---
id: "apex-domain"
kind: "glossary-term"
title: "apex domain"
language: "en"
category: "DNS and technical foundations"
updated: "2026-10-04T14:01:23Z"
canonical: "https://tldlog.com/glossary/apex-domain/"
translations:
  es: "https://tldlog.com/es/glosario/apex-zona/"
  de: "https://tldlog.com/de/glossar/apex-domain/"
  fr: "https://tldlog.com/fr/glossaire/apex-zone/"
  it: "https://tldlog.com/it/glossario/apex-zona/"
  pt-BR: "https://tldlog.com/pt/glossario/dominio-apex/"
  ru: "https://tldlog.com/ru/glossariy/vershina-zony/"
  zh-Hans: "https://tldlog.com/zh/cihui/quyu-dingdian/"
---

# apex domain

The name at the very top of a DNS zone, with nothing in front of it, such as example.com rather than www.example.com. The zone's SOA and NS records live here. A CNAME record cannot be placed at this name, which complicates pointing it to some hosting services.

## related terms

- [SOA record](https://tldlog.com/glossary/soa-record/)
- [CNAME record](https://tldlog.com/glossary/cname-record/)
- [ALIAS record](https://tldlog.com/glossary/alias-record/)
- [subdomain](https://tldlog.com/glossary/subdomain/)
- [FQDN](https://tldlog.com/glossary/fqdn/)