What is Cloudflare Registrar? How to use it for Free?
Cloudflare Registrar is a domain registration service offered by Cloudflare. It allows users to register and manage domain names through the Cloudflare platform.
Cloudflare Registrar offers features such as simplified domain management, competitive pricing, fast and secure DNS resolution, and integration with other Cloudflare services. It aims to provide an efficient and reliable solution for registering and maintaining domain names, with added functionality and security benefits.
In essence, Cloudflare Registrar is free; the only cost is what’s charged by registries and by ICANN.
Key Features of Cloudflare Registrar
Cost-effectiveness: They prioritize transparency and fairness, charging only the actual registry and ICANN fees, unlike traditional registrars with hidden costs or markups.
Security: They include essential security features like two-factor authentication and DNSSEC for free, adding an extra layer of protection to your domain.
Simplicity: The user interface is designed for ease of use, making domain management straightforward.
Integration: They seamlessly integrate with other Cloudflare services like DNS hosting, performance optimisation, and security solutions, creating a cohesive experience for users already utilising their offerings.
Transparency: They clearly show the breakdown of fees, ensuring you know exactly what you’re paying for with no hidden charges.
Customer Support: They offer 24/7 support via chat and email, assisting whenever you need it.
Why does Cloudflare offer domain names at no cost?
Domain registrars sometimes try to take advantage of customers by luring them in with low initial registration fees, then marking up the renewal prices hugely because customers often have no choice but to renew. However, registrars are essentially acting as middlemen, and the prices they charge are commonly disproportionate to the value they provide.
While Cloudflare doesn’t technically offer domain names completely “free,” they charge the at-cost price, meaning they don’t mark up the fees from registries and ICANN. This differs from traditional registrars who often lure customers with cheap initial prices and hit them with inflated renewal fees later.
Cloudflare is on a mission to build a better Internet, and offering domain names without marked-up prices is one way to ensure that anyone with an idea can take advantage of the power of the Internet. Anyone should be able to start a business, promote an organisation, or build a web application without worrying they’ll be charged unnecessarily for keeping their domain name. For this reason, Cloudflare passes along the prices charged by top-level domains and ICANN without any additional fees.
How is Cloudflare able to do this?
All that is needed to register owners of domain names is a relationship with registries and the ability to send some commands to an API. From a technical perspective, the effort involved is minimal.
Cloudflare built its own internal domain name registrar well before offering Cloudflare Registrar, in order to keep our domains secure. This made it relatively simple to transition into offering domain registration to the world.
Aside from the cost, how does Cloudflare Registrar compare to other registrars?
Traditionally, domain names have been registered through third-party registrars, but with Cloudflare Registrar, you can manage your domain registrations directly from the Cloudflare platform.
For most users, Cloudflare Registrar offers the same service as other registrars. The only difference is in price. Cloudflare Registrar includes security features such as DNSSEC and two-factor authentication, also for free.
Cloudflare integrates seamlessly with their other services like DNS hosting, performance optimization, and security solutions, while other registrars might require separate accounts for these services.
