cloudflare.com: Any experience?

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by JohnScott, Oct 28, 2015.

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  1. #1
    I'm looking at https://www.cloudflare.com/overview and wondering if anybody here has any experience with it? If so, is it worth it? It seem to me that they offer quite a bit beyond just a CDN.
     
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    JohnScott, Oct 28, 2015 IP
  2. sarahk

    sarahk iTamer Staff

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    #2
    sarahk, Oct 28, 2015 IP
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  3. #3
    We use it here, and it's fantastic. Literally one of the best services of any sort I've ever run across, ever. And free (we use a paid plan here for some other obscure reasons, but all my other sites are on the free plan). Even get free SSL certificates and all that under the free plan. Like https://shawnhogan.com/ is on the free plan (and with free SSL cert).
     
    digitalpoint, Oct 28, 2015 IP
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  4. JohnScott

    JohnScott Notable Member

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    #4
    Thanks Shawn, that's just the kind of recommendation I need to move forward with it.
     
    JohnScott, Oct 28, 2015 IP
  5. pupul

    pupul Prominent Member

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    #5
    I use Cloudflare for my websites too. Love the freessl. I used to think DP using paid SSL before using cloudflare ssl. :)
     
    pupul, Oct 28, 2015 IP
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  6. Abelo

    Abelo Active Member

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    #6
    Definitely recommendable. We use it for a lot of our clients.
     
    Abelo, Oct 30, 2015 IP
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  7. JohnScott

    JohnScott Notable Member

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    #7
    I hear the recommendations, but do these apply to the CDN only, or the whole shebang?

    SSL, DNS, etc... Seems to be putting a lot of eggs in one basket. That is, being dependent on CloudFlare for quite a bit of one's internet presence.
     
    JohnScott, Oct 30, 2015 IP
  8. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #8
    Truthfully, I'd roll it out slowly if it's your first time using CloudFlare rather than try to change everything with your site at once. Like just get live with the DNS at first (it's easy). Then start routing traffic through it (also easy, you just toggle it on/off for the DNS entry).

    Once you have that (the basics), then maybe start experimenting with other parts. Like the JavaScript/CSS magnification options, SSL, etc. I stay away from the beta features myself and things like "Rocket Loader" just seem like a terrible idea, so I'll never use them (it basically attempts to rewrite *how* your site works on the fly with loading JavaScript and stuff). I'm pretty sure their automated system isn't going to me smarter than I am about how *my* site should work. lol

    If you have a low traffic or test site to mess with first, do that to get yourself familiar with it.

    Personally, I started using them purely for the CDN aspect of it... It's nice to have your static content automatically cached and loaded from the closest geographical data center to the end user (and there's 62 of them now): https://www.cloudflare.com/network-map/

    But we started using other features as well (like the SSL).
     
    digitalpoint, Oct 31, 2015 IP
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  9. HoneyHost

    HoneyHost Member

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    #9
    I love Cloudflare, I use them for most of my sites, Mostly for the CDN Aspect, and it certianly helps with load times, and server load. Im sure it helps larger sites like digital point as well with speed and security.
     
    HoneyHost, Nov 5, 2015 IP
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  10. Ivan S

    Ivan S Member

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    #10
    I use ti for my site (shared godaddy hosting) and it does its job. I can sleep without spending night and fighting with overloads and other server error stuff.
     
    Ivan S, Nov 17, 2015 IP