Point a Domain at a Hostinger VPS: A Records, Nameservers and Checks

DNS is the only thing that connects a name to your server. There are two ways to set it up. Either you leave DNS with whoever hosts it today and add records that aim at the VPS, or you hand the entire zone to Hostinger by changing nameservers and then manage records in hPanel.

For one VPS I nearly always take the first route. It touches two records and nothing else, so the mail setup and any verification records on the domain keep working. Moving nameservers is worth it only if you genuinely want domain, DNS and server under a single Hostinger login.

The records are identical no matter where DNS lives. In hPanel the editor sits under Domains, then your domain, then DNS / Nameservers. GoDaddy keeps it on the domain's DNS tab, and Namecheap calls it Advanced DNS.

1. 1In hPanel, open VPS, select the server and read the overview. Copy the IPv4 address (four numbers, for example 203.0.113.10). Most servers also show an IPv6 address; you may not need it.
2. 2Open your DNS editor and remove any existing A records on @ or www that point elsewhere, such as a registrar parking page.
3. 3Create an A record with host @ and your VPS IPv4 as the value.
4. 4Create a second A record with host www and the same IPv4.
5. 5Set the TTL to 300 seconds while you are testing; raise it to 3600 once everything works.
6. 6Add an AAAA record for @ with the IPv6 address only if your web server is actually configured to listen on IPv6.

If you prefer to manage records in hPanel, set the domain's nameservers at your registrar to the pair hPanel displays. When this was written they were ns1.dns-parking.com and ns2.dns-parking.com, but use whatever hPanel shows you. Then recreate the A records from the table above inside hPanel.

Before you flip the nameservers, copy every MX, TXT (SPF, DKIM, site verification) and CNAME record into the new zone. A nameserver change swaps out the entire zone, so any record you forget simply stops existing, and email is normally the first casualty.

Most record changes show up within minutes. A resolver that cached the old answer can keep serving it until the previous TTL expires, which is why a short TTL during setup helps. Nameserver changes are slower and can take 24 to 48 hours.

If the VPS delivers mail directly, for password resets or a contact form, set a PTR record so the IP resolves back to your hostname. Hostinger exposes it in the VPS settings in hPanel. Without it, Gmail and Outlook are much more likely to file your messages as spam.

If mail goes out through Hostinger Email or a transactional sending service, you can leave PTR alone.

Do not move on until all of these pass. The order matters: public DNS first, then the web server, then the certificate.

• dig +short example.com A @1.1.1.1 and the same for www both return your VPS IPv4.
• dig +short example.com AAAA @1.1.1.1 returns nothing, or returns the IPv6 your server really listens on.
• From a phone on mobile data (a different resolver from your home network), the domain reaches the server.
• Only now run Certbot. Let's Encrypt rate-limits failed validations, so trying before DNS is correct just burns attempts.

With the name resolving, lock the machine down before anything public runs on it: the new-VPS security checklist. After that, deploy a Next.js app or put several sites on the same server.