Use Cloudflare only as CDN on WordPress site

#1

Hello there,

I have a WP Site, i initially installed w3 total cache and later wanted to add CDN as well and thougth about using Cloudflare CDN for the site.

What i did:

  1. Installed WP Plugin
  2. Created Cloudflare account
  3. Connected plugin with API keys

Now i have certain questions and confusion:

  1. How can i use only the CDN part of CLoudflare in WP ?
  2. Is Cloudflare plugin for WordPress a Replacement for W3Total Cache / WP Supercache kind of plugins ?
  3. Can i use a caching plugin alongside Cloudflare plugin ?

My original intent was to use only the CDN part of CLoudflare, did not want to use Jetpack for all the unnecessary stuff.

#2

Cloudflare is a multi-featured reverse proxy. CDN is only one of the features, but you also get some other optimizations and security features.

If you only want CDN, there are many CDN-only providers out there, though those usually charge for subscriptions, but do hold onto you cached data longer and some even offer Push (active caching) functionality.

Though all the extra features of Cloudflare are pretty good.

To answer your questions:

  1. See above. But you can tweak the cache settings. Do a search for Wordpress and you’ll find many posts on the subject.
  2. The Cloudflare plugin offers different functionality than Wordpress caching plugins.
  3. With the above in mind, use both plugins.
#3

@sdayman thanks for the clarification. Ill have both working together.

I have 2 more questions:

  1. Is it necessary to change the NS (my primary intention is to use CDN, other optimizations which dont need NS change are welcome.)
  2. I clicked on Apply for the first cloudflare setup within Wordpress
    image
    image.png1185x247 7.61 KB

    and it gave below error

image
image.png782x60 4.28 KB

Lastly, if you feel this is not the support channel for cloudflare wp plugin, guide me to the right channel and ill be happy :slight_smile:
Thanks.

#4

To use Cloudflare, you need to use Cloudflare’s Name Servers.

That error may indeed be caused by another plugin that’s linked to your Cloudflare account. W3TC may be the cause if you entered your Cloudflare credentials there.