When to Use Alias vs. CNAME?

Use Alias Records :
- When pointing a root domain (e.g., example.com) to AWS resources like:
  - Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)
  - CloudFront distribution
  - S3 bucket configured as a static website
- For seamless AWS service integration and automatic updates to IP addresses.
Use CNAME Records :
- When pointing subdomains (e.g., www.example.com) to:
  - Another domain name
  - A third-party service (e.g., example.herokuapp.com)
- If the record is not directly associated with AWS.

Scenario: Pointing example.com (root domain) to an ELB.
Alias Record Configuration:
- Name: example.com
- Type: Alias
- Value: ELB (e.g., my-elb-123456.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com)

Scenario: Redirecting www.example.com to external-service.example.com.
CNAME Record Configuration:
- Name: www.example.com
- Type: CNAME
- Value: external-service.example.com