My first experience with Cloudflare was probably sometime in 2020. A friend was using it to manage domains and DNS, and watching their process caught my attention.

Before then, connecting a domain to hosting usually meant changing nameservers and waiting for the website to start showing. I knew the steps, but I wasn’t very confident about what was happening behind them.

My friend had moved a domain’s nameservers to Cloudflare. From there, they could update its DNS records to point the website to a server’s IP address. I remember seeing the site become available quickly and thinking, “Why am I not using this?”

That was enough to make me try it. Once I started, I kept using it.

DNS changes used to make me nervous

I used to be scared of updating DNS records, especially when a client’s website and email were involved.

Moving a