Create a Free Subdomain on Cloudflare Complete Beginner Guide

Three things, nothing more:

1. One domain you own — bought from any registrar (the video uses GoDaddy as the example; Cloudflare Registrar and others work the same). If you skip this, there is nothing to create subdomains under
2. A free Cloudflare account — sign up with your email; the free plan is enough for everything in this guide
3. The address of the thing you want to point at — your hosting server's IP address, or the hostname your hosting provider gave you. A subdomain is just a name; it must point somewhere real

This is a one-time setup. After it, creating subdomains takes under a minute each.

1. Log in to Cloudflare and click Add a site (Connect a domain), then type your domain
2. Choose the Free plan. Cloudflare scans and imports your existing DNS records — check that your website and email records came across
3. Cloudflare shows you two nameservers. Go to your registrar (where you bought the domain) and replace the nameservers there with these two
4. Wait for the domain status to turn Active in Cloudflare. This nameserver change can take a few hours, sometimes up to 24 — this wait happens only once, not per subdomain

Until the domain is Active, new records will not answer on the internet. Do not keep re-adding records while impatient — the record is fine, the delegation is still travelling.

Every A, AAAA and CNAME record has this toggle, and the video covers it because it changes how traffic flows:

1. Proxied (orange cloud) — visitors connect to Cloudflare first, then Cloudflare fetches from your server. Your real server IP stays hidden, you get Cloudflare's caching, DDoS protection and a free SSL certificate at the edge. Right choice for websites and dashboards
2. DNS only (grey cloud) — Cloudflare only answers the name; visitors connect straight to your server and can see its IP. This is required for things the proxy cannot carry, like an FTP or SFTP server address, SSH, or a mail server hostname — the proxy only handles web traffic (HTTP/HTTPS)

Rule of thumb: web things orange, non-web things grey. If a service stops working the moment you turn the cloud orange, that is the reason — turn it grey and test again.

A new subdomain that opens with a browser security warning is almost always an SSL setting, not a DNS mistake:

1. In Cloudflare go to SSL/TLS → Overview and choose Full or Full (Strict). Full (Strict) is the correct long-term setting when your server has its own valid certificate
2. Avoid Flexible unless you have no other option — it encrypts only half the journey and is a common cause of redirect loops
3. If the subdomain is Proxied, Cloudflare's free Universal SSL covers your root domain and first-level subdomains like blog.example.com. Deeper names like app.blog.example.com are NOT covered by the free Universal certificate — a frequent surprise, so keep names one level deep
4. DNS-only subdomains get no Cloudflare certificate at all — that server must carry its own (a free Let's Encrypt certificate does the job)

The video shows this method used for home servers, NAS boxes, FTP/SFTP and dashboards, so the honest notes for that use:

1. Your home IP must be public and reachable — if your internet provider puts you behind CGNAT, no DNS record can make your home server reachable from outside; check this before blaming DNS
2. Home IPs change. When yours changes, update the A record's IP — that is the whole maintenance of this method
3. Use DNS only for FTP, SFTP and SSH style subdomains, and Proxied only for web dashboards
4. Never expose a NAS or dashboard login page to the whole internet without a strong password — a subdomain makes something reachable, not safe