Moving your domain settings to a free Cloudflare account

Your web address has settings that say where your website and your email live. This guide shows how to move those settings into a free account that your practice owns.

Follow it if your old website company looks after these settings and you cannot reach them, or if you simply want them in your own hands.

You do not need to be technical. It takes about an hour, plus a wait of up to a day.

What are "domain settings"? (DNS explained)

Your domain is your web address without the "www", for example examplesurgery.co.uk.

DNS is the internet's address book. When someone types your web address, DNS tells their phone or computer where to find your website. It also tells email where to deliver your messages.

Each line in that address book is called a DNS record. Your domain settings are the list of these records.

Will this change my website or email?

Not if you follow the steps. You copy every record across first, so everything carries on as it is today. Only where the address book is kept changes.

Your new website only appears at your address later, when you follow your DNS sheet.

Why Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a large internet company. Its free plan costs nothing and includes DNS. (Source: Cloudflare: Network & CDN pricing, read on 26 October 2026.)

The account is your practice's own. We never hold your domain settings, and we cannot see or change anything in your account.

Other DNS providers work too. Use one you already trust if you prefer. The steps will be much the same.

Before you start

You need three things:

A login for your domain company. This is the company you pay each year or two to keep your web address.
An email address the practice will always have. A shared practice mailbox is best, so the account does not leave with one person.
A list of your current records, if you can get one. Ask whoever looks after them now. If you cannot, the next steps still work, with more care at step 3.

What is a domain company (a "registrar")?

A registrar is the company your web address is registered with. You renew the address with them, usually every year or two.

It may not be the same company that made your website. If you do not know who it is, look for a renewal email or invoice, or ask your IT contact.

What if the web address is registered to our old website company, not to us?

Then sort that out first. Ask the registrar how to move the web address into the practice's name, and tell them why.

Without a login to the registrar, you cannot do step 5 below.

Step 1. Create a free Cloudflare account

Go to www.cloudflare.com and sign up with the practice email address. Choose a strong password, and turn on two-step sign-in in your profile.

Keep the login somewhere the practice can find it, with your other important logins.

Step 2. Add your web address

In your Cloudflare account, choose to add a domain (it may say "Onboard a domain" or "Add a site").

Type your web address without the "www", for example examplesurgery.co.uk. Choose the option to scan for your records. When asked for a plan, choose Free.

Step 3. Check the records Cloudflare found

Cloudflare looks for your current records and copies them in. But its scan may miss some, so it asks you to check them. (Source: Cloudflare: Set up a primary zone (Full setup), read on 26 October 2026.)

Compare what it found with your list from "Before you start". Add anything that is missing. Take most care with:

email records (type MX, and TXT records mentioning "spf" or "dmarc"), if you have email at your own web address
the records for your website: your address with and without "www"

Set each website record to DNS only (a grey cloud). This keeps your old website working exactly as it does today until you move.

What do the orange and grey clouds mean?

Each record has a cloud icon. Orange ("Proxied") means Cloudflare stands in front of your website. Grey ("DNS only") means Cloudflare just gives out the address, as your old settings did. (Source: Cloudflare: Proxy status, read on 26 October 2026.)

Grey changes nothing about how your website works, so it is the safe choice while you move.

My email is an nhs.net address. Do I need email records?

Not for nhs.net. Email records here only matter for email addresses that end in your own web address. If you are not sure, ask your IT contact before step 5.

Step 4. Turn off DNSSEC, if it is on

Log in to your domain company. If DNSSEC is switched on for your web address, switch it off before step 5. If it stays on, your web address can stop working. (Source: Cloudflare: Set up a primary zone (Full setup), read on 26 October 2026.)

If you cannot find a DNSSEC setting, it is almost certainly off.

What is DNSSEC?

DNSSEC is a security seal on your address book. It proves the records have not been tampered with.

The seal belongs to whoever keeps the records now. If you move them while the old seal is on, the internet stops trusting them. You can turn DNSSEC on again in Cloudflare once the move is finished.

Step 5. Point your web address at Cloudflare

Cloudflare shows you two nameservers. They are names that end in ns.cloudflare.com.

At your domain company, find the nameserver setting for your web address. Remove the ones there now, and put in Cloudflare's two. Copy them exactly, letter for letter. (Source: Cloudflare: Set up a primary zone (Full setup), read on 26 October 2026.)

What is a nameserver?

A nameserver is where your address book is kept. Changing it tells the whole internet to read your records from Cloudflare from now on.

Step 6. Wait for the email

It can take up to 24 hours for the change to spread. Cloudflare emails you when your web address is active. (Source: Cloudflare: Set up a primary zone (Full setup), read on 26 October 2026.)

Your website and email keep working during the wait, because both sets of records match.

Something stopped working. How do I undo it?

Put the old nameservers back at your domain company. Within a day, everything is as it was. Then check step 3 for a missing record before you try again.

Step 7. Follow your DNS sheet

Your domain settings are now in your own hands. When you are ready to move to your new website, follow the DNS sheet in your claim guide. You add its records in Cloudflare, under DNS.

Your guide is at claim.gpsite.uk/ followed by your current web address, without the "www." and the ending. For example, if your website is www.examplesurgery.co.uk, your guide is at claim.gpsite.uk/examplesurgery.

Sending your address without "www" to your new website

Step 4 of your DNS sheet sends patients who leave out "www" on to your new website. In Cloudflare that is one free redirect rule. The free plan allows 10. (Source: Cloudflare: Redirects, read on 26 October 2026.)

Under DNS, add a record: type A, name @ (your address without "www"), address 192.0.2.1, set to Proxied (orange cloud). Remove any other A or AAAA records for that same name first.
Go to Rules, then create a Redirect Rule. Give it a name, such as "No www to www".
Choose a wildcard pattern. For the request URL, enter http*://examplesurgery.co.uk/* with your own address.
For the target URL, enter https://www.examplesurgery.co.uk/${2} with your own address. Choose status code 301, and tick Preserve query string.
Select Deploy.

This is Cloudflare's own example rule, set to catch both http and https. (Source: Cloudflare: Redirect from root to WWW, read on 26 October 2026.)

Why 192.0.2.1? And why orange this time?

192.0.2.1 is an address that goes nowhere. It is a placeholder. Cloudflare only runs a redirect rule for a record it stands in front of, so this one record is orange.

Keep the record for "www" grey, as your DNS sheet says.

Need a hand?

We do not make these changes and we never hold your domain settings. If you would like someone to do this for you, ask us for a partner. Contact us: contact@mypracticemanager.co.uk