Cloudflare vs. DNSFilter

Based on my experience, Cloudflare is well-suited for high-traffic websites and probably e-commerce platforms. Cloudflare can mitigate the risk of attacks on these websites using WAF and DNS protection mechanisms and provide cached content to the end-users quickly. The websites where it is not suitable are those that need high security and compliance requirements as Cloudflare might not meet all those criteria.

Incentivized

I like how easy it is to manage the filtering software from the web portal. It's super straightforward to set up my networking equipment with clear instructions. I like that it automatically blocks threats without me having to do anything. It also lets me remotely manage both of our locations and networks from the same portal with the same policies. Very useful for saving time setting up content filtering.

Incentivized

• Registrar and DNS services are impeccable, with registrations done at cost and without ADs. DNS services setting standards for speed of resolution.
• DDOS protection. With their content distribution network to back them they have the bandwidth and tools to be both proactive and reactive to bad actors.
• WAF - Their Web Application Firewall helps mitigate common site vulnerabilities and has active zero-day protection running for breaking exploits

Incentivized

• Content Filtering
• Threat Protection
• Detailed Reporting on Network Activity

Incentivized

• In some cases, using Cloudflare can actually lead to slower website speeds if the network is congested or if the website's traffic is particularly heavy.
• Some website owners may find that the level of customization offered by Cloudflare is limited, especially in comparison to other solutions.
• While Cloudflare is easy to set up and manage, it may be too complex for users who are not familiar with web technologies.

Incentivized

• Improved scalability: As an organization's needs grow and evolve, the software should be able to scale up and handle an increasing number of users and devices.
• More granular controls: The ability to set more detailed and specific policies, such as the ability to block certain types of content for specific groups of users, would give organizations more flexibility and control over their internet usage.
• Advanced threat protection: Increasing the software's ability to detect and protect against advanced threats such as zero-day exploits and APTs would provide a more comprehensive security solution.

Incentivized

lower cost

Incentivized

Everything is extremely concise and all settings apply immediately and take effect globally. There is no reason to explicitly plan/think in terms of individual regions as one would have to traditional cloud offerings (AWS, OCI, Azure). All Cloudflare products integrate seamless as part of a single pipeline that executes from request to response.

Incentivized

In 6+ years of relying on Cloudflare, I think we experienced one or two brief outages that were Cloudflare's fault.

Incentivized

Their Argo for the global network is the core feature we love.

Incentivized

I have only used their support a few times, and most times, they are responsive and able to resolve my issue with a minimal amount of time and effort. However, there was one instance where I simply asked about how to purchase some more resources (redirect rules), and I received some type of automated/AI response that was very unhelpful and gave me no opportunity to escalate to a person.

Incentivized

Very well executed implementation where our team was able to handle the implementation with guidance.

Incentivized

They have the most generous free offering, and after the free offering limit is reached - you're still getting plenty of value for the buck.

They have very good reputation.

They have an ever expanding list of tools that can support multiple scenarios under one roof.

Incentivized

When compared to Kerio Control we found Central Management of filtering to be much easier, it also allowed us to apply filtering to remote devices like laptops and had better logging. We found DNSFilter to be much easier to deploy then Webroot DNS Protection because Webroot required the Anti Virus to be installed before deployment was even possible, and reporting features were very lacking.

Incentivized

They are built for scale and have the capacity to handle all the traffic we could ever expect to get.

Incentivized

• A lot of requests are cached and so egress costs from downstream providers are mitigated.
• DDoS protection has also managed to keep our site up and our cloud computing bill down.
• Setting up a proxy with a worker made putting various Google Cloud Functions running behind a single URL very easy and performant. Plus they offer API Shield on top of this.

• We used to deploy Cisco Umbrella before switching to DNSFilter. I feel like you need an advanced degree to set up and manage Cisco Umbrella. Not the case with DNSFilter. You will save time and money by leveraging a very easy to use product.

Incentivized