With Googles announcement that they are selling the Google Domains business to Squarespace (\https://domains.squarespace.com) I’d like to move all my domains out of Google to Cloudflare. I do not trust a company whose primary purpose is a web host to host my domains. (GoDaddy, Squarespace, etc), and ironically I use Cloudflare for most of my domain’s name servers.
Is Cloudflare considering any type of promotion to transfer domains from Google to Cloudflare? I’m not asking for a free year or extension, just the ability to transfer with the existing domain renewal date at little to no charge.
Many registrars register domains well below cost for the first year to get customers locked-in and increase the chances that they will use other paid services for that domain in the future. Super common and effective marketing technique and would be a big help to those of us who are in for $1k+ fees all at once moving a large number of domains
Having migrated my domain holdings between registrars, I recognize the temptation to move them all at once. However, you can just transfer your domains slightly in advance of their existing renewal schedule which will cost you less money than you had previously planned and occur at the same cadence you were expecting.
Yeah timing is everything. If your domains aren’t up for renewal yet, I’d keep them at Google Domains and look at for other registrar transfer discounts below cost at porkbun or namecheap and move them to those first and then on subsequent renewal move to Cloudflare Registrar and rinse and repeat when discounted transfers below cost come around.
I wrote some guides for bulk transfer in and out of Cloudflare Registrar that might be useful for folks with many domains.
As you said yourself, such registrars then yank up the price… with huge markups above Registry prices… after the first year. So the bait you in in the first year, and then profit from you in subsequent years.
Cloudflare sells at Registry price every year – with no markup at all, year after year.
So what’s the business point of them taking a hit in the first year when they’re never going to recover that in subsequent years?
For the exact same reason that Cloudflare can justify selling domains at cost: Because people with their domains registered at Cloudflare will be more likely to use other (paid) Cloudflare services.
Sorry, @anstosa, but the whole point is a bit moot.
That’s not marketing, that’s shady business and companies get called out
You are talking about registrars, Cloudflare is not really a registrar but simply offers that service as well
Cloudflare’s registrar service is not particularly good
Cloudflare does not put a lot of focus on that service (which is why it probably is not good)
If you need a promotion, there are plenty of other registrars out there with such promotions - as you correctly pointed out
I am really not sure why many people are so obsessed with Cloudflare’s registrar service → point 3
These same people often show up a couple of weeks later complaining how bad the service is
I believe @user2617 summarised it pretty well and his answer is accurate. There is nothing wrong with discussing it, of course, but I just think the topic is moot for mentioned reasons.
