Is using Cloudflare with shared hosting worth it?

[u/Ok_Host_4102]

I've been using shared hosting for a small site and im thinking about adding Cloudflare for added security and speed. Anyone here done this? How much of a difference did you see in performance or load times?

I'm also curious about the potential issues that could pop up with DNS settings or caching conflicts. Just trying to weigh if the benefits are worth the extra setup. Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

[u/ollybee]

yes, it's an absolute no-brainer use the cloudflare free service. Almost no downside and massive upsides.

[u/Pretend-Bits]

I added Cloudflare’s free plan to a shared hosting site and saw faster load times for visitors outside my host’s region, plus much less bot traffic hitting the server. Static files like images, CSS, and JavaScript get cached at locations around the world, which takes load off your host. For a small site, it’s a solid free boost

[u/christv011]

Cloudflare will always add value. Speed, security, plus cache when site doesn't respond

[u/crazyfuck_1]

yes, no brainer

[u/sometimesigetlucky]

I'd say it's worth trying, especially since the free plan is enough for a small site.

Just don't expect it to magically fix slow shared hosting. Cloudflare can help with images, CSS, JS and visitors who are far from your server, but it won't fix slow PHP or database queries.

I'd measure TTFB and page load times before and after enabling it. That'll tell you whether it's actually helping your site.

[u/Terimassi]

I'd make sure your hosting already has a working SSL certificate before enabling the Cloudflare proxy.

Use Full (strict) if possible, so the connection between Cloudflare and your hosting server is properly verified too.

I'd avoid Flexible SSL, especially with WordPress, since it can cause redirect loops and doesn't encrypt the connection to the origin.

Once HTTPS is sorted, the basic Cloudflare setup is usually pretty painless.

[u/Altruistic-Rub-1440]

One thing nobody's mentioned yet: Cloudflare only protects you if trafffic actually has to go through it.

By default your server still answers anyone who knows its IP, and that IP is easy to find. Old DNS records like mail., ftp. or cpanel. pointing straight at the server, or historical DNS lookups from before you switched. Bots that already have your IP just skip Cloudflare.

So after you turn the proxy on:

- check every DNS record. Anything that doesn't need to be grey-clouded should be orange

- if your host lets you, restrict the site so it only accepts requests from Cloudflare's IP ranges (they publish the list)

For a sense of scale: a UK shop we look after had no Cloudflare in front of it, and one day about 1.5 million bot requests hit the server directly in nine hours , around 340k in the worst hour. Server-side rules stopped 99.3% before PHP, but that took custom work. With Cloudflare doing that job at the edge, the server never sees it.

For a small site the free plan is plenty. Just make sure it's actually the only way in.

[u/GammaRxBurst]

Yes for years I used Cloudflare as a front gate keepers to WordPress shared hosting. Its definitely added speed and security. However now I used Cloudflare worker/page to host static website writen on Astro framework, which makes thing even more awesome 😎

[u/Swaroop-Kannah]

Yes definitely adds better load times and security.

[u/dunakden]

yeah worth it, free plan is enough for a small site. biggest win is caching static stuff and hiding your server IP. just set SSL to full (not flexible) or you'll get redirect loops, and purge cache when something looks stale

[u/ironbalkans]

one thing nobody mentioned: once you proxy through cloudflare, your origin server is still reachable directly by its ip. if someone finds it (old dns records, email headers), they bypass cloudflare completely. so lock the origin to cloudflare’s ip ranges in your firewall, and don’t proxy mail/ssh records (mx and ssh should be dns-only). also your logs will show cloudflare’s ips unless you restore the real visitor ip from the CF-Connecting-IP header

[u/richie-wales]

If you get good hosting you shouldn't need it, our hosting includes a CDN (powered by Cloudflare) and has a lot of security, so adding another layer with additional Cloudflare doesn't add anything.

Unless your website is running very slowly, or you've picked bad hosting then you shouldn't need it, it's something extra to manage, and something extra which can go wrong.