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.

[marcusquinn]

@Lonk said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

NameSilo

Not heard of them before, and kinda tired of transferring so many domains over the years but if you recommend I might find time.

Seem to be a little cheaper? Anything else?

[marcusquinn]

@Lonk We use a combo of wp-cfm and distributor plugins to achieve the same. The target it to have all site seed data checked into the repo as json. Not a fan of SQL script commits with the hazards from the order in which they're run.

Open to idea but I think you'll like what you see. I can think of multi-site potential too - but would want to automate CDN setups so that each has it's own IP.

[marcusquinn]

Weird, Namesilo doesn't support .co.uk, just .uk

[girish]

@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

namecheap requires you to manually whilelist every IP that uses their API. He is probably referring to that.

[BrutalBirdie]

@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.

@girish said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

@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

namecheap requires you to manually whilelist every IP that uses their API. He is probably referring to that.

Yes and No.

My 'initial pain' was that the api access is locked for new users, there was a text like 'you need to have 50€ balance' or something strange restriction.
But after chatting with the live chat I told them I want to host SaaS Services (aka. Cloudron ) and need api access to automatically change domains.

They had no problem with that and enabled it for me with no questions asked.

[girish]

@BrutalBirdie said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

My 'initial pain' was that the api access is locked for new users, there was a text like 'you need to have 50€ balance' or something strange restriction.

Ah, this is probably something new. We enabled is 3-4 years ago, when I guess they didn't have this restriction. Good to know they are friendly and enable it.

[Lonkle]

@girish said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

Ah, this is probably something new. We enabled is 3-4 years ago, when I guess they didn't have this restriction. Good to know they are friendly and enable it.

Same here, which was why I was confused. Btw, I may code another registrar integration for Cloudron down the road (2021), if you'll let me, I don't know how modular that part of the code is.

[girish]

@Lonk said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

Same here, which was why I was confused. Btw, I may code another registrar integration for Cloudron down the road (2021), if you'll let me, I don't know how modular that part of the code is.

That's quite easy. Just have to fill up the interface.js - https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/box/-/tree/master/src/dns

[Lonkle]

@marcusquinn said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

@Lonk said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

NameSilo

Not heard of them before, and kinda tired of transferring so many domains over the years but if you recommend I might find time.

Seem to be a little cheaper? Anything else?

A little cheaper, the developers work with me directly when I need a new feature (they're slow, but I get to talk to their actual web developers). And their API is more fleshed out. Oh, but the reason I switched aside from them being cheaper was that Private Registry was Free and I really wanted that. At Namecheap it was like $5 per domain or something which adds up with 60 domains.

[Lonkle]

@girish said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

That's quite easy. Just have to fill up the interface.js - https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/box/-/tree/master/src/dns

As always, thanks for the guidance. Bookmarked your post to come back to later! ️

[jdaviescoates]

@girish said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

That's quite easy. Just have to fill up the interface.js - https://git.cloudron.io/cloudron/box/-/tree/master/src/dns

So I guess if I want e.g. joker.com and 1984hosting.com to integrate I should just relay this info to them?

[girish]

@jdaviescoates said in Should I switch to Cloudflare?:

So I guess if I want e.g. joker.com and 1984hosting.com to integrate I should just relay this info to them?

Yes, if they have an api, it's probably a day's work to integrate a dns provider.

[humptydumpty]

I'm a bit late to the party but just want to say Cloudflare be damned. I use a VPN online and every site that has Cloudflare CDN blocks me out. Oh, and you can add Google Captcha to the naughty list.

[robi]

@humptydumpty you can use their VPN.

[humptydumpty]

@robi No thanks. I'm not going to feed the beast.