — plus MX, SPF, DMARC, the common DKIM selectors, CAA and the phone/chat/calendar SRV records. Each record goes through the same rules as the DNS editor, so a broken record in the list is refused with a reason rather than copied. If you chose a site, its records are laid over the top: the apex and `www` point at your veldhost site instead of wherever they point today, and the preview says so. If the domain already has a mailbox on veldhost, the mail records are included too — with your existing SPF *merged*, never replaced. Two things nobody can see from outside a domain: DKIM keys under an unusual selector, and subdomains we did not guess. The preview names what it asked for, so you can check anything else at your current provider and add it in the DNS editor afterwards — or send us your current records and we will do it. ## Step 3 — Create the zone here One button writes exactly the preview you read into *our* copy of your DNS. Your live domain is still answered by your current provider; nothing has changed for anyone yet. If a record changed between the preview and the click, you get the updated preview instead of a surprise. ## Step 4 — Change the nameservers at your registrar We look up who your domain is registered with and show the steps for that registrar — GoDaddy, Namecheap, TransIP, Hostnet, Mijndomein, Versio, one.com, IONOS, OVH, Openprovider and more, with a general guide if yours is not on the list. Enter these two nameservers, replacing everything that is there: ``` ns1.veldhost.eu ns2.veldhost.eu ``` Replace **both** entries and leave none of the old ones behind; a mixed set fails intermittently, which is harder to notice than failing outright. **If DNSSEC is on at your current provider**, the wizard says so and this needs one extra step, first: turn DNSSEC off at your registrar (remove the DS record) and wait a day *before* changing nameservers. The DS at the registry vouches for the keys your *current* provider signs with; change nameservers while it is there and resolvers that check signatures refuse your domain. Once the domain is here you can turn DNSSEC on again from the DNS page — we sign the zone and show you the new DS to publish. If the domain is registered *with veldhost*, there is no other registrar to sign in to: the wizard sends you to the domain's own page, where the switch is one click (and, if DNSSEC is on, *Prepare to move* handles the DS for you). ## Step 5 — Is it live? The last step watches for your change to land. Press *Check again* whenever you like, or close the page: we check every ten minutes for three days and email you the moment public resolvers answer with our nameservers. It reaches most people within a couple of hours and everyone within a day. Seeing the delegation land is also how we know the domain is yours — only whoever controls it at the registrar could have made that change. Once it is live, connect the domain to your site (its **Configure** tab → **Domain**) if you have not already; the certificate is issued automatically. Everything else — records, DNSSEC, exports — is in the [DNS editor](https://veldhost.eu/docs/dns-records-explained). ## Do I have to move the registration too? No — and we would rather you didn’t. veldhost is not a registrar shopfront: your domain stays where you bought it, in your name, and only its DNS points here. That is the whole arrangement, and it is the one that leaves you least tied to us. If you would genuinely rather we held the registration, or you need a name you don’t own yet, [ask us](https://veldhost.eu/contact) and we will do it with you. And if you ever leave, everything here — files, database, DNS export — is self-service. ## Over the API Step 2 is available to scripts and assistants as a dry run: `POST /api/v1/dns/zones/probe` (dns scope) returns the same plan, the detected registrar and its instructions, and a `continue_url` where a person creates the zone. The MCP tool is `probe_domain_dns`. Neither writes anything.