--- title: "How to bring a subdomain to Netlify DNS" description: "Delegate a stand-alone subdomain to Netlify DNS while keeping your apex domain on a separate registrar. Serve different content from branch domains. Benefit from security and performance improvements." source: "https://www.netlify.com/blog/how-to-bring-a-subdomain-to-netlify-dns/" last_updated: "2026-08-05T04:39:12.000Z" --- You can now delegate a subdomain to Netlify DNS without having to bring over the apex domain! For example, you can let Netlify manage a subdomain like `app.example.com` while leaving `example.com` on your primary DNS service. You can now get the benefits of Netlify DNS management on your subdomains—even if you can’t move your apex domain to Netlify. [Learn more in the docs](https://docs.netlify.com/domains-https/netlify-dns/delegate-a-subdomain-to-netlify-dns/). ## Benefits of bringing your project’s subdomain to Netlify DNS When you use Netlify for DNS management on a subdomain (`app.example.com`), you gain a number of productivity, security, and performance benefits. You can: - Easily serve different content from different branches. [Branch subdomains](https://docs.netlify.com/domains-https/custom-domains/multiple-domains/#branch-subdomains) allow you to spin up unlimited environments, such as `staging.app.example.com`, `beta.app.example.com`, etc. - Take advantage of Netlify’s automatically-provisioned [SSL certificates](https://docs.netlify.com/domains-https/https-ssl/). Your wildcard certificate will help secure `app.example.com` and all of its subdomains. - Ensure your site uses Netlify’s CDN for this subdomain and all of its subdomains. Gain a performance boost and serve content from locations closest to your site visitors. ## How to set up subdomain delegation First, you’ll need to make sure your domain registrar supports NS records (or name server records) on subdomains. Once you’ve been able to verify this: 1. Go to Team Overview > Domains in the Netlify UI. 2. Choose “Add or register a domain.” 3. Enter your subdomain, e.g. `app.example.com`, and complete the steps! ![Add a domain to Netlify DNS](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/o0o2tn5x/production/2627f1fe9527b3dc870fcede6170898d3c2f391d-1300x963.png) The final step in this process will give you NS records to enter at your registrar. As with any DNS changes, it can take 24 hours or more to propagate in the domain name system. ## Let us know what you think We’ve added support for subdomain delegation based on customer requests, so we’d love to know what you think! You can share your thoughts on [this 3-question survey](https://netlify.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cAsppc9LuYzKUl0) or in the [community forums](https://answers.netlify.com/). 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