Cloudflare basics for clients
What Cloudflare is, what we use it for, what it means for your domain and DNS, and what you need to know as a client.
If we've mentioned "pointing your domain to Cloudflare" or "managing your DNS through Cloudflare," you might be wondering what Cloudflare is and why we use it. This guide gives you a plain-English overview.
Quick summary
Cloudflare is a web infrastructure company we often use to manage DNS, add a security and performance layer in front of your website, and issue free SSL certificates. When your domain uses Cloudflare's nameservers, Cloudflare sits between your visitors and your web server — speeding things up and filtering out threats.
What Cloudflare is
Cloudflare is a large technology company that provides a range of services around internet performance and security. For most of our clients, we use Cloudflare for:
- DNS management — a fast, reliable place to manage your domain's DNS records
- CDN (Content Delivery Network) — caching your site content at servers near your visitors for faster load times
- Security — filtering malicious traffic, blocking attacks, and protecting your server
- SSL/HTTPS — providing free SSL certificates and ensuring connections to your site are encrypted
- Domain registration — some clients register their domains directly with Cloudflare Registrar for at-cost pricing
Cloudflare has a generous free tier that covers everything most small and medium businesses need.
How Cloudflare works with your domain
When your domain uses Cloudflare's nameservers:
- Visitors type your domain into their browser.
- DNS points the request to Cloudflare's servers.
- Cloudflare's servers handle the request — serving cached content where possible, and passing the request to your hosting server if needed.
- Your server sends the response back through Cloudflare to the visitor.
Cloudflare acts as a "middleman" (technically called a reverse proxy) between your visitors and your hosting server. Your server's actual IP address is hidden behind Cloudflare's IP addresses.
The orange cloud vs grey cloud
In Cloudflare's DNS settings, each record has a small cloud icon:
- Orange cloud (proxied) — traffic goes through Cloudflare. You get CDN, security, and SSL benefits. Your server's IP is hidden.
- Grey cloud (DNS only) — traffic goes directly to your server. Cloudflare is only used for DNS lookups, with no proxying.
For website A records and CNAMEs, we typically use the orange cloud (proxied). For MX records and some other services, DNS-only mode is required.
What Cloudflare means for DNS propagation
One benefit of Cloudflare is that DNS changes made in their dashboard propagate much faster than typical registrar DNS — often within seconds to a few minutes, compared to hours elsewhere.
However, switching your nameservers to Cloudflare still requires the usual propagation period (a few hours to 48 hours) for the nameserver change itself to take effect.
Cloudflare and email
Cloudflare only proxies web traffic (HTTP/HTTPS). Email traffic (SMTP) goes directly to your mail server and bypasses Cloudflare. Your MX records should be set to "DNS only" (grey cloud) in Cloudflare — Cloudflare cannot proxy email.
Giving us access to your Cloudflare account
We can manage your DNS, security rules, and other settings if you give us access. See Give us access to your Cloudflare account for step-by-step instructions.
The access account to use is support@chykalophia.com, unless your project lead has specified a different address.
Common questions
Related guides
- Give us access to your Cloudflare account
- Nameservers vs DNS records
- DNS records explained (A, CNAME, MX, TXT)
- What is SSL & HTTPS?
- What is a CDN?
Need a hand?
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