What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare can act as a domain's authoritative DNS provider and, for proxied records, route HTTP traffic through its network before it reaches an origin server. CDN caching and traffic filtering can be configured on that path. Its WAF applies rules to incoming web and API requests, while Workers runs application code on Cloudflare's platform. These are separate services with different settings and limits.
Read the full overview
Sources checked 27 September 2026: proxy and DNS concepts, WAF concepts, and Workers operation.
CloudflareCDN & EdgeDNS, web security, delivery, and edge compute
Key capabilities
- Authoritative DNS: manage domain records.
- Reverse proxy and CDN: route and optionally cache eligible web traffic.
- WAF rules: filter requests using configurable rulesets.
- Workers: run code in response to requests at the edge.
Cloudflare's value comes from placing configured network services between visitors and an origin. The official network explanation and WAF documentation were checked 27 September 2026. City counts and blanket DDoS or speed guarantees were removed.
“DNS, web security, delivery, and edge compute”
Technical details
- Access
- Web platform
- Source model
- Commercial
- Founded
- 2009
- Pricing model
- Freemium
- API
- Available
- Website
- www.cloudflare.com ↗
What to verify
Start from the users, systems and operating responsibilities the tool needs to support.
- Confirm current features, licensing and support terms.
- Validate deployment, data location and access control.
- Test integrations, exports and recovery workflows.
Reviews of Cloudflare
Incredible value on the free tier5/5 starsWe started with Cloudflare's free plan for DNS and DDoS protection, and gradually adopted Workers, R2, and their WAF. The performance improvement was noticeable immediately. Their edge network is massive and the API is well-documented. Enterprise features are expensive but the free tier is genuinely generous.
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