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Getting Started with AWS Route 53

Welcome to AWS Route 53​

When a user types yourapp.com into a browser, their computer needs to find the IP address it maps to. That lookup is handled by DNS. AWS Route 53 is Amazon's DNS service — it translates your domain into the right address, whether that's an EC2 instance, a CloudFront distribution, a load balancer, or an S3 website.

The name "Route 53" is a play on TCP/UDP port 53, which is the standard port for DNS.

What You'll Learn​

  • Hosted zones — the container for all DNS records for a domain
  • Record types — A, AAAA, CNAME, ALIAS, MX, TXT and when to use each
  • Routing your domain to EC2 — creating an A record pointing to an Elastic IP
  • Routing to CloudFront — using an ALIAS record (not CNAME) for root domains
  • Subdomains — api.yourapp.com, www.yourapp.com, staging.yourapp.com
  • TTL — how long DNS resolvers cache records and why it matters during migrations
  • Health checks — Route 53 can monitor endpoints and failover automatically
  • Using Route 53 with an external registrar — if your domain is registered elsewhere

Prerequisites​

  • A registered domain name (can be registered via Route 53 or an external registrar like Namecheap)
  • An AWS resource to point the domain to (EC2 Elastic IP, CloudFront, etc.)