You want oldbrand.com to send visitors to newbrand.com.
Both domains are yours. You have access to the DNS settings. There’s no website left on the old domain.
So it seems like this should be easy. Add a DNS record pointing the old domain at the new one, and you’re done.
Except DNS doesn’t actually work that way.
DNS can help get a request to the right place, but it can’t tell a browser to open a different URL. For that, something still needs to return an HTTP redirect.
What DNS actually does
DNS is essentially responsible for connecting a domain name to the infrastructure behind it.
When someone visits:
oldbrand.com
their browser first needs to find out where requests for that domain should go. DNS provides that information through records such as A and CNAME records.
What DNS doesn’t normally provide is an instruction like:
“Send this visitor to newbrand.com instead.”
That happens later, after the browser has connected to something capable of responding to the request.
So while DNS is often part of setting up a redirect, it isn’t the redirect itself.
A CNAME record isn’t a redirect
This is probably the easiest place to get confused.
A CNAME can make one hostname resolve through another hostname, but it doesn’t change the URL in someone’s browser.
Say you configure a DNS record involving:
oldbrand.com
and:
newbrand.com
That doesn’t automatically mean someone visiting oldbrand.com/about will suddenly be sent to newbrand.com/about.
The browser still requested oldbrand.com/about. Something needs to receive that HTTP request and explicitly respond with a redirect to the new URL.
Without that step, you haven’t created a 301, 302, 307, or 308 redirect. You’ve only changed how the domain resolves.
So what actually creates the redirect?
Once DNS has sent the request somewhere, that destination needs to decide what happens next.
Traditionally, that might be your web server, hosting provider, CMS, or domain registrar.
For example:
Visitor → DNS → Web server → 301 redirect → New URL
If you still have hosting attached to the old domain, you can often configure the redirect there.
Some registrars also offer domain forwarding. It may look like a DNS feature because you configure it alongside your domain settings, but behind the scenes the registrar is providing infrastructure that receives the request and returns the redirect.
There’s still something handling the HTTP request.
What if you don’t have hosting?
You don’t need to buy hosting just to solve this.
Instead, the domain can point through DNS to dedicated redirect infrastructure.
The flow then becomes:
Visitor → DNS → Redirect service → New URL
That service receives the request and returns the actual redirect response.
This is how Redirect Supply can handle redirects without requiring a website on the source domain.
You add the domain to Redirect Supply, add the generated DNS records at your DNS provider, and wait for the domain to become Connected. From there, you create the rules that determine where requests should go.
DNS gets the request to Redirect Supply. Redirect Supply performs the redirect.
HTTPS needs to work too
There’s another reason DNS alone isn’t enough.
Most visitors today will reach your old domain using HTTPS:
https://oldbrand.com
Before the browser can receive a redirect, it first needs to establish a secure connection with the source domain.
If nothing can properly handle HTTPS for oldbrand.com, the visitor may see a security or connection error before the redirect ever happens.
A working redirect setup therefore needs more than a domain pointing somewhere. The infrastructure receiving the request also needs to handle the secure connection and return the correct HTTP response.
With Redirect Supply, that part is handled through the infrastructure behind the service, so you don’t need to keep an old website online just to serve secure redirects.
How to redirect a domain without keeping a website
If your goal is simply to move an old domain somewhere new, the process can still be straightforward.
With Redirect Supply:
Add the source domain.
Copy the generated DNS records.
Add those records at your DNS provider.
Wait for the domain to change from Pending to Connected.
Create your redirect rule.
Choose the destination and redirect type.
Test the old domain and important URLs.
For a permanent move, a 301 redirect will usually be the appropriate choice.
And if the old domain used to contain multiple important pages, consider whether they should have their own destinations rather than sending everything to the homepage.
For example:
oldbrand.com/pricing → newbrand.com/plans
oldbrand.com/contact → newbrand.com/contact
oldbrand.com/about → newbrand.com/company
The DNS setup gets all of those requests to the right infrastructure. Your redirect rules decide what happens to each one.
DNS is part of the setup, not the redirect
So, can you redirect a domain using DNS only?
Not with standard DNS records alone.
DNS can point your domain toward a server, registrar service, or dedicated redirect infrastructure, but something still needs to receive the HTTP request and return the redirect.
That distinction is useful because it also means you don’t need to keep an entire website or hosting plan running just to redirect a domain.
Redirect Supply uses DNS to connect your domain to its redirect infrastructure. Once connected, your redirect rules take over from there.
DNS points the way.
The redirect tells the browser where to go next.
