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Cloudflare charges 2400$ per year if you want to change nameserver
I was really surprised by this after I bought the domain and wanted to change nameservers.
I've used plenty of registars in the past and I've never seen anything like this.
You can only set custom nameserver if you have "business" account which costs 200$ per month. Isn't this totally ridiculous?
I saw cloudflare getting recommended quite a lot here in recent past.
Did you guys know this? I still can't believe it
Comments
Everyone knows this. If you are unhappy transfer your domain.
One of the main reason we have 0 domains on cloudflare. We like to keep our domain, dns, and hosting separate.
There's a catch behind every nice looking innocent deals (?)
Didn't know. thanks for telling.
They offer great prices but their downside is that you need to use their name servers...
click bait title. The cdn is free
And for that money dont you also get your own ssl endpoints ? They're not the man in the middle ,they are the man, on the free tier
Wtf? I didn't know this, thanks!
I think you're misunderstanding something.
The custom nameservers feature on the business plan is what you'll use when you want to use your domain as your nameserver address, while using cloudflare's DNS.
(e.g. you want to use ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com to point to Cloudflare's DNS, and set that as your DNS record)
Changing DNS records itself should be free via support
You can transfer your domain name to any other registrar after 60 days of registration.
Before initiating transfer make sure your domain is not locked in CloudFlare account and you have Auth code of the domain.
This thread is not about transferring a domain. It is about a feature of custom nameservers which should be free, and yet it costs a whopping $200 per month.
Custom nameserver allowed on their Business plan.
You must read carefully, Cloudflare won't take profit from domain registration, but you must use their nameserver. Afaik this is told before you place an order.
I wrote this summary for a different thread, but it applies here as well, so I copied it over:
"Cloudflare charges the same price as the fees that they pay for your domain as a registrar. Cloudflare said they will continue the policy forever. Whatever a domain registration or renewal costs them, they pass that cost to the customer with zero profit. Domain fees vary - a .org domain currently costs slightly more than a .com domain, for example.
"There are strings attached if you move or register your domains with Cloudflare:
I chose to move my domains to Cloudflare's free offering anyway, with the understanding that I had to use their nameservers, etc. Others pointed out above that you can bypass the Cloudflare nameserver requirement by having a paid Cloudflare account, but it is expensive. Your alternative is to choose a different domain registrar.
There is also cheaper alternative: transfer out from CF domain which needs custom DNS. To be clear - there is only few DNS providers in the world which could provide barely comparable service to CF DNS. "All eggs in one basket" does not cut it. CF free plan just to good. And no markup domain registration is flawless.
It's known. Changing nameserver names is just cosmetic for custom name servers on CF. You don't need it, just use CF's nameservers if you want to use Cloudflare. But slowly Cloudflare has in past added previous Business or higher plan features to lower priced paid plans eventually. i.e. CF Tiered Caching which use to be only part of Argo Smart Routing.
Interesting. Why would you want to use other nameservers than their perfectly and very fast ones?
well, running a service like that which is crowded by freeloaders like me is costly that is why they are charging that much (too much though)
To avoid giving Cloudflare whatever information and value they get from the DNS queries to your domains. Cloudflare must have a compelling reason for insisting that you use their DNS, right?
Clickbait
@emg if you are having such concerns, honestly might be better not hosting at all and disconnecting your pc from the internet.
Unless you are hosting something very very very sensitive that by regulation you need to have control of that component. But most people that use a VPN don't really need to. Most people that are very security conscious with simple things don't really need to. Why would CF be interested in sniffing your personal data? Is just a DNS. Don't want their SSL in the middle, disable it... Just put an A record pointing to another provider and don't use the cache / CDN features if concerned.
I don't think you have any knowledge on what you're talking about.
https://radar.cloudflare.com
Edit: Cloudflare even has grafana plugins to monitor the DNS stuff.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/grafana-plugin/
https://grafana.com/grafana/plugins/cloudflare-app/
That is a bit extreme, don't you think? With respect, I am not concerned about it. As I stated elsewhere, I am using Cloudflare DNS for my domains. If I were concerned about it, I would have used someone else's DNS or deployed my own.
I do not like the term "sniffing" in this context. I assume that Cloudflare logs ordinary DNS lookups that access their DNS server, that's all. The information that Cloudflare gleans from the DNS lookups for your domain must have some kind of current or future value to Cloudflare.
If you want to keep Cloudflare from seeing and recording the DNS lookups for your domain, or you just don't like Cloudflare and want to deny them whatever value they get from DNS lookups, choose another DNS provider.
Note to Others:
I am curious to understand Cloudflare's motives for driving users to their DNS servers. What value do they get in return for letting you use their DNS? Why is it so important to Cloudflare?
@FatGrizzly said:
Maybe you are missing the point. But I'm perfectly fine with your opinion.
@emg why use CF at all if you don't want them to log DNS lookups. I mean if is free then you are the product. Why complain at all when you are getting like domain at cost... when you could have purchased that domain at a standard registrar. Good take though.
Again, radar.cloudflare.com. give it a shot. just look at the variety of data.
https://radar.cloudflare.com/domains [using 1.1.1.1 usage to find domain data]
my best guess is ddos detection and learning.
I agree with your point too, sometimes we are over-protective over certain stuff which doesn't need that much of a protection.
Cloudflare servers offer free DNS, but also free CDN. I am with @emg on this one.
Just imagine Cloudflare seeing your data and what you like and what you comment. Then combine this with other advertising agencies for personalised advertising, and with different sellers who produce what you like, and with banks, with governments, and with Google's psychological profiles. They already know more about you then you know about yourself.
I already see all this as an improved and democratic GFW.
Wouldn't it be lovely if this was real?
Rephrasing the above:
You asked (in my words):
"Why use other nameservers when Cloudflare has perfectly very fast DNS servers?"
My response (rewritten):
"You use other nameservers when you don't want Cloudflare to record your DNS lookups and get value from them." Adding: ... The other nameservers will still record your DNS lookups, but not Cloudflare.
I do not see a way to use Cloudflare DNS without Cloudflare logging DNS lookups. The same would be true for any outside DNS provider that you may choose. They will log the DNS lookups.
Keep in mind that DNS lookups may pass through many servers on their way to the authoritative nameserver for your domain. Any one of them can also record your DNS lookup. (There are several forms of secure DNS, but they are not yet in widespread use.)
Some people like Cloudflare, others do not. I use Cloudflare because I like their domain registration pricing model. (At present, the only Cloudflare services I use are the domain registration and DNS; that's all.) I never worried about Cloudflare logging my DNS lookups. If I were to object to anything about Cloudflare, it is the fact that they force me to keep domain registrations and DNS services with the same company. I prefer to separate domain registrations, DNS, and hosting with three different companies. I compromised by choosing Cloudflare.
FYI, reminder that CF business plan does more than just allow custom nameservers for $200/month https://blog.centminmod.com/2022/05/19/2794/what-are-the-benefits-of-using-cloudflare-business-plan/
I wanted to change the nameserver to my shared hosting provider's NS for ease of setup (mail etc). I don't think that's possible on normal plan, right?
Yes,but it's fairly easy to do the MX records. Just copy it from that dns panel to CF"#
I had a discussion with a Cloudflare representative a while back when they first launched their registrar. They stated the plan was to eventually allow public WHOIS to be enabled manually from their dashboard. But I've seen no movement toward that yet.
I thought this was already known, use Cloudflare as a registrar and you are tied to their DNS at least in the free tier. They issue SSL on your domains so you can do https redirections and also skip setting up an SSL at your host.