CloudFlare and Joomla

CloudFlare is a free CDN service that will make your site faster and provide many other services included improved security and spam stopping services

Steven Johnson
by | Posted: August 24, 2012 | Updated: June 7, 2013
CloudFlare and Joomla
 

We recently started testing with CloudFlare and we like what we see so far. CloudFlare provides CDN services and operate differently than most of the other CDNs we have tested. 

With CloudFlare you move your DNS entries to their servers and they they manage your DNS.  They then point your DNS entries to their network and if they have the information on their servers they it is sent to the client if not they check your server for the information.

 

Plans and Prices

Free Plan -- Globally load balanced CDN, Static Content Caching, Anycast DNS, threat detection, Analytics updated every 24 hours, email support

PRO Plan ($20/month) --   everything in Free Plus  Image Optimization, Resource Pre-loading, Mobile Optimization, SPDY Support, SSL Support, Analytics updated every 15 minutes

Business Plan ($200/month) -- everything in Free, Pro plus RailGun,  Mod_security rule, Advanced DDoS, Custom DNS name servers, priority Email Support

Enterprise Plan ($3000/month) -- Everything in the Business Plan plus Better SLA and Phone Support


If you do not need Advanced Security and Priority Email support the winning combo may be a business plan at a Optimized Hosting Company

 

Questions for CloudFlare

1. What exactly does the Joomla Module / Plugin do?  Does it help with performance or just help keep the log files cleaner by passing on the source IP address?

Restores original visitor IP at the Joomla application level & that's pretty much it.

2. I see that there is a Cloudflare Joomla Module as well a a CloudFlare joomla plugin.  Which should I use?

Really the same thing.

3. How do I know Cloudflare is working?  I installed the CloudFlare module and DNS is updated but my analytics do not show any data.  Do I have to just wait 24 hours for confirmation that CloudFlare is working?

While stats on our end will take 24 hours from the time of the actual nameserver switch, you should see a pretty immediate reduction in server load.

4. If CloudFlare is already acting as a CDN, what is the advantage of using CloudFlare with another CDN such as NetDNA or CloudFront?

No conflict there using another CND with CloudFlare...but you might find it to be redundant having both.

5. Will CloudFlare interfere with Google Analytics?

Not at all.

6. Will CloudFlare interfere with Google Adsense?

Rocket Loader is a beta feature that does have the potential to break the JS. Other than that, you shouldn't see any issues.

7. Railgun looks awesome. I have several sites hosted at Site5.com a CloudFlare Optimized partner, if I use the Free or Pro Plan will the RailGun be used to speed up the site?

We actually haven't pushed RG out to our hosts yet (still making tweaks). RG is going to be active at the hosting partner, so you really shouldn't worry about having to activate it once we push it out.

 

 

Steven Johnson

Steven is a Joomla web developer and worked with Joomla since the Mambo days. He has built websites for startup businesses all the way to for Fortune 500 companies. A graduate of Georgia Tech in Chemical Engineering, he now happily spends his time building websites and reviewing all types of technology.

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