When you use a custom domain with Zoho Sites, the version with www is set as your primary domain. It's still not possible to set the root domain (the version without www, such as acme.com rather than www.acme.com) as your primary domain directly within Zoho Sites, though visitors can reach your site using either version once you've configured domain mapping correctly.

Why This Limitation Exists

Zoho Sites uses CNAME as its primary mechanism for mapping a domain, rather than a fixed A record pointing to a specific server IP address. This is deliberate: it lets Zoho make server routing changes for maintenance or infrastructure reasons without breaking every customer's DNS configuration, since a CNAME simply points to a Zoho hostname rather than a specific, changeable IP address. The trade-off is that CNAME records can't technically be used at the root of a domain, only on subdomains such as www, which is why the root domain itself can't be set as primary through Zoho's standard configuration.

Option 1: ManageEngine CloudDNS (ANAME Record)

Zoho's own current documentation recommends ManageEngine CloudDNS, using an ANAME record type, which behaves like a CNAME but is specifically designed to work at the root of a domain.

1. Sign up for ManageEngine CloudDNS and add your domain.
2. Import your existing DNS zones and records, or configure them fresh.
3. Update your domain provider with the System NS records CloudDNS provides.
4. Add an ANAME record for the root domain, pointing to zhs.zohosites.com (or the regional equivalent for EU, CN, IN, JP, or AU data centres).
5. Add the required CNAME records for domain verification and for the www subdomain, as shown when adding the domain in Zoho Sites.

Option 2: Cloudflare

Cloudflare, a third-party DNS provider not affiliated with Zoho, also offers a way to work around this using its own proxy layer, adding a CNAME record for the root domain pointing to your Zoho Sites sub-domain, with the proxy setting disabled during setup.