Move a domain to a new website without breaking email

Three things that are easy to confuse

Registrar: The company you pay each year to own the name. You only deal with it again to renew, or if you decide to transfer the name elsewhere. Changing website doesn't require a transfer.
DNS host: Whoever answers the question "where does this name point?". Often the registrar, sometimes a separate service such as Cloudflare, and sometimes your old website builder. This is where you'll make the change.
Website host: Where the pages live. This is the part that's changing. Your domain is just a label you're moving from one host to another.

Find out who your DNS host is first: look up the nameservers on the domain at your registrar. If they belong to your old builder, it manages your records, and cancelling that account carelessly could take your email down with it.

Prepare: take a copy of every record

Open the DNS settings and copy every record into a spreadsheet or a screenshot you keep: type, name, value and TTL. Mark each one by purpose. Typical records on a small business domain:

MX records route your email. Leave them alone. They have nothing to do with the website.
TXT records for SPF, DKIM, DMARC and service verification (Google, Microsoft, a newsletter tool). Leave them alone too.
A, AAAA or CNAME records on the root and on www. These are the website records you'll change.
Other CNAMEs such as shop, mail or book. Each points at some other service; keep them unless that service is also being retired.

If the old builder is your DNS host and you plan to cancel it, move DNS first: recreate every record elsewhere, switch the nameservers, and confirm email still flows before touching the website records.

The switch, step by step

Lower the TTL on the website records to five minutes or so, a day ahead if you can. A short TTL means the change takes effect sooner, and a mistake can be undone sooner.
Build and publish the new site to its free address. In Anticode that's <name>.anticode.dev. Check every page on a phone, send yourself a message through each form, and confirm the submissions arrive where you expect.
Decide which hostname is the main one, usually www.example.com, so links and printed material agree. Anticode doesn't redirect between www and the bare domain, so connect the one you want people to use and send the other to it at your DNS host if it offers that.
Add the domain to the site in Anticode. Custom domains are available on paid plans. Anticode shows the record that proves you control the name, a CNAME pointing at its target or a TXT record, and issues the HTTPS certificate itself once that check passes.
Change the website records at your DNS host, at a quiet hour early in the week. Replace only the records you marked as website records. Don't delete MX or TXT entries to tidy up.
Wait for the site to answer on your domain over HTTPS. Verification and the certificate can take a little while after the records change; check from a private window until the padlock shows.
Test the real thing. Load the domain on mobile data as well as office Wi-Fi, send an enquiry through the live form, and send and receive an email from your domain address. Then raise the TTL back to normal.

Decisions and trade-offs

Root or www. Some DNS hosts can't put a CNAME on the bare domain. If yours can't, make www the main address and set up a redirect from the root at your DNS host or registrar, if it offers one. Check its own help pages; the options differ between providers.

Old page addresses. A new site usually has different addresses, so old links from elsewhere reach a not-found page. Update the links you control: social profiles, email signatures, QR codes on menus or flyers.

When to cancel the old plan. Not on switch day. Keep it for a week, so you can point the records back if something fails.

What goes wrong

Common faults after a domain switch
Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Email stops arriving	MX records removed or the nameservers moved without copying them	Restore the MX and TXT records from your copy
Some people see the old site	Cached DNS answers within the old TTL	Wait; check from another network
Certificate warning on the domain	The record isn't in place or is on the wrong hostname	Compare the record with what Anticode asked for
Forms go quiet	Nobody tested after the switch	Send a test through every form on the live domain

How you know it's done

The domain loads the new site over HTTPS from two different networks, both the root and www end up at the same address, email sends and arrives, and a test enquiry through the live form has reached you. Then, and only then, cancel the old website plan, keeping the domain registration and DNS where they are.

What Anticode does and doesn't do here

Anticode publishes the new site, shows the verification record for your hostname and issues the certificate. It doesn't host your DNS, move your email, transfer or renew the domain, or redirect old page addresses from your previous site. There's no import from other builders, so the site itself is a rebuild; see migrating from Wix for that part, and the guide to connecting a custom domain for the record details. If DNS is new to you, how DNS propagation works explains the waiting.

Questions people ask

Do I have to transfer my domain to use a new website builder?

No. You keep the domain where it's registered and change the DNS records so it points at the new site. A transfer is a separate decision about who you pay for the name.

Will changing website affect my email?

Not if you leave the MX and email-related TXT records untouched. Email breaks when those records are deleted, or when nameservers are moved without copying them first.

Can I use my own domain on Anticode's free plan?

No. Free sites publish to an anticode.dev address; your own domain needs a paid plan. See the pricing page for what each plan includes.