Choosing an Authoritative DNS Provider

Domains registered through Digital Pacific (or with an active Cloud Email Hosting / WordPress Hosting service) can use the Digital Pacific Client Area DNS manager. We have a setup guide for the Client Area DNS Manager here. 

If you have any cPanel based hosting service (Shared, VPS or Dedicated Server), you can use the DNS management tools available in cPanel / WHM. We have a guide for using the cPanel Zone Editor here. 

For VPS and Dedicated Servers, you will need to register your own Private / White Label Name Servers. We have a guide for setting up Private Name Servers here. 

However, if both options are available to you, which should you choose? 

This article will outline the comparative benefits to each, helping you determine which DNS Management solution best suits your needs. 

Digital Pacific Client Area DNS Manager (setup guide):

+ Can be accessed through the Digital Pacific Client Area
+ Better availability than a zone hosted on a VPS or Dedicated server, as it isn't dependent on your server being online
+ Easier to set up if you only require a small number of DNS records
- Restricted to domains registered through Digital Pacific (or with an active Cloud Email Hosting / WordPress Hosting service)
- All records need to be manually created / updated during migrations or creation of new domains and subdomains

Private / White Label Name Servers on a cPanel VPS or Dedicated Server (setup guide):

+ cPanel automatically creates a default set of DNS records for new domains and subdomains
+ Additional cPanel accounts, or Alias domains in existing cPanel accounts can be used to make zones for any number of domains, regardless of where they are registered
+ Easy to use following the initial configuration, including features to 'View Raw DNS Zone File' and 'Reset DNS zone files' 
+ DNS records can be automatically updated when migrating accounts between cPanel VPS and Dedicated servers using the WHM 'Transfer Tool', and then the new server can become the host of the Private / White Label Name Servers following a relatively simple Glue record update through the account with the Domain Registrar
- If the VPS or Dedicated Server is offline, DNS resolution will fail
- Initial configuration can be confusing (Though feel free to contact the Digital Pacific support team if you require assistance with a managed service!)

Finally, you may instead find it most appropriate to use a 3rd party DNS manager.

For example, if you are using Cloudflare's CDN or other services, it may also be easiest to use them as your authoritative DNS provider:
https://www.cloudflare.com/en-au/dns/
https://developers.cloudflare.com/dns/manage-dns-records/how-to/create-dns-records