Domains DNS Cloudflare Cloudflare Domain Registrar Transfers Reduced My Costs By 37% !

Privacy and security focused Cloudflare Domain Registrar with cost based pricing was announced during Cloudflare's 8th birthday week list of announcements and is currently in early access testing phase. I currently have 6x XYZ domain extensions up for renewal next month at Namecheap, so thought I'd test out Cloudflare Domain Registrar's domain transfer process and see how much I can save at cost based domain pricing for XYZ domains.

For Cloudflare Domain Registrar documentation and FAQ outline check out the official docs here.

Cloudflare Add New Sites

For this domain registrar transfer process, I signed up a separate and new Cloudflare account. You don't need to sign up a new Cloudflare account, you can use your existing account if you want. I just prefer Cloudflare free Universal SSL certificates listed domains to be grouped by specific Cloudflare account's associated nameservers.

To meet Cloudflare Domain Registrar requirements, need to first have the intended domains being transferred running using Cloudflare's own DNS nameservers before initiating the domain registrar transfer process. I used Cloudflare's API to bulk add the intended domains to my newly signed up Cloudflare account's global API key. You could of course just do manual add site process for Cloudflare account too but it would be more time consuming if you have dozens or hundreds of domains to add compared to using Cloudflare API to bulk add all domains.

To do this I'd need access to SSH terminal of a server or local computer and first export Cloudflare API key and user variables and install jq package. This was done on CentOS 7 server

Code (Text):

yum -y install jq
export CF_API_EMAIL=you@example.com
export CF_API_KEY=abc123def456ghi789

Then setup domains.txt file with one domain per line for domains you intend to setup initially for Cloudflare account

Code (Text):

touch domains.txt

add to domains.txt file one per line, the intended domains you want to transfer to Cloudflare Domain Registrar

Code (Text):

domain1.xyz
domain2.xyz
domain3.xyz
domain4.xyz
domain5.xyz
domain6.xyz

Add domains in domain.txt to your Cloudflare account via CF API and populate json output into result.txt text file

Code (Text):

for domain in $(cat domains.txt); do \
  curl -sX POST -H "X-Auth-Key: $CF_API_KEY" -H "X-Auth-Email: $CF_API_EMAIL" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones" \
  --data '{"name":"'$domain'","jump_start":true}' | tee -a result.txt; done

You will be able to see pretty json output for populated result.txt file using command

Code (Text):

cat result.txt | jq

You will be able to inspect and extract the Cloudflare DNS nameservers via the result.txt file contents. The outputted DNS nameservers are the ones you need to update with their existing domain registrars for each intended domain you want to transfer to Cloudflare Domain Registrar for this Cloudflare account. Example further below is of using Namesilo's API to bulk update domains' nameservers.

Code (Text):

cat result.txt | jq -r ".result.name_servers[]" | head -n2

Example output for the above command

Code (Text):

cat result.txt | jq -r ".result.name_servers[]" | head -n2
arch.ns.cloudflare.com
nelly.ns.cloudflare.com

You will also be able to use the result.txt info to extract the Cloudflare zoneid and domain name if for your records if you intend to further use the Cloudflare API to work with specific domains as you need the zoneid

Code (Text):

cat result.txt | jq -r '.result | "\(.id) \(.name)"'

so something like this will be outputted

Code (Text):

cat result.txt | jq -r '.result | "\(.id) \(.name)"'
yourzoneid1 domain1.xyz
yourzoneid2 domain2.xyz
yourzoneid3 domain3.xyz
yourzoneid4 domain4.xyz
yourzoneid5 domain5.xyz
yourzoneid6 domain6.xyz

Cloudflare Domain Registrar Transfer Process

Now wait for each domain's listing in your Cloudflare account to go from nameserver pending to Active status - you may need to wait up to 24hrs for Cloudflare to detect the DNS nameserver changes for each domain you intend to transfer over. Once updated, you will see the listed domains marked as = Active



If you have been granted early access to Cloudflare Domain Registrar, you will see on Cloudflare Account Home page a top navigation link to the far right for = Domain Registration. This is where you initiate your domain transfer request process.

