Cloudflare is the web’s most effortless performance and security solution. Its global network protects and accelerates more than 10 million websites, APIs, SaaS services, and other solutions connected to the internet.
Like most Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), Cloudflare provides a free service to cache and serve your content.
However, the question remains: can Cloudflare see your traffic? How much of your traffic is served by Cloudflare, and how much is served by your origin?
Cloudflare is a reverse proxy. It sits in front of your server and fetches web pages on your behalf before sending them to the client.
This provides several benefits, including mitigating denial-of-service attacks and providing “free” HTTPS. When people visit your site, they are directed to the nearest server. So the closer your website is to the server, the faster your clients will access it.
In addition, Cloudflare reduces bot crawls. While these bots could benefit you as a website owner, they could also be harmful.
As these crawlers pass information from the website to the site visitor, there is a possibility that these bots can manipulate the website’s data. While at it, bot crawl could catch content thieves using your website’s data without your consent.
However, they could also be content thieves. They can also inject spam and process inappropriate ad impressions.
What Is Cloudflare Used For?
Cloudflare is a security and performance solution for websites. It comprises a vast network of computers that work as reverse proxies. Besides keeping your website safe and easily accessible, Cloudflare may also increase your website’s performance and reliability.
Here are some of the primary uses of Cloudflare:
- Security
Cloudflare scrutinizes threats from data that goes in and comes out through the servers. Moreover, Cloudflare assesses visitors’ IP addresses, searches, and how frequently they search. As a Cloudflare user, you can set your firewall rules to keep out any traffic you do not want.
The other benefit of using Cloudflare is that your Domain Name System (DNS) is protected. This means that when someone visits your website searching for your domain, they will see your DNS in place of your nameservers.
Generally, Cloudflare is the shield that protects your website from DoS and DDoS attacks, bot traffic, and unauthorized access.
- Speed
If you want your website to have increased search volume and more conversion rates on Google, you need to invest in speed. Cloudflare optimizes your traffic so that you can get it closer to the end-user without having to pay for bandwidth.
Cloudflare will present your site from the nearest cache location to site visitors through distributed remote caching. In basic terms, this means that Cloudflare keeps copies of your website closer to where users need them. As a result, your website will load faster than other sites not configured with Cloudflare.
If a user requests a page that isn’t cached on Cloudflare, your web server will deliver it instead. While fast data processing saves site visitors time, it will also increase your site visits due to convenience.
- Caching
Imagine if you could cache every webpage, video, or photo ever created and use that data to make the internet faster. Cloudflare’s network of over 100 data centers worldwide does precisely that.
When you type a website address into your favorite browser, your computer contacts one of Cloudflare’s DNS servers around the world to have your website available for your visitors. As you might guess from the name, DNS servers translate domain names like www.cloudflare.com into machine-readable numbers called IP addresses.
When Cloudflare gets a request, for example, www.cloudflare.com, it knows this domain name is for the Cloudflare website and returns the correct IP address to your computer so that it can load the site.
- Reliability
Cloudflare has invested so much that it has included additional features you require for your website. These features ensure that their servers deliver your website to the nearest location even if one server fails. Even when your website is experiencing a minor problem, users can still load it seamlessly.
Furthermore, having parts of your website in different locations reduces your web server’s load. Therefore, you can have several visitors on your site without straining the available resources.
- Reduces Server Load
Instead of your server handling all of your web traffic, it can distribute some copies to Cloudflare. This way, your server will have less traffic to handle, hence loading faster. This feature is precious for websites that experience sporadic web traffic.
Can Cloudflare See Your Traffic?
Yes, Cloudflare can indeed see the traffic of all of its customers. It’s also true that they’re banned from using that information for anything other than identifying spam and issuing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices. However, once this information is exposed to a third party, it becomes controversial.
The legal framework for Cloudflare’s actions is what we call “best effort.” Meaning, as long as they are following the law, they have done their best with their knowledge. This is the situation with any system that offers security services like CDNs or reverse proxies.
Being able to see your traffic enables Cloudflare to protect your data by filtering how much a site visitor can access.
Does Cloudflare Encrypt Data?
Cloudflare encrypts data in transit between your servers and the browser using Transport Layer Security (TLS).
It makes sure that no one, not even Cloudflare, can see your data as it goes to and from Cloudflare’s servers. Moreover, encryption is available for HTTP and HTTPS requests, regardless of which protocol you’re using to serve content at your source.
Cloudflare executes randomness to encrypt data. This means that the computer randomly picks the keys to encrypt data without applying any criteria.
Thus, anyone trying to access your data without permission gets confused about which keys could decrypt your data. As such, your data is secure as it might take them forever to decrypt the data.
However, computers cannot create random keys. Therefore, Cloudflare uses a real-life source for random data. It uses lava lamps to produce random data used to encrypt data. These lamps provide truly random data because the lava in the lamp can only take one shape once.
