---
title: Cloudflare as Secondary · Cloudflare DNS docs
description: With incoming zone transfers, you can keep your primary DNS provider and use Cloudflare as a secondary DNS provider.
lastUpdated: 2024-09-20T08:42:16.000Z
source_url:
  html: https://8ed70e57.preview.developers.cloudflare.com/dns/zone-setups/zone-transfers/cloudflare-as-secondary/index.md
  md: https://8ed70e57.preview.developers.cloudflare.com/dns/zone-setups/zone-transfers/cloudflare-as-secondary/
---

With incoming zone transfers, you can keep your primary DNS provider and use Cloudflare as a secondary DNS provider.

When you make edits in your primary DNS provider, those DNS records will be transferred from your primary DNS provider to Cloudflare via zone transfer using [AXFR](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5936) or [IXFR](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1995).

```mermaid
flowchart LR
accTitle: Cloudflare as Secondary DNS
A((Zone Admin)) --DNS record <br /> management--> B[Primary DNS <br /> provider]
B --Zone transfer--> C[Cloudflare <br /> DNS]
B & C <--DNS lookups--> D[Resolver] <--DNS lookups--> E((User))
```

## How to

* [Set up incoming zone transfers](https://developers.cloudflare.com/dns/zone-setups/zone-transfers/cloudflare-as-secondary/setup/)
* Proxy traffic through Cloudflare with [Secondary DNS Override](https://developers.cloudflare.com/dns/zone-setups/zone-transfers/cloudflare-as-secondary/proxy-traffic/)

## Availability

Secondary DNS is only available to Enterprise customers. For more details on activation and pricing, contact your account team.

## Limitations

At this time, you cannot convert a secondary zone to a primary zone.
