# Setting up a domain with Cloudflare and GitLab Pages

There are a few free domains that could be acquired via Freenom, such as this one.

# Setting up Cloudflare

This part is entirely optional, though re-routing through Cloudflare has quite a few benefits.

Log into your Cloudflare account and add the domain that was registered on Freenom.
Next, change the 2 DNS nameservers in the Freenom domain panel with the ones Cloudflare provides.

# Configuring DNS Records

The next step would be to configure DNS Records in Cloudflare:

Setup A, TXT, CNAME and MX records At the very least, an A Record with the GitLab IP of 35.185.44.232 and a TXT Record is required.

To setup the TXT record, copy the TXT verification code from GitLab (Settings->Pages) in the form: gitlab-pages-verification-code=98a231c8dd6adbcba8f445c235123b4345 in the Content Field above.

# Configuring Page Rules

Under Page Rules, add:

Forward www to base domain

Make sure to setup the CNAME record pointing www to mustaqim.ml as shown above.

See also: Redirecting www.domain.com to domain.com with Cloudflare

This rule ensures proper redirection from www takes place.

Optional

# Configuring SSL

Under the SSL/TLS tab, select Full as the encryption level. Under Origin Server click Create Certificate and copy the PEM public and private keys to the GitLab pages. You will also need to paste Cloudflare's Origin CA under the public key you just added. Make sure to choose either the RSA or ECDSA one from here

# Email forwarding

You could forward emails sent to your custom domain to your email address. An example of such a service is ImprovMX. This is not required if you setup your own email server.