Hi [Customer Name],
Unfortunately, you cannot maintain your host's DNS while using Cloudflare, as Cloudflare becomes the authoritative DNS provider and is responsible for managing your domain's DNS settings.
The difference between Cloudflare DNS and services like OpenDNS or Google DNS is that the latter are recursive resolvers — they are used by end users to look up domain names, not to host or manage them.
Think of it this way: Google DNS is like the global phone book, while Cloudflare is the service that publishes your phone number in that book.
If you have any additional questions or need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Thank you,
Cloudflare Support
Thought Process used
authoritative vs recursive DNS, CloudFlare Documentation, whois command