Cloudflare Reviews

Name: Cloudflare
Brand: Cloudflare
Rating: 4.2 (71 reviews)

Vendor: Cloudflare

4.2 out of 5

71 reviews
95% willing to recommend

1,996 followers

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What is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare is a highly-regarded Content Delivery Network (CDN) and a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) protection solution. The robust global connectivity cloud platform that is Cloudflare ensures users are able to connect to the Internet quickly, securely, and reliably. Cloudflare is one of the world's largest networks in the marketplace today. Using Cloudflare, businesses, educational entities, NGOs, vloggers, bloggers, and anyone else with an internet presence can experience more secure, faster websites and applications.

Get the Cloudflare Buyer's Guide and find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Arbor DDoS, Imperva DDoS and more!

Cloudflare is the #1 ranked solution in top CDN solutions, #1 ranked solution in top Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection solutions, #1 ranked solution in top Managed DNS solutions, and #14 ranked solution in top Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solutions. PeerSpot users give Cloudflare an average rating of 8.4 out of 10. Based on the analysis of the 71 most recent Cloudflare reviews, the overall sentiment is positive, with a sentiment score of 7.1. Cloudflare is most commonly compared to Arbor DDoS: Cloudflare vs Arbor DDoS. Cloudflare is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 38% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a educational organization, accounting for 25% of all views.

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Featured reviews

Spencer Malmad

Owner at Tech Exchange

Cloudflare is highly scalable. Cloudflare is a system with a web portal that the end users like me see. It's a console where we can adjust the DNS, caching, and security features all in that console. Cloudflare owns thousands of servers across the world that cache the data. It's a powerful solution. When clients sign up for Cloudflare, they're getting this monster content delivery network, security, and a web application firewall in one. It's all rolled into one, and it's massive. Unless you have your website hosted on a massive hosting provider, there's no way that you can deliver the amount of data that Cloudflare can provide to the end users. If you have static content, there's no way that you can ever match what Cloudflare can do. Obviously, there are competitors to Cloudflare that do the same, but I'm saying other types of solutions. Let's say you go with F5. Great, that's on-prem. That's in your colo. You can't deliver as much data to the internet as you can with a CDN. You don't have to spend $20,000 on a net scaler, F5, or whatever Cisco's selling now. You don't have to buy that. You pay them $50 a month or $150 a month. It's totally worth it because even in five years, you'll never get the performance value, not just the actual ROI. You have to consider how much throughput you can get with Cloudflare.

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XYX ABC

Product Manager at Infozion

For Cloudflare, I recommend it heavily for small businesses with revenue under a couple of million dollars. Onboarding is easy, and they even have a free plan. This makes it simple for businesses in the $100,000-$500,000 range to try it out and see its value, allowing them to scale up their infrastructure as needed. Many small businesses lack the budget for solutions like AWS and rely on GoDaddy, hosting, or even Versal plans for their initial setup. At that level, Cloudflare is the best option, even though it's not as powerful as Amazon CloudFront or Akamai. Those are built for different services, while Cloudflare caters specifically to smaller teams that eventually scale up. For smaller businesses, they're the absolute best, so I'd give Cloudflare a nine out of ten. For larger businesses, it depends on the budget. Even for them, I'd rate it a seven out of ten.

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M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

It would be beneficial for us if Cloudflare could offer a scrubbing solution. This would involve taking a snapshot of my website and keeping it live during a DDoS attack, ensuring uninterrupted service for our users. DDoS attacks are typically short in duration, and having Cloudflare maintain the site's availability from its secure network would enhance the overall user experience. I would appreciate it if Cloudflare could consider implementing this feature. Many organizations already utilize similar capabilities in their CDN platforms, where a static snapshot of the web page is displayed during DDoS attacks. In terms of features, Cloudflare needs to enhance its resilience and stay more focused on adopting new technologies. For instance, solutions like F5 XC Box, Access Solution, and Distributed Cloud Solution have impressive features, and Cloudflare should strive to match and exceed those capabilities. There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features. Cloudflare should prioritize enhancements in areas such as behavioral DDoS and protection against SQL injection attacks, considering the prevalent trend of public exposure to the internet for business reasons. Overall, Cloudflare needs to invest more in advancing its feature set.

