How to Connect a Domain to Cloudflare: Step-by-Step Guide

Cloudflare is one of the most popular services for website protection, DNS management, and performance optimization. By connecting your domain to Cloudflare, you get a free CDN, DDoS protection, automatic HTTPS, HTTP/3 support, traffic filtering, and a user-friendly DNS panel. Here's a 5-step guide to help you connect your domain.

Step 1: Sign up or Log in to Cloudflare

• Visit dash.cloudflare.com
• Sign up or log in to your existing account
• Click “Add a Site”
• Enter your domain name (e.g., example.com) and click “Continue”

Step 2: Choose a Plan (Free is Available)

Cloudflare offers several plans. Select the Free plan if you don’t need advanced features like Web Application Firewall (WAF) or network prioritization.

Step 3: Import and Configure DNS Records

• Cloudflare will try to automatically detect your current DNS records
• Check A records (e.g., @ and www) — they should point to your VPS IP
• If A records are missing, add them manually:

Type: A  
Name: @  
Value: YOUR_SERVER_IP  
TTL: Auto  
Proxy status: 🟠 Proxied

Type: A  
Name: www  
Value: YOUR_SERVER_IP  
TTL: Auto  
Proxy status: 🟠 Proxied

• Make sure proxying is enabled to activate protection and caching
• If you're using email, also configure MX and TXT records properly

Step 4: Change Nameservers at Your Registrar

After adding your domain, Cloudflare will show two nameservers, for example:

emily.ns.cloudflare.com  
matt.ns.cloudflare.com

Go to your domain registrar’s control panel and replace your current NS records with the Cloudflare ones. Changes usually propagate within 5–24 hours.

Step 5: Enable HTTPS and Security Settings

• Go to the SSL/TLS tab and select Full or Flexible mode
• In the “Edge Certificates” section, enable “Always Use HTTPS”
• Enable “Auto Minify” and “Brotli” in the “Speed” section
• Configure bot protection and country restrictions if needed

Tips from Bit.Hosting

• Regularly review your DNS records, especially after changing hosting
• Use “Full” SSL mode for secure HTTPS with a valid server certificate
• Wait for full DNS propagation after nameserver changes
• Use cache smartly — some control panels may require proxy to be disabled
• Use Cloudflare analytics to monitor traffic and block threats

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If you're unsure how to connect your domain or having delegation issues — contact our support team. We’ll help you set everything up! ⚙️