Cloudflare DNS only?

possible to use cloudflare strictly as DNS?

[killua]

I just signed up for Cloudflare free, so that I don't have to use my VPS private nameservers in my domain registrar.

The thing is I'm bombarded with so many settings in Cloudflare , and I fear of messing things up. Originally, I intend to just use my domain registrar for my DNS zone management but even Godaddy's DNS can go down sometimes so I like the redundancy of Cloudflare .

Is it possible to use Cloudflare strictly as DNS only without its CDN/proxy/caching feature? If so, where can I find it?

[graeme_p]

Yes it is possible, but there are also a lot of specialist DNS providers.

Its been a while since I last logged into Cloudflare, but I seem to remember a DNS and/or domains tab that was fairly visible.

[killua]

Yes, there is this DNS tab where I place all the DNS records. But there are so many other settings in the Dashboard as well such as Crypto, Firewall, Scrape Shield, Caching, Page Rules, etc.

The thing is I cannot seem to find a settings in Cloudflare wherein I can toggle ON/OFF all its other features except strictly for its DNS . Or maybe there isn't?

[Swanny007]

You can do this. Go into your CF control panel, click the website and then to the DNS "tab". That's the only place you need to concern yourself with if you only use them for DNS. Look at the clouds to the right of each entry in your DNS entries list. Click on any orange clouds to change them to grey or no cloud.

From their help area:

On your Cloudflare DNS page, each DNS record will have one of these icons:
Orange Cloud: Records that display an orange cloud icon are accelerated and protected by Cloudflare
Grey Cloud: Records that display a grey cloud icon will bypass Cloudflare, using only Cloudflare DNS
No Cloud: Records that do not display a cloud icon must bypass Cloudflare, using only Cloudflare DNS.

So update the DNS "clouds" and you can ignore all other CF settings. Personally I would not recommend using just their DNS because even at the free level there are benefits to their service.

[brotherhood of LAN]

As above. I've used CF purely for DNS on a couple of sites.

[robzilla]

even at the free level there are benefits to their service

There are many features, but whether those features are benefits depends on the website. Sending my visitors through Cloudflare would certainly slow them down. It's not for everyone.

Their nameservers are some of the most performant ones available, though, so it's certainly not a bad idea to use them for DNS only.

[killua]

Thanks for the info, I did the disabling of the orange clouds.

Currently, my setup in Godaddy registrar is to use my VPS private nameservers.

What is the recommended way of changing nameservers to achieve zero downtime of mails and web browsing?

SCENARIO A:
1. First, I will delete the private nameservers in my registrar.
2. And then immediately add the Cloudflare nameservers.

SCENARIO B:
1. I will add the two Cloudflare nameservers to my registrar, so there will be four nameservers there including the private nameservers.
2. No need to wait for propagation. Once the cloudflare nameservers are showing in the registrar, immediately delete the private nameservers.

SCENARIO C:
1. I will add the two Cloudflare nameservers in my registrar, so there will be four nameservers there including the private nameservers.
2. Wait for 72 hours DNS propagation.
3. Delete the private nameservers so that only the two Cloudflare nameservers will remain.

Since I'm not 100% certain on how these nameservers work in reality, please enlighten me on what scenario above should I follow?

Thank you.

[robzilla]

So long as the DNS record set is the same at each nameserver, you won't have any downtime switching them around, so just log on to Godaddy, choose to enter custom nameservers for the domain(s) and edit those listings to reflect the nameservers assigned to you by Cloudflare. How that works differs with each registrar. If it means first adding the Cloudflare ones and then deleting the old ones, that's fine. You don't have to wait for DNS propagation since all nameservers should be returning the same DNS records, just make sure you have at least 2 nameservers assigned to a domain at any time.