# cloudflare free vs pro



## winnervps (Jan 11, 2015)

Does anybody know or experience in using a PRO version of cloudflare?

It seems I can't find the the differences between the FREE and PRO version, except for these:


SSL (it seems my personal web doesn't need that thing)
WAF (Cpanel also has a Comodo WAF plugin)
Real time stat (well.....don't need it in such hurry)
So I thought it would be good to upgrade to PRO, but if the features are the same as Free, why should I?

I only need Cloudflare for caching and speed. What do you suggest?


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## ModyDev (Jan 11, 2015)

CloudFlare Free Doesn't include the Web Application firewall which is the main feature for Pro version also CloudFlare Pro will give your site better caching and speed.

In my case if i want to upgrade a free cloudflare plan, i will pick the business plan which will give me advanced ddos protection and better caching or i will stick with the free plan.


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## GIANT_CRAB (Jan 11, 2015)

If you're running a personal blog and the site is quite popular, you should use Pro. Pro includes better traffic analytic through CF, WAF and slightly faster loading speed.

Else, just stick with the free version.


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## AlphaNine_Vini (Jan 11, 2015)

Yes. If you are expecting a lots of potential visitors and conversions to your websites. Then pro is a better deal .


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## bigcat (Jan 12, 2015)

winnervps said:


> Does anybody know or experience in using a PRO version of cloudflare?
> 
> It seems I can't find the the differences between the FREE and PRO version, except for these:
> 
> ...


Make sure you try free version first. Test all option namely _CDN only_, _CDN + basic optimization_, _CDN + full optimization_.


For a reason unknown to me, CloudFlare optimization tend to break certain random component on my websites. Mostly blank white pages problem.

I didn't have the time to diagnose further at that time on the root cause. So just keep that in mind.


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## winnervps (Jan 12, 2015)

bigcat said:


> Make sure you try free version first. Test all option namely _CDN only_, _CDN + basic optimization_, _CDN + full optimization_.
> 
> 
> For a reason unknown to me, CloudFlare optimization tend to break certain random component on my websites. Mostly blank white pages problem.
> ...


Somehow I just found the same as you ;( Some items didn't show up properly.

In cloudflare page, they didn't tell that the PRO will cache or load faster than the Free? or is it me who "feel" it?

I had a website of 10k visitors per day, a lot of attacks  Do i need to stick on the free? or upgrade?


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## RTGHM (Jan 12, 2015)

Most people use cloudflare just to protect against denial of services.

I use cloudflare just to speed up the website, since connections from countries like Canada//US -> Bulgaria isn't the fastest.

If live stats is really an issue, there are a ton of free online opensource tools to show you live stats.



For example, that's my website under cloudflare, 67,319 regular traffic. According to my live monitoring tool, we're getting about 15 hits a minute in our peak hours, each stay on average of 8 minutes.


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## k0nsl (Jan 12, 2015)

A stupid question, perhaps, but is that statistics for the last 24 hours, or over a 30 day period?

[edit]

Ah, seems to be 30 days. Silly me!  :blush: 



RTGHM said:


> Most people use cloudflare just to protect against denial of services.
> 
> I use cloudflare just to speed up the website, since connections from countries like Canada//US -> Bulgaria isn't the fastest.
> 
> ...


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## RTGHM (Jan 12, 2015)

k0nsl said:


> A stupid question, perhaps, but is that statistics for the last 24 hours, or over a 30 day period?
> 
> [edit]
> 
> Ah, seems to be 30 days. Silly me!  :blush:


It's 30 day period, I can pull the 24 hour stats if you'd like.


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## RTGHM (Jan 12, 2015)

Just another quick two-cents, if you want to just see live stats, wordpress plugins are good if you're making yourself a blog. See:



I just installed it about 10 minutes ago to test.


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## bigcat (Jan 12, 2015)

winnervps said:


> Somehow I just found the same as you ;( Some items didn't show up properly.


In my case I'm able to pinpoint the problem to Rogers in Canada. They somehow don't play well with CloudFlare optimization. Though I don't know the detail.


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## k0nsl (Jan 13, 2015)

Check out how many crawlers/bots I have for one of my domains (which is on one of their paid plans):



Spoiler









RTGHM said:


> It's 30 day period, I can pull the 24 hour stats if you'd like.


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## bigcat (Jan 13, 2015)

k0nsl said:


> Check out how many crawlers/bots I have for one of my domains (which is on one of their paid plans):


My site barely changed and I have 50k crawler/bot last month. So I think your figure wasn't that surprising for actively modified site.


I use free plan.



Spoiler


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## RTGHM (Jan 13, 2015)

Here's today's stats for right now:



And here is what cloudflare reports for yesterday:


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## winnervps (Jan 13, 2015)

@bigcat

wow....you had lots of "threat" there /omg

@RTGHM

So, I saw you have "huge" traffic, as well. so what do you suggest for me: PAID or stick to FREE? (PS: I don's use the live stats. I might use something else)


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## RTGHM (Jan 13, 2015)

winnervps said:


> @bigcat
> 
> wow....you had lots of "threat" there /omg
> 
> ...


Well, I use the free plan. I don't get denial of service attacks, I rarely get over 100 threats a month. Cloudflare stops potential threats, make them do a captcha verification..Failure results in being blocked.

So, I'd say stick with the free plan. Don't expect the free plan to stop ddos attacks though.


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## winnervps (Jan 13, 2015)

RTGHM said:


> Well, I use the free plan. I don't get denial of service attacks, I rarely get over 100 threats a month. Cloudflare stops potential threats, make them do a captcha verification..Failure results in being blocked.
> 
> So, I'd say stick with the free plan. Don't expect the free plan to stop ddos attacks though.


Ok @RTGHM. I think I will follow you. Stick to Free as I don't see any "necessary" benefit to the Pro Plan. Thanks


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## RTGHM (Jan 14, 2015)

winnervps said:


> Ok @RTGHM. I think I will follow you. Stick to Free as I don't see any "necessary" benefit to the Pro Plan. Thanks


No problem.


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