Domain registrars · Comparison
Cloudflare Registrar vs Squarespace Domains
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Cloudflare Registrar | Squarespace Domains |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceA .com at the registry’s own price, $10.46 a year for registration and renewal alike, with DNS, DNSSEC and email routing included. | Easy to adoptA domain with privacy, DNSSEC, email aliases and forwarding switched on, managed in a simple dashboard, with no website plan required. |
| Overall score | 8.6Best | 6.8 |
| Free option | Paid only | Paid only |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $10.46/yr | $20/yr |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per domain per year, at cost | Per domain per year |
| .com year 1 / renewal | $10.46 / $10.46 | $10 (first-year discount) / $20 |
| 3-year .com cost (scenario) | $31.38, computed | $50, computed |
| .io and .ai | .io $32 year 1, renews $50; .ai $80/yr, 2-year minimum | .io $60 year 1 (list $70); .ai $85, 2-year minimum |
| ICANN fee | Passed through at cost, not itemised | Not mentioned; home page says fees are included |
| Restore (redemption) fee | Varies by TLD; amount not stated | $45 for .com |
| Grace period after expiry | 40 days for most TLDs (FAQ) | 30 days (Squarespace Domains LLC); 40 days for Tucows domains |
| Refund window (new registration) | None; registrations and renewals are final | 5 days for gTLDs; none for .io |
| Nameservers | Cloudflare nameservers only | Squarespace DNS or 2–13 custom nameservers |
| Email forwarding | Free Email Routing, 200 rules | Free, up to 100 aliases, catch-all |
| Domain/DNS API | Registrar API (beta) and DNS API; no spend condition | Reseller API only, for approved resellers |
| 2FA | Security keys (WebAuthn), authenticator app, email | Passkeys and hardware keys, authenticator app, SMS in five countries |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | Company SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022; Registrar not named in the SOC 2 service list | Not stated |
| Registry lock | Enterprise only, through sales | Not stated |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Cloudflare Registrar has the lowest 3-year .com cost here and the same price every year, with the essentials included. The trade-offs are Cloudflare nameservers only, no refunds and no published restore fee. | From its public pages, Squarespace Domains is the most hands-off option here, with protections on by default and a $45 restore fee. A .com renews at $20 after a $10 first year, and bulk tools, DNS export and a customer API are not offered. |
Evidence: Cloudflare Registrar: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Squarespace Domains: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- Cloudflare Registrar.com$10.46/yrRegistration and renewal at the same at-cost price
- WHOIS redaction, DNS and DNSSEC included
- Email Routing and redirects included
- Transfer lock on by default
- Auto-renew on by default
- Squarespace Domains.com$10first yearFirst-year discount (list $20); renews at $20 a year
- Free domain privacy
- DNSSEC on automatically
- Up to 100 email aliases with catch-all
- URL forwarding with SSL
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Cloudflare Registrar 2026-10-16, Squarespace Domains 2026-10-16.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Cloudflare RegistrarSelf-serve sign-up; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (8.6/10).
- Lowest starter price
- Cloudflare Registrar$10.46/yr for the .com renewal (yearly list price) plan.
- Highest overall score
- Cloudflare Registrar8.6/10 (Excellent). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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