Is there a difference between using a CNAME and an ALIAS record in Cloudflare for Vercel?

Yes. While both CNAME and ALIAS records achieve a similar purpose – pointing one domain to another – they function differently. A CNAME is restricted to subdomains, whereas an ALIAS record (provided by Cloudflare) is designed to work at the root domain. ALIAS records resolve to the IP address of the target, effectively bypassing the limitations of CNAMEs on apex domains. Therefore, ALIAS records are the preferred solution for pointing your root domain to a service like Vercel.