Cloudflare CDN

What is Cloudflare CDN?

The Cloudflare CDN speeds up websites, APIs and applications by serving copies of their content from data centers close to each visitor. Customers usually connect by pointing their domain’s DNS to Cloudflare, which then acts as a reverse proxy: requests reach Cloudflare first, cached files such as images, scripts and video segments are returned from a nearby location, and only requests that cannot be answered from cache travel on to the customer’s origin server. The network spans more than 330 cities in over 125 countries and interconnects with more than 13,000 other networks.

Because the same servers run Cloudflare’s security services, the CDN comes bundled with DDoS mitigation and TLS encryption, with web application firewall and bot management available on top, rather than being sold as a standalone caching product. Administrators decide what is cached and for how long with Cache Rules, purge files instantly and can enable Tiered Cache, which routes cache misses through upper-tier data centers so fewer requests reach the origin. Cache Reserve keeps cached assets for long periods in Cloudflare’s R2 object storage, and developers can customize caching and routing logic in code with Cloudflare Workers.

The CDN’s free plan helped Cloudflare spread to millions of websites; W3Techs estimated in September 2026 that about 26 percent of all websites used Cloudflare. That reach means problems on Cloudflare’s network can affect a large part of the web at once. On November 18, 2025, a faulty configuration file caused errors for many sites using its core CDN and security services for several hours, and Cloudflare responded with an engineering program, completed in 2026, to make configuration changes safer.

Key features of Cloudflare CDN

1. 01

   Global edge network

   Content is served from data centers in more than 330 cities, so visitors download files from a nearby location instead of from a distant origin server.

2. 02

   Cache Rules and instant purge

   Rules define which content is cached and for how long, and cached files can be purged individually or all at once whenever a site changes.

3. 03

   Tiered Cache

   Lower-tier data centers check upper-tier locations before contacting the origin, which raises cache hit ratios and reduces the load and bandwidth on customer servers.

4. 04

   Cache Reserve

   A persistent cache built on R2 object storage keeps eligible assets available for long periods, so popular content is served without repeatedly fetching it from the origin.

5. 05

   Built-in DDoS protection

   Traffic passes through Cloudflare’s network, which absorbs distributed denial-of-service attacks at the network and application layers before they reach the origin.

6. 06

   TLS and modern protocols

   Cloudflare issues and manages TLS certificates for HTTPS and supports newer protocols such as HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 to reduce connection times for visitors.

7. 07

   Load balancing and image delivery

   Related services spread traffic across multiple origin servers and optimize images for each visitor’s device, reducing file sizes without changing how pages look.

Who uses Cloudflare CDN?

• Online publishers and e-commerce sites cache pages, images and scripts close to visitors to cut load times and hosting bandwidth costs.
• Software companies deliver downloads, API responses and web app assets through a network that also filters malicious traffic.
• Small businesses and personal sites use the free plan to add caching, HTTPS and DDoS protection without changing hosting providers.
• Media companies deliver large files and video segments worldwide while using Tiered Cache and Cache Reserve to shield their origin servers.

History of Cloudflare CDN

Cloudflare launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010 as a combined security and performance service: by sitting in front of websites as a reverse proxy, it could cache content and block attacks at the same time. The free plan drew large numbers of small sites, and in September 2014 Cloudflare began providing free SSL certificates to all customers, making encrypted HTTPS connections available on every plan.

Later additions made caching more configurable and reduced traffic to customers’ servers, including Tiered Cache, Cache Rules and Cache Reserve. After outages in late 2025 disrupted many sites that rely on the CDN, Cloudflare launched an internal program called Code Orange: Fail Small, which it said in May 2026 had been completed with new safeguards for configuration changes.

1. 2010

   Cloudflare launches its combined CDN and security service at TechCrunch Disrupt.

2. 2014

   Universal SSL gives every Cloudflare customer free HTTPS certificates.

3. 2025

   A configuration error on November 18 causes hours of errors for sites using Cloudflare’s CDN and security services.

4. 2026

   Cloudflare completes Code Orange: Fail Small, a program to make network configuration changes safer.

Cloudflare CDN pricing

Cloudflare CDN alternatives

Well-known alternativesAkamai, Fastly, Amazon CloudFront, Google Cloud CDN and Azure Front Door

Cloudflare CDN: frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Cloudflare CDN cloudflare.com
2. Cloudflare Cache documentation developers.cloudflare.com
3. Introducing Universal SSL, Cloudflare Blog blog.cloudflare.com
4. Cloudflare outage on November 18, 2025 blog.cloudflare.com

Last reviewed September 17, 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.