Webflow's Updated A Records: do CNAME-only (i.e., root domain as default) sites need to change?

If you use Webflow’s Set root domain as default domain guide, it states:

Access your domain’s DNS settings, and add two records:

  • An ANAME or CNAME record for the root domain (host: @)
  • A CNAME record for the www subdomain

We have no A records at all (see Cloudflare DNS-only screenshot above), but Webflow’s latest update today notes, “Update A records to improve site load speed and reduce redirects”.

Are CNAME-only sites unaffected by today’s post, as CNAME records only point to proxy-ssl.webflow.com already? From my limited research, CNAME records are used in lieu of A name records and CNAME records must point to a domain (never an IP address).

Perhaps this is beyond the scope of the forum, so perhaps I’ll contact Webflow directly. Goodness knows, hosting & DNS records are one of the banes of my existence.

Well I think you are correct. The CNAME Records override the A records if I remember correctly. So you should be fine. As long as the users land on your site when they visit your domain you should not have to worry about it.

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Thank you for the reply. I think you’re right: that does make the most sense.

I’ve reached out to Webflow and will report back. It was unusual they didn’t mention this configuration in the post, as CNAME flattening is a relatively common procedure, but perhaps I’ve not done the initial setup correctly, either, so I’ll reserve judgement, haha.

Webflow (Chris) has officially replied and you were spot-on, @felix_hellstrom.

If you are purely using the root domain only and have not set any A records then you won’t need to change anything.

It’s only the A records that have been updated. So if you have a project that’s utilising A records please ensure they are updated.

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