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LSN 02/10 ▸REGISTRAR 10 MIN TIER FREE

Getting a domain

Where domains actually come from, how registrars differ, what the price tag is hiding, and how Cloudflare Registrar fits in.

Before this: 01 What Cloudflare actually is

You cannot use Cloudflare without a domain, so the first practical question is where to get one. The mechanics are slightly stranger than most people realize, and the pricing is full of tricks.

How the chain works

A domain like yoursite.com is governed by a registry. For .com that is Verisign. For .org it is Public Interest Registry. For each country code TLD there is a national operator. The registry owns the namespace.

You do not buy from the registry. You buy from a registrar, which is accredited by ICANN and pays the registry a wholesale fee per year. The registrar handles billing, control panel, DNS, transfer paperwork. Familiar registrars include Cloudflare, Namecheap, Porkbun, GoDaddy, Google Domains (now Squarespace), Hover, Gandi.

What you actually buy is a yearly lease. Stop paying and the domain goes back to the registry pool after a grace period. ICANN rules forbid registrars from raising the wholesale price during an active registration, but markups are entirely up to the registrar.

Cloudflare Registrar specifically

Cloudflare Registrar sells domains at the wholesale price the registry charges, plus the ICANN fee, with no markup. For .com this means around $9 to $10 per year. WHOIS privacy is included. There are no upsells.

The catch: your domain must be on Cloudflare DNS to register or transfer there. Cloudflare’s argument is that they make money from you using their proxy and other products, so the registrar can run at cost as a top of funnel. This is broadly true.

You cannot register brand new domains at Cloudflare. You register them elsewhere and transfer in, or you use Cloudflare’s own search-and-buy which actually fronts a registry-backed flow. In practice, most people register at a third-party registrar, set up the site on Cloudflare, then transfer the domain to Cloudflare Registrar a couple of months later (most TLDs require 60 days at the original registrar before a transfer is allowed).

What to check before paying

Domain pricing is full of tricks. A few things to compare across registrars before clicking buy:

  1. First-year price vs renewal price. Some registrars sell at $1 for the first year and renew at $25. Cloudflare is the same price every year because there is no markup. Always read the renewal cost on the cart page, not the search results.
  2. WHOIS privacy. Your contact info goes into a public WHOIS database unless privacy is enabled. Cloudflare, Porkbun, Namecheap include this for free. Some registrars charge $5 to $15 per year for it.
  3. Transfer policy. If you decide to leave the registrar later, you need an authorization code (sometimes called EPP code). Reputable registrars give it to you instantly on request. A few have made this harder than it should be.
  4. Auto-renew defaults. Decide deliberately. Losing a domain because you forgot to pay $10 is one of the worst engineering failures.
  5. Account security. Two-factor on the registrar account is non-negotiable. A compromised registrar account is worse than a compromised host because the attacker can redirect all your traffic.

TLD choice

Some practical notes that surprise people:

  • .com is the safest default. Familiarity beats cleverness for most audiences.
  • .dev, .app, .page are on the HSTS preload list. Browsers will refuse HTTP for these domains. This is a feature, not a bug, but it means you must serve HTTPS from day one. (Cloudflare gives you HTTPS for free, so this is fine.)
  • .io, .ai, .tv are country code TLDs being rented out commercially. Pricing is often $30 to $80 per year. Availability depends on the political situation in those countries; .io has had multi-year uncertainty.
  • One-word .com domains are essentially all taken. Two-word, hyphenated, or subdomain on a memorable parent (like *.too.foo) tend to be the realistic options.

The cost reality

Budget around $10 to $15 per year for a .com and you will be in the right ballpark. Domain renewal is a true recurring cost; the hosting might be free on Cloudflare, but the domain rent is not. Decide whether you want a single anchor domain (yoursite.com) that hosts everything as subdomains, or one domain per project. The first approach is much cheaper at scale; this site uses it.

Once you have a domain, the next step is putting it on Cloudflare.