Cloudflare's big trust problem

For those of us who don't know what a CDN, a content delivery network, is, let me briefly explain it here. Various companies around the world have specialized in setting up servers all over the world and connecting them to form a global server network so that websites can be viewed in the other world in a much shorter loading time than if they had to be sent from one end of the world to the other. The websites are therefore present on 5 continents at the same time and do not have to be transmitted from Europe to Asia first.

Cloudflare – popular CDN
The American company Cloudflare, which has its origins in San Francisco, is one of the established CDNs in the world and is also very well known and present in German-speaking Europe. According to Cloudflare, Cloudflare is present in 330 cities worldwide and delivers data to 120 countries around the world. The big highlight of Cloudflare is that users can use Cloudflare for free by choosing the "Free Plan". This makes Cloudflare one of the few providers that offer a free subscription. In addition, the Free Plan also works very well and shows its effect in terms of speed. Loading times actually improve. Cloudflare also offers hacker protection and offers effective protection against DDoS hacker attacks. For the whole thing to work, you have to choose Cloudflare's name servers, which means that the website runs via Cloudflare.

Paid subscriptions and services disappoint
Many people will feel the same as I did. You are quite happy with the free subscription, but it could still run faster. To make this possible, there are paid subscriptions and extra services that you can sign up for. But you will quickly become disappointed here, because you don't get anything for your money that you could see as added value. The loading times do not get any better with the Pro Plan for $20/month and other additional services that you buy, and they do not deliver any better results. You can easily pay $50/month without getting more in return than you already had with the free plan. What's the point of all this?

Support & customer service – a total disaster!!!!!!!!!
If you now have the idea of ​​contacting Cloudflare to speak to people about it, you're in for a real surprise. Since, according to Cloudflare, tens of thousands of users choose Cloudflare every day, Cloudflare probably doesn't give a damn if you're not satisfied with the service you've purchased. Or maybe you're simply not in control of the situation. Who knows. You can also open a support ticket, but don't expect a reasonable answer or solution to follow. My ticket from August this year still hasn't been answered after three months, and the problem that Cloudflare caused has still not been solved.

Don't trust Cloudflare with your money!!!
Be extremely careful when choosing your credit card! Only use a credit card that you have little money on or Paypal so that Cloudflare cannot debit unlimited amounts. After I canceled in April 2024 or downgraded my Pro Plan subscription to the Free Plan, this was also displayed in my account. On May 16, 2024, the costs were supposed to end. But behind my back, Cloudflare had reversed the downgrading, reactivated the Pro subscription and continued to debit my credit card without telling me anything. It was only when I blocked Cloudflare on Paypal and made my credit card no longer accessible to Cloudflare that Cloudflare reacted with the downgrade. Now, of course, I wanted my money back, but no sooner had I been debited than I thought!, Cloudflare probably thought. Although the unauthorized charge on my credit card was confirmed by email on October 20, 2024, a credit was displayed in the system, and I was also informed by email that the money had been refunded to PayPal the same day, absolutely nothing happened. Countless emails followed claiming that the money had been refunded. Maybe Cloudflare paid the money to Santa Claus, but I didn't get anything. I am still arguing with the credit card about the chargeback of the overcharged amounts from Cloudflare. The people at Cloudflare love to lie to you. This is not a reputable company! In Europe, the term reputable has a different meaning than Cloudflare. That's why I warn against the careless use of credit cards for services that are of no use.

Revenge from Cloudflare?
As long as you use the content delivery network, you also use Cloudflare's name server. This means that Cloudflare also has control over the user's website. In the recent past, I have repeatedly had the feeling that Cloudflare was putting obstacles in my way as revenge for my determined action against their poor performance. Suddenly, 524 server errors started to appear more frequently or other errors occurred on the website until I decided to remove one website from Cloudflare and reset the name server of my web server, which cut off the connection to Cloudflare. Other users also report alleged acts of revenge. Whatever the reason, be it criminal energy, decadence and indifference or simply being overwhelmed, Cloudflare is not a serious partner when it comes to support, customer service and money.

My advice
If you decide to use Cloudflare, only choose the free plan, otherwise you risk losing time, nerves and money. In the event of a dispute, you cannot call or email Cloudflare and support tickets are answered at will. In addition, paid services hardly add any value - I don't know what, I didn't feel any. That's actually a shame, because I'm one of those customers who pays for services, but here you just feel cheated. The CDN chapter is and will remain difficult. Sometimes less is more and you leave it as it is. Take a look at the entries on Trustpilot. They speak volumes. The company has lost the trust of the majority of users and no longer enjoys any trust. So be careful or keep your hands off!