Cloudflare Registrar
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 12 domain registrars by recommenders
Recommended for at-cost domain registration and low renewal prices, with no markup on TLDs. Critics agree the main caveat is being forced to use Cloudflare's nameservers.
Recommended for at-cost domain registration and low renewal prices, with no markup on TLDs. Critics agree the main caveat is being forced to use Cloudflare's nameservers.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Domains sold at cost
“They sell at cost, and their entire business is around DNS and caching so they have no reason to decide to stop selling domains in the future or mess with us.”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains” “Cloudflare offers domain registration/renewal with no markup if you're looking for an option.”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Namecheap Gave My Account to an Unverified Third Party Just Because They Asked” “It feels like the only registrar that has a business case for at cost domains.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?” - Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Namecheap Gave My Account to an Unverified Third Party Just Because They Asked”
- Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Among European Companies That Use a CDN, Nearly 9 in 10 Use Cloudflare”
- Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Tell HN: Cloudflare silently injects its analytics when you switch nameservers”
- Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Never Buy A .online Domain”
- Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains”
Low renewal prices
“Cloudflare's prices are very beatable, especially if we're talking about the first year price.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy” “If the price is your concern, the Cloudflare registration is only $10.”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Namecheap Gave My Account to an Unverified Third Party Just Because They Asked” “Cloudflare is cheaper by twenty-five to fifty percent on renewals.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Never Buy A .online Domain” - Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Verisign .com Domain Name Registry Consumer Class Action”
- Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Telegram's t.me domain has been suspended”
- Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Agents can now create Cloudflare accounts, buy domains, and deploy”
Business model sustains low prices
“They sell at cost, and their entire business is around DNS and caching so they have no reason to decide to stop selling domains in the future or mess with us.”
Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains” “It feels like the only registrar that has a business case for at cost domains.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Which domain name registrar do you use?” “they have a real business model that isnt just registration skim”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “GoDaddy Gave a Domain to a Stranger Without Any Documentation”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Forced to use their nameservers
“Cloudflare.com is good too, EXCEPT if you buy your domain from them, you'll be required to use their nameservers”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Addressing Antigravity Bans and Reinstating Access” “they go the extra mile to force their NS, which I havent seen with other registrars”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Your sign-up form is a weapon” “removed the ability to change the nameservers for all domains registered with them”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Namecheap Gave My Account to an Unverified Third Party Just Because They Asked” - Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Privacy and control. My tech setup”
- Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Verisign .com Domain Name Registry Consumer Class Action”
- Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Namecheap Gave My Account to an Unverified Third Party Just Because They Asked”
Seen as a lock-in tactic
“Cloudflare is doing the enshittification strategy, enticing you now, and then extracting value later.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Never Buy A .online Domain” “in an attempt to make domains into a revenue driver for their primary product”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “Namecheap Gave My Account to an Unverified Third Party Just Because They Asked” “you can only ever use Cloudflare for that domain. It's a loss leader.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “Among European Companies That Use a CDN, Nearly 9 in 10 Use Cloudflare” Confusing dashboard and interface
“very confusing to have a DNS dashboard that lets you configure DNS how you like”
Comment from 19 Aug 2026 in “Tell HN: Cloudflare silently injects its analytics when you switch nameservers” “hard for me to tell head from the tail on their interface”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Namecheap just seized and disabled all my domains” Feels corporate, unfriendly to small buyers
“it asked me to affirm I had Acme Widgets Corp.'s permission”
Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “A domain can now say it is for sale, in DNS” “too corporate-like to support me for my cheap $10 domain”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Namecheap Gave My Account to an Unverified Third Party Just Because They Asked”
Other domain registrars people recommend
The four most recommended other domain registrars, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porkbun | 81 | 18 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Namecheap | 35 | 130 | 21% | 9 | 14 yrs9 owners | — |
| Cloudflare RegistrarThis page | 18 | 9 | 67% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Hover | 13 | 18 | 42% | 3 | 15 yrs3 owners | — |
| GoDaddy domain registrar | 10 | 107 | 9% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they register domains at cost”
“doesn't mean much when you're forced to use their namesevers”
“Cloudflare, porkbun and others can get you a .com for $10-$11/yr”
“hard for me to tell head from the tail on their interface”
“It's a great place to keep your domain names.”
“They sell at cost, and their entire business is around DNS and caching so they have no reason to decide to stop selling domains in the future or mess with us.”
“you can only ever use Cloudflare for that domain. It's a loss leader.”
“They do it at cost as far as I can tell and more tlds have been added.”
“very confusing to have a DNS dashboard that lets you configure DNS how you like”
“they offer domains at cost and you can’t beat that”
“it asked me to affirm I had Acme Widgets Corp.'s permission”
“in an attempt to make domains into a revenue driver for their primary product”
“removed the ability to change the nameservers for all domains registered with them”
“too corporate-like to support me for my cheap $10 domain”
“If the price is your concern, the Cloudflare registration is only $10.”
“they then force you to use them as a DNS host as well”
“Cloudflare offers domain registration/renewal with no markup if you're looking for an option.”
“they do offer domain registration at cost, for example $10.46/year for .com”
“they have the lowest renewal prices for top level domains”
“Cloudflare's prices are very beatable, especially if we're talking about the first year price.”
“Cloudflare's prices are already close to unbeatable.”
“they have a real business model that isnt just registration skim”
“they go the extra mile to force their NS, which I havent seen with other registrars”
“Cloudflare.com is good too, EXCEPT if you buy your domain from them, you'll be required to use their nameservers”
“Cloudflare is doing the enshittification strategy, enticing you now, and then extracting value later.”
“Cloudflare is cheaper by twenty-five to fifty percent on renewals.”
“cloudflare is the cheapest - they do it at cost.”
“it is bad form to keep both the nameservers and registrar with the same company”
“It feels like the only registrar that has a business case for at cost domains.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.