Better security, faster websites, reliable DNS, and greater control, often at no additional cost.

Over more than two decades of building, hosting, and managing websites, we’ve worked with many domain registrars, hosting providers, and DNS management systems. One service we consistently recommend is Cloudflare.

For small businesses and larger organizations alike, Cloudflare is central to how we approach website security, performance, and infrastructure. Much of what we need is available through its free plan.

Updated October 23, 2026 with a recent PHP security example and additional guidance.

7 Reasons We Recommend Cloudflare

Here’s our quick, copy-friendly summary:

  1. Better Website Security – Block malicious traffic, bots, and certain attacks before they reach hosting.
  2. Improved Performance – Use a global CDN and caching to speed up content delivery.
  3. Reliable, Flexible DNS – Simplify domain changes and server migrations.
  4. Easier Team Collaboration – Provide appropriate access without sharing passwords.
  5. Smarter Redirects – Handle domain and URL redirects without depending on WordPress.
  6. Better Traffic Visibility – Investigate traffic spikes, suspicious activity, and security rules.
  7. An Excellent Free Plan – Get significant benefits without another monthly subscription.

Why Cloudflare Is Part of Our Standard Hosting Process

At MITO Studios, approximately 85-90% of the websites we design are also hosted and maintained by our team through our managed WordPress hosting and care services at WP Site Pros.

We also frequently help manage clients’ domain registrations and DNS, and often purchase domains on their behalf. When we handle a new domain, we automatically route its DNS through Cloudflare. For us, it’s a no-brainer. Its benefits are substantial, setup is straightforward, and the free plan meets most client requirements.

For existing domains and organizations with dedicated IT teams, we recommend the same approach while coordinating account ownership and permissions with their staff.

1. Better Website Security

Cloudflare adds a protective layer between visitors and the hosting server. When its proxy is enabled, web traffic passes through its network, where a Web Application Firewall (WAF), DDoS mitigation, and other security measures can block certain unwanted requests before they consume server resources.

Real-world example: The October 2026 PHP vulnerabilities

On October 21, 2026, two critical PHP vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, collectively known as php2shell, raised serious concerns across the web. Because the vulnerabilities affected PHP itself, not just an individual WordPress plugin or theme, the potential impact was widespread.

Cloudflare collaborated on mitigations and deployed WAF protections to free and paid customers before public disclosure. That is precisely why we recommend an additional network-level security layer: it can help mitigate known attacks while hosting providers patch vulnerable PHP installations. Cloudflare does not replace those essential security updates. Read Cloudflare’s technical explanation.

Another example: More than 240,000 requests blocked

In July 2025, a client’s e-commerce website was overwhelmed by automated-looking requests targeting its product filtering functionality. After identifying the traffic, we added a targeted Cloudflare security rule. During one 24-hour reporting period, Cloudflare recorded over 240,000 blocked requests, helping reduce server load while the underlying issue was investigated with the website developer.

Cloudflare is no substitute for WordPress, PHP, and server maintenance, but it is a valuable additional layer of protection.

2. Improved Website Performance

Performance depends on more than a fast hosting server. Cloudflare operates a global Content Delivery Network (CDN), allowing eligible resources such as images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files to be cached and served closer to visitors. This can reduce loading times and origin server load.

Its caching and optimization controls complement good website development and hosting, though dynamic content must be configured carefully.

3. Reliable, Flexible DNS Management

This is one of Cloudflare’s less glamorous benefits, but one of the most important to our team. Websites move between servers, add subdomains, and change email and verification services. Cloudflare centralizes DNS administration and makes those changes easier.

Its CNAME flattening feature can let a primary domain point to a managed hostname instead of a fixed server IP address. In our infrastructure, this can simplify server migrations: we update the destination centrally rather than changing every individual website A record.

4. Easier Collaboration Between Developers and IT Teams

Many clients have internal IT teams handling corporate email and other services while we handle website hosting and maintenance. Cloudflare lets organizations grant appropriate account-level or domain-level access to their web developers, hosting providers, and IT staff, without sharing master passwords.

For larger organizations, we prefer that the client owns its Cloudflare account and delegates the necessary permissions to each service provider. The organization retains control while the technical teams can work efficiently.

5. Smarter Website Redirects

We regularly manage redirects for new website launches, domain changes, URL restructuring, and consolidating older content. Cloudflare can apply redirects at its edge, before requests reach WordPress or the hosting server.

That is useful for www versus non-www redirects, redirecting old domains to new ones, and maintaining page-level redirects without depending on a WordPress plugin or the old website remaining operational.

6. Better Visibility Into Website Traffic

Cloudflare’s traffic and security analytics help us investigate unusual request volumes, suspicious activity, and the effects of security rules. This is different from Google Analytics, which primarily measures visitor behavior and marketing performance.

Cloudflare can provide visibility into requests passing through its network, including some traffic that never successfully reaches or loads the website.

7. An Excellent Free Plan

Cloudflare’s free plan provides authoritative DNS, CDN features, basic managed WAF protections, DDoS mitigation, SSL/TLS features, and a selection of redirect and traffic management tools. Paid plans add capabilities and support, but for many of the small and midsize business websites we manage, the free tier is an excellent starting point.

Getting Started Is Surprisingly Easy

There’s no need to transfer your domain registration, switch web hosts, or rebuild your website. For most conventional setups, the steps are straightforward:

  1. Create a Cloudflare account and add your domain.
  2. Let Cloudflare scan existing DNS records. It automatically discovers many common records.
  3. Review and complete the records, including email, subdomains, and third-party services.
  4. Change the domain’s nameservers at your current registrar to the nameservers Cloudflare assigns.

That’s largely it. Automated discovery often means little manual setup, but it isn’t guaranteed to find every record, and DNSSEC and third-party services require careful review before switching. We’re happy to handle the process for clients once they grant us appropriate Cloudflare access. We also coordinate directly with internal IT departments where needed.

And importantly, using Cloudflare doesn’t change who owns the domain or where the website is hosted. Domain registration can stay with GoDaddy, Namecheap, or another registrar, and hosting can remain wherever it is now.

Our Recommendation

Cloudflare isn’t mandatory for every website, but for most of the sites we manage, the advantages are compelling: stronger security, improved performance, flexible DNS, easier infrastructure changes, and better technical collaboration. The generous free plan makes it an even easier decision.

That’s why Cloudflare is a standard part of our website setup and DNS management process. At MITO Studios, we help clients configure and manage Cloudflare alongside our website development and WP Site Pros managed hosting services.