A brief introduction to Cloudflare and its benefits
What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a service that helps websites and apps run faster and more safely on the internet. It does this by using a network of computers around the world that can do things like:
- Content Delivery Network: Store and send copies of your website or app’s content to people who visit it, so they don’t have to wait too long or use too much data.
- DDoS Protection: Stop malicious actors from trying to overload or break your website or app with too many requests or harmful code.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Block common attacks that can steal or damage your website or app’s data, such as hacking, spamming, or guessing passwords.
- Bot Protection: Protect your website from automated bots and even AI Scrapers and crawlers to protect your valuable content from being used to train AI models.
- Transport Layer Security (TLS): Protect the information that goes back and forth between your website or app and the people who use it, so no one can spy on or tamper with it.
Why use Cloudflare?
Cloudflare can help you make your website or app safer and faster in many ways, such as:
- Hiding your website or app’s real location and details from the public, so malicious actors can’t target it directly.
- Keeping your website or app online and working well, even when there are a lot of people using it or trying to harm it.
- Following the rules and standards that make your website or app more secure and reliable, such as those for online payments, privacy, or health care.
- Giving your website or app’s users a better experience, by making it load and run faster and smoother, and by showing them that it is safe and trustworthy.
Plans and Pricing
Cloudflare has four plans: free, pro, business and enterprise. Below, we compare the two most common plans and the key features of each
Performance
Item | Description | Free | Pro |
Content Delivery Network | Cloudflare will store and send copies of your website or app’s content to people who visit it, so they don’t have to wait too long or use too much data. | Yes | Yes |
Static Content Caching | Cloudflare delivers static content directly from their global data centres, increasing performance | Yes | Yes |
TCP Turbo | Automatically chooses the transmission control protocol for optimum content delivery and further accelerate the website | No | Yes |
Image Optimisation | Reduce image sizes by 35% on average to increase delivery speeds | No | Yes |
Mobile Optimisation | Detects the browser type of a visitor and optimizes performance for the device, improving the performance of images on a mobile connection. | No | Yes |
Security
Item | Description | Free | Pro |
Unmetered DDoS Protection | Stop malicious actors from trying to overload or break your website or app with too many requests or harmful code. | Yes | Yes |
DDoS Alerts | Real time alerts when Cloudflare detects and mitigates a DDoS attack | No | Yes |
Content Scraping Protection | Protect your content, including text, images and email addresses from web scrapers. | Yes | Yes |
Page Shield | Protect website visitors from client-side attacks that target vulnerable JavaScript dependencies | No | Yes |
Bot Fight Mode | Prevent basic bots from accessing your site and gathering information, attacking the site or completing forms | Yes | Yes |
Super Bot Fight Mode | Prevent more advanced bots from accessing your site and get more detailed analytics and reports on those that do try to access it. | No | Yes |
Universal SSL Certificate | Show your website is safe and trustworthy with an SSL certificate. | Yes | Yes |
Web Application Firewall (WAF) | Protect your website from cyber security attacks by filtering and monitoring web traffic between your website and the internet. Up to 3 custom rules | 3 custom rules | 20 custom rules |
WAF Free Managed Ruleset | Cloudflare managed ruleset automatically deployed and protecting against severe vulnerabilities | Yes | Yes |
Cloudflare Managed Ruleset | Cloudflare managed rulesets protecting against vulnerability exploits and common attack types. | No | Yes |
OWASP Core Ruleset | Core Rule Set to protect against the top vulnerabilities identified by the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) | No | Yes |
Compliance
Item | Description | Free | Pro |
ISO 27001 | Cloudflare are ISO 27001 compliant | Yes | Yes |
Support
Item | Description | Free | Pro |
Ticket Support | Submit tickets to Cloudflare to receive support for any queries or issues | Yes | Yes |
How to get started with Cloudflare?
Cloudflare has various plans and pricing, including a free plan that offers some great benefits. If you think that your domain would benefit from Cloudflare then please contact us and we would be happy to discuss your requirements, recommend a Cloudflare plan and get you setup.