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  1. #1

    Cloudflare: Is It Just Hype?

    I signed up for cloudflare's free service. I am not at all gung-ho for the following reasons:

    (i) Security alert nuisance: The service throws up a false security alert at random by requiring visitors to "enable cookies" and complete a captcha. Access is blocked even after completing the captcha correctly. I got so many irate mails and the whole thing was such a big nuisance that I had to disable it.

    (ii) No noticeable improvement: I can't spot any increase in page speed even though the programme boasts that it has "saved 1,303,044 requests and 10.7GB of bandwidth". Not convinced at all.

    (iii) Today, site is sluggish: The pages are loading very slow indeed. Not sure if this is a problem with the host or cloudflare. My other add-on sites are behaving OK so it may be a cloudflare issue.

    (iv) Exaggerated statistics: Cloudflare shows that the site had "68,324" page views yesterday. This is grossly high because my "monthly" traffic as per Awstats & google analytics doesn't reach that figure. My 7 day traffic is supposed to be "363,308" page views which is also absurd.

    So, my question is whether cloudlare is just hype or there is more to it than the eye can see?

  2. #2
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    I can´t really say yet but I keep an update on my experience on my website. So far its ok, the first days I saw strange behaviors after the DNS change but then it normalized.

    Speed is the same, don´t noticed any increase at all so far.

    I have to check stats because I didn't bother to check so far.

    I cannot really tell if its hype or not. Some say its wonderful and others say its hype, my guess its a mix of both.

    I surely did not noticed what you said requiring visitors with a captcha or blocking them. If I hear this and this are false positives I would stop using it immediately.

  3. #3
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    Only time will tell, and from the looks of it they have raised quite a bit of funding, so I think in some time things will only continue to improve, and so far looks quite promising.
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cirtex View Post
    Only time will tell
    Exactly time will tell the proofs in the pudding comes to mind, However CloudFlare is still quite young and I suppose as they continue to add more DC's to the list things will get better all round.

    Well thats my 2cents on the subject
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  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by investorz View Post
    (iii) Today, site is sluggish: The pages are loading very slow indeed. Not sure if this is a problem with the host or cloudflare. My other add-on sites are behaving OK so it may be a cloudflare issue.
    You're not alone in this observation. We've had a few customers complain of similar issues when using Cloudflare, and as soon as they stop using Cloudflare the problem is solved.

    Cloudflare is such a popular service and you're sharing their resources with ALL of the other sites are they are acting as a proxy for - this can be very bad. Of course they have quite a lot of capacity, but the sluggishness at times suggests that it's still not enough.

    By using Cloudflare you are essentially placing yourself into what is very much a shared pool of network resources with tons of free customers as well. In my opinion, it's not something I would ever consider using except for personal/unimportant sites right now.

    I think the idea of Cloudflare is very good but in real practice we've seen a lot of issues with it.
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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by layer0 View Post
    You're not alone in this observation. We've had a few customers complain of similar issues when using Cloudflare, and as soon as they stop using Cloudflare the problem is solved.

    Cloudflare is such a popular service and you're sharing their resources with ALL of the other sites are they are acting as a proxy for - this can be very bad. Of course they have quite a lot of capacity, but the sluggishness at times suggests that it's still not enough.

    By using Cloudflare you are essentially placing yourself into what is very much a shared pool of network resources with tons of free customers as well. In my opinion, it's not something I would ever consider using except for personal/unimportant sites right now.

    I think the idea of Cloudflare is very good but in real practice we've seen a lot of issues with it.
    Well you do have a good point here, and saying this it could benefit people using bad hosting plans as they would indeed see their websites faster and working better but like you pointed out it can work the other way around as well.

    If you are on a powerful and great hosting plan you probably don't need them and using them you could actually suffer from performance as like you said you are sharing all this shared network as opposed to be hosted in your better shared or dedicated environment.

    I know people are going to say they use CDN providers, but I think they use the expensive ones and CDN doesn't always work as expected either.

    My experiences with CDN is not positive at least, its works great in Europe and in the US, its sucks for the rest of the world.

  7. #7
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    CloudFlare's free offering is very useful for some clients. I, too, have noticed a few minor rumblings about site performance lately, but it's hard to argue with the price.

    I think CloudFlare fills a niche market for customers on tight budgets who need a little extra "oomph" in their sites but can't afford a high-end CDN. In other words, yes, there are better CDNs out there -- but none at this price.

  8. #8
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    I can't visit any site with cloudflare it blocks entire netranges on ISPs and seems to be a global list. anyone using cloudflare, loses my visits.

  9. #9
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    I used cloudflare for a seasonal website that I own and it saved me over 200Gb of bandwidth last month. The server loads also skyrocketed when I didn't have cloudflare enabled (during times when I was updating the site).

    In my experience, can't just say it is hype. Granted I had a Pro account, it really was very useful in my eyes.