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Cloudflare mindshare

Product category:

As of December 2024, the mindshare of Cloudflare in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category stands at 19.9%, down from 20.8% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

PeerAnalyst reports

Type	Title	Date
Category	Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection	Dec 17, 2024	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Dec 17, 2024	Download
Comparison	Cloudflare vs Arbor DDoS	Dec 17, 2024	Download
Comparison	Cloudflare vs Radware DefensePro	Dec 17, 2024	Download
Comparison	Cloudflare vs Akamai App and API Protector	Dec 17, 2024	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Arbor DDoS	4.3	15.9%	94%	49 interviews Add to research
Imperva DDoS	4.3	8.4%	94%	77 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

Cloudflare offers valuable features like CDN caching, DDoS protection, and aggressive security measures. Users appreciate DNS management, page rules, a user-friendly interface, and global reach. The platform excels in web application firewalls, load balancing, and easy integration with services like Office 365. It simplifies caching, speeds up DNS updates, and provides SSL certificates. Analytics and threat insights add to its network's strength, enhancing performance, privacy, and user experience.

"The tool is user-friendly."
"DDoS attacks target unprotected machines. Cloudflare detects and stops these attacks using internal systems. It identifies incoming DDoS attacks, issuing challenges or blocking them immediately."
"Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications."

Room for Improvement

Cloudflare users recommend improvements in analytics and threat insights, faster CDN speeds, and more reliable support. There are concerns about ease of DNS management and the Always Online feature's consistency. Customers express a desire for better integration with third-party tools and more user-friendly documentation. Pricing clarity and the addition of more features like multi-user access and enhanced caching also need attention. Expanding the network for better traffic routing is another area highlighted for improvement.

"The integration of LLMs on the dashboard is something that is needed in the tool."
"We're facing challenges due to an upgrade in the machine learning model. The problem arises from some users abusing the APIs, resulting in an influx of suspicious traffic. Cloudflare's learning model mistakenly identifies this traffic as human. Consequently, it assigns it a higher trust score, akin to legitimate human traffic, causing complications in our architecture. Previously, such traffic would have been categorized as suspicious, enabling us to apply appropriate blocking rules. However, we encounter difficulties distinguishing between genuine and suspicious traffic with the new categorization. Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor."
"The pricing could be improved."

ROI

Cloudflare enhances site performance by improving loading speed and availability, which benefits businesses with increased traffic and prevents revenue loss from downtime. It effectively protects against DDoS attacks and secures data, making it valuable for security needs. Numerous organizations have noted substantial savings, with some experiencing ROI up to 318%. The cost-effectiveness of Cloudflare is appreciated by small businesses reliant on WordPress, which benefits from its security features to address challenges and improve website stability.

Pricing

Enterprise users find Cloudflare's pricing competitive, starting from a free tier and increasing with additional features. Setup costs are typically zero, while monthly plans range from $20 for Pro to $200 for the Business tier. Costs can rise to $1,500 monthly for enterprise needs. Overall, Cloudflare offers fair ROI relative to competitors like Akamai, with its pricing strategy based on usage and organizational scale, appealing to both small businesses and large enterprises seeking scalable solutions.

"The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive."
"The product's pricing is cheap."
"For Cloudflare, I recommend it heavily for small businesses with revenue under a couple of million dollars. Onboarding is easy, and they even have a free plan. This makes it simple for businesses in the $100,000-$500,000 range to try it out and see its value, allowing them to scale up their infrastructure as needed."

Popular Use Cases

Users primarily use Cloudflare for DDoS mitigation, leveraging its security features like a web application firewall and SSL/TLS authentication. They utilize its CDN capabilities for faster content delivery and DNS services for managing and securing domains. Users also employ it for load balancing and threat protection, supporting both in-house and customer-facing websites. Its services appeal to those needing robust security, efficient DNS management, and content optimization across various industries and configurations.

