Cloudflare Reviews

Cloudflare is mostly a CDN service plus DDoS protection, but they are now offering services like cloud object storage, which AWS under S3. Cloudflare provides a cheaper alternative. They also have zero trust and load-balancing services. 

Cloudflare DNS is widely used, and it's good for websites. If we use Cloudflare DNS and update one record, it updates in their office instantly.

Cloudflare's free plan is limited to 5,000 records for their free plan. They should increase that. For example, if I create a domain called abc.com and a subdomain called a.abc.com, my record count will be two. I can make a maximum of 5,000 subdomains. However, if we use our own DNS hosted on another provider, there is no limit. Their free plan also lacks name server customization. 

I've used Cloudflare DNS for one year.

Last year, the service went down, but it was only 49 minutes.  

Setting up Cloudflare DNS is easy. They have a simple web interface and also an API for advanced users. 

We use the free version of CloudFlare

I rate CloudFlare DNS nine out of 10. I would recommend it. It's the fastest DNS service. 

I use it for my private work network and Office 365 network for both DNS and access through Cloudflare.

Its ease of integration with Office 365 and the fact that it's a good product compared to what I had before.

An integrated SSO would be nice, as well as the ability to integrate with the on-site active directory instead of just AD through Azure AD.

I have been using Cloudflare DNS for two years. 

Their documentation is awesome, so I haven't had to deal with their tech support before. I would rate my experience with customer service as excellent, maybe an eight or nine out of ten.

Positive

I would say try it out, and if you like it, use it. I would rate it very good, a ten out of ten. 

1. CDN
2. Security

One of my projects, ancient-origins.net, gets 3 million views per month, so serving the page fast is an important element. Using the CDN of Cloudflare improved the speed significantly, reducing the page loading times to appropriate levels. Additionally their security features make sure to block attacks on our site.

Their CDN features, although good, still lack in speed in comparison to their competitors (e.g. Incapsula, MaxCDN, etc.).

I've been using it for almost one year.

No issues with the deployment. Their process is pretty simple and fast.

Yes, there were a few times when some of their CDN nodes would fail, creating serious speed issues with the site without any warning or notification from their side. Also, many times, even if our server is working properly, Cloudflare would report it as being down.

No scalability issues so far.

I would give them a 9/10. They respond pretty fast to requests.

I would give an 8/10 to their technical support. We haven’t had many issues, but when we do, it appears that sometimes they are not willing to look deeper into them to try and find a solution.

We used MaxCDN, but we switched to Cloudflare because MaxCDN lacks security features.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward and doesn’t require any technical knowledge, since everything is done on their site.

The implementation was done in-house, since it is a simple process.

This is difficult to calculate; however, improving the page loading speed always impacts the traffic on a site positively.

The original setup cost was zero, and the monthly cost is around $30 for three sites using the Business Cloudflare plan.

We evaluated MaxCDN and Incapsula.

If your budget is low, then Cloudflare is the only cost effective solution, at least to begin with. The best combination of CDN and security features at a low price. At a slightly higher budget, Incapsula may be a better solution especially since they provide a faster CDN and better security features.

I had one design that I did, and it was related to Cloudflare API Gateway. Anything that comes in the front-end URL was basically something to deal with Cloudflare API gateway. Based on separations required in Cloudflare DNS, I set the traffic manager and then manage areas, like configuration, DDoS, and all such related areas. The aforementioned area helps manage the traffic that comes in, the load of the application, how you want to secure access and authentication, and then have the authorization.

In Cloudflare DNS, I use all the service modules the tool offers. The use cases attached to the solution can be related to areas like performance checks, protection, security modules, scalability, and allocation frequency of checking DNS.

The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security.

Cloudflare DNS is still a new tool in the market. I haven't come across any issues with the product. I did two designs with the help of Apigee and Cloudflare. I had done one design with the help of Apigee, while the other one was done with Cloudflare. In a lot of organizations, when it comes to the area of design, companies don't understand the broader perspective of what I try to do, how I try to do it or try to understand the right configuration needed. Areas like how assessment, discovery, and payload are dealt with and how it all comes into your organization can be considered when trying to make suggestions to Cloudflare for improvements. The improvements to be made in the tool can be based on your thought process instead of trying to bring up something that is over-prescribed or over-allocated by others, which won't make sense. Based on the functional requirements of every user of the tool, improvements need to be made to the product.

