Roles of Porkbun, Cloudflare, and GitHub - LawtonChilesRedCrossClub/website GitHub Wiki

🗂 Roles of Porkbun, Cloudflare, and GitHub

This page explains the role of each service in managing the LCHS Red Cross Club website.
It prevents confusion about where to update records or settings.

🔑 Porkbun — Registrar

  • Main job: Owns the domain name (lchsredcross.org).
  • Handles:
    • Domain registration and renewal (billing).
    • Delegation of nameservers (pointing to Cloudflare).
    • DNSSEC DS record (copied from Cloudflare).
  • Does NOT handle:
    • Day‑to‑day DNS records (CNAME, A).
    • SSL certificates.
    • Redirect rules.

👉 In Porkbun, you should see 0 DNS records set once Cloudflare nameservers are active. That’s correct.

☁️ Cloudflare — DNS & Security

  • Main job: Manages DNS records and adds security features.
  • Handles:
    • DNS records (CNAME www, A records for root).
    • DNSSEC key (must be copied to Porkbun).
    • SSL/TLS settings (Full mode).
    • Redirect rules (HTTP→HTTPS, root→WWW).
  • Does NOT handle:
    • Domain registration or renewal.
    • Hosting the actual website files.

👉 Cloudflare is where the web team will spend most time managing domain records and HTTPS.

🖥 GitHub Pages — Hosting

  • Main job: Hosts and serves the website content.
  • Handles:
    • All website files (HTML, CSS, JS, images).
    • Custom domain linking (www.lchsredcross.org).
    • HTTPS certificate issuance (via Let’s Encrypt).
  • Does NOT handle:
    • Domain ownership (Porkbun).
    • DNS management (Cloudflare).
    • Billing.

👉 GitHub only needs the site repository and the custom domain set correctly.

🚦 Summary Flow

  1. Porkbun = domain registrar + billing.
    • Points nameservers to Cloudflare.
  2. Cloudflare = DNS manager + HTTPS/redirect security.
    • Directs traffic to GitHub Pages.
  3. GitHub Pages = website host.

✅ Rule of thumb:

  • For billing → Porkbun
  • For DNS/security → Cloudflare
  • For site content → GitHub