← All guides
Your Web Developer

Set up your Cloudflare account

This guide will help you create your own Cloudflare account, secure it, and give us the access we need to set up and manage your website. You will remain the account owner at all times.

⏱ About 5–10 minutes 🔐 No password sharing ✓ You keep ownership

Before you start

We recommend creating the Cloudflare account using an email address owned by your business, rather than an employee's personal address. If you have one available, an address such as cloudflare@yourcompany.co.uk or admin@yourcompany.co.uk is ideal.

Please don't send us your password. Cloudflare lets you invite us as a separate account member, so we can do our work without ever needing your login details.
1
Create your account

Sign up to Cloudflare

Open Cloudflare's sign-up page and create an account using your business email address. Choose a strong, unique password.

Verify your email address. Cloudflare will send you a verification email after sign-up. Please complete that step before continuing.
Create your account
Enter your business email address and choose a secure password.
Email address cloudflare@yourcompany.co.uk
Password ••••••••••••••••

Example screen — Cloudflare's exact layout may change slightly over time.

2
Secure the account

Enable two-factor authentication

Once you're signed in, open your profile and go to My Profile → Authentication. Add a two-factor authentication method.

Recommended: an authenticator app, security key, or device authenticator.
Save your backup/recovery codes somewhere secure.
Why this matters Cloudflare can control your domain's DNS and website traffic, so protecting the account with more than just a password is important.
Preferences Authentication API Tokens Sessions

Authentication

Configure the ways you sign in and protect your account.

Two-factor authentication
Add an additional security method to your account.
Add authentication method

Illustrated guide to the relevant area of Cloudflare's account settings.

3
Give us access

Open the Members page

In the Cloudflare dashboard, select your account and open Manage account → Members. Then click Invite members.

Cloudflare Members page showing the Invite members button

Cloudflare's Members screen. Choose Invite members. Image: Cloudflare documentation.

If the screen looks slightly different, look for Manage account and then Members.

4
Choose permissions

Invite us as an Administrator

Enter the email address below, then create a permission policy using the Administrator role.

Invite member YOUR-EMAIL@EXAMPLE.COM
Role Administrator
Scope Your Cloudflare account
You still remain in control. The Administrator role gives us the technical access needed to manage the website and Cloudflare services, but it does not allow us to manage account members or change your billing profile/payment method.

Cloudflare's Administrator role can manage account settings and subscriptions, so only grant this level of access to a developer or agency you trust. You can revoke our access later from the Members page.

Invite members

Add a member and define what they can access.

Email YOUR-EMAIL@EXAMPLE.COM
Scope Account
Role Administrator
Continue to summary

Illustrated example of the choices to make in the invitation screen.

Using Cloudflare for other websites too? If your account already contains unrelated websites or services, please tell us before sending the invite. We may ask you to restrict the scope to only the website(s) we're responsible for.
5
Finish

Review and send the invitation

Click Continue to summary, check the details, and then click Invite.

The invitation email is being sent to YOUR-EMAIL@EXAMPLE.COM.
The role is Administrator.
You have not shared your Cloudflare password with us.
That's it — you're finished. Once the invitation reaches us, we'll accept it and take care of the Cloudflare configuration needed for your website. You don't need to change any DNS settings yourself unless we specifically ask you to.

A note about ownership

The Cloudflare account belongs to your business. Keeping it in your own name means you retain control of your domain and Cloudflare configuration even if you change web developers in the future. Our access can be removed at any time from Manage account → Members.