What is Cloudflare and should you use it?
Cloudflare is a third-party reverse proxy, CDN, DNS, and security provider. Learn how it works with UnderHost hosting, what it protects,
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Cloudflare sits between visitors and your UnderHost server. Visitors connect to Cloudflare's network, Cloudflare filters and optionally caches the request, and then Cloudflare forwards allowed traffic to your hosting server.
What Cloudflare does
| Feature | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| CDN | Static files such as images, CSS, and JavaScript can be cached on Cloudflare's global network for faster delivery. |
| DDoS protection | Malicious traffic can be absorbed or filtered before it reaches your hosting server. |
| DNS hosting | Your domain's authoritative nameservers can point to Cloudflare, where you manage DNS records. |
| SSL/TLS edge certificate | Cloudflare provides the visitor-to-Cloudflare certificate, while your UnderHost server should still have its own valid SSL certificate. |
| Firewall and WAF rules | Block or challenge requests by IP, country, user agent, path, or request pattern before they hit your server. |
| Analytics | View traffic, bandwidth, bot, and security data at the Cloudflare layer. |
Cloudflare and UnderHost
Cloudflare is a separate third-party service, not the UnderHost control panel. You can use Cloudflare with UnderHost by pointing your domain's nameservers to Cloudflare and then creating DNS records that point web traffic to your UnderHost server.
UnderHost can help you identify the correct server IP, nameservers, SSL state, and DNS records for your hosting service. Changes inside the Cloudflare dashboard, Cloudflare plan features, and Cloudflare network locations are managed by Cloudflare.
Benefits
- Can hide your server's real IP address when web records are proxied.
- Can reduce bandwidth on your hosting account by serving cached static content.
- Can improve global page speed for cacheable assets.
- Can add another security layer for bot traffic, DDoS attempts, and abusive requests.
Considerations
- SSL configuration matters. The wrong Cloudflare SSL mode can cause redirect loops. See Cloudflare SSL modes.
- Caching can serve stale content. After making site changes, you may need to purge Cloudflare cache.
- Real visitor IPs can change in logs. Your server may see Cloudflare IPs unless the server is configured to restore visitor IPs.
- Email does not go through Cloudflare's web proxy. MX and mail host records must stay DNS-only.
- Cloudflare's network changes over time. For current data center and network-location details, use Cloudflare's own network information.
When to use Cloudflare
- You want faster global delivery for static files.
- You are receiving DDoS attacks, spam traffic, or heavy bot traffic.
- You want firewall rules before requests reach the hosting server.
- You want to hide the origin server IP for web traffic.
For a small site with normal traffic, Cloudflare is optional. Add it when you have a specific performance, security, DNS, or caching reason and are comfortable managing the extra SSL and cache layer.
Ready to set up Cloudflare?
Follow our setup guide to point your domain and connect Cloudflare to UnderHost.
