Cloudflare alternatives: which one fits your website?

Cloudflare is the default choice for many websites, and for good reasons: a free plan, DDoS protection and a huge network. Still, plenty of site owners look for something else. Some want their pages cached without writing cache rules, some want a person to answer when something breaks, and some simply don't want all their traffic and DNS with one company. This guide sorts the alternatives by what you actually need, shows where fast.site does better than Cloudflare, and explains how to switch without downtime.

If CDNs are new to you, start with what a CDN is.

Why people look for a Cloudflare alternative

• HTML caching takes work. By default Cloudflare caches static files such as images, CSS and JavaScript, but not your HTML pages. To cache those, you write Cache Rules or, on WordPress, pay for the APO add-on. Getting the bypass rules right for logins, carts and checkouts is then your job.
• Support on the free plan is community-based. If your site breaks at night, you depend on forums and documentation.
• It is a platform, not just a CDN. Zero Trust, Workers, R2 and many other products share one dashboard. That is powerful, but a lot to learn if you only want a faster, safer website.
• Concentration. A large share of the web runs through one provider, so an outage or policy change there affects many sites at once. Some owners prefer to spread that risk.

fast.site was built to solve exactly these points.

Which kind of alternative you need

"Cloudflare alternative" means different things, because Cloudflare does different things. Decide which part you want to replace first.

The rest of this guide is about the first two rows: making a website faster and keeping it online.

Website CDN alternatives by type

Full-site CDNs (the closest replacement)

A full-site CDN takes over the traffic for your domain, like Cloudflare does. Every request passes through its edge first, so it can cache HTML, terminate HTTPS and filter attacks before they reach your server. fast.site belongs here. So does QUIC.cloud, which caches HTML together with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin and suits sites on LiteSpeed hosting. Large enterprise CDNs also work this way, but they usually need an engineering team to configure.

Asset CDNs

Services such as Bunny.net and KeyCDN serve your static files from their network while your hosting still builds every page. They are inexpensive and easy to undo, but they don't lower the time your server needs to produce the HTML, and they don't protect your pages from attacks. The WordPress CDN comparison explains the difference in detail.

The CDN that comes with your host

Many managed hosts include a CDN, sometimes built on Cloudflare itself. Check what your plan already has before you add another layer.

fast.site compared with Cloudflare

Both are full-site proxies that you connect by changing your nameservers. The difference is mainly in how much is configured for you and what you pay for.

fast.site respects the Cache-Control headers your application sends. WordPress and WooCommerce already send no-cache headers for logged-in visitors, carts and checkouts, so those reach your server while public pages come from the edge. On other platforms, check the headers on those pages before you switch. You can confirm it on any page with the fs-cache header, and purge single URLs or the whole domain in the dashboard or via the API.

Where fast.site does better

• Your pages are cached from day one. HTML caching is on without writing a single rule, and on WordPress and WooCommerce, logins, carts and checkouts keep working because fast.site follows the headers your site already sends.
• A person answers. Every plan includes email support, so you never depend on forums when something breaks.
• Your site stays online when your server doesn't. Grace mode keeps serving the last cached copy of your pages while your server recovers.
• Built for websites, nothing else. One focused dashboard for speed and protection, instead of a platform with dozens of products to learn.

How to switch from Cloudflare without downtime

1. Export your DNS records. In the Cloudflare dashboard, export the zone file. Check MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and verification TXT records in particular, since email breaks first when they are missing.
2. Note what Cloudflare does for you. Page Rules, Cache Rules, redirects, Workers and firewall rules don't move by themselves. Decide which ones you still need and rebuild them at the new provider.
3. Check your origin certificate. A Cloudflare Origin CA certificate is only trusted by Cloudflare. Before you switch, install a publicly trusted certificate on your server, for example from Let's Encrypt, or the new proxy can't connect securely.
4. Check the IP allowlist on your server. If your host or firewall only accepts traffic from Cloudflare IP ranges, allow the new provider's ranges as well. Plugins that read the visitor IP from the CF-Connecting-IP header need the new provider's header instead.
5. Add your domain at the new provider and recreate every DNS record there. Compare both zones line by line.
6. Change the nameservers at your registrar. Changes usually take effect within hours, but allow up to 48. Keep the Cloudflare zone in place until traffic has moved. The checklist for changing nameservers without downtime covers each step.
7. Test the important journeys: a public page twice (the second request should be a cache hit), login, cart, checkout and forms.

Measure before and after

Record a baseline before you switch: run the same pages through corewebvitals.page and note the server response time. Repeat it with the same pages and tools afterwards. The guide on measuring website speed explains how to keep the comparison fair.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Cloudflare?

For a full-site proxy with DDoS protection, few services match Cloudflare's free plan. QUIC.cloud has a free tier for LiteSpeed sites, and Jetpack Site Accelerator serves WordPress images and files for free. fast.site is not free, but you can try it free for 7 days, with no credit card required.

Can I keep Cloudflare DNS and use another CDN?

With an asset CDN, yes: you only add a CNAME record for the CDN hostname. A full-site proxy that works through nameservers, such as fast.site, manages the DNS for your domain itself, so your records move with it.

Will switching CDN affect my Google rankings?

Not if your pages stay reachable with the same URLs, status codes and content. Avoid downtime during the nameserver change, keep redirects in place, and make sure search engine crawlers are not blocked by the new provider's protection.

Does fast.site replace Cloudflare Zero Trust or Tunnels?

No. fast.site accelerates and protects public websites. For private access to internal apps or exposing a home server, you need a different kind of product.