I register a lot domains through a particular registrar. Their site lets me specify my nameservers, but doesn't appear to offer any additional DNS services which would let me create A, CNAME, or MX records.

Does anyone know of a third party which I can specify as the primary nameservers for my domains which will let me create whatever DNS records I need? For instance, I could create an SPF record to make sure mail can be sent from google apps. Or I could point a subdomain at some other server.

The reason I ask is because some of the hosting companies I use have ideal setups for their servers, but their DNS servers are poorly managed and often disappear, making my sites inaccessible.

Did you Google "DNS hosting"?

There are free services like http://freedns.afraid.org/ as well as commercial services, e.g., http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/

In addition to their free point to your DNS servers, dyndns offers a custom DNS service. It isn't free, but it lets you create the A, CNAME, MX, and TXT records which are then hosted in 5 data centers. I think it runs about $25(USD)/year.

I have googled this and have been overwhelmed by the number of results and the fact that I don't recognize any of the providers. I don't see godaddy or rackspace.com or google or yahoo or anything. Also, I'm hoping their might be some kind of user-friendly interface rather than raw BIND files so I figured I'd ask around.

Noway2: Thanks for the tip. I do see them in the search results.