Cloudflare Nameservers vs Registrar Nameservers — Which to Use?

For 90% of sites, point your nameservers at Cloudflare. Free CDN, free DDoS protection, faster DNS than any registrar's, and the management UI is clean. The remaining 10% — sites with niche needs or owners who want one fewer account — keep DNS at the registrar.

Here's the decision framework.

What "nameservers" actually do

Nameservers tell the world: "for this domain, ask THIS server about A records, MX records, CNAMEs." Whichever provider's nameservers you set, that provider is your authoritative DNS — they answer all queries about your domain.

Two common setups:

1. Registrar nameservers — your registrar (REXO HOST, GoDaddy, etc.) is authoritative. You manage DNS records in their dashboard.
2. Cloudflare nameservers — Cloudflare is authoritative. They proxy traffic, add CDN, you manage DNS in their dashboard.

You can also use other DNS providers (AWS Route 53, DigitalOcean, NS1) but Cloudflare is by far the most popular for free-tier non-enterprise use.

What Cloudflare adds for free

Once you point nameservers at Cloudflare:

• Global CDN — your site's static assets cached at 300+ edge locations worldwide. Faster page loads everywhere.
• DDoS protection — Cloudflare absorbs attacks at their edge before they hit your origin server
• Free SSL — they auto-issue and rotate certificates for HTTPS
• WAF (basic) — blocks common exploit patterns (SQL injection, XSS) before traffic reaches you
• DNS analytics — see which records are queried, from where
• Page Rules / redirects — set up URL rewrites without touching your origin
• Email forwarding — free Email Routing service: hello@yourdomain.com → your gmail

That's a real list. The catch: Cloudflare proxies your traffic, so they see your visitors. For most sites that's fine; for some (legal/compliance reasons) it isn't.

What registrar nameservers offer

Honest answer: less. The benefits:

• One fewer account to manage
• No proxy in the middle — DNS resolution goes straight to your origin (matters for some debugging scenarios)
• Simpler if you only have a couple records — one A record, one MX record, you're done

REXO HOST's DNS is reliable but doesn't have global CDN edge servers. We're a registrar; CDN isn't our business.

The decision tree

Does your site need CDN, DDoS protection, or HTTPS?
├─ Yes → Cloudflare nameservers
└─ No → continue

Are you paranoid about putting traffic through a proxy?
├─ Yes → Registrar nameservers
└─ No → continue

Do you have 5+ DNS records, multiple subdomains, complex setup?
├─ Yes → Cloudflare (better UI for complex DNS)
└─ No → continue

Is your hosting on Vercel/Netlify/AWS Amplify (built-in CDN)?
├─ Yes → Either works; pick Cloudflare for the email forwarding bonus
└─ No → Cloudflare nameservers

The setup, step-by-step

Switching to Cloudflare nameservers

1. Sign up at cloudflare.com (free tier — no credit card required)
2. Add your domain — Cloudflare scans your existing DNS records and imports them automatically
3. Cloudflare gives you 2 nameservers (e.g., amber.ns.cloudflare.com, kai.ns.cloudflare.com)
4. At REXO HOST: My Domains → click your domain → Change nameservers → enter the Cloudflare ones
5. Wait 1-4 hours for propagation
6. Cloudflare's dashboard shows "Active" — you're done

Detailed nameserver-change guide.

Reverting back

Same process in reverse — set nameservers at REXO HOST back to our defaults (or your hosting provider's), and recreate any custom DNS records you had at Cloudflare in our dashboard.

Common edge cases

"My MX records broke after switching to Cloudflare"
Cloudflare's auto-import sometimes misses email-related records. Verify MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC are all present in Cloudflare's DNS panel before pointing nameservers. If your email goes via a service like Google Workspace, also add their TXT verification records.

"I want Cloudflare CDN on www.acme.com but raw connection on api.acme.com"
Cloudflare lets you toggle the proxy per-record. Click the orange cloud → it goes grey (DNS-only). Use grey-cloud for raw API endpoints and orange-cloud for HTML pages. Hybrid setups are normal.

"My SSL certificate stopped working"
Cloudflare issues their own certs by default (the "Universal SSL"). If you had a Let's Encrypt cert at your hosting, it conflicts with Cloudflare's. Either let Cloudflare handle it (set encryption mode to "Full" or "Full strict") or set Cloudflare's mode to "Off" / "Flexible" if you want to keep your hosting's cert.

"Cloudflare is showing my origin IP somewhere"
Cloudflare hides your origin only when proxy is on (orange cloud). Any DNS-only (grey cloud) record exposes the IP. Audit each record.

Frequently asked questions

Does Cloudflare cost anything?

No, the free tier covers what 95% of sites need. Paid plans ($20+/month) add WAF rules, image optimization, and analytics — not relevant for most domains.

Will my registrar know I'm using Cloudflare?

Yes — they see the nameservers you've set. There's no problem with it; we don't penalize Cloudflare users (some hosting companies do, since Cloudflare bypasses their CDN add-ons).

Can I use Cloudflare's DNS without their CDN?

Yes — set every record to "DNS only" (grey cloud). Cloudflare just answers DNS queries; traffic goes direct to your origin. Still gets you faster DNS resolution than most registrars'.

Does this work with email?

Email is unaffected. MX records resolve via Cloudflare's DNS but the email itself goes directly between sender and your mail server (Cloudflare doesn't proxy SMTP traffic).

What if Cloudflare goes down?

Rare (their uptime is ~99.99%) but it does happen. Plan: keep your registrar account access and remember you can revert nameservers in 5 minutes. The rest of the world's DNS will catch up within an hour.

Get a domain ready

Search at REXO HOST — register, then set Cloudflare nameservers in checkout (or change later). Either way works.