An ALIAS record (sometimes called an ANAME record) does the same job as a CNAME record, but it works at the root of your domain, where a real CNAME isn't allowed. You run into this when a service asks you to point your bare domain (example.co.ke, not www.example.co.ke) to a hostname instead of a fixed IP address.
Why your root domain can't use a plain CNAME
DNS rules don't allow a CNAME record to sit at the apex (root) of a domain alongside the other records that have to live there, such as the MX records for your email and the NS records for your nameservers. A domain's root can only hold one kind of record per name, so mixing a CNAME in with those breaks your email and DNS resolution.
This is why pointing your root domain to a service is only straightforward when that service gives you a fixed IP address, which you add as a normal A record. The trouble starts when the service only gives you a hostname to point to, with no IP address, because that's exactly what a CNAME is designed for and exactly what you can't use at the root.
What an ALIAS/ANAME record actually does
An ALIAS or ANAME record looks like a CNAME to you, since you still enter a target hostname rather than an IP address. Behind the scenes, though, the DNS provider resolves that hostname to its current IP address(es) and serves your root domain's visitors an A record answer, refreshing it automatically if the target's IP changes. The record type doesn't officially exist in the DNS standard: it's a workaround that individual DNS providers implement on their own, which is why support for it varies.
When you'd actually need one
- You want your bare domain (not just www) to point to a platform that only gives you a hostname to connect to, such as a website builder, app hosting platform, or CDN endpoint that doesn't publish a fixed IP.
- The target service's IP address can change without notice, so a plain A record would eventually point to the wrong place.
If you only need www.yourdomain.co.ke to work this way, you don't need any of this: a normal CNAME record on the www subdomain is fine. This whole issue is specific to the bare root domain.
Does your control panel support ALIAS/ANAME?
Standard cPanel and DirectAdmin DNS zone editors only offer the core record types: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, and CAA. Neither includes an ALIAS or ANAME option, since this is a feature individual DNS providers build on top of the standard, not something built into cPanel or DirectAdmin itself.
If you genuinely need this behavior, you have two practical options:
- Ask the service you're connecting to whether it can give you a static IP address instead, so you can add a normal A record at your root through your usual DNS zone editor.
- Move your domain's DNS to a provider whose nameservers support this automatically (several CDN and DNS providers flatten a root CNAME-style entry into an A record for you, often under a setting labelled CNAME flattening. This means pointing your domain's nameservers away from your hosting account to that provider, so only do it if you understand the tradeoff of managing DNS somewhere separate from your hosting.
For most ZIPROF customers, the first option is simpler and keeps all your DNS in one place. Reach out to support if you're not sure which applies to your situation.
See also: How to Add or Edit a DNS Record (A, CNAME, MX, TXT) for the general steps to manage standard records in your control panel.