Speeding Up Your Website Using Cloudflare Cache (opens in new tab)

(pillser.com)

83 pointslilouartz1y ago25 comments

25 comments

> Serve Stale Content While Revalidating (Not Working as Expected)

> This is the only thing that I was not able to figure out.

For good reason, because (at the last time I tried this earlier this year) Cloudflare documents stale-while-revalidate as if it's supported [1], but it isn't [2], [3].

Cloudflare instead has a different behaviour [4], [5] which helps in some circumstances but not all.

I use Fastly's free CDN plan to get round this.

1. https://developers.cloudflare.com/cache/concepts/revalidatio...

2. https://community.cloudflare.com/t/support-for-stale-while-r...

3. https://community.cloudflare.com/t/when-will-cloudflare-full...

4. https://kerkour.com/cloudflare-stale-while-revalidate

5. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48124415/does-cloudflare...

lilouartzOP1y ago

Ended up ditching Cloudflare for this use case https://pillser.com/engineering/2024-08-26-speeding-up-your-...

bosch_mind1y ago

Fastly is trash and nowhere near as good as CF.

Beijinger1y ago

I think CF is trash, at least in the free version.

Why you should never use Cloudflare. It causes problems, is bad for SEO and a Spyware tool.

https://expatcircle.com/cms/why-you-should-never-use-cloudfl...

If it is free, then you are the product. If you need a CDN, there are cheap solutions out there. And Pics should always be delivered from your domain, not from CF.

2 more replies

pbowyer1y ago

Fastly's product is not trash.

Fastly's ability to sensibly price their product, market their product, and stop losing money hand over fist is trash.

And I write this as someone who has been snubbed by Fastly multiple times.

Squashed between Akamai and Cloudflare, I will be sorry to see them go.

aetimmes1y ago

Care to explain why?

turtlebits1y ago

Before adding complexity, try to make your web sites smaller!

I'm not a big fan of adding more complexity (infra and money) to improve performance.

GenerocUsername1y ago

Cloudflare and other cdn caches are a pretty standard web technology. Literally storing files closer to the client and serving it from hardware specializing in fast static serving

jsheard1y ago

Yeah, there's no getting around physics when moving data over a long distance. Even in the absolute best case scenario if you ran a single uninterrupted fiber optic cable half way around the world it would still take about 100ms for light to cross it (fiber isn't quite as fast as the speed of light in a vacuum), and it's only downhill from there with realistic networking and protocol handshakes slowing things down.

1 more reply

ksec1y ago

Both CDN and DNS should really be standard sort of practice. Simply because we cant beat speed of light.

The problem is modern day CDN do many clever things it is easy to go wrong.

SushiHippie1y ago

Agreed, for example I have a ping of 200ms to Hacker News, and the last time I checked it still runs on a single core, and yet there was never a moment where I wished that Hacker News would be faster.

(Sometimes Hacker News gets fronted by Cloudflare when there is too much spam, but it's not the default)

onion2k1y ago

Size isn't the only consideration though. Latency is pretty much a fixed cost for web resources, and caching is very beneficial if your edge cache is closer to the user than the origin server (and it is, unless you're very unlucky).

victorbjorklund1y ago

of course always better to make the code more efficient. But honestly it isnt very complex to have a CDN for static content

arghwhat1y ago

To use the cache you shouldn’t need to do any of this - just have appropriate cache headers.

daviding1y ago

Some rough cost numbers of using this would be nice.

freitasm1y ago

With the exception of Cache Reserves, all these features are free.

Cache Reserve pricing is based on storage usage but optional.

arghwhat1y ago

Caching is free up until a service ceiling - certain file types and sizes are excluded in the free tier for example.

j451y ago

Cloudflares free cache is pretty good as well.

Also have heard things like jscompress to reduce the number of calls on loading a page can go a long way too to boost speed.

wetimeai1y ago

is is a quick fix. and for smaller websites i recommend it. However it has its limits and it can frustrate when you are developing. But in general yeah good free service.

taw12851y ago

does this approach make sense for an app-router based nextjs app hosted on vercel?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

25 comments

pbowyer1y ago

> Serve Stale Content While Revalidating (Not Working as Expected)

> This is the only thing that I was not able to figure out.

For good reason, because (at the last time I tried this earlier this year) Cloudflare documents stale-while-revalidate as if it's supported [1], but it isn't [2], [3].

Cloudflare instead has a different behaviour [4], [5] which helps in some circumstances but not all.

I use Fastly's free CDN plan to get round this.

1. https://developers.cloudflare.com/cache/concepts/revalidatio...

2. https://community.cloudflare.com/t/support-for-stale-while-r...

3. https://community.cloudflare.com/t/when-will-cloudflare-full...

4. https://kerkour.com/cloudflare-stale-while-revalidate

5. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48124415/does-cloudflare...

lilouartzOP1y ago

Ended up ditching Cloudflare for this use case https://pillser.com/engineering/2024-08-26-speeding-up-your-...

bosch_mind1y ago

Fastly is trash and nowhere near as good as CF.

Beijinger1y ago

I think CF is trash, at least in the free version.

Why you should never use Cloudflare. It causes problems, is bad for SEO and a Spyware tool.

https://expatcircle.com/cms/why-you-should-never-use-cloudfl...

If it is free, then you are the product. If you need a CDN, there are cheap solutions out there. And Pics should always be delivered from your domain, not from CF.

2 more replies

pbowyer1y ago

Fastly's product is not trash.

Fastly's ability to sensibly price their product, market their product, and stop losing money hand over fist is trash.

And I write this as someone who has been snubbed by Fastly multiple times.

Squashed between Akamai and Cloudflare, I will be sorry to see them go.

aetimmes1y ago

Care to explain why?

turtlebits1y ago

Before adding complexity, try to make your web sites smaller!

I'm not a big fan of adding more complexity (infra and money) to improve performance.

GenerocUsername1y ago

Cloudflare and other cdn caches are a pretty standard web technology. Literally storing files closer to the client and serving it from hardware specializing in fast static serving

jsheard1y ago

1 more reply

ksec1y ago

Both CDN and DNS should really be standard sort of practice. Simply because we cant beat speed of light.

The problem is modern day CDN do many clever things it is easy to go wrong.

SushiHippie1y ago

(Sometimes Hacker News gets fronted by Cloudflare when there is too much spam, but it's not the default)

onion2k1y ago

victorbjorklund1y ago

of course always better to make the code more efficient. But honestly it isnt very complex to have a CDN for static content

arghwhat1y ago

To use the cache you shouldn’t need to do any of this - just have appropriate cache headers.

daviding1y ago

Some rough cost numbers of using this would be nice.

freitasm1y ago

With the exception of Cache Reserves, all these features are free.

Cache Reserve pricing is based on storage usage but optional.

arghwhat1y ago

Caching is free up until a service ceiling - certain file types and sizes are excluded in the free tier for example.

j451y ago

Cloudflares free cache is pretty good as well.

Also have heard things like jscompress to reduce the number of calls on loading a page can go a long way too to boost speed.

wetimeai1y ago

is is a quick fix. and for smaller websites i recommend it. However it has its limits and it can frustrate when you are developing. But in general yeah good free service.

taw12851y ago

does this approach make sense for an app-router based nextjs app hosted on vercel?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse