# How do I point a subdomain to a service outside of Vercel?

**Author:** Matthew Sweeney, Justin Vitale, William Li

---

If your domain is managed by Vercel, meaning it is using Vercel nameservers, then you are able to point a subdomain to an external service by adding DNS records with the Vercel CLI.

## Adding an A Record

Locate the `value` and the `name` arguments requested by the external provider and use them in the DNS UI, replacing `name` with the name provided, and `127.0.0.1` with the value:

## Adding a CNAME Record

Locate the `value` and the `name` arguments requested by the external provider and use them in the DNS UI, replacing `name` with the name provided, and `cname.example.com` with the value:

## Other Records

Any record, except for nameservers, can be added by using the [DNS UI](https://vercel.com/docs/concepts/projects/custom-domains#dns-records).

## Common Errors

When working with DNS records, minor syntax errors can be easy to make, which can be difficult to debug. Below is a list of common errors made when adding DNS records and the steps required to resolve them.

### Using the domain as part of the "name" argument:

To solve this problem, remove the record and add it again **without** the domain as the "name" argument:

---

[View full KB sitemap](/kb/sitemap.md)
