Cloudflare Reviews

Cloudflare is typically a firewall. There are several editions available, such as the free edition.

Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.

The pricing could be improved.

I have been using Cloudflare for one year.

The product is stable.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

The solution’s scalability is good.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

We never need to contact customer service.

The initial setup is straightforward and takes a few hours. One person can do that.

​I did the deployment myself as a solution architect.

You might be on the free edition, depending on your chosen edition. With the free edition, you receive the top ten protection services.

If Microsoft offered something similar to Cloudflare at the same price, it would be much better because you're already on Azure utilizing resources for CI/CD and transitioning to Cloudflare. From the most basic functionalities to the highest level, they are all awesome if you prevent unauthorized access to your website data through penetration testing.

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

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. 

I use Cloudflare to secure my own websites and servers since I use the proxy functionality to hide my website/server IP. Also, I like to use Cloudflare DNS manager. I think it's simple and easy to use.

I did use Cloudflare as a freelancer or for my personal projects. So I made some websites, and I recommended my freelance customers to use Cloudflare for their DNS management. Also, I did use it in one organization. It was a startup, and it was me and my friend working there, so I did recommend the startup owner to use Cloudflare because of caching functionalities that could speed up your websites and so on.

The most valuable feature of the solution is the proxy, so I can hide my servers. So no one can scan them, especially for port scanning, since we were hacked once. I did buy a VPS server, and I was just getting started. So I started MongoDB and left the port open. Someone scanned the website and saw the open port, and since I was just starting, I didn't set a password. He managed to get in, and he locked the database and locked all the data (ransomware). When using Cloudflare, I was sure that no one knew my real server IP address.

I couldn't think of buying it since I am from Tunisia. We have really strict limitations to buying internationally. So our bank cards are available only in Tunisia. When you own a company, the bank allows you to buy things from outside of Tunisia. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to buy Cloudflare in my country. The aforementioned details can be considered for improvement.

I have been using Cloudflare for two or three years. Also, I am using the free plan version.

I rate its stability a ten out of ten.

I rate its scalability a ten out of ten because I had no issues with it. Also, it was fast when updating my DNS records. So, that's why I always recommend it to my friends and organizations I deal with.

I have plans to increase the usage of the solution.

I have never contacted Cloudflare's support team.

Positive

The initial setup was really simple and user friendly.

I did not evaluate other options. I found Cloudflare on a YouTube tutorial. So I tried it and liked it, and I never even thought about looking for something else.

I was using the free plan, and mainly, I was using it for DNS management as it was simple. When I buy a new domain, I don't use the main DNS management system. Also, I use it for IP protection. I didn't have the time to really use much of the solution. As far as I know, it's all good. I did see a new feature, but I didn't really manage to get it. I didn't use it.

I would definitely recommend it to those planning to use it.

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

We primarily use Cloudflare DNS as a content delivery network (CDN) and for its free DNS service. Additionally, it provides us with web application firewall (WAF) control, caching control, and security measures against bot attacks. These features are readily available, and that's why we use Cloudflare.

The best feature, in my opinion, is the caching capability. Even when there is a high load on our servers, Cloudflare is able to cache the data and serve it to users, ensuring they can still access the website. Additionally, Cloudflare only forwards requests to our servers when new information is needed, which helps offload the server's workload. That's what I find most valuable about Cloudflare.

We have noticed multiple instances where Cloudflare falsely indicates that our servers are down, even when there is no actual load on them. This makes it challenging for us to identify the exact issue. 

Another drawback we've experienced is with IP masking. When our website is accessed through a VPN, the access logs record Cloudflare IPs, which makes it difficult to determine which IPs are impacting the website's load. These are the major challenges we face.

In future releases, one thing that would be great is if Cloudflare could provide basic WAF rules and security recommendations based on website scanning. You could submit your website, and it would generate a list of security measures that should be implemented for your website and other web applications. That would be highly valuable.

We have been using it for the past year. The domains and servers are hosted on AWS cloud.

In my experience, Cloudflare has proven to be quite reliable.

We haven't fully explored the scalability aspect yet. Currently, we are using the free version and still exploring its features and functionalities. Once we've gone through everything and if we feel the need, we might consider upgrading to the pro plan or the enterprise-level functionalities.