Service and Support

Cloudflare customer service is generally quick and effective, with technical support receiving mixed ratings. Knowledgeable representatives provide excellent assistance, but response times can vary. Some users report needing less support due to comprehensive documentation and self-help resources. Concerns about response delays, particularly for Business Plan users, exist. The experience can differ based on support level, with enterprise clients receiving top-tier service, while basic support is rated average. Regional support challenges, such as language issues, are noted.

Deployment

Cloudflare's initial setup is typically straightforward and user-friendly for most, requiring minimal technical expertise. The online documentation and intuitive interface assist throughout the process. Challenges may arise with DNS configuration, especially if registrars restrict name-server access. Some find deployment lengths vary based on the domain's complexity and the degree of required customization. Many users manage it swiftly, with deployment often completed in minutes or a few hours, though specific scenarios can demand detailed attention.

Scalability

Cloudflare is recognized for its scalability, consistently meeting the needs of diverse users. Users find it simple to upgrade their plans when necessary and acknowledge its global server capacity. Many report seamless transitions and handling of significant traffic, especially notable during peak usage periods. The ease of managing DNS updates and integrating additional domains is commonly praised. Cloudflare's infrastructure supports substantial user bases, making it suitable for large enterprises and smaller entities alike. Numerous ratings highlight strong satisfaction.

Stability

Cloudflare users have mostly experienced stable performance, noting improvements over time. Some downtime occurred in 2013, and isolated issues have been reported, but frequent communication has minimized concerns. Businesses praise increased uptime and reliable DNS services, with stability ratings often between eight to ten out of ten. Occasional configuration adjustments are needed, and some global performance hiccups are noted, but many consider Cloudflare a consistent option without significant stability challenges.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Cloudflare Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

25%

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Media Company

University

Healthcare Company

Hospitality Company

Retailer

Insurance Company

Construction Company

Non Profit

Real Estate/Law Firm

Energy/Utilities Company

Legal Firm

Outsourcing Company

Transportation Company

Wholesaler/Distributor

Performing Arts

Recreational Facilities/Services Company

Logistics Company

Pharma/Biotech Company

Compare Cloudflare with alternative products

Learn more about Cloudflare

Currently, there are millions of Internet locations on Cloudflare, and the Cloudflare network
continues to grow every day by the thousands. The solution is able to fulfill the requests for
millions of websites seamlessly and serves on average 45 million HTTP requests per second.

Cloudflare has safe, secure data centers in close to 300 cities worldwide to ensure every
client request is filled as quickly as possible. It is Cloudflare’s edge network that makes this
possible by keeping content and other services as close to each client as possible, so the
information requests are always only seconds away.

Many organizations that work in democracy, civil society, human rights, or the arts are able to
access Cloudflare's highest levels of protection for free via Project Galileo. Additionally, official
election websites can be secured from hacking and fraud through Cloudflare’s Project
Athenian, also at no additional cost.

Cloudflare can also help organizations of all sizes develop a robust zero-trust strategy to
ensure the highest levels of productivity and profitability. Employees, stakeholders, and end users have a greater level of satisfaction and overall improved user experience, which can, in
turn, result in higher revenues and overall ROI. Zero-trust and BYOD (bring your own device)
access ensure end users and employees always have the best resources and technology
available to them at all times.

Cloudflare benefits

Cloudflare has many benefits. Some of its most valuable benefits include:

- Faster load times

- Robust DNS security

- Intuitive cloud Web Application Firewall (WAF)

- Free universal SSL

- Image enhancement

- Automatic browser caching

- Next-generation cloud load balancer

- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

- Rate limiting

- Minification

- Zero-trust capabilities

- Cost-effective

- Reduced carbon footprint

Reviews from real users

“Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare
comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and
an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. If you have a connection between your
website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host, you don't necessarily need a
certificate.” Spencer M., Owner at Tech Exchange

“What I like best about Cloudflare is that my company can use it to trace and manage
applications and monitor traffic. The solution tells you if there's a spike in traffic. Cloudflare
also sends you a link to check your equipment and deployment and track it through peering,
so it's a valuable tool.” Daniel P., Network Engineer at Ufinet

“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.” PeerSpot user, Competence Center Manager at a tech services company

Cloudflare was previously known as Cloudflare DNS.

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