Cloudflare Docs
DNS
Visit DNS on GitHub
Set theme to dark (⇧+D)

Partial (CNAME) setup

A partial (CNAME) setup allows you to use Cloudflare’s reverse proxy while maintaining your primary and authoritative DNS provider.

Use this option to proxy only individual subdomains through Cloudflare’s global edge network when you cannot change your authoritative DNS provider.

​​ How to

​​ Availability

A partial setup is only available to customers on a Business or Enterprise plan.

​​ Limitations

A partial (CNAME) setup requires the proxied hostname to be pointed to Cloudflare via a CNAME record. Since CNAME records are not allowed on the zone apex (example.com), you can only proxy your zone apex to Cloudflare if your authoritative DNS provider supports CNAME Flattening.

If your authoritative DNS provider does not support CNAME Flattening, redirect its traffic — for example, with an .htaccess file — to a subdomain proxied to Cloudflare.