Can I just transfer domain without having to use CF services for my site?

Website, Application, Performance Registrar
1

Just making sure before I make a mistake. Does the CF registrar / DNS hosting operate independently from the CF website CDN / reverse proxy / DDoS mitigation services? Can I use the former without setting up the latter?

I have read the transfer instructions and understand that I will have to use CF for the authoritative nameservers. That part is fine.

2

Cloudflare DNS is required to use Registrar, but nothing else.

You can either go to your Dashboard and set Paused or just leave all DNS records not proxied (:grey:), the result is the same.

But you cannot currently change nameservers, so you must use Cloudflareā€™s authoritative DNS.

1 Like
4

@thedaveCA is spot on!

Just one thing I wanted to add from our Developer Documents

ICANN rules prohibit a domain from being transferred if it has been transferred within the last 60 days or if the WHOIS registrant information has been modified in the last 60 days (even if redacted).

I want to mention this only because if you find that you donā€™t wish to use CF nameservers (or DNS), this 60 day requirement is important thing to consider as it will preclude you from transferring out (since the nameserver change constitutes a WHOIS change too) ā€“ this is not strictly a CF restriction, more of a general ā€œInternet thingā€ā€¦

Anyway, I hope this helps!

1 Like
5

Umm so I looked again and tried a few things, and it seems that maybe I phrased the question wrong.

When I open the dashboard and click the Registrar section, I donā€™t get a prompt for the domain name to transfer. Instead, it asks ā€œSelect domains to transferā€. Indicating that I do have to go through the whole exercise of ā€˜Add new siteā€™. And it will not let me proceed until I alter the authoritative nameservers at the old registrar - before I even initiate the process. And there may be further steps required.

So yeah, even though the service is technically separate, one still has to go through the motions of doing a full site setup (and probably using ā€˜skipā€™ for most of the steps), and the ā€˜siteā€™ will show up in the dashboard with the UI for CF site management. There is no standalone lightweight dashboard for just the registrar stuff.

6

Correct.

This is required to manage Cloudflareā€™s DNS servers anyway, so nothing really lost.