Subdomains and Parked Domains

A subdomain is just a DNS record under your domain, and a parked domain is one you own but are not hosting a site on, and KPanel handles both from the domain page without any separate product to buy.

There is no subdomain limit, no per-subdomain charge, and nothing to enable. If you own example.com you already own every possible subdomain of it. What you do is create the record that makes one point somewhere.

What a Domain Starts With

When you register a domain through Kapsule, we create its DNS zone on our nameservers, set the four Kapsule nameservers at the registry, and seed four records:

All four are created with the standard one-hour TTL.

For a domain you bring in from elsewhere, we deliberately do not overwrite what you already have. Kapsule does not auto-publish over an existing MX, SPF, DKIM or DMARC record, so a domain transferred in keeps the mail configuration you set up. If a transferred domain has unexpected mail records, they came with it.

Creating a Subdomain

A subdomain is created by adding a DNS record.

1. Sign in to KPanel and click Domains in the left sidebar.
2. Click the domain.
3. Open the DNS tab.
4. Click Add record.
5. Choose the Type, fill in the Name and the Content, and save.

For a subdomain, the Name is the subdomain you want. To create shop.example.com, the record is:

Available record types are A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SRV and CAA. MX and SRV records also take a priority value. New records get a one-hour TTL by default, which is the right choice for almost everything.

Changes reach all four of our nameservers within seconds. Resolvers around the world pick them up within the TTL, so allow up to an hour for a change to be universally visible, and expect different resolvers to give different answers during that first hour. That split state is normal and not a fault.

For the difference between an A record and a CNAME, and when to use each, read DNS Basics and CNAME Records.

Pointing a Subdomain at a Kapsule Site

If the subdomain should serve a website you host with us, do not create the DNS record by hand. Attach the subdomain to the site instead and the records are created for you, including the certificate. See Using a Custom Domain for Your Website.

The same applies to a staging subdomain: Staging Environments creates and manages its own address.

Parked Domains

A parked domain is one you own but are not hosting anything on. People park domains for good reasons: protecting a brand, holding a name for a project that has not started, or catching common misspellings of their main domain.

There is no separate "parked" state in KPanel. A domain with no website attached is simply a domain whose DNS you control. You have three sensible options for it.

Option 1: Leave It as Registered

The seeded records point at our hosting platform, so the domain resolves and mail works. This is fine for a name you are holding onto, and it means an address at that domain can receive mail even without a site.

Option 2: Forward It Somewhere

The most useful thing to do with a spare domain is send visitors to your real one.

1. Open the domain and go to the Forwarding tab.
2. Enter the destination in Forward to, for example https://example.com.
3. Choose the Redirect type: 301 permanent or 302 temporary.
4. Choose the options: Keep the path, Keep the query string, Include www.
5. Save.

The panel provisions the redirect and its certificate, shows Setting up... while that happens, then Active with a verification line confirming the redirect and where it lands.

Use 301 permanent for a name you have moved away from for good, so search engines transfer the ranking. Use 302 temporary for a campaign domain you intend to reuse.

Keep the path means oldname.com/pricing lands on example.com/pricing rather than the home page. Leave it on unless the destination site has a completely different structure.

Option 3: Point It at Something Yourself

If you want more control, edit the DNS records directly on the DNS tab. This is the route for pointing a domain at a third-party service, a landing page builder, or a server you run elsewhere.

Redirecting a Subdomain

Forwarding operates on the whole domain, so it does not redirect an individual subdomain. To send one subdomain somewhere else:

• If it is a page-level move within a site you host here, use the site's own redirect rules.
• If it needs to leave your infrastructure, point the subdomain at the destination with a CNAME.

Troubleshooting

The DNS tab says "No DNS zone linked". The domain's DNS is not hosted with us. The tab explains: "DNS management requires a linked zone. It's auto-created when you register a domain through KPanel." Point the domain at our four nameservers from the Overview tab, or manage the records wherever they currently live. See Nameservers.

My new subdomain does not resolve. Give it up to an hour for the TTL to expire on resolvers that already cached the negative answer. Then check the record exists on the DNS tab with the name spelled exactly as you expect, including the full domain.

The subdomain resolves but shows the wrong site. An A record pointing at a shared platform is not enough on its own: the platform has to know which site that name belongs to. Attach the subdomain to the site properly rather than creating the record by hand.

Forwarding is stuck on "Setting up...". The certificate is being issued and it waits on DNS. Give it a few minutes. If it moves to Needs attention, check the domain really is on our nameservers and that no conflicting record exists for the apex or www.

Forwarding works but drops the path. Tick Keep the path and save again.

I want the parked domain to receive mail but not serve a site. Leave the MX record in place and either remove the A records or point them at your forward. Mail and web are independent: a domain can do one without the other.

Related reading: DNS Basics, Nameservers, CNAME Records, and Using a Custom Domain for Your Website.