Why We Use (And Recommend) Cloudflare Nameservers

Warning: There’s some jargon in this article.

So, off the bat, here’s what some of those frequently used terms mean:

• Domain Name: This is your website’s unique name. An example is brandcraft.com.
• Registrar: This is where you buy your domain name. GoDaddy is a registrar.
• Nameserver: A nameserver tells the Internet where to find a website. Registrars usually supply these, but there are alternatives, like Cloudflare.
• DNS: The nameservers tell you where to go, and the DNS records are the language they use. (Find out more here.)
• DDoS: This stands for distributed denial of service. These are a specific type of malicious attack (the most common type that can be blocked by nameservers).

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to the nitty gritty. We’ve found that nameservers are sometimes a weak link in the chain of things keeping sites accessible–especially when it comes to default registrar offerings.

Why we recommend Cloudflare nameservers

Keeping websites online is something we spend lots of time and money on, so this is an issue that needs to be fixed. After briefly looking into running our own nameservers, we settled on Cloudflare nameservers. Here’s why:

Cloudflare nameservers are reliable.

Your nameservers are just as crucial as your website host is when it comes to keeping your site online. We’ve seen so many outages that we simply recommend against using registrar-supplied nameservers. 

While we understand that even Cloudflare has had outages, these outages are usually much shorter and thoroughly dissected to prevent re-occurrences.

They’re fast.

See here. (Cloudflare is 1.1.1.1.)

They’re secure.

Cloudflare has been a stalwart in the web-security world for over a decade now. They constantly make the news, mitigating record-breaking DDoS attacks. It’s safe to say they know what they’re doing, and they’re trusted by the biggest names in the industry.

Need to check your Cloudflare nameservers or change your Cloudflare nameservers? Contact us here.

They’re collaborative.

Having more than one person able to manage DNS records may seem minor, but I can’t convey the disappointment of missing a site launch because we couldn’t track down a customer’s login or 2FA code. Equally, clients should have the option to access this crucial function of their own website (even if they never use it).

They’re free.

Yup. While many of the services that Cloudflare offers have huge price tags attached, their nameservers and a lot of the security features come free of charge, with no strings attached.

I normally advise against free services (email is a great example of something you should pay for), but Cloudflare is an exception to that rule.

Are Cloudflare nameservers right for you?

Wrapping up, I should mention that there are other alternatives to registrar nameservers. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all have solid services, and there are others with similar advantages over the default option. Cloudflare nameservers just tick all our boxes.

Hopefully this article has helped clarify one of the often-overlooked aspects of running a website.

As always, drop us a line if you’d like to talk about anything! We’re here to help.