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Migrate from Namecheap DNS to aigw

Domain stays registered at Namecheap. Only the DNS hosting moves to aigw. Five steps, takes about a day end-to-end.

What "Namecheap DNS" actually means

Namecheap is two products in one. The registrar bit, where you bought the domain, keeps your domain registered and lets you set whose nameservers serve your DNS. The DNS bit (BasicDNS / FreeDNS / PremiumDNS) is the authoritative DNS service.

This guide moves the DNS bit to aigw. The registrar bit stays at Namecheap; you're just telling Namecheap "stop pointing my domain at your DNS, point it at aigw instead". No domain transfer needed.

Step 1: Lower record TTLs (T-2 days)

On Namecheap's BasicDNS the default record TTL is "Automatic" (30 minutes). You can't change the apex NS TTL (Namecheap controls that, typically 1800s/30min), but you should lower individual record TTLs to 300s anywhere they're higher.

Namecheap dashboard → Domain List → Manage on your domain → Advanced DNS tab → for each record with a TTL above 300s, click edit, change to 5 min (300s), Save.

Why this matters less here: because Namecheap's apex NS TTL is already short (30 min) compared to Route 53's 2 days, you'll get full propagation within an hour or two of the cutover. The TTL pre-cut is more of a polish for individual records than a hard requirement.

Step 2: Build the parallel zone in aigw

Namecheap doesn't have a one-click zonefile export, you have to copy records manually. For a small zone this takes 10 minutes; for a big one, expect 30.

Sign in to console.aigw.app → New zone → enter your domain.
In a side-by-side window, open Namecheap's Advanced DNS tab for the same domain.
For each row in Namecheap's record list, create the equivalent in aigw (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SRV, CAA all supported). Copy the value and TTL verbatim.
Skip Namecheap's apex NS records, aigw auto-creates ns1/ns2.aigw.app.
Use the aigw Test query button on a couple of records to confirm the engine answers correctly.

Step 3: Verify both providers agree

Ask each authoritative directly. Namecheap's nameservers for BasicDNS/FreeDNS are dns1.registrar-servers.com through dns5.registrar-servers.com.

# Namecheap
dig @dns1.registrar-servers.com www.example.com A

# aigw
dig @ns1.aigw.app www.example.com A

Answers should match. If they don't, fix the aigw record before proceeding, the moment you switch NS, the aigw answer is what resolvers will start caching.

Step 4: Switch the nameservers at Namecheap

This is the actual cutover. Namecheap dashboard → Domain List → Manage on your domain → Nameservers section (top of the Domain tab) → change the dropdown from Namecheap BasicDNS to Custom DNS → enter:

ns1.aigw.app
ns2.aigw.app

Click the green checkmark to save. Namecheap updates the registry within a few minutes; full propagation through public resolvers takes 30–60 min. The aigw workspace overview will show first-query within minutes of propagation reaching any major recursive resolver.

Step 5: Monitor + decommission

Within an hour, aigw' Insights tab should show real query traffic. Namecheap's records are still there (they don't auto-delete on NS switch), they're just not being queried anymore.

Leave the Namecheap zone in place for 48h as a hedge. Then in Namecheap → Advanced DNS, you can clear the records (or leave them; they're not costing you anything either way).

PremiumDNS users

If you're paying for Namecheap's PremiumDNS ($5/year per domain), the process is identical, just remember to cancel the PremiumDNS subscription separately after the cutover so you stop being billed.

Questions or stuck?

Email hello@aigw.app. Usually responds within a day, often within an hour.