The usual process for domain transfers is that you unlock your intended domains from existing domain registrar and obtain an EPP authorisation code first. You can see specific instructions for common domain registrars at Transfer Instructions - Cloudflare Registrar.

---

For my particular case of transferring domains from NameCheap to Cloudflare Domain Registrar, I followed instructions outlined at Namecheap - Cloudflare Registrar.

For my 6x XYZ domains, cost based pricing is US$8.00 per domain with US$0.18 ICAAN fee per domain, so total cost is US$8.18x6 = US$49.08. Remember to add a payment method to be able to proceed.

Note, the page mentions you can turn off auto-renew on the Overview page - but it seems to be missing for me right now. Cloudflare says this feature is currently in staging slated for release next week



Next is to confirm the domains and go to next step to enter EPP authorisation codes you obtained from your existing domain registrar.




Then after confirming the authorization codes, you will need to enter in contact information to confirm and finalize the domain transfers to Cloudflare Domain Registrar. Note you can't leave Organization field blank as the confirm and finalize button is greyed out until that field is populated. For that I just added my first and last name.



Once you click confirm and finalize transfer you will get to the completion page



and then receive separate emails for each domain you're transferring confirming the domain transfer request and the domain transfer initiated processes





Now to wait for the form of authorization emails to come in via your domain's existing domain registrar contact email address for you to approve the initiated domain transfer to Cloudflare Domain Registrar.

On the Domain Registration page it will show status of transfer but confusing text is for

When in fact we're waiting on this form of authorization emails and clicking the approval links.

Cloudflare Domain Registrar Transfer Process Completion

I approved all 6x form of authorization email's approval links and already domains are starting to receive the Domain Transfer Complete emails



Cloudflare domain overview page has a Domain Registrar status and shows the registrar, expiration date



Some transferred domains' Overview page lists expiration date as invalid - apparently there can be delays in updating that for display. But you can check actual whois record for the domain to confirm the expiration date.



You can verify if your transferred domains' whois info is redacted by Cloudflare via whois command in SSH terminal. If you used the Cloudflare API steps above to add domains listed in domains.txt file via curl command, you can also easily use that domains.txt file to run whois checks against whois.cloudflare.com nameservers.

Code (Text):

cat domains.txt | while read d; do whois -h whois.cloudflare.com $d; done

This will run whois query against each domain listed in domains.txt file - example output

Code (Text):

[Querying whois.cloudflare.com]
[whois.cloudflare.com]
Domain Name: DOMAIN1.XYZ
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.cloudflare.com
Registrar URL: https://www.cloudflare.com
Updated Date: 2018-11-17T06:00:23Z
Creation Date: 2018-11-17T03:38:44Z
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: registrar-abuse@cloudflare.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4153197517
Registrar Registration Expiration Date:
Registrar: Cloudflare, Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 1910
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Organization: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Street: DATA REDACTED
Registrant City: DATA REDACTED
Registrant State/Province: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Postal Code: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Country: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Phone: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Phone Ext: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Fax: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Fax Ext: DATA REDACTED
Registrant Email: DATA REDACTED
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: DATA REDACTED
Admin Organization: DATA REDACTED
Admin Street: DATA REDACTED
Admin City: DATA REDACTED
Admin State/Province: DATA REDACTED
Admin Postal Code: DATA REDACTED
Admin Country: DATA REDACTED
Admin Phone: DATA REDACTED
Admin Phone Ext: DATA REDACTED
Admin Fax: DATA REDACTED
Admin Fax Ext: DATA REDACTED
Admin Email: DATA REDACTED
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: DATA REDACTED
Tech Organization: DATA REDACTED
Tech Street: DATA REDACTED
Tech City: DATA REDACTED
Tech State/Province: DATA REDACTED
Tech Postal Code: DATA REDACTED
Tech Country: DATA REDACTED
Tech Phone: DATA REDACTED
Tech Phone Ext: DATA REDACTED
Tech Fax: DATA REDACTED
Tech Fax Ext: DATA REDACTED
Tech Email: DATA REDACTED
Registry Billing ID:
Billing Name: DATA REDACTED
Billing Organization: DATA REDACTED
Billing Street: DATA REDACTED
Billing City: DATA REDACTED
Billing State/Province: DATA REDACTED
Billing Postal Code: DATA REDACTED
Billing Country: DATA REDACTED
Billing Phone: DATA REDACTED
Billing Phone Ext: DATA REDACTED
Billing Fax: DATA REDACTED
Billing Fax Ext: DATA REDACTED
Billing Email: DATA REDACTED

URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net

For more information on Whois status codes, please visit https://icann.org/epp

Cloudflare provides more than 10 million domains with the tools to give their global users a faster, more secure, and more reliable internet experience.

NOTICE:

Data in the CloudFlare Registrar WHOIS database is provided to you by CloudFlare
under the terms and conditions at https://www.cloudflare.com/domain-registration-agreement/

By submitting this query, you agree to abide by these terms.

Register your domain name at https://www.cloudflare.com/registrar/

Cloudflare Domain Registrar Costs versus Namecheap Costs

How does this pricing compared to renewal at NameCheap ? XYZ domain renewal pricing is US$12.88 + US$0.18 = US$13.06 per domain x 6 = US$78.36. So Cloudflare Domain Registrar's XYZ domain cost pricing reduces my domain renewal costs by US$29.28 per year for those 6x XYZ domains. That's a savings of just over 37% !



Notes

• Cloudflare Registrar does not currently support email forwarding. If you require email forwarding from your registrar, you will need to use a third-party forwarding service and configure your MX record in the Cloudflare DNS setting for the domain.
• FYI, full disclosure though, I am now a Cloudflare MVP one of the first group of people to be invited into the new MVP program that Cloudflare is developing so I get special perks and access to new and upcoming Cloudflare products and some input into features/requests and alpha/beta testing However, all domain transfer costs above are paid by me fully.

 

Cloudflare Domain Registrar Transfer Out Unlock & Editing WHOIS Info

Some Cloudflare users have commented on the lack of ability to edit Cloudflare Domain Registrar WHOIS and to transfer out/unlock their domains on Cloudflare. Cloudflare will only show the transfer out/unlock after 60 days from initial domain transfer as per registrar rules. So I checked my above listed example domain transfers as they are now past the 60 day mark after initial transfer to Cloudflare Domain Registrar from Namecheap.

Yup you can now unlock and transfer out your domain away from Cloudflare Domain Registrar if you want after 60 days from transferring in. You can also edit your WHOIS info too

 

Namesilo.com to Cloudflare Domain Registrar Transfers Via APIs

The above Cloudflare bulk domain addition via Cloudflare API prior to domain registrar transfer instructions are handy to have when you have dozens or hundreds of domains to transfer. However, you still need to bulk update on loosing domain registrar end a few settings to unlock domains, retrieve EPP codes and update Cloudflare name servers prior to being able to transfer domains to Cloudflare Domain Registrar.

Below is my latest attempt to transfer dozens of domains from Namesilo.com to Cloudflare Domain Registrar via Namesilo API end to bulk update domains to unlock domains, retrieve EPP codes, disable auto-renewal and update Cloudflare name servers prior

First this is to enable Namesilo API and whitelist your server IP you intend to run below API curl commands from so that you are able to run Namesilo API commands.



Second is retrieve and set Namesilo API key in variable in SSH command/session called nskey. This nskey variable is valid only for the SSH session. If you log out and log back in, you need to set it again by typing the below line.