  10. #10
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    I've been saying CloudFlare is is hype for a while now. There are some very legitimate reasons to use a service like this, but shared hosting customers really are not it. The only time I've seen it really improve a site is when the host was slow and crappy (EIG, 1&1, Godaddy, etc). Rather than use CloudFlare, and add another layer of stuff, get a better host.

    If you're running a large site, and truly need geographic dispersion (most do not), then it may help -- maybe. Noting that there are better alternatives, such as using a true cloud or true CDN. If you're running some small/medium forum or blog, you're just wasting your time.

    CDN is overrated by people that don't really comprehend bandwidth and traffic.

    I blame the so-called "site optimization" analysis sites. Those are so full of crap. Every test insists I rewrite valid code to be "XHTML valid" (BS!) or to use a CDN (BS!).
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  11. #11
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    If your host is local and most of your clients are located locally don't bother with cloudflare as itll be worth more hassle than its worth.

    Its certainly has its pluses for those that need it(reducing bandwidth etc.)

    Also not a fan due to that fact that many people are now using cloudflare to protect their IP addresses and make the process of submitting DMCAs/copyright notices that little bit harder(esp if the abuse department at cloudflare is as slow and useless as it currently is).

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    Are you kidding with the speed? Maybe not noticeable if your house is beside your datacenter and I hope that you understand the logic of CDN. I'm located in Asia and I usually get 300ms average from Atlanta DC. I employ Cloudflare and I have 165-185ms at the moment.
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  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by kpmedia View Post

    CDN is overrated by people that don't really comprehend bandwidth and traffic.

    I blame the so-called "site optimization" analysis sites. Those are so full of crap. Every test insists I rewrite valid code to be "XHTML valid" (BS!) or to use a CDN (BS!).
    Valid code or CDN will not be created if they are BS, otherwise you are calling all programmers and engineers BS and you are the smartest.

    As I've said in my previous post, my average latency from Atlanta DC before Cloudflare was 300ms and almost reduced half when I employ Cloudflare.

    Talking about codes, go ahead and do this for at least 300 lines...

    <font face="arial" size="5" color="#800000">Test only</font>
    <font face="arial" size="5" color="#800000">Test only</font>
    <font face="arial" size="5" color="#800000">Test only</font>
    <font face="arial" size="5" color="#800000">Test only</font>
    so on and forth...

    Then I will do this...

    <style>
    .txtdesign { font-family:arial;
    color:#800000;
    size:5px; }
    </style>

    <span class="txtdesign">Test Only</span>
    <span class="txtdesign">Test Only</span>
    <span class="txtdesign">Test Only</span>
    so on and forth...


    If you know how to count the number of characters, I'm sure you will understand optimization.
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  14. #14
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    And I'll type this so we can compare the results...

    p {
    font-family: arial;
    font-size: 11pt;
    color: #800000;
    }

    <p>Test only</p>
    <p>Test only</p>
    <p>Test only</p>
    <p>Test only</p>
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  15. #15

    I deactivated cloudflare

    Well, I deactivated cloudflare for my main site a few minutes ago and waited for the nameserver change to propogate.

    I pinged the site and got a response of 77ms.

    For my add-on site where cloudflare is still enabled, the ping response is 135ms.

    So, does this prove that cloudflare was actually slowing down the site?

    Of course, I am in a territory where cloudflare has no servers. So, the request was actually probably going further than it would in the normal course.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by investorz View Post
    Well, I deactivated cloudflare for my main site a few minutes ago and waited for the nameserver change to propogate.

    I pinged the site and got a response of 77ms.

    For my add-on site where cloudflare is still enabled, the ping response is 135ms.

    So, does this prove that cloudflare was actually slowing down the site?

    Of course, I am in a territory where cloudflare has no servers. So, the request was actually probably going further than it would in the normal course.
    It proves that you are logically closer to your web server than the nearest CF node, it does not mean that its not faster with CF.

    One should avoid using your PC's "ping" result as an indicator for global performance.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yujin View Post
    Valid code or CDN will not be created if they are BS, otherwise you are calling all programmers and engineers BS and you are the smartest.
    Your comment doesn't make any sense to me. Sorry.

    But I'll emphasize this again: I don't give two farts if my HTML converts cleanly into XML for a device I'll never use (nor will readers/users). That's why XHTML validation can be ridiculous. If my intended goal was XML, I'd write XML -- and I do, and have. There's a big difference between well-written HTML and so-called "valid" XHTML.
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  18. #18
    One concern that I have with cloudflare is that they make all requests to www.mysite.com change to http://mysite.com. Since all of the external links to my site link to www.mysite.com, I'm worried that this redirect might cause a dip in my SEO listings.

    Also, I'm worried that legitimate users are being blocked by Cloudflare's security settings. I have those settings on low, but users are still getting blocked. Nobody has sent me an email to complain, but then, if they were blocked from my site, how would they get my email to complain?

