TL;DR:
I moved several domains from GoDaddy to Cloudflare primarily due to its significantly lower pricing.
Why I Switched from GoDaddy to Cloudflare
- Pricing: GoDaddy applies high markups, sometimes nearly double the original cost.
- Cloudflare Advantage: Unlike GoDaddy, Cloudflare keeps domain pricing transparent, with little to no markup.
Since I already use various Cloudflare services (e.g., Pages, Workers, R2, etc.), it made sense to consolidate and manage my domains there.
This guide will walk you through the exact steps to transfer your domains from GoDaddy to Cloudflare.
However, the main reason for me to move them is due to the pricing. If there wasn't a big difference in pricing, I wouldn't have moved them.
As a rule of thumb: do not host/manage everything on a single service so that if your account gets restricted or even get terminated, you can still keep your domains.
so Let's begin!
First of all, We are going to change the nameserver of the domain from Godaddy's nameserrver to Cloudflare's nameserver.
1. Log in to your cloudflare account
2. Click on Add button on top right of your screen
3. Click on Existing domain
Then you will be redirected to this page where you have to write the domain you want to transfer
Then you will need to choose the right pricing option for you.
Then you will be asked to check your current DNS setup. Click continue to activation
Now Cloudflare then assigns you the appropriate nameserver you can use to change it. Copy them
Log in to Godaddy and go to the domain you want to transfer and click on manage dns
Click on Nameservers
Then change the nameserver here
Now after waiting 5~10 minutes (could take longer), you will see that the registeration is complete and you can see that also on the cloudflare websites menu.
Now at this point, you can technically use Cloudflare's most functions like cdn, caching etc but the post is intended to transfer the domain so we go further.
Go to Godaddy and to your domain. Bottom of the page, there should be "Transfer to Another Registrar"
Click on Continue
This is important, now at this stage, your domain is unlocked and can be transferred to other domain registrar but in order to do that, you need to have the authorization code. Click on it and copy it and paste it somewhere safe. We will use this on cloudflare so as to register our domain.
Now if you go to cloudflare - Domain registeration - Transfer domain, you will see that the domain you are trying to transfer is waiting to be transferred. The time you need to wait usually depends on how quick the domain registrar is but usually this process is done either in 10 minutes or sometimes a few hours.
Grab a cup of coffee in the mean time and enjoy >:)
Now after some times, you will see that you can transfer the domain . Confirm it
And here, put the authorization code that you have received from Godaddy and proceed
After proeceeding, you will see this screen. Now you can just wait here until Godaddy manually approves of the transfer but there is a quicker way.
Go to godaddy - Domains - Transfers and click on Transfer out
And then click the domain and approve the transfer
Volia! Done and dusted. You have successfully transferred your domain from Godaddy to Cloudflare! 😊