How to Optimize with Cloudflare CDN?

If your site is running slower with Cloudflare, it is most likely that you have done something wrong. Cloudflare CDN basically just store all your static file on your distributed system around the world so it is faster to server them. However, if your site is slow to reply with html files for example then your whole site will still be slow.

Also 1 thing to note, if your site only serve let's say the US visitors, then just buy a server inside the US and forget about Cloudflare. Cloudflare CDN is only necessary if you want to serve visitors around the world.

Quoted from Guest on Friday, 11 July 2025

If your site is running slower with Cloudflare, it is most likely that you have done something wrong. Cloudflare CDN basically just store all your static file on your distributed system around the world so it is faster to server them. However, if your site is slow to reply with html files for example then your whole site will still be slow.

Also 1 thing to note, if your site only serve let's say the US visitors, then just buy a server inside the US and forget about Cloudflare. Cloudflare CDN is only necessary if you want to serve visitors around the world.

THank you for your message. Something must have gone wrong. I'm investigating the issue.
I don't know if its cloudlflare or just server side issue.
I'll take note of that. Sticking on local servers for local audience targets. Thank You.

Quoted from Guest on Friday, 11 July 2025

THank you for your message. Something must have gone wrong. I'm investigating the issue.
I don't know if its cloudlflare or just server side issue.
I'll take note of that. Sticking on local servers for local audience targets. Thank You.

Have you tried running the website without Cloudflare ?

Yes, check your website speed on GTmetrix while CF is enabled and then compare the speed when CF is temporarily disabled to see if CF is the cause of your website slowness or your original server is responsible.

Also, ensure your CF DNS records are configured correctly and active (orange).

What country are you in and what ISP are you using?
Can you do a traceroute to your website?

Are you using VPN services too? If you do that might be the cause of slower website. As it allows DDOS protection so each request to server is first pass through VPN causing website speed a bit slower then normal. CDN Cloudflare increase your website speed. Might be the wrong configuration.

In Australia as an example a number of large ISP don't peer with any of the major peering exchanges such as Megaport or the IX ones.
They have no peering policies.
So on Cloudflare free and basic plans if you are on Telstra or Optus or TPG, all your traffic will load from overseas locations which will give you higher latency and a slow connection.
So you need to pay $200 USD a month in au to get any sort of decent connectivity.
I would suggest using Cloudfront from AWS or Fastly if performance is important.
They both buy large amounts of transit and you don't need to pay $200 a month the cheapest plan from Fastly is $50 USD but given how important security is now a days AWS give you free SSL.

Quoted from Guest on Monday, 14 July 2025

In Australia as an example a number of large ISP don't peer with any of the major peering exchanges such as Megaport or the IX ones.
They have no peering policies.
So on Cloudflare free and basic plans if you are on Telstra or Optus or TPG, all your traffic will load from overseas locations which will give you higher latency and a slow connection.
So you need to pay $200 USD a month in au to get any sort of decent connectivity.
I would suggest using Cloudfront from AWS or Fastly if performance is important.
They both buy large amounts of transit and you don't need to pay $200 a month the cheapest plan from Fastly is $50 USD but given how important security is now a days AWS give you free SSL.

Not entirely true these days, my Telstra bigpong cable and sydney and brisbane VPN connections hit Cloudflare Sydney and Brisbane POPs for my Cloudflare free, pro and business plans.

Depends, if you are a business customer with Telstra on IPV6 then it works in Au but for residential customers on IpV4 it doesn't.
It is a mess.
You are better off just using a provider that don't care how much bandwidth costs and that will just pay the price.
If you buy enough transit you get the bandwidth cheaper in Au anyway.
Telstra and the rest are not going to change their policies for one provider.

One of my client site is also working slow because of he is using CloudFlare. I don't know what is issue from CloudFlare.

Seems need to check his cloudflare setting. I think CF should introduce some feature to show when site is working slow and suggest edits.


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