What Is Cloudflare and Why You Should Use It?

Cloudflare launched in 2009 to help websites serve their content more quickly and more securely than ever before. Today, Cloudflare powers about 4% of the Internet’s requests, serving more than 10 billion pages per month, and it has developed a reputation as the next-generation web performance and security platform. But how does Cloudflare work? And how can you use it to help your website? Let’s dig into that topic below.

What is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare is a content delivery network and web security service that was founded in 2009. They protect against malicious attacks, DDOS, and other forms of cyber-attacks. It has grown to be the largest CDN on the internet and they are currently protecting about 20% of the internet.

Cloudflare provides security, performance, and reliability to its customers. Their services are available for use by any website or web application without the need for any additional hardware or software implementation.

How Does Cloudflare Speed Up Your Website?

Cloudflare is speeding up your website by caching it and serving it through CDN (Content delivery network) locations nearest the visitor. As of 2019, Cloudflare wrote in a blog post that they are now present in 193 cities spread over 90 countries around the world (source). Already in 2020, we saw another post stating that they are now present in over 200 different cities around the world.

When someone types in your website’s URL the request will be sent to Cloudflare. From here the request will be handled by a proprietary technology called Anycast which will route the visitor to the nearest data center. There will be stored a cached version of your website inside that data center which will be served to the visitor. Using this method causes your website to show about twice as fast in some locations, because of the shorter travel distance. A rule of thumb is that the longer travel, the longer time it takes, and when the distance can be shortened we shorten that time.

Why Should You Use Cloudflare?

Convinced yet? Let’s wrap up the benefits of Cloudflare hosting, showcasing its value not just for you, your visitors, and your website, but for the environment too.

Sustainable and eco-friendly:

• Cloudflare runs on 100% renewable energy, minimizing its carbon footprint.
• With ambitious goals, they aim to completely neutralize their past carbon emissions by 2025.

Performance boost:

• Experience lightning-fast website loading thanks to a global network of 200+ data centers.

Enhanced security:

• Rest easy knowing your website is protected from DDoS attacks and other threats with Cloudflare’s robust security features.

Affordable access:

• Get started with Cloudflare for free, with low-cost subscription options for advanced features.

Domain extras:

• Take advantage of free email forwarding with your own domain name.

Leading the green shift:

• Cloudflare partners with The Green Web Foundation to push for a fossil-free internet by 2030.

Effortless development with Cloudflare Pages:

• Enjoy accelerated development, deployment, and collaboration with Cloudflare Pages.
• Pages handles scalability and security automatically, freeing you to focus on what matters most.
• Showcase your commitment to sustainability with a Green Web Foundation badge displayed automatically on your website.

As you can see, Cloudflare goes beyond simply hosting your website – it empowers you to build a faster, safer, and greener online presence.

Getting started with Cloudflare is FREE, and only requires a few steps to get set up. You can click this link to sign up for an account today. Once you have set up your account and followed the steps to serve your website over a CDN you will instantly see the positive changes that Cloudflare provides.

How can I use Cloudflare?

Cloudflare stands out because it doesn’t function as a traditional hosting provider. Instead, it works in conjunction with your existing website. Once your site is operational, you simply modify your DNS settings to point to Cloudflare’s servers. This enables Cloudflare to store a cached version of your website on its network.

Cloudflare also grants you control over the traffic your website receives. It vigilantly monitors incoming traffic and identifies potential threats or unusual patterns. If it detects malicious activity, it takes action to block or manage those sources, safeguarding your website from harm. This proactive approach keeps you informed of potential risks and ensures your site’s security.

Visitors always have a chance to see your site. When someone requests your website, Cloudflare’s server fetches a copy from your hosting provider and connects the visitor to that copy.

Cloudflare offers several plugins to enhance your website, with Google Analytics being the most popular. This free tool provides valuable insights into your website traffic, but using the Cloudflare Google Analytics plugin eliminates the need to manually modify your code.

Cloudflare stands out for its remarkable adaptability to the needs of webmasters of all skill levels. It recognizes that those starting out may not have the code expertise to embed Google Analytics tracking code manually. To address this, Cloudflare offers a user-friendly plugin that seamlessly sends website traffic information to Google Analytics. This eliminates the potential for errors, such as missing tags, and removes the risk of downtime that can occur with manual code embedding. By simplifying this process, Cloudflare empowers webmasters to focus on other aspects of their website management.