Namecheap domain forwarding with TLS/SSL and HTTPS support, via Cloudflare

Apologies for the super long title, but I just wanted to do a quick write-up for anybody that might be in the same situation as I was just a few days ago trying to wrap my brain around why basic domain forwarding via Namecheap wasn’t working correctly.

I use Namecheap as a domain registrar and don’t really use it for anything else like hosting services. When I have an idea for something, I generally buy the domain and forward it here if I haven’t exactly flushed out the idea yet. I know I don’t need to forward it anywhere, but I like doing it. But lately Namecheap has been having some forwarding issues because their basic forwarding service does not include a security certificate, which means forwarding to an HTTPS domain (as is common now) creates a huge lag and hang-up in the forwarding process.

I solved this by using Cloudflare’s free DNS service which includes a free SSL/TLS certificate.

Essentially, I removed Namecheap’s DNS servers entirely from the equation since their free service was not using a secure certificate and moved domain forwarding and email forwarding over to Cloudflare, all at no additional cost. I had no idea this was even a thing.

No transfer of domain registrar needed to take place. You just tell Cloudflare to assume handling of the DNS records and Cloudflare basically does the rest. After you add a domain, you get pretty in-depth analytics about your domain being forwarded. The same applies to emails and catch-all email accounts to with that domain.

Cloudflare’s options are quite extensive, but if you’re like me and just need a domain forwarding service WITH a SSL/TLS certificate at no charge, this is a perfect solution.