: Can I use my own domain at wordpress.com retaining my DNS outside WP? I have my own domain (e.g. contoso.com). I also have a (free tier) wordpress.com account, using contoso.wordpress.com.

@Eichhorn148

Wordpress.com has a support page about mapping a sub-domain to your site using their /year plan: en.support.wordpress.com/domains/map-subdomain/
Their instructions say that you need to do two things:


Add CNAME records in your DNS:


sub.example.com CNAME to example.wordpress.com

In your WordPress.com site add the domain to your site (example.wordpress.com) using the "Already own a domain" option and make it the "primary" domain.


Since you are using a bare domain name (no subdomain), you can't use a CNAME at the for the APEX record. To use an external DNS system, you will need to find one that supports "ALIAS" records. An ALIAS serves an A record, but it periodically looks up the IP address to serve from the alias that you set. I use Amazon Route53 when I need a DNS host with alias records.

You would want to set the following records:


example.com ALIAS to example.wordpress.com example.com ALIAS to example.wordpress.com (WordPress would redirect this for you according to their documentation)


You could also try just setting the A record, however if WordPress changes their IP address, your site could stop working without warning. The following are the current IP addresses for lb.wordpress.com which is what your site currently points to:


example.com A 192.0.78.12
example.com A 192.0.78.13 example.com A 192.0.78.12 example.com A 192.0.78.13


To avoid the redirect loop problem, you need to clear your browser cache after making DNS record changes. Your browser must have the redirect from your domain name to your wordpress subdomain cached. Once your site is hosted on the domain name you need to clear your browser cache to be able to access your site. Only people who visited your domain name while it was redirecting will have that problem.

I also noticed that WordPress.com has instructions for getting mail to work: en.support.wordpress.com/domains/custom-dns/ That says that they support DKIM txt records. You may be able to use wordpress.com DNS servers and still have the DKIM support you need.

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