Founded in 1999, OVH is one of the most popular European domain registrars. At the time of this writing, OVH counts more than 1.3 million users, and over 4 million registered domains (source Domain Name Stat).
When you are pointing your domain to Kinsta, you have two options:
- Point Domain’s A Record at OVH to the IP address of your Kinsta website.
- Change OVH Nameservers to Point a Domain to Kinsta (Premium DNS with Amazon Route 53).
Change OVH Nameservers:
If you need to point your OVH domain name to Kinsta, you can do that by quickly changing your DNS nameservers. To do so, follow these steps:
- Go to MyKinsta dashboard > Kinsta DNS > Add Domain.
- Copy your newly created nameservers from “Kinsta DNS” page.
- Go into your OVH admin panel > Click on your domain name on the left column.
- Open the “DNS servers” tab.
- Click on the “Modify DNS Servers” button on the right.
- Change all your default OVH nameservers with those from Kinsta.
- Click “Save.”
- Go back in your “Kinsta DNS panel” to add your first DNS record.
Important: your WordPress site will require an A Record and a CNAME at least to work properly.
Point Domain’s A Record at OVH to the IP address of your Kinsta website
The first options is the easiest way to point your domain to Kinsta, but it doesn’t allow you to get all the advantages of Kinsta Premium DNS. Anyway, if you need a quick and easy option to point your OVH domain to your Kinsta hosted website, follow the steps below.
Step 1 – Add Your Domain to MyKinsta
The first thing you may want to do is to make sure you have added your domain to MyKinsta dashboard under the Domains section of your website. Usually, you’ll need to add your primary domain (non-www) and the www version, or vice versa.
Next, click on your website name. You’ll be shown the Info tab of your new website. There you can find the IPv4 address.
Step 2 – Point Domain to A Record at OVH
Now you can point your domain’s A Record at OVH to your Kinsta IP address. Read more about how to add/edit A Record with OVH.
Change OVH Nameservers to Point a Domain to Kinsta
We partnered up with Amazon Route 53. They use a global Anycast network of DNS servers around the world, designed to automatically route users to the best location depending on network conditions. This means that your DNS is routed to the nearest location with the lowest latency.
Amazon Route 53 premium DNS is included for free for all Kinsta customers!
If you choose to point your domain to Kinsta with DNS nameservers, you’ll be able to manage all your DNS records, taking advantage of our Premium DNS. Follow the steps below to change OVH nameservers and point your OVH domain to Kinsta with Amazon Route 53 DNS nameservers.
Step 1 – Add Your Domain to MyKinsta
The first thing you have to do is to make sure you have added your domain to MyKinsta dashboard under the Domains section of your website. Usually, you’ll need to add your primary domain (non-www) and the www version. Or vice versa.
Next, in your MyKinsta dashboard click on “Kinsta DNS.” Click on “Add Domain” at the top.
When done, you’ll be shown your Amazon Route 53 DNS nameservers for your website.
Step 2 – Point Your Domain to Kinsta Nameservers at OVH
Next, you’ll need to point your domain with OVH to the newly created nameservers. You can view these nameservers for each of your domains on the main “Kinsta DNS” page.
Copy each Kinsta DNS nameserver and hop over into OVH admin panel. Click on your domain name in the left column, and open the DNS servers tab.
Then click on the Modify DNS Servers button on the right side of the page. You can delete default nameservers and fill the form fields with your Kinsta DNS nameservers.
Save data and go back to MyKinsta dashboard.
Step 3 – Add DNS Records in MyKinsta
When you have pointed your domain to Kinsta nameservers, your WordPress site will require at least an A Record and a CNAME to work properly. Back in Kinsta DNS panel, click on your domain, and you will be prompted to add your first DNS record.
A Record (Required)
The first record you’ll want to add is an A record.
- Leave the hostname field blank so that the A record will be associated with your main domain.
- Add your Kinsta IPv4 address into the IPv4 address field.
- Specify your TTL (Time To Live). We recommend a 1 hour TTL for all records (1 hour is set by default). The less frequent the DNS requests are, the lower your site’s load time will be.
CNAME Record (Required)
The second record you will want to add is a CNAME. To add additional records simply click on Add a DNS Record at the top of the page.
- A CNAME record handles the mapping of a subdomain, such as being able to point the “www” version of your domain. If you need to redirect www to non-www or vice versa, you can set up a redirect rule.
- This is based on a personal preference for your site.
You can then manage all your records from the Kinsta DNS panel. Check out the official documentation for further information about editing the DNS servers for an OVH domain name.
Please, note that anytime you make changes at your DNS, these edits can take up to 24 hours to take effects. This lapse of time is known as DNS propagation.
You may also want to check out our articles about the options available to point your domain to Kinsta DNS nameservers and the reasons why a Premium DNS is no longer an optional.
