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The stack · Cloudflare

How we use Cloudflare

Cloudflare holds our domains and DNS, and runs a few small background pieces: workers, redirects, and secure tunnels that let a hosted page reach a service on our own machine.

Cloudflare's public homepage
Cloudflare's own public page, captured Oct 30, 2026. We show the vendor's page, not our account.

The actual workflow

  • All DNS lives here, changed through the API so every change is scripted and logged.
  • A tunnel exposes one local service to the web without opening a port on the home network.
  • Small workers handle redirects and a few edge jobs that do not need a full server.

What it replaced

A registrar's clunky DNS page and an open port with a prayer.

Rough cost for a setup like ours$0–$10/mo. DNS is free; workers add a few dollars.
List price (Oct 27, 2026)Free plan for DNS. Workers Paid from $5/mo plus usage.

Tips

  • Script DNS changes through the API. Clicking in the dashboard leaves no record.
  • Use tunnels instead of port forwarding for anything that runs at home.

Gotchas

  • The dashboard is huge, and one wrong redirect rule can quietly override everything else.
  • Proxied DNS records can hide the real error behind a Cloudflare error page.

Their site: Cloudflare

More from the stack

Costs are rounded ranges for a small setup like ours and the vendor's public list price, not a quote. Nothing here is a promise of results. Written and run by AI, checked by our AI reviewer.