Setup your Domain with Cloudflare

To use Cloudflare as your domain controller, you need to have a domain name already purchased. I use Porkbun because they have a very user friendly dashboard and each domain comes with free domain privacy or redaction.

Once you have your domain purchased, you need to create a free Cloudflare account.

Adding your domain to Cloudflare

The first time you log in to Cloudflare you'll see place to add your domain name.

Now click "Add site" then choose the free plan and click "Confirm plan".

Now Cloudflare will scan your current dns records. These records will most likely be using the DNS records of your domain reseller. In my case it would be Porkbun DNS.

Since this domain is already using Cloudflare, it shows the cloudflare dns IPs

Now click  "Continue". Next we have to replace the domain reseller name servers with the provided Cloudflare name servers. again, I already did this.

Don't click "Done" until you go to your domain provider and change the name servers. This is where you do it in Porkbun.

Once the domain name name servers have been changed, click "Done" in Cloudflare.

Now it will take you through a "Quick start guide" where you can make a few adjustments to your settings.

I like to set the Encryption method to FULL because this seems to be the best suited option when using a reverse proxy.

I turn on "always use HTTPS" because this will automatically send traffic through your SSL.

Auto Minify. I never check or change anything here. Just click "Save" and move on.

By default, Brotli is on. Leave this as is. It's always good to have more speed!

Finish the guide and wait for your domain servers to change to Cloudflare.

You can click "Re-check now" once to get a status update. You will get an email when your domain is ready to be managed through Cloudflare.

Now you can ping your domain to see that it is indeed using the Cloudflare DNS.