TIL: you can’t point a root domain at a hostname with a plain CNAME, and GoDaddy doesn’t give you the workaround most providers do.
I wanted example.com (the apex, no www) pointed at a host that hands you a hostname to target, not a fixed IP. The obvious move is a CNAME, but the DNS spec won’t allow one at the apex: the apex already carries SOA and NS records, and a CNAME can’t coexist with anything else on the same name. So the obvious move is illegal at the exact place I needed it.
The usual rescue is an ALIAS record (some call it ANAME; Cloudflare calls it CNAME flattening): it behaves like a CNAME but resolves to an IP behind the scenes, so it’s legal at the apex. GoDaddy’s DNS just doesn’t offer one. A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, the standard set, and no ALIAS anywhere in the panel.
That leaves three options: hardcode A records to the host’s current IPs and pray they never change, forward the apex to www and let www take the CNAME, or move DNS somewhere that supports apex aliasing. I moved DNS. Took ten minutes.
The lesson I’m keeping: when you pick a registrar, “can it ALIAS the apex” is a real question, not a footnote.
