Hey, a few times per year I run into DDoS attacks from rivals, and while the tech support from hosting handles it well, the cost of the server takes up half of the profit from the site. Switching to a more basic plan doesn't help much, I've already tried that. The free plan from CF helps, but it also cuts off organic traffic just like DDoS. People don't want to deal with Google Captcha when they can just go back to search results and pick a site lower on the list.
So, the question is, what do you do in such situations?
P.S. I saw on the forum someone mention a $20 plan from CF. If anyone has tried it, please share your thoughts. How does it perform?
Dealing with DDoS attacks has become a pretty annoying routine for anyone running a site these days, especially if you're in a competitive niche. It's not just the tech part but also the financial strain, which you're already feeling. The whole idea that upgrading to more expensive servers should solve the issue is kinda a scam in itself – you're essentially paying for protection against something that shouldnt even be happening in the first place. Plus, it doesn't matter how much you pay for hosting if the attacks keep happening – you're just throwing more money into a hole.
Now about the Cloudflare free plan, yeah, it's decent for small-scale stuff, but if you're already losing traffic because people are annoyed with captchas, it's clearly not a long-term solution. Captchas are honestly a killer for user experience, especially nowadays when people have like a 5-second attention span. If a potential customer sees that, they're already bouncing back to Google and picking your competitor.But for 20, it's kind of a no-brainer to at least try it out and see if it makes a difference. It's cheaper than upgrading to a fancier server, which, as you said, doesn't really help anyway.
If I were you, I would probably look into a multi-layered approach. First, test the $20 CF plan – it's cheap, and if it helps mitigate the traffic-cutting issue without throwing captchas in everyone's faces, great. But don't rely on that alone. You also should probably try some other DDoS mitigation services in combination. There are smaller companies that offer more tailored protection, often without the big branding of CF, but they can be more flexible depending on your traffic and specific needs. Yeah, they can be more expensive, but compared to losing half of your profit to server costs, it might be worth it.
CloudFlare (CF) offers adjustable security settings, even on the free teir. You can easily enable advanced security measures when your site is under threat, while leaving regular traffic untouched at other times. In fact, this flexibility helps prevent false positives during day-to-day activity while providing a strong defense when needed.
I gotta ask, do you realy think your competitiors got nothin better to do than waste theyre time and cash on hireing contractors to set up a DoS attack agenst you? Like, whats the point, rite? And then you go and conect CloudFlare, and suddenly theyre all, "oh, okay, I guess we cant mess with them no more, theyre too advanced now". Gimme a break!
I mean, lets be real, hostings always blame theyre tech problems on DoS attacks from competitiors. Its like, the easy way out or somethin. But honestly, most of the time its just theyre own servers bein poorly configured or somethin. So, dont be fooled, and dont think that just cuz you got CloudFlare, your competitiors are gonna give up and go home. Theyll just find another way to mess with you, if they really wanna.
Why are you still using Cloudflare? It's a security blanket that's more of a hindrance than a help. The $20 plan is just a drop in the bucket compared to the losses you're incurring due to DDoS attacks. Why not try something more...unconventional? Like a decentralized hosting solution or a peer-to-peer network? It'll be a wild ride, but at least you'll be doing something different.