We haven't needed to contact them so far. Managing DNS on multiple other platforms was relatively easy for me, so I didn't require support from Cloudflare. However, I did reach out to them once regarding SSL and Cloudflare certificate-related concerns, but I'm still unsure about that aspect. 

Before using Cloudflare DNS, our domains were with GoDaddy, and we were managing our DNS there. 

It was my decision to move our website to a CDN, and I chose Cloudflare because it is an open-source tool that could provide the solution we needed.

The DNS setup itself was relatively easy, but exploring and understanding the other options and features of Cloudflare was a bit challenging initially. However, after reading the documentation and doing some research, I was able to grasp how everything works, and it became much smoother to navigate and utilize those functionalities.

In my organization, I'm the one responsible for all DNS management, and most of the DNS is managed through Cloudflare.

We are using the free version.

I would definitely recommend them to use Cloudflare. If someone has basic knowledge of DNS, they would be able to use Cloudflare. However, if they want to utilize advanced functionalities like caching, bot controls, and website security, they can leverage their existing knowledge and delve into those areas. It's relatively easier, but some basic research and exploration would be beneficial.

I would give it an eight because there are a few features with unclear documentation, which makes it difficult to understand them. However, overall, the majority of features are easy to grasp and navigate, so I would give Cloudflare an eight.

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. 

Cloudflare is used for service protection. We use this solution as a managed service for our end user customers, such as banking users for protection.

The most valuable feature of Cloudflare is the GUI. You are able to control the solution very well through the interface. There is a lot of functionality that is embedded in the service.

Cloudflare does not have an on-premise solution. If they had different approaches they could be better suited to accommodate more customers, such as on-premise and hybrid deployments. For example, hybrid deployments would be useful where you could move the traffic from the enterprise to the cloud.

I have been using Cloudflare for approximately five months.

There were a few months when we were doing some updates and there were some issues with the stability. However, the one or two times we had problems it is not enough to say that it is not a stable solution in general.

I rate the stability of Cloudflare an eight out of ten.

The solution can scale well.

I rate the scalability of Cloudflare an eight out of ten.

The technical support from the vendor could be better.

The support is provided online and most of the technical advice is provided by an open community. The level of support is not enough. For example, if you start using this solution and do not have a lab there needs to be someone that can speed up your process. In this case, the community is not enough, it could be better.

I rate the support from Cloudflare a six out of ten.

Neutral

The initial setup was stressful. You have to tune the configuration for the integration which is important to have it done correctly.

The solution has many features but there are ones that you need to pay for. Sometimes you have to find out which is available for free and which you have to pay for.

Most of the vendors are building new functionality and are moving in the same direction.

I rate Cloudflare an eight out of ten.

Our company provides the solution to customers who need website load balancing or DDoS protection. Customers with minimal traffic use the Business Plan and customers with a huge amount of traffic use the Enterprise Plan. 

We currently have thirty customers on the Business Plan and three customers on the Enterprise Plan. 

The solution provides good load balancing and protection against DDoS attacks. 

The solution should expand its learning portal for partners to include a few demo accounts for learning the product and developing knowledge or technical expertise. 

Support response time could be improved. 

I have been using the solution for one year. 

The solution is stable, has curbing centers in Pakistan, and is widely used. 

The solution is scalable to each customer's needs. For example, you can scale up if you have two domains and want to add a third. It is easy to incorporate scaling. 

The technical support response time for Business Plan customers could be reduced. Most companies opt for this cost-effective plan but they should receive the same service as the Enterprise Plan. Currently, response time for Business Plan customers is six to eight hours and that should be minimized. 

I rate support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

The solution is easy to setup and share with customers. We categorize a customer's needs and recommend the best plan based on traffic and whether they need load balancing, bot management, routing, and unlimited bandwidth.  

We implement the solution for our customers. Deployment includes one project manager and one support technician. 

The solution is expensive when compared to other products but offers unlimited bandwidth. 

I rate the licensing options an eight out of ten. 

The solution is a great fit for customers who want unlimited bandwidth. 

Competitors such as Akamai have strict options for bandwidth so might not be a good fit. 

I recommend the solution for customers who don't yet have an idea how much bandwidth they need or who anticipate upscaling in a few months. 

I rate the solution an 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.