☁️ 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