Cameras are mounted to capture images on a wall of lava lamps. These images are then sent to Cloudflare servers.
To make the images even more obscure, they are stored in the form of numbers. Each pixel is assigned a unique numeral, and the photos are kept as such. This is the information that Cloudflare uses to encrypt your data.
In a nutshell, Cloudflare uses lava lamps to provide its many customers with highly potent TLS encryption.
What Does Cloudflare Offer You?
It is essential to understand that Cloudflare does not host a website. Cloudflare only gets involved with your website when you change your DNS settings and use their servers to cache your data.
Furthermore, it allows you to monitor the type and trend of the traffic on your website. If they notice any abnormal pattern or any form of threat, Cloudflare will investigate the source of the threat and stop it before it interferes with your data.
Occasionally, Cloudflare will request a copy of your website from your web host to link visitors interested in viewing your site with the copy. This means that your visitors can always access the website, thus increasing your traffic.
Cloudflare also offers you several plugins, including Google Analytics. Most web owners prefer Google Analytics because it is readily available and compatible with other websites at no charge.
Most importantly, Cloudflare transfers data to Google Analytics using the plugins. This way, you will no longer have to worry about missing tags, consequently reducing the time it takes to manually embed codes.
Things That Cloudflare Cannot Do
It is evident that Cloudflare can do a lot to improve your website’s performance. However, there are things that it can’t do. To begin with, even if you are using Cloudflare, you will still need a web host since Cloudflare does not host websites.
Secondly, Cloudflare does not manage domain names. Instead, you will manage the domain name using Cloudflare’s partners through which you have hosted your DNS.
Finally, Cloudflare does not make your web hosting server any better. The quality of the hosting provider you choose will determine the performance of your website. If it is slow, the speed offered by Cloudflare may not have a significant effect on it. It can only improve it, but the actual limit is the underlying infrastructure.
How to Use Cloudflare
Using Cloudflare requires authorizing them to manage your DNS. First, with your website already set up, sign up with them to get an account.
Cloudflare will then provide you with the nameservers you could use. Go to your domain name settings and change your DNS servers to the new nameservers provided. If you do this correctly, your traffic will start running through Cloudflare, and your website caching will begin too.
Then, let the default settings run and complete the process on their own. With time, you can change some Cloudflare settings to customize your website as you wish.
Cloudflare incorporates other applications from various platforms, including Google Cloud, WordPress, and Magento.
Pricing
Cloudflare has four customized payment models. The first one is the basic, which is usually free. Even though it doesn’t have restrictions on bandwidth, this free tier has limitations on the services you receive from Cloudflare.
The other three plans include Pro, Business, and Enterprise. Consequently, higher-paying rates mean more features. Precisely, Pro costs $20/month, Business costs $200/month, while Enterprise has a flexible payment which you agree on with Cloudflare’s finance staff.
The good news is that you can upgrade or downgrade whenever you feel the need.
Here are some of the pros and cons of using Cloudflare:
Pros
- Free basic package available
- Improves website performance
- Changing DNS settings is fast
- Protects servers from spammers
- Shields websites from DDoS and DoS
- Precise site analytics
Cons
- Your website may be affected if Cloudflare is down
- Limited security options
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What is CDN?
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) uses several servers linked together to preserve data from various locations. Typically, copies of the data are stored in different locations and availed to users upon request. CDNs help improve the performance of websites.
- Is Cloudflare free?
Cloudflare has free services. However, others are charged. The free tiers include CDN services, HTTP/2, essential bot protection, and free Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Their paid plans are Pro, Business, and Enterprise.
- Is Cloudflare safe?
Cloudflare is safe to use. It provides numerous security services that other internet service providers do not offer. All the data is encrypted using truly random data from lava lamps. Cloudflare protects from DoS, DDoS, customer data breaches, and malicious bots.
- What are the alternatives to Cloudflare?
The current rise in technology and content creation has led to the increase of CDN providers. Such providers include Sucuri, Akamai, and StackPath. Each of these providers performs different roles to serve specific needs.
Conclusion
Cloudflare is one necessary tool for website owners. As we all know, building a website is not a walk in the park, as it takes a lot of time, effort, and money.
Thus, investing in Cloudflare could be a good idea since you have the assurance that your site is safe and speedily available to your site visitors. In addition, the current global cyber insecurity calls for more stringent measures to secure your website.
Regardless of the existence of other CDN providers, Cloudflare stands out due to its ability to deliver high speed, security, and reliability all in one.
Can Cloudflare see your traffic? The short answer is, yes. Cloudflare can see your website’s traffic.
However, with data encryption, they may not be able to read it. With over a decade in operation, it has built a good reputation by striving to protect its customers.
If you recently set up a blog or have a small website, Cloudflare can cover you by offering their services for free.
To sustain the free segment, the company has to add more features for their enterprise customers at a fee. The free services give small websites room to grow, and with time, they can upgrade if they so wish.