    Also also also, my site is very image-light. Since I don't have that many images, does a CDN really do anything for me anyway?

    At the moment, I'm strongly considering dumping Cloudflare. About 30% of my users come from overseas and I'm worried about creating longer load times for them, but if Cloudflare is costing me linkjuice and blocking legitimate users with their security settings, then that is a Very Bad Thing. Can anyone give advice?
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  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yujin View Post
    Are you kidding with the speed? Maybe not noticeable if your house is beside your datacenter and I hope that you understand the logic of CDN. I'm located in Asia and I usually get 300ms average from Atlanta DC. I employ Cloudflare and I have 165-185ms at the moment.
    It sounds like you don't know how Cloudflare works to be honest.

    Testing ping time is a silly way to test actual speed because every time you request something from your local Cloudflare that's 165-185ms away, unless it's cached in that node, it has to request it AGAIN from your origin server, and that adds additional latency depending on how far that is.

    So when you just ping the local Cloudflare node you're only seeing one part of the process there, and missing the entire potential of items not being cached.

    Ping also doesn't consider HTTP response time, and we've found Cloudflare to be a bit slow in that regard sometimes too.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cookiemobsta View Post
    Also also also, my site is very image-light. Since I don't have that many images, does a CDN really do anything for me anyway?
    Nope.

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  21. #21
    i've created an account with them, but not using anymore, it just created random alerts, and speed didnt improved at all.

    So i think its fake.

  22. #22
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    I am quite a CF evangelist. In combination with proper hosting and the CF WordPress, Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools plugins, I've gained a much better overview of where my visitors really went on our website.

    Since CF measures traffic before it reaches your website, it does counting a whole lot better than by just relying on the JavaScript provided by Google Analytics. Also its RocketLoader script makes your site much snappier by asynchronously loading in the heavy stuff like Facebook like boxes, Twitter updates, big jQuery-powered slideshows etc. Also its stats are nice to brag with, but I'm not 100% sure if they're accurate. They do seem a little big higher than Google Analytics, but why that is is also explained on their stats page:
    Google Analytics and other web-based analytics programs track visitors that trigger JavaScript. As a result, threats, bots and automated crawlers are not recorded since these visitors typically do not trigger JavaScript. These services also don't track visitors who leave a page before it is fully loaded or have Javascript disabled. CloudFlare tracks all of your traffic by requests, so your CloudFlare visitor number is most likely higher.

    Keep in mind: CloudFlare can only track visitors that go through the CloudFlare system, which is represented by an orange cloud on your DNS settings page.
    I am using their free service, and for me:

    + it makes our website faster for sure because the strategic locations of the CF nodes
    + Google Analytics works 'better', it counts more thorough
    + RocketLoader is really what it says: it loads fast as a rocket
    + Moving our website to another server with new IPs doesn't cause downtime

    - Its caching is sometimes so agressive, a newly updated file just won't go out the cache no matter what you do
    - It did threw me some random errors just after we moved in with JaguarPC, but that disappeared after a day or 2
    - Sometimes it messes up my JavaScript, just out of the blue. Emptying the cache always solves that.

  23. #23

    Interesting

    This is the first time I have heard of CloudFlare, but it sounds pretty good. I am skeptical however, of any company claiming that they can instantly increase the amount of traffic to your website for a price. Who knows if these are qualified leads or not. The saying goes "whats the point of having 1,000,000 twitter followers if only 100 of them give a **** what you have to say"

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by HostHag View Post
    This is the first time I have heard of CloudFlare, but it sounds pretty good. I am skeptical however, of any company claiming that they can instantly increase the amount of traffic to your website for a price. Who knows if these are qualified leads or not. The saying goes "whats the point of having 1,000,000 twitter followers if only 100 of them give a **** what you have to say"
    That's not what they do Not at all, even.

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by layer0 View Post
    It sounds like you don't know how Cloudflare works to be honest.

    Testing ping time is a silly way to test actual speed because every time you request something from your local Cloudflare that's 165-185ms away, unless it's cached in that node, it has to request it AGAIN from your origin server, and that adds additional latency depending on how far that is.

    So when you just ping the local Cloudflare node you're only seeing one part of the process there, and missing the entire potential of items not being cached.

    Ping also doesn't consider HTTP response time, and we've found Cloudflare to be a bit slow in that regard sometimes too.
    Oh really silly? I think your reply is 100% silly and for the sake of saying something. You contradict your own statement with my underlined item in the scenarios that nothing change in the content. Obviously and common sense please, CDN server will always request info but why will this get the Unchanged data which is what you called cached.

    You can use the Pingdom tool and try it yourself if you want to see the difference.

    This is the problem to some people like you, if the glory is not yours; you are jealous to the company who finds and give good solutions. Typical.
    Last edited by Yujin; 01-27-2012 at 10:37 PM.
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