For a long time, Cloudflare was one of those services that seemed almost too useful not to use. It handled DNS, SSL, caching, security, DDoS protection, and a growing list of other functions that made running a website easier.
Eventually, that convenience started to bother me.
My issue was not that Cloudflare is bad at what it does. Quite the opposite. It does so much, and sits in front of so much of the web, that it has become a layer of infrastructure between site owners and visitors that is difficult to ignore.
That level of centralization is exactly what I have been trying to move away from.
I prefer an Internet made up of independently operated sites and services, where control is distributed rather than concentrated in a few large companies. Putting Cloudflare in front of my websites meant that, despite owning the domain and running the server, a major corporation still sat between the visitor and me.
There is also the privacy question. Cloudflare necessarily sees a tremendous amount of traffic because of its position as an intermediary. Even when a company has reasonable policies and good intentions, I am increasingly uncomfortable with routing more of my online activity through large centralized infrastructure providers simply because it is convenient.
And then there is the broader issue of corporate influence.
The modern Internet already depends heavily on a relatively small number of companies for hosting, identity, advertising, search, social networking, content delivery, and infrastructure. Cloudflare has become another very large piece of that picture. I do not think every independent website needs to voluntarily add another corporate dependency when simpler alternatives are available.
So I removed it.
My sites now use ordinary DNS, HTTPS certificates from Let’s Encrypt, and services that I control as directly as practical. It takes a little more work. I have to think about security, backups, DNS, and server configuration myself.
That is a trade I am comfortable making.
I am not suggesting that everyone should leave Cloudflare. For many people it solves real problems, and it solves them well. But convenience is not my only priority.
Control matters.
Independence matters.
And if I am going to call something my website, I would prefer as little as possible standing between it and the people who visit it.