For the last few decades, I’ve ALWAYS kept the registrar of a domain separate from other services required (hosting, DNS, etc.). This gave me some peace of mind that one provider could not create the maximum amount of damage to one of my brands if something went wrong.
My concern is if at some point CF decided they didn’t want me on their network, how would that all go down? For example, would I lose my domain because they are the registrar, or would they allow me to transfer it out? Have they vocalized the policies and procedures for such an event?
If CF also has complete control over the domain (DNS / registrar), am I giving one provider too much control over my infrastructure?
I could be overthinking this, but I like to come up with plans of action for all foreseeable service outages. Again - I am NOT looking to / planning on / or currently violating any terms of service. This is just an exercise to evaluate moving some domains to CF as I believe in the product they have provided for so many years.
You can always transfer out. It’s the name servers you’re currently locked into. I have some domans registered here, and others elsewhere for flexibility and the eggs issue. If you find a great registrar you like, go for it. Cloudflare isn’t making any money off their registrar services.
Thanks for sharing those points, sounds vald for me! I also don’t find CF registrar flexible enough - list of supported TLDs is rather short, also it does not allow to register/renew a domain for other than 1y period, what’s a deal breaker for me in term of costs optimiziations (freeze the price for maximum possible period).
You can do longer registrations, probably just not at the first transfer in. Go to the Manage Domain with the actual domain’s dashboard. There is the ability to add more years.
I like to look at this a different way. You have three services in this scenario
: DNS registrar, DNS hosting and CDN service. A failure at any one will cause an outage. Having three different providers gives three points of failure. Having only one provider reduces the likelihood of catistrophic failure. If you don’t have a working DNS system, having a solid web host does not really matter. Similarly for a failed CDN, failed VPS or whatever else is in your stack.
I am about to be forced to add a company in the middle of my DNS service with no benefit to me (I currently have the registry and Cloudflare, I will have to add a registrar.). This increases the number of companies I am reliant on, and increases the risk of something failing. If Cloudflare supported my TLD then my eggs could stay safe in just one basket.
I certainly advocate for having contingency plans in the event that some elements fail, but having a large number of suppliers in a production service, every one of which is essential to the overall service is not reducing your exposure to risk.
That is an extremely interesting take on things! It does also simplify billing given a single company and not multiple different ones.
Also, it’s a shame not many TLDs have been added. My main one (the .io you know I use as my e-mail) was the first ever public .io on Cloudflare Registrar and I am happy it was added, but I have a bunch more, especially country TLDs.
It is commonly accepted that one should keep the domain registration separate from hosting. While hosting wont strictly apply in this case, it still comes to show that putting all eggs in one basket might not be the best choice. Similarly, no financial advisor would ever suggest to invest your wealth in one stock only.
Particularly in a registrar context the registrar really does not do much more than provide the initial registration service and then annual update services, respectively general maintenance. The entire infrastructure is registry bound.
I understand what you were trying to address by mentioning different points of failure, however by keeping everything to a minimum, one would create the typical single point of failure. Should Cloudflare ever go bankrupt, one wouldnt only have to find an alternative to Cloudflare’s core services but he would also have to struggle to keep his domain.
Am I saying one should avoid Cloudflare’s registrar at all cost? No, definitely not. Is the registrar service really an attractive offer? As sorry as I am but, for the time being, I would rather tend to say no in this case too.