System Administrators are Rethinking Cloudflare

It is time to stop putting all of our eggs in one big basket with the letters “HACK ME FOR BIG WIN” painted in glowing letters on the side.

Many users are frustrated with Cloudflare’s frequent requirement to prove their humanity by checking a box or solving CAPTCHAs. While system administrators often dismiss these complaints—assuming more users will comply than abandon their sites—this overlooks a significant reality: a considerable number of real human visitors simply refuse to complete these challenges, resulting in lost traffic and diminished user experience. There is another big issue, however.

System administrators are increasingly rethinking their reliance on Cloudflare in light of recent high-impact outages and recurring service disruptions. High-profile incidents such as the global outage on March 21, 2025—triggered by a mismanaged credential rotation—have shaken confidence, however, resulting in widespread downtime and exposing the risks of centralized dependencies[21][22]. These failures have not only undermined trust but also spotlighted the operational hazards of entrusting mission-critical services to a single cloud provider. Discussions in professional forums reveal growing frustration with Cloudflare’s technical decisions, perceived lack of helpful support, and persistent bugs[24]. For many admins, these incidents are reinforcing the importance of infrastructure independence and the need for more robust, distributed, and transparent web service architectures[29].

An Open Letter to System Administrators

Subject: An Open Letter to System Administrators: Rethink Cloudflare—User Privacy and Trust Are At Stake

Dear System Administrators,

I’m writing to urge you to consider ending use of Cloudflare as a CDN or web security provider for your sites and services. While Cloudflare offers real benefits in terms of protection from DDoS attacks and ease of configuration, these conveniences come at a profound—and often unacknowledged—cost to your users’ privacy, autonomy, and trust.

The Core Problem

When you utilize Cloudflare, you route all your users’ web traffic—and sometimes sensitive personal information—through a third-party infrastructure which acts as a de facto man-in-the-middle between your own servers and the people who trust you. This means that:

– Cloudflare can decrypt, inspect, and store user data in transit between your site and its visitors.
– Your users do not get to meaningfully consent to this level of access. They trust you with their data—not a giant corporation whose business interests may not align with theirs.
– Major data breaches and operational incidents (such as “Cloudbleed”) have shown that even the most trusted providers are not immune to serious leaks, with sensitive data potentially exposed[4].

Security and Privacy Concerns

While Cloudflare invests heavily in security and recently acquired global privacy certifications[1][5], its network represents a vast, centralized target, and the company must comply with government requests for data in multiple jurisdictions[5]. Furthermore, its track record includes facilitating criminal activity (by offering protection, sometimes unwittingly, to phishing and piracy operations)[4]. The reality is: by default, you are handing over your traffic—and by extension, your users’ data—for commercial processing by a corporate entity over which neither you nor your users have direct control.

Why Are We Accepting This Model?

Cloudflare’s dominance is built on a foundation of admin convenience: in many cases, switching on Cloudflare is faster and easier than independently securing, scaling, or monitoring a site. But that convenience is not a substitute for robust, end-to-end trust or for honest, direct relationship with your users. You have a duty of care to understand who is handling your users’ data and to assess the risks honestly.

Alternatives Exist

– Consider decentralized or self-hosted alternatives when possible.
– Leverage modern HTTPS implementations and direct DDoS mitigation strategies.
– Be transparent with your users; if you must use Cloudflare, *disclose it and explain what it means for user privacy and data processing*.

Final Thought

You are the gatekeepers of your users’ safety and privacy. Please don’t trade their trust for your convenience. Re-evaluate your reliance on Cloudflare—and put your users’ best interests at the forefront of your infrastructure decisions.

Sincerely,
[Your Name or Organization]

This letter articulates concerns about the fundamental privacy trade-offs and the cultural shift toward centralized intermediaries like Cloudflare. It references past incidents and the broader privacy debate, even acknowledging Cloudflare’s compliance and certifications, but challenges admins to consider user rights and trust above convenience[1][4][5].

Example Testimonials from Admins no Longer Using Cloudflare

Here are 10 sample testimonials about why system administrators chose to move away from Cloudflare:

1. “Cloudflare’s free tier simply couldn’t handle our caching needs as our site grew. When we realized outdated content was being served and upgrades would multiply our costs several times over, we switched to self-hosted solutions. Our performance and control have improved ever since.”[11]

2. “After years of loyal usage, we found Cloudflare’s enterprise support had gone downhill—with more focus on upselling and less on solving real technical problems. We migrated key services to more responsive providers and never looked back.”[12]

3. “We started noticing unpredictable downtime and weird 502 errors that only resolved when Cloudflare was disabled. When reliability actually increased after we left, it was clear we’d made the right choice.”[13]

4. “Cloudflare’s constant price hikes and shifting services behind expensive add-ons just didn’t fit our budget or needs. We replicated the necessary functionality using Azure CDN at a fraction of the cost.”[12]

5. “Security is about trust, and putting Cloudflare in the middle meant compromising on transparency. We preferred a direct connection between our users and our servers, so we moved our domains off Cloudflare.”[14]

6. “We had a nightmare when our super admin left the company and recovering account access was a bureaucratic maze. That convinced us to simplify and manage our own DNS and web security infrastructure.”[15]

7. “Cloudflare’s aggressive sales tactics—pressuring us into costly plans for minimal extra value—were just too much. We switched to a provider that actually listened to our environment and needs.”[12]

8. “As privacy advocates, exposing user traffic to a third-party inspection point was against our principles. We now host our own edge proxies, keeping user trust and data sovereignty intact.”

9. “Repeated false positives from Cloudflare’s bot protection service started blocking legitimate customers. Their team couldn’t fine-tune the system, so we built a custom solution ourselves.”[12]

10. “When we needed support during a minor DDoS incident, Cloudflare’s response was slow and unhelpful—unless we upgraded to a far more expensive plan. We realized robust self-hosting, despite higher initial effort, offered long-term peace of mind.”[12]

Each example testimonial draws from issues cited in the results—costs, support, reliability, privacy, and the wish for greater control.

System Administrators are Rethinking Cloudflare

An Open Letter to System Administrators

Example Testimonials from Admins no Longer Using Cloudflare

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