January 11, 2021
3min Read
Merkys M.
Using a Content Delivery Network is one of the best ways to reduce page loading time. There are numerous options to choose from, but Cloudflare stands out among the rest because of its exceptional service. What’s great, you can use it for free! Keep scrolling to learn how to set up Cloudflare on WordPress!
Cloudflare is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that acts as a proxy between a website and the visitor. This system enables users to receive cached static content from the nearest servers. With shorter physical distance, the site can load faster.
What’s great about Cloudflare is that it has one of the biggest server networks in the world. As such, no matter where your visitors are, Cloudflare will help you deliver the fastest website experience. This surely will help to improve your site’s SEO as speed is one of the ranking factors in search engines.
Compared to traditional CDN, Cloudflare offers many other useful features:
Installing CloudFlare on WordPress is a straightforward process. Follow the guide below to know how to do it:
Once your WordPress site is added to Cloudflare, you’ll be prompted with the DNS details of your domain name. In this step, you can enable or disable Cloudflare for specific subdomains.
To activate, simply toggle the cloud to orange.
We highly suggest that you enable Cloudflare for your naked domain name and www subdomain. This way, Cloudflare will work on both www and non-www versions of your site.
Once you are done, press the Continue button to proceed to the next step.
It’s not recommended to enable CloudFlare for cPanel, mail, FTP, or any other subdomains as it can result in various DNS issues.
After activating Cloudflare for your domain and subdomains, you will be greeted with Cloudflare nameservers on the next page. Now, we need to replace your old nameservers with Cloudflare’s.
Note that it may take up to 72 hours for DNS to propagate worldwide. Once the nameservers update has been completed, you will receive an email confirmation message from Cloudflare. Alternatively, you can also check status on Cloudflare website. During this process, your page will not face any downtime.
To complete the whole process, we need to install the Cloudflare plugin on WordPress. The tool comes with various handy features to manage the CDN, such as:
Let’s proceed with the plugin installation.
After you log in to the Cloudflare plugin, you will see several settings:
CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is an important service that will help you boost your website speed. Out of so many options, we recommend you to use Cloudflare. It offers a reliable CDN service, as well as security and performance improvements.
What’s cool, you can set up Cloudflare on WordPress for free, as we have explained above. To summarize, here’s how you do that:
That’s it, good luck and enjoy your faster website!
April 03 2020
I am using hostinger.in hosting service. Can I use couldflare for my can. If I change nameservers to cloudflare, will I loose Hostinger.in hosting service?
April 24 2020
I have followed all above-mentioned steps but I am having an error "Domain status: not pointing to our name servers". I am using hostinger domain & hostinger hosting. Please help
Replied on April 24 2020
Hi! I am not able to locate an account with us with your email to see the exact case, but this can occur if you have not added an A record in Cloudflare. A Records are necessary to direct a visitor's browser requests to an origin web server. Access your Cloudflare Dashboard and check if the A record added there is the same as the one in your Hostinger Dashboard. You can see your Hostinger DNS records in your Panel-> Advanced-> DNS zone editor. You will find the A record you need to use there.
May 04 2020
I installed free ssl certificate from cloudflare but it is not working on my website
Replied on May 04 2020
Hey, Amit, have you followed all the steps on the tutorial?
July 11 2020
Awesome step by step guidance. thank you so much.
Replied on July 14 2020
Happy to help! :)
August 05 2020
I purchased a Cloudflare service on my Hostinger account and I have a problem to set it up. Actually my website doesn't work now and Im trying to resolve the issue. Looks like DNS settings... Please HELP!
Replied on November 06 2020
Hey there Salahaddin! Hope you are having a lovely day. Once you set up CloudFlare you may need to tweak few settings based on your DNS configuration, SSL encryption etc. My help is limited via the comments here, but if you message our support team, I am sure they can help you, if your website is hosted here :)
August 07 2020
Hi I am getting an error 1000 message. I have checked and the ftp A record is correct. The nameservers I changed both within the domain and hosting. Site launching on Monday - please help!
Replied on November 06 2020
Hey there Natasha! :) Make sure to give it 24 hours before your nameservers propagate correctly. After that make sure not only the ftp A record is correct, but the @ A record needs to point to the same IP address as well! Good luck!
August 09 2020
I done it. But i don't know why sometimes i got error my domain not pointing. Or SSH failed . . . I have to restored default my DNS. Sometime oneday my site went down 5 6 times. Could you have any other advices for me?
Replied on November 11 2020
Hey there! I am not sure what steps could a mistake appear on, but please feel free to message our support team, and I am sure they will gladly help you out! :)
August 31 2020
How to use cloudflare protection from hostinger hosting site not from the cloudflare website. I saw this in my hostinger cpanel domain ( Speed up your website and protect it against DDoS attacks for Rs. 545.00 ). Should I buy this for my website? Please help me to activate cloudflare my site.
Replied on November 06 2020
Hey there! :) You can just purchase the product and click SETUP :) Then you can chose what website do you want to attach it to and it will be active.
September 15 2020
Hi! It's a informative guide but I have a query that : Which SSL Certificate we have to activate in it (Hosinger SSL or Cloud Flare SSL) ? Or can we use both at a time ?
Replied on November 11 2020
Hey Apurb. You can use both. If you do use both - set CloudFlare's encryption to Full instead of Flexible.
September 24 2020
Thanks for the article! I have a question. Is this the same as paying Hostinger SSL ($11.95 ) and Cloudflare ($9.95)? Cheers, Jimmy
Replied on November 18 2020
Hey Jimmy. CloudFlare SSL won't replace our Hostinger's SSL, as it can't fully encrypt the connection. If you are using CloudFlare, your domain is connected to CloudFlare, and then the CloudFlare connects to your host (Hostinger). CloudFlare only has the authorization to encrypt the data between the domain and CloudFlare's servers. On the topic of CloudFlare via Hostinger, when you pay the CloudFlare protection via Hostinger, your CloudFlare will be integrated directly in your Hostinger dashboard. This makes it much easier to control, and you won't need to change the DNS at all.
Andrius S.
Replied on April 04 2020
Hey, you will not lose Hostinger services, make sure to follow the steps written above and everything will be alright!