Magic Pages works with a content delivery network – however, that usually requires CNAME records to route everything properly.
If your domain registrar doesn't support CNAME records on your root domain (like yourdomain.com), you might be tempted to use an ALIAS record instead. While this can work, it often causes issues. Here's why.
The Root Domain Problem
Standard DNS doesn't allow CNAME records on root domains. This is a technical limitation that has existed since the early days of the internet. To work around this, some DNS providers offer "ALIAS" records as an alternative.
The problem is: not all ALIAS implementations are created equal.
ALIAS Records vs. CNAME Flattening
There are two main approaches DNS providers use:
CNAME Flattening (the good approach)
Some providers, like Cloudflare and Bunny DNS, offer proper CNAME flattening. When someone visits your website, their DNS servers dynamically look up the target domain and return the IP address of the server closest to the visitor. This preserves all the benefits of a CDN.
Static ALIAS Records (the problematic approach)
Other providers take a simpler approach: they look up the target domain once and save that IP address. From then on, every visitor gets the same IP, regardless of where they are in the world.
Why This Matters for Your Website
When you use Magic Pages, your site is served through Bunny.net's global network. This means visitors in Tokyo connect to servers in Asia, visitors in New York connect to servers in North America, and so on. This keeps your website fast for everyone.
With a static ALIAS record, your DNS provider might resolve proxy.magicpages.co to, say, 84.17.46.54, one of Bunny's Amsterdam servers. Now every visitor, whether they're in Amsterdam or Auckland, gets routed to that single server in the Netherlands.
This creates two problems:
- Slower loading times worldwide. A visitor in New Zealand has to connect all the way to Amsterdam instead of a local server. That's thousands of extra kilometers for every request.
- Potential outages. CDN providers regularly change their server IP addresses for maintenance and optimization. When that happens, your static ALIAS record keeps pointing to an IP that no longer works — and your site goes down until you notice and fix it.
What You Can Do
Option 1: Use the www subdomain (recommended)
The simplest solution is to use www.yourdomain.com as your primary domain. This allows you to use a standard CNAME record, which works perfectly with our CDN. Magic Pages's domain setup guide will automatically offer an A Record that will create redirections from the root domain to www.
Option 2: Switch to a DNS provider with proper CNAME flattening
If you really want to use your root domain, consider moving your DNS to a provider that supports proper CNAME flattening:
- Cloudflare (free)
- Bunny DNS ($1 minimum per month)
- Many other modern DNS providers
You don't need to transfer your domain, just update the nameservers at your registrar.
Option 3: Keep the ALIAS record (with caveats)
If switching isn't an option, an ALIAS record will work for now. Just be aware that your site won't benefit from global CDN routing, and there's a small risk of outages if the underlying IP changes. If your site goes down unexpectedly, check if the ALIAS IP resolves to a Bunny.net labeled page or not. Here's an example 👇
