DNS Tools

CNAME Lookup

Look up a domain or subdomain's CNAME record.

Enter a domain or subdomain to look up its CNAME record.

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JustChecker tracks your DNS records continuously and alerts you the moment something changes.

What Is a CNAME Record?

A CNAME (Canonical Name) record makes one name an alias of another - for example www.example.com pointing to example.netlify.app. The browser then follows the alias to find the final address.

When to Use It

After connecting a subdomain to a hosting platform, CDN or SaaS service.
When a custom domain shows "not configured" on a platform.
To see which service a subdomain is hosted on.

How to Use It

Enter the subdomain, such as www.example.com or shop.example.com.
Check that the target matches what your provider told you to set.

Understanding the Result

A name with a CNAME cannot have other records of its own, which is why the bare domain (example.com) normally cannot be a CNAME. Some DNS providers offer "CNAME flattening" or ALIAS records to get around this.

Limitations

The tool shows the CNAME itself; to see the IP address it finally resolves to, use the A Record Lookup.

Frequently Asked Questions

A CNAME ("Canonical Name") record points a hostname to another hostname (not directly to an IP address like an A record does) - the client then separately resolves that target hostname to its actual address.

DNS specification prohibits a CNAME from coexisting with other record types (like the MX or NS records a root domain typically needs) - this is why CNAMEs are almost always used on subdomains (www, blog, shop) rather than the bare root domain.

Not necessarily - many third-party services (CDNs, email marketing platforms, custom domain features on SaaS tools) require you to point a CNAME at their own infrastructure as part of setup, so an unfamiliar-looking target is often intentional.

A dangling CNAME points to a target that no longer exists or has been deprovisioned (e.g. a deleted cloud service) - this is a known subdomain-takeover risk, since an attacker could potentially claim that abandoned target and serve content from your subdomain.

Technically yes (a CNAME chain), but this adds extra resolution steps and is generally discouraged - pointing directly at the final target hostname is faster to resolve and easier to troubleshoot.

The additional DNS lookup step is measured in milliseconds and is not a meaningful performance concern for virtually all real-world use cases - CDN providers, for example, rely heavily on CNAMEs at scale with no noticeable impact.

When you specifically need to confirm what a subdomain is pointed at - for example, verifying a CDN or SaaS custom-domain setup was configured correctly - a focused, single-record view is faster to read than a combined multi-record report.