Code (Text):

nskey=your_namesilo_apikey

Install yq command to be able to prettify and parse Namesilo's xml generated API output. The yq install also includes command xq which allows parsing xml output from API responses

Code (Text):

pip install yq

Example to list all domains on in your Namesilo account via api would get the following API response output piped through xq command

Code (Text):

curl -s "https://www.namesilo.com/api/listDomains?version=1&type=xml&key=$nskey" | xq .
{
  "namesilo": {
    "request": {
      "operation": "listDomains",
      "ip": "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
    },
    "reply": {
      "code": "300",
      "detail": "success",
      "domains": {
        "domain": [
          "domain.com",
          "domain.net"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

To just list domains you can manipulate xq filter

Code (Text):

curl -s "https://www.namesilo.com/api/listDomains?version=1&type=xml&key=$nskey" | xq -r '.namesilo.reply.domains.domain[]'

domain.com
domain.net

With the Namesilo API verified as working, we need to bulk unlock domains, retrieve EPP codes and update nameservers to Cloudflare bulk API derived nameservers outlined in above 1st post.

Code (Text):

cat result.txt | jq -r ".result.name_servers[]" | head -n2
arch.ns.cloudflare.com
nelly.ns.cloudflare.com

You would of already created and populated the domains.txt file from above steps in 1st post

Code (Text):

cd /root/tools
mkdir cfdomains
cd cfdomains
touch domains.txt

domains.txt would contain all domains (one per line) you intend to update from Namesilo which are already added to Cloudflare account via API but not yet transferred domain registrar wise.

Now to domain unlock https://www.namesilo.com/api_reference.php#domainUnlock

Code (Text):

for domain in $(cat domains.txt); do curl -s "https://www.namesilo.com/api/domainUnlock?version=1&type=xml&key=$nskey&domain=$domain" | tee -a unlock-result.txt; done

domain disable autorenewal https://www.namesilo.com/api_reference.php#removeAutoRenewal

Code (Text):

for domain in $(cat domains.txt); do curl -s "https://www.namesilo.com/api/removeAutoRenewal?version=1&type=xml&key=$nskey&domain=$domain" | tee -a noautorenewal-result.txt; done

change nameservers https://www.namesilo.com/api_reference.php#changeNameServers

set nsone and nstwo variables to the Cloudflare namservers needed to activate/add your domains to Cloudflare account.

Code (Text):

nsone=arch.ns.cloudflare.com
nstwo=nelly.ns.cloudflare.com

Code (Text):

for domain in $(cat domains.txt); do curl -s "https://www.namesilo.com/api/changeNameServers?version=1&type=xml&key=$nskey&domain=$domain&ns1=$nsone&ns2=$nstwo" | tee -a nameserver-update-result.txt; done

retrieve EPP codes https://www.namesilo.com/api_reference.php#retrieveAuthCode which will be sent to domain's admin email contact

Code (Text):

for domain in $(cat domains.txt); do curl -s "https://www.namesilo.com/api/retrieveAuthCode?version=1&type=xml&key=$nskey&domain=$domain" | tee -a epp-result.txt; done

After this, you will receive lots of Namesilo emails especially if you have Domain Defender Alerts enabled. Some of the emails will be confirmation of actions for unlocking domains, retrieving EPP codes, disabling auto-renewal and updating nameservers in bulk via Namesilo API.

At this stage after you have done Cloudflare bulk API add from 1st post along with Namesilo API bulk changes outlined in this post, you should have Cloudflare dashboard listing all your newly added domains as active in Cloudflare account. You will be then ready to do the domain registrar transfers from Namesilo to Cloudflare. Very handy if you have dozens, hundreds or thousands of domains you need to add to Cloudflare account + transfer from Namesilo to Cloudflare Domain Registrar

The list of bulk domains added to my Cloudflare account from Namesilo prior to Cloudflare domain registrar transfer which I will be doing soon as domains up for renewal soon.



Total cost saved from transferring the most recent above set of domains from Namesilo to Cloudflare Domain Registrar is US$31.80/yr !

 

Just wrote a guide on bulk unlocking and EPP Auth code retrieval on Cloudflare Registrar API end if you want to transfer domains out of Cloudflare Registrar too at https://blog.centminmod.com/2021/02...from-cloudflare-registrar-via-cloudflare-api/