I have experience with Cloudflare DNS.

Initially, I used to use Apigee. Cloudflare DNS was chosen since management made a business decision to deal with the security requirements. Cloudflare DNS has a lot of different compliances and regulations, and related areas, like authentication and authorization, are introduced in the tool. Things change constantly in the product.

When it comes to the product's initial setup phase, I have dealt with a lot of complexity when it comes to different applications, especially with the ones where I had to deal with AWS. Users need to bundle their applications, especially when there are critical applications, which may range from platinum, gold, silver, or bronze applications. Users need a landing zone, and they need to put everything in one particular landing zone, making it one of the Year's good use cases of the product to which a lot of people don't pay much attention; because of this, I feel it is my vision related to the product. I feel the companies need to see what the product can offer rather than just using the tool straight out of the box.

In every organization, there is a security component involved, and as long as the tool meets the requirements of the security layers in an environment, the product's setup phase is somewhat straightforward, but I am sure you could do a lot of different stuff with the tool. I don't think the setup process is complex, considering just a single source when it comes to the product, which revolves around the area of security. Based on the workload, users can make the setup process complex. I don't like straightforward processes, especially when dealing with critical applications that need to be designed in a particular way and could be totally different from the other applications in an environment. I am the type of person who likes to make the setup process more complicated and unique. When it comes to the setup process, users can choose different avenues to ensure that the resource separation is consistent in the setup phase.

Cloudflare is designed to offer API Gateway, Traffic Acceleration, and DNS. Based on your pages and URL performance, Apigee is a solution you can use, and you could tie that in either AWS, Google, or Azure, or if you are making a SaaS application going through a front-end web component and have a pass-through gateway.

Cloudflare DNS is a pretty solid product as it is not tied to any cloud environment.

I rate the overall tool around seven or eight out of ten.

The first use case was to administer the main domain of the organization where I worked.

We have the entire registration process for the main domain and its subdomains, and we create web application firewall (WAF) and load balancer rules.

We did a major MX migration from Google to Microsoft, and doing that with Cloudflare has given us immense security.

This domain also started to visualize improper accesses from other countries and monitor where the main accesses came from.

We made some blocks of administrator sites that only be accessed by a specific IP.

Cloudflare's solution brought us more agility, security, and confidence in managing the environment.

We have seen that there are very few failures or almost none that occur on the Cloudflare servers, and if they occur, the accesses are distributed to another region.

We like that we have a view of where the main accesses came from, such as the main countries, and also what was being blocked by the web application firewall (WAF)

Creating a rule to limit some admin access also improved the security and integrity of our environment.

The features we used the most were the web application firewall and the load balancer. These two services were essential for our structure.

The web application firewall brought us good security and a view of the accesses/blocks of the entire domain and subdomain that were accessed both by region (country) and IPs.

As for the load balancer, it did its job perfectly. Our scenario consisted of two web servers in different allocations to control access demands, and the load balancer did the job as expected, bringing security and stability to access points.

Cloudflare could offer a better view or maybe dashboards of the main resources used in the client.

For example, it could be possible to create dashboards and reports of the main accesses allowed or blocked by the web application firewall. It would also be nice to bring information on the client's screen about the status of the services according to the hosted region.

Of the services that I use, this is the part that I miss. Other services are in agreement and serving me perfectly as they should be.

I've been using Cloudflare for about three or four years.

The product helps to create DNS records and connect Cloudflare to the original server. You can also do load balancing configuration. I work with SaaS solutions. 

In a single product and with minimal costs, you can get multiple features. 

The most valuable feature of the solution is external DNS. It is also very secure. They have their own main server and once you configure it, the product takes care of everything. There are no issues in resolving IPs and low latency is also present. 

The tool needs to improve caching of servers. The product needs to include PFX certificate as well. 

I am using the product for one year. 

The tool is stable. 

The product is scalable and my company has around 5000 users for the tool. 

The product's support needs to be improved since they do not provide proper answers in the required time. 

Neutral

To deploy the solution, you need to enable the Cloudflare dashboard and create a container. After creating the container, you can create Cloudflare DNS records. You need to have Cloudflare CDN to reach your internal servers. The product's deployment will be lengthier for less experienced resources. It takes about 24 hours to complete the deployment process. 

The product's pricing is minimal compared to other products. 

The product requires maintenance from time to time. I would rate the product a seven out of ten. 

We use the solution for all our products hosted on Azure.

The solution is stable, and the DNS servers are simple to use.

Cloudflare should add more documentation and pricing to the cloud version.

I have been using Cloudflare DNS for nine years, since 2014.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

We never faced any problems with scalability. We’ve 100-200 users using the solution.

The initial setup is straightforward and takes 15-20 minutes to complete if you want to start a new one. 

Deployment is pretty straightforward when you take a domain. You need to set the DNS to Cloudflare. Once that is done, it hardly takes one or two minutes to take effect. We first pointed to Cloudflare as our DNS. From there, it took a pretty simple configuration for our web browser.

We deployed the solution by ourselves.

We are using the free tier of the solution.

When we started, Cloudflare was the best solution for us. We were using the free service, and it was working well. We never considered switching to Azure DNS because Cloudflare met our needs. Azure DNS has improved recently, and they now offer free SSL domain registration on App Services.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

The API gives us the ability to remote control our DNS settings. With many platforms, such as PF-Sense integrating with CloudFlare, it’s an invaluable tool for things such as Dynamic DNS, Let’s Encrypt DNS-01 Challenge, or even as a rapid counter-measure when traffic diversion is needed.

The speed of everything CloudFlare is extreme. The UI is fast, responsive, and updates seem to be pretty much instant. But the biggest benefit, when mentioning speed, is that you can teach anyone in less than 20 minutes how to use it. This even includes your drunken janitor. Try that with AWS.

The Simplicity. When I mention the simplicity, it’s because of the limited information you are presented with at every screen. Although I hate the endless scrolling when searching for a function, I fully understand that less tech-savvy individuals probably have an easier time dealing with less information being thrown at them as they sift through the pile of setting CloudFlare offers. The features, functions, and terminology are also very well and clearly explained, if not almost cut out in cardboard for the reader to understand.

CloudFlare made it easier for us to manage our client’s DNS. With their outstanding UI, we have been able to reduce human errors and get a better overview of our DNS and security.

• We need templates and profiles badly for the whole setup and multi-user support with rights management.
• They need to fix their extensions and integrations faster.
• They need to add more sub-level API keys.

I have used CloudFlare for some twenty months.

We did have stability issues a few times, but it’s hard to tell. They don’t always seem open about disclosing it.

We never had scalability issues.

I rate technical support quite badly. The support person had a hard time understanding my issue.

But to be fair, we gave up on support from major enterprises a long time ago.

Now we don’t even bother. It simply takes too long time to get escalated to Level-1 support where you can have a meaningful conversation.

We had many previous solutions and that’s why we switched.

The setup was super simple, and it still is.

We don’t have advice, since we mostly rely on their free services such as DNS hosting. In general, their pricing is fair, but the price scaling is way too steep. For example, to go from 200 to 5000 dollars does not make any sense at all.

I believe I reviewed Radware for scrubbing and GratisDNS for DNS.

• Never put your eggs in one basket. Make sure that you have a contingency plan for DNS.
• Make sure that you can rapidly move domains off CloudFlare. This can be done with scripting from your existing registrar, or with GoDaddy/CFR/Route53, which is a good triangle for speedy moves.
• Keep an eye on GEO statistics on your important domains and make sure that you are able to provide a quick regional alternative.
• Spread out domains over multiple accounts and different CloudFlare Servers.
• Route53 is a good alternative to CloudFlare.