How to Point a Subdomain to a Cloudflare Pages Site
If you have a site hosted on Cloudflare Pages and want to serve it from a subdomain on a different domain (also on Cloudflare), here's how.
Part 1: Add a CNAME Record
- Log into the Cloudflare dashboard
- Select your parent domain (e.g.
bytejelly.com) - Go to DNS → Records
- Click Add Record with the following values:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | CNAME |
| Name | your subdomain name |
| Target | your Pages project domain |
| Proxy status | DNS only (grey cloud) |
| TTL | Auto |
- Click Save
Start with proxy status set to grey (DNS only) to avoid SSL conflicts during setup.
Part 2: Add the Custom Domain in Cloudflare Pages
- Go to Workers & Pages in the left sidebar
- Click on your Pages project
- Go to the Custom domains tab
- Click Set up a custom domain
- Enter your full subdomain (e.g.
myapp.bytejelly.com) - Click Continue → Activate domain
Cloudflare will verify the CNAME record and provision SSL automatically. Since both DNS and hosting are on the same Cloudflare account, activation is typically instant but SSL propagation may take a few minutes.
A Note on Proxy Status
When you add the custom domain in Pages, Cloudflare will automatically flip the CNAME from grey (DNS only) to orange (proxied). This is expected and correct — since Cloudflare controls both sides, the proxy works cleanly and gives you CDN and DDoS protection.
You may see a brief 403 error during the few minutes it takes for the SSL certificate to fully provision. Just wait it out.
Verification
Once the custom domain status shows Active in Cloudflare Pages, visit your subdomain in the browser. It should serve the same content as your original Pages domain.