Should I switch to Cloudflare?

[Lonkle]

I tried it before on their free plan and didn't like the interface and didn't feel the speed increases so I went back to just using my own registrar for DNS. But, I was curious if maybe I should switch and what some of the reasons people have for using it (aside from the reverse CDN it uses).

[marcusquinn]

Honestly, for free, I like it, and kinda some small protection in the event of attack but not much.

Otherwise Namecheap is pretty decent and has the Cloudron integration too.

AWS & Azure I loathe on many levels.

DNS Made Easy is paid but if you are fussy with interfaces might be a bit too techie and old-school, although the infrastructure seems solid.

DNSimple looks good, ranks well on performance, but it costs.

If I were you, I'd go Namecheap first, Cloudflare if you have a need for any of their specific features.

If you need or want CDN, then Bunny CDN, and I think they are launching a DNS service too, which may be interesting if it were CLoudron integrated too.

[Lonkle]

Woah, thank you for such a detailed reply on the pros / cons of different DNS services!

@marcusquinn said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

Namecheap is pretty decent and has the Cloudron integration too.

Yeah, I used to use Namecheap but I switched to Namesilo because their developers were more responsive and their API was more thorough. But I didn't realize about the Cloudron integration support...does Cloudron do something special using the API of certain registrars when adding domains? I could imagine Cloudron auto-populating new domains purchased if it has my Namecheap API token which would be very cool. But it probably just changes the nameservers for you when adding.

[marcusquinn]

@Lonk Cloudron's DNS API integration is a god-send, has saved me so much time and the auto-config when making changes is faster than I could ever do:

https://docs.cloudron.io/domains/

[girish]

@Lonk said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

I tried it before on their free plan and didn't like the interface and didn't feel the speed increases so I went back to just using my own registrar for DNS. But, I was curious if maybe I should switch and what some of the reasons people have for using it (aside from the reverse CDN it uses).

Many people use it because the reverse CDN is in free tier. I am not aware of any other CDN out there which is totally free as in beer. Hard to beat free Also, for people hosting at home, their service is very useful if you want to hide the server IP.

I haven't used it but someone elsewhere had suggested https://bunnycdn.com/ for low priced but good CDN.

[jdaviescoates]

I use Gandi because imho they are more ethical than all the other options that integrate with Cloudron.

Always liked their No Bullshit philosophy:

https://www.gandi.net/en-GB/no-bullshit

But just for info, see also Free DNS from 1984 Hosting Iceland who are also great:

https://1984hosting.com/product/freedns/

For why 1984 are great see e.g.
https://1984hosting.com/about/

Basically: free speech/ civil rights, green energy, free software.

In the past I've also used https://joker.com/ who are good too.

But neither Joker nor 1984 integrate with Cloudron (yet)

[Lonkle]

@jdaviescoates What does "integrate" mean? I thought that just meant it auto-configures your registrar's DNS to your VPS IP address (or changes name servers maybe). Is there more to it than that?

[jdaviescoates]

@Lonk yeah, that's all I mean. And it does that for every domain/ sub-domain you add to Cloudron.

Of course can also set-up a wildcard on 1984/ Joker/ wherever too, but it's nicer to not even have to do that

[Lonkle]

@jdaviescoates That's pretty cool, but could it be cooler, could "adding domains" not even be needed. We don't have a bulk input of domains, but having them all at the ready when installing apps would be cool, maybe an extra list item at the end of the domains you own saying "check others on registrars you own" and it'll auto-populate beyond the domains you've "chosen" to add / link to Cloudron.

[marcusquinn]

The Cloudron integration with DNS Provider APIs also handles all the necessary TXT records for you, which is kinda handy for email setup too.

[Lonkle]

@marcusquinn I use wildcards to my static IP personally but I could see the use in having email ready on the platform. I haven't touched Cloudron email yet.

[mehdi]

Personally, from a security standpoint, I would totally not recommend Cloudflare. Their model is literally performing a (authorized) man-in-the-middle attack on your traffic. They have access to all your data.

I'm not saying they're nefarious. I'm just saying that for the minute benefit they offer, I don't think it's worth it to add yet another entity to the chain of trust.

[BrutalBirdie]

I also use Namecheap for my private Domains and I am very happy with them.

The initial "pain" with "Namecheap API Access" can be a put off, but the Namecheap live chat will help with that.

[vjvanjungg]

Hey guys... so if we add something like BunnyCDN, which doesn’t integrate with Cloudron yet, everytime we add a new domain, we need to do all the DNS configs manually?

[mehdi]

@vjvanjungg

• every time you add a sub-domain: no, not necessarily, you can just setup a wildcard once, and you're good
• every time you add a first-level domain: yeah

[Lonkle]

@girish said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

their service is very useful if you want to hide the server IP.

I think I may know of another way to hide the server IP.

[Lonkle]

@BrutalBirdie What’s the initial pain of API access. I haven’t used them in years. But I use to use their API after they updated their interface and made it horrible - and started using their API for all my changes. I was building Wordpress integration into Namecheap actually - when adding or changing to a new domain in Wordpress Multisite, it would check my Namecheap and configure the DNS, just like Cloudron or if I didn’t own the domain, it checked it’s availability and offered to purchase it on Name heap and configure the DNS. All without leaving the Wordpress Web App.

It was amazing. But I have yet to make the same thing for NameSilo but I’m planning too. Their API is even better.

[Lonkle]

@mehdi said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

Personally, from a security standpoint, I would totally not recommend Cloudflare. Their model is literally performing a (authorized) man-in-the-middle attack on your traffic. They have access to all your data.

I'm not saying they're nefarious. I'm just saying that for the minute benefit they offer, I don't think it's worth it to add yet another entity to the chain of trust.

That’s exactly how I feel. But I wanted to know if the benefit was worth the free so I’m glad you mirror my feelings and spoke into the negligible benefits.

[marcusquinn]

@Lonk said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

@BrutalBirdie What’s the initial pain of API access. I haven’t used them in years. But I use to use their API after they updated their interface and made it horrible - and started using their API for all my changes. I was building Wordpress integration into Namecheap actually - when adding or changing to a new domain in Wordpress Multisite, it would check my Namecheap and configure the DNS, just like Cloudron or if I didn’t own the domain, it checked it’s availability and offered to purchase it on Name heap and configure the DNS. All without leaving the Wordpress Web App.

It was amazing. But I have yet to make the same thing for NameSilo but I’m planning too. Their API is even better.

Oooo, I can think of a good use for that!

[Lonkle]

@marcusquinn Unfortunately, their API had changed since I coded this and I haven't revamped it for their new API. But, tell you what, since I exclusively use NameSilo now and will be revamping my code to be "NameSilo compatible. I'll see if I can't add updated Namecheap API definitions so I can test it before moving out to porting my code.

Honestly though, despite being able to accomplish anything using the REST API synchronizing posts
(all types) across single site installations - your business does sound like it may benefit from ease of development that Multisite deployment provides. Though, since like I said you can do this all through the REST API, if what you're already doing works, their are def cons to Multisite. The main benefit is ease of development and deployment and if you've already figured out your pipeline, you may never need to consider multisite.