.com or .es: which should I choose?

If most of your customers are in Spain, a .es tells them where you are; a .com doesn’t tie you to any country. Check that both are free before deciding and, if the budget allows, keep both.

Can I move my .es to Cloudflare?

Not the registration: Cloudflare doesn’t support .es. You can still use Cloudflare’s DNS by pointing the domain’s nameservers there, and that’s all the site and the email guide need.

Why does the price go up in the second year?

Some registrars discount the first year and charge their standard price at renewal. That’s why the column to read is the renewal one; at Cloudflare and at DonDominio, the two prices match.

What happens if a .es isn’t renewed?

Once it expires, Red.es deactivates it and leaves a few days for payment. If nobody pays, it’s cancelled 10 days after the expiry date and becomes free for anyone to register.

Can the name have an ñ or an accent?

Not at Cloudflare, which doesn’t support internationalised domain names. A .es can include characters such as ñ at registrars that offer them. If you register one, think about the plain spelling too, since many keyboards have no ñ key.

Your own domain: what it costs, where to buy it, how to connect it

This is for anyone whose site already works at a temporary address, like your-name.pages.dev, and who wants it at yourbusiness.com. The steps use Cloudflare, which is also where the free publishing guide puts your site, but the prices and pitfalls here apply wherever you buy.

Time: 10 minutes, and a little while for it to spread
Cost: About €7–16 a year before VAT, depending on the ending and the registrar — check what the renewal costs too

You rent a domain by the year. The first year is often discounted, so the number worth comparing is the renewal price, the one you’ll pay every year after.

Buying one takes a few minutes. Connecting a domain you bought elsewhere means changing its nameservers, and Cloudflare says that can take up to 24 hours.

Before you start

Two or three versions of the name in case your first choice is taken, spelled without accents or ñ if you’re buying at Cloudflare, which doesn’t register internationalised names.
Your contact details for the registration, typed without accented letters: Cloudflare accepts only plain ASCII characters there.
For a .es, your ID or tax number (DNI, NIE, NIF or an equivalent document), which the registry asks of every holder.
If you already own the domain, the login for the company you bought it from, and whether DNSSEC is switched on there.
If the domain already receives email, a note of its MX records, so mail keeps arriving after the move.

Step by step: your own address (yourbusiness.com)

No domain yet: in Cloudflare open Domain registration → Register domains, search for the name and buy it. (Some endings, like .es, aren’t sold there: buy those at a registrar such as DonDominio or Arsys, then follow the next step.)
A domain bought elsewhere: in Cloudflare choose Onboard a domain. At the company you bought it from, first turn DNSSEC off if it’s on, then change the domain’s nameservers to the two Cloudflare gives you. It can take up to 24 hours.
Connect it: Workers & Pages → your project → Custom domains → Set up a domain → type yourbusiness.com → confirm. Cloudflare makes the record and the certificate (HTTPS) itself.

At the end: Your site answers at yourbusiness.com.

Connect the domain in the project first, and only then touch any DNS record by hand: a record added before makes the site fail to load.

What a domain costs, and where

At Cloudflare, a .com costs $10.46 a year and renews at the same price. Cloudflare adds no margin: it charges what the registry and ICANN charge, and it lists its prices in dollars.

That figure is about to change. Verisign, which runs .com, has announced that its fee rises from $10.26 to $10.97 a year on 1 November 2026, for new registrations and renewals alike.

Cloudflare doesn’t sell .es. You buy it from a registrar accredited for .es, or directly from Red.es, which runs Spain’s registry. DonDominio lists .es at €6.95 a year plus VAT, the same to register as to renew. Arsys charges €1 plus VAT for the first year and €25 plus VAT for each renewal.

The same two registrars also sell .com: DonDominio at €15.95 a year plus VAT, and Arsys at €10 for the first year and €25 at renewal, both plus VAT. Arsys’s own price page explains the gap: registration usually carries a first-year promotion, and renewal is the standard yearly price.

What the WHOIS shows about you

WHOIS is the public record of who holds each domain. Cloudflare redacts your personal details there for free wherever the registry allows it; your state or province and your country stay visible.

A .es is different. Its registry shows the holder’s name even when that’s a private person, and privacy services can’t hide it. Your ID number isn’t published.

What stops a new domain from loading

DNSSEC left on. If DNSSEC is active at your registrar, switch it off before changing the nameservers: Cloudflare warns that otherwise the domain can become unreachable. Once the domain is active, you can turn it back on through Cloudflare.

Records lost in the move. When you onboard a domain, Cloudflare scans for its existing DNS records but doesn’t promise to find them all. Go through the list, above all the MX records if the domain handles email.

A 522 error. Cloudflare documents it for a CNAME added by hand, pointing at the .pages.dev address, before the domain was connected in the project.

No certificate. If the domain has CAA records that don’t allow the authorities Cloudflare uses, the HTTPS certificate can’t be issued; Cloudflare’s docs list the records to add.

An email you never verified. ICANN requires the registrant’s email to be verified. For a domain bought at Cloudflare, until you do, the domain is put on hold and its nameservers are swapped for parking ones.

www forgotten. Connecting yourbusiness.com doesn’t cover www.yourbusiness.com. Add it as a second custom domain, or redirect it to the main address as Cloudflare’s docs describe.

Keeping it

Cloudflare switches auto-renew on for every registration. Leave it on and keep the card on file up to date. A domain registered there must use Cloudflare’s nameservers for as long as it stays.

Questions

.com or .es: which should I choose?: If most of your customers are in Spain, a .es tells them where you are; a .com doesn’t tie you to any country. Check that both are free before deciding and, if the budget allows, keep both.
Can I move my .es to Cloudflare?: Not the registration: Cloudflare doesn’t support .es. You can still use Cloudflare’s DNS by pointing the domain’s nameservers there, and that’s all the site and the email guide need.
Why does the price go up in the second year?: Some registrars discount the first year and charge their standard price at renewal. That’s why the column to read is the renewal one; at Cloudflare and at DonDominio, the two prices match.
What happens if a .es isn’t renewed?: Once it expires, Red.es deactivates it and leaves a few days for payment. If nobody pays, it’s cancelled 10 days after the expiry date and becomes free for anyone to register.
Can the name have an ñ or an accent?: Not at Cloudflare, which doesn’t support internationalised domain names. A .es can include characters such as ñ at registrars that offer them. If you register one, think about the plain spelling too, since many keyboards have no ñ key.