how to make most out of free cloudflare plan for wordpress

ByMarcus Richardson

Using Cloudflare’s free plan with WordPress can significantly boost your website’s speed, security, and reliability — if you configure it smartly. Here’s how to make the most out of it:

✅ 1. Connect Your Site via Cloudflare Plugin or Manually

  • Easiest way: Use the App for Cloudflare (more recent updates) or official Cloudflare WordPress plugin – it handles settings like cache purge and automatic platform optimization.
  • Manual way: Update your domain’s nameservers to point to Cloudflare after adding your site.

🚀 2. Enable Automatic Platform Optimization (APO)

  • Huge performance boost for WordPress.
  • Caches HTML at Cloudflare edge servers, reducing load time.
  • It works even on the free plan (if you use the Cloudflare plugin).

🔐 3. Turn on SSL/TLS (Always Use HTTPS)

  • Go to SSL/TLS > Overview and set it to Full or Full (Strict) if you have a valid SSL cert.
  • Then, enable:
    • “Always Use HTTPS”
    • “Automatic HTTPS Rewrites”

🧹 4. Use Page Rules (You Get 3 for Free)

Examples:

  • *yourdomain.com/wp-admin* — Cache Level: Bypass
  • *yourdomain.com/wp-login.php* — Cache Level: Bypass
  • *yourdomain.com/* — Cache Everything + Edge Cache TTL

Note: Be careful with “Cache Everything” — it can cache logged-in admin pages unless bypassed properly.

📦 5. Leverage Speed Settings

Under Speed:

  • Auto Minify: Turn on for HTML, CSS, JS
  • Brotli: Enable for faster compression
  • Rocket Loader: Test it; it improves load speed for JS-heavy sites but can break some plugins

🛡️ 6. Set Security Level & Bot Fight Mode

  • Set Security Level to “Medium” or higher
  • Turn on Bot Fight Mode to block bad bots
  • Use Firewall Rules to block access to wp-login.php from unknown countries/IPs

Example firewall rule:
URI Path equals /wp-login.php → Block or JS Challenge (except your IP or country)

📈 7. Monitor Analytics

Cloudflare provides traffic analytics, threat reports, and cache performance – review it weekly to tweak your rules.

🧠 Bonus Tips:

Use a security plugin like Wordfence alongside Cloudflare for layered protection.

Combine with a caching plugin like WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache (if your server supports it).

Avoid plugin conflicts with Cloudflare APO – sometimes it’s better to let Cloudflare handle most caching.

Our recommendations stem from independent assessments. If you make a purchase through our links, we may earn a commission as part of our affiliate program.

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