Cloudflare DNS
Authoritative DNS hosting commonly used to publish SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records.
- Reading time:
- 5 min
- Difficulty:
- Beginner
- Estimated duration:
- 5 min
- Prerequisites:
- None
- Last updated:
- 2026-07-15
- Author:
- empire
Overview
Authoritative DNS hosting commonly used to publish SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records.
Vendor: Cloudflare
Primary purpose
Host and edit authoritative DNS for mail authentication and routing.
Best for
- Teams publishing and iterating mail DNS records quickly
Common use cases
- Publish SPF/DKIM/DMARC
- Lower TTL for cutovers
Advantages
- Fast UI/API
- Global DNS footprint
Limitations
- DNS hosting ≠ deliverability monitoring
When not to use it
- Corporate DNS must stay on an internal enterprise platform
Pricing
Free DNS tier with paid platform plans.
Official website
Inputs and outputs
Typical inputs
- DNS records
Typical outputs
- Authoritative answers
Privacy notes
- Review each vendor’s data handling before uploading production lists or message content.
Related Learn Articles
Related Solve Articles
- CNAME at zone apexA CNAME is placed at the zone apex where other record types are also required.
- HELO / EHLO problemsThe SMTP HELO/EHLO hostname is missing, invalid, or inconsistent with reverse DNS.
- Inconsistent authoritative answersAuthoritative name servers for the same zone return conflicting data.
- Incorrect MX targetMX points to the wrong host name or unreachable mail server.
- Missing glue recordsDelegation references in-bailiwick name servers without required glue.
- MX record missingNo MX record is published for a domain that should receive mail.
- NXDOMAIN for expected nameA name that should exist returns NXDOMAIN from authoritative servers.
- Reverse DNS mismatchPTR (reverse DNS) for a sending IP is missing or does not match the forward hostname used in mail.
- Stale DNS cache after changeResolvers still serve prior answers after an authoritative change because TTL has not expired.
- Wrong TTL for cutoverTTL values are too high for a planned cutover, prolonging mixed old/new answers.
Alternatives & related tools
- digCLI DNS lookup utility for authoritative and recursive inspection of mail-related records.
- nslookupInteractive DNS lookup utility commonly used for quick MX and TXT checks.
- Google Admin Toolbox DigBrowser-based dig-style DNS lookup from Google’s Admin Toolbox.
- Google Admin Toolbox CheckMXGoogle Admin Toolbox Check MX for inbound mail DNS sanity checks.