Importing and exporting zone files

Zones can be loaded from a standard BIND zone file and downloaded as one. Both are available on every plan, including free — your records are yours, and leaving is not made difficult.

Importing

Export a zone file from your current provider and load it here. It is the fastest and most reliable way to migrate: it brings every record in one step, including the TXT records nobody remembers.

Most providers offer a zone file export. If yours does not, some name the feature "AXFR", "zone transfer" or "download BIND file". If none of those exist, the records have to be entered by hand — in which case work from a dig of the live domain rather than from the provider's screen, so you capture what is actually being answered.

After importing, check these

An import is a good copy of the file you gave it. Whether that file was a good copy of your DNS is a separate question.

• MX records — mail is the thing that breaks most visibly.
• TXT records, especially SPF and DKIM. Long values are the ones that get truncated.
• The apex record. Some providers export apex aliases in a form that is not a standard record.
• NS records. An imported file usually contains the old provider's nameservers. Ours are what should be there; the import does not need you to fix this, but it is worth confirming.

Import does not change your delegation. Nothing goes live for the public until you point your registrar.

Exporting

Downloads the whole zone as a standard zone file.

Use it as a backup before anything large — a bulk edit, a template, a migration. It works on every plan, it costs nothing, and it is the one recovery route that does not depend on which plan you are on.

The exported file is plain text. Keep it somewhere you would keep a configuration backup, and remember it contains your full DNS layout — which is public information record by record, but convenient in one place for somebody mapping your estate.

Last reviewed 2026-08-19.