Choosing a Reliable Domain Provider: Cloudflare vs. Alternatives for Personal Use and Security

Hello,

I am deciding on a reputable domain provider to choose. I understand that Michael Bazzell recommends Cloudflare, but from researching quite a bit, it seems people don’t recommend it. From a security stand point, Cloudflare seems good, unless I’m mistaken. What do people recommend ? I’m using it mostly for personal use.

Thank you

Cloudflare is a CDN, not a domain. If you are looking for domains, the service provider you are looking for is a registrar. There are a few, njalla, namecheap, namesilo are a few that come to mind.

Bunny is a CDN alternative to Cloudflare.

Michael is very reputable and author of various books, should be a reliable source of information and pointers.

Cloudflare is actually a nameserver like others but provides things like DDOS protection and more security options tha a traditional Nameserver. They’re not just a CDN.
Cloudflare does also provide domains but that’s a different business of theirs.

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Correct.

Personally my domain (gorujokun.cy) comes from the local regsitrar that provides .cy domans and I use cloudflare for the nameserver. My local registrar does also support DNSSEC and stuff like that (which I have taken advantage of DNSSEC with Cloudflare) but I suppose it depends on what you want at this point.

I use Cloudflare as my domain registrar. They do it at cost. They’re not that bad of a company, in fact I have a higher opinion of them than most private companies.

I think all the hate comes from them being too big and too centralized. But they’re okay in my opinion, in the grand scheme of things.

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I too prefer Cloudflare for domain registration. However, for the past month I’m facing payment issues and received absolutely no support from them. Had to switch to Namecheap for the time being.

By the way, are ccTLDs reliable enough? .cv domains were $3 until atleast a couple weeks back and now they’re suddenly $10 with absolutely no prior intimation. I actually found that out when I tried to extend the registration for max period to avoid such shenanigans.

As others said, you can get a domain in cloudflare. I use it along with cloudflare pages with static websites through GitHub integration. Works like a charm for me.

I can recommend Porkbun. Also soon an integration will be coming between Porkbun and Proton

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Say what now?

Probably off-topic, sorry: does anyone consider registry privacy practices? They’re usually leaky monopolies or shady private equity operators.

I prefer to keep my registrar & nameservers separate (Cloudflare can do both; though, providing nameservers & DDoS for free is why they’re popular amongst hobbyists & tech shops), where possible.

If I’m locked out of my account for any reason (which has happened in the past), I’m atleast be able to switch the nameservers with my registrar to another provider.

For registrar, someone suggested PorkBun, which I’ve seen folks recommend often. I use Namecheap for no particular reason other than … it works & that the customer support’s been always decent.

If you’re looking for a FOSS registrar & nameserver, take a look at deSEC: https://desec.io/

Yeah, but you’re thinking about the companies that run TLDs (top-level domains like .io, .ai, .xyz etc) & not registrars themselves?

Oh really? What’s the planned integration? First I’ve heard of this! :smiley:

Set up your account with your Porkbun domain.

This is what is in the translation docs. Don’t have further info, yet :slight_smile: