What are the potential drawbacks or limitations of using Cloudflare?
A few real ones. It's another service to set up and keep an eye on. A wrong cache or firewall rule can show old pages or block real visitors. Your site depends on Cloudflare being up. And some DNS records, such as server-side tracking ones, have to stay un-proxied.
Something else to look after
Cloudflare adds a layer between your visitors and your site. That layer has settings, and someone needs to know them. If it's set up and then forgotten, a change on your site can quietly stop showing up.
Cache and rules can cause trouble
- A cache rule can serve an old page after you publish. On some Webflow sites we use an n8n workflow to clear the cache on publish. It doesn't cover every kind of publish, so check that a change shows. A site without one can show old pages until someone clears the cache.
- Bot Fight Mode on the Free plan can't be tuned, and it may challenge legitimate traffic like an API or an app.
- A firewall rule that's too broad can block real customers.
DNS records that must stay grey
The records for a first-party tracking subdomain on Stape have to be DNS-only. Put them behind the orange-cloud proxy and tracking breaks.
You depend on it
If Cloudflare has an outage, sites behind it can be affected. We think that's an acceptable trade for a marketing site, but it's a trade.
Our approach
Keep the setup small. Not every site needs Cloudflare, and a simple site with tidy DNS can do without it.
The tools in this answer
Where this came up in our work
- Client work
The Therapy Lounge
70% more enquiries, 6.6x return on ad spend in October 2025, and 316 enquiries tracked from April 2025 to October 2026.
Read the story - Client work
Sector7
An award-winning rebuild, 177% more new users in 2025 than 2024, and Jon calls it "executed flawlessly, on time and on budget".
Read the story
Also worth asking
Other answers about the same tools.
How do you handle compliance management for my website?
We work with your cookie consent tool, or suggest one we've worked with, and connect it to your tags so they follow the visitor's choice. How that's wired depends on the project, so we test what your tags actually do. We don't write legal text or give legal advice, so your privacy policy needs sign-off from someone qualified.
Does server-side tracking with Stape make my site faster?
On our own site, moving GTM to a same-origin loader left load time unchanged, and speed isn't why we use Stape. Server-side tracking means the page doesn't have to load a separate script for every ad platform, but the GTM container still loads in the page, so don't expect a big jump. We don't promise a speed gain.
How does Webflow handle website performance and loading speeds?
Webflow serves sites through a CDN with SSL included, minifies code when you publish, and creates responsive image sizes. It can lazy-load images too. How fast a page ends up depends mostly on what's on it, such as image sizes and third-party scripts, so those are the first things to check.
Can Cloudflare integrate with other marketing and analytics tools?
Cloudflare doesn't plug into your marketing tools directly, but it sits next to them. It holds the DNS for tracking subdomains such as the ones Stape uses, and an n8n workflow can call its API, for example to clear the cache when a Webflow site publishes.
How much does Cloudflare cost and what plans are available?
There's a free plan, and it's enough for many marketing sites. At the time of writing, Pro is $25 a month per domain ($20 on annual billing), Business is $250 ($200 annual) and the top tier, Contract, is quoted. Workers, R2 and Access are priced on their own terms, so check cloudflare.com for current prices.
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