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Move your DNS to Cloudflare

Your portal’s Domains page walks you through this one step at a time, and our engine checks each step for real before it ticks. You can stop at any step and come back later. Your email and website keep working the whole way through, because nothing changes until step 4, and by then the records have already been checked.

Rather hand it over? Every step has a HELP ME button. We do the whole move for $199, once. If you hold Managed Domain, it is included.

Before you start

  • A Cloudflare account, or an email address to create a free one.
  • The sign-in for the company that holds your domain, for step 4.
  • Most of the work is waiting. Step 4 is best done after business hours.

Steps

  1. Connect your Cloudflare account. Once, for all your domains. At the top of the Domains page, select Sign in if you already have a Cloudflare account, or Create a free account. Then select Open Members, invite [email protected] and choose the Administrator role. Back in your portal, select I sent the invite.

    What the portal checks: our engine accepts an invite only when it came from you, then the box reads Cloudflare connected with your account's name. Until then it says no invite from you has reached us yet.

  2. Add it to Cloudflare. Open the domain's row and select Add to Cloudflare. If you have more than one Cloudflare account, pick the one you want first. Our engine creates the domain in your account and copies every public record across exactly as it is, all set to DNS only. Nothing changes for your email or website yet.

    What the portal checks: the domain exists in your Cloudflare account.

  3. Check the records match. Our engine compares the copy in Cloudflare against a snapshot of your DNS taken before anything moved. If a record is missing it is named here. If a mail record is set to Proxied (orange cloud) the portal lists it and asks for DNS only (grey cloud). Select Apply the recommended clouds to let us set them, or Open your domain in Cloudflare to change them by hand.

    Cloudflare's DNS records table with the Proxy status column ringed in gold
    Picture: Cloudflare Docs, gold ring added by us

    What the portal checks: every snapshot record is present, SPF, DKIM and DMARC are unchanged, and mail records are DNS only. Extra records you added are fine and are listed.

  4. Change the nameservers, after hours. The portal shows the two nameservers Cloudflare gave your domain, each with a Copy button, and an Open button for your registrar. Paste the two names in where your domain is registered. GoDaddy steps are on Change nameservers at GoDaddy. If the portal says Turn DNSSEC off there first, do that before you change anything. Leave the old records at your registrar alone for two days. Then select I changed them, check now.

    What the portal checks: the public internet reports Cloudflare's nameservers for your domain and Cloudflare reports the domain as active. While Cloudflare is confirming, the portal says so. Usually minutes, up to a day. The pill then reads Protected.

  5. Optional, once it is Protected: move the registration too. This moves the yearly bill to Cloudflare. It is a separate job with its own page: Transfer your domain to Cloudflare.

What happens next

  • Your domain shows Protected on the Domains page and we keep checking it.
  • Every DNS fix from here on is one request to us. Your SPF, DKIM and DMARC can be put right without you touching a record.
  • Two days after the switch, the old records at your registrar can go. They do no harm if they stay.

If something looks wrong

  • Email or website paused after step 4? Check the nameservers you pasted match the two in the portal exactly. Changes take up to 48 hours to reach everyone.
  • The step 3 check keeps naming a missing record? Select Open your domain in Cloudflare and add it, or press HELP ME.
  • Stuck anywhere: email [email protected] and say which step.