How to transfer a domain — without breaking your website
GoDaddy renews .com at $21.99. Cloudflare renews the same domain at $9.59 — forever, at-cost, no markup. That's $12.40/year saved on every domain you own. Here's exactly how to transfer.
Step 1: Wait for the 60-day lock to expire
ICANN locks every new domain (or every transferred domain) for 60 days. You can't transfer before that — check your registration date.
Step 2: Unlock the domain and get the auth code
In your current registrar (e.g., GoDaddy → My Domains → DNS), turn OFF the 'transfer lock,' then click 'Get authorization code' (also called EPP code). It'll be emailed to you in seconds.
Step 3: Start the transfer at the new registrar
At Cloudflare / Porkbun / Spaceship, search for your domain, paste the auth code, pay the transfer fee (usually $9.59 for .com — which also includes 1 extra year of registration).
Step 4: Approve the transfer email
Within 5 minutes you'll get a confirmation email from the OLD registrar — click 'Approve.' If you skip this, the transfer auto-completes in 5 days.
Step 5: Update nameservers (if needed)
Most transfers preserve DNS records, but Cloudflare requires switching nameservers to theirs. If you do this, point A/CNAME records back to your host (Vercel, Netlify, etc.) right after.
Step 6: Verify everything still works
Visit your site, check email forwarding, check MX records. If anything broke, your old DNS records are usually still cached for 24-48 hours.