My earlier post explains in detail on how to add your domain to Cloudflare. Doing so completes one of the mandatory prerequisites (Cloudflare managing the DNS) for a domain transfer to Cloudflare.
Prerequisites before we begin#
- An existing domain (not from Cloudflare) with an age older than 60 days and not expiring earlier than 15 days.
- Must be a Cloudflare supported TLD (Top-Level Domain).
- Domain is not in “Locked” state or expiring in 10 days (recommend to have 15+ days).
- An active Cloudflare account to transfer the domain in. I would highly recommend reading my Managing your Domain with Cloudflare
- A working credit/debit card connect or in hand (during the transfer an advance 1 year needs to be paid and renewed).
Additional considerations may be required for domain obtained from Shopify, Wix.. etc. They can be seen in the official documentation of Cloudflare. I have listed some of the key important prerequisites so that you won’t miss any.
Let’s Begin#
As I briefed at the beginning of my post, I assume you have already added the domain to Cloudflare as your DNS management. Moving ahead, if you go to the transfer section of the domain, you will witness whether the domain is Ready for transfer or not. Likely the domain is locked or not meeting the prerequisites.
In an event if the domain is locked, navigate to your registrar’s login page, Disable / OFF the Transfer lock status. At the same time you will find the Transfer Authorization Code (critical part of the transfer) at your existing registrar under the domain. Ensure to copy that as well. Upon doing so, allow sometime for this to update and go back to Cloudflare transfer dashboard hit on Recheck which will then display the domain under Ready for transfer.
When you have navigated to Domains -> Transfers and the domain shows Ready for transfer, select the domain name you intent to transfer, review the price that you will be paying, then click Continue with x domain to proceed. You will then be prompted to enter the Authorization code which you have obtained earlier from your existing domain registrar. System will alert if the code entered is incorrect or matching. When the code is authenticated successfully, you will see the Continue button enabled to proceed forward.
You will then be requested to update Personal information (or contact information) for WHOIS records. Update the contact information as required and Continue to checkout. This will be followed by the payment method and details, enter the required information and proceed with the transaction.
As shown on the page above, you can click on the View transfer status to review the status of the transfer. This page appears upon the payment completion. You might not see the domain transferred yet as you HAVE ONE MORE STEP AT THE EXISTING REGISTRAR TO CONFIRM THE TRANSFER. You may look out for an email from your exiting domain registrar or review within the dashboard if there’s similar option to Expedite Transfer like you see below. Upon completion of the expedition process, you will see the Cloudflare dashboard displaying the domain transfer completion and email as well confirming it.
With this you have completed the transfer successfully and now you can move ahead with all your management as well as renewals of the domain through Cloudflare as your single contact point.