[williamtwild]

>I've been forced to migrate the project and its (few) users to a completely different domain. I cannot inconvenience users by bouncing them back and forth, so the domain Cloudflare ruined for me is now effectively lost, as is the "branding" of the project which was reflected in the domain's name.

If this was that important then you should not have used the free plan.

[medguru]

Why do you presume the issue would have gotten immediate attention for the sum of $20? Customers don't make Cloudflare's terms, and customers didn't decide for Cloudflare to offer a free plan with zero markup for their registrar operations.

There is by users' own hands no way out of domain registration issues like these, sooner than 30-45 days when the domain can be transferred once again. Those who decide to offer registrar services, even for free, must hold some liability towards the users and the ecosystem and offer some support to make sure their product actually works.

[Spunkie]

They are also the only domain registrar that I've interacted with this decade that does not allow you to set your own nameservers. Effectively locking you into using cloudflare DNS and related services until you can transfer again.

Its frankly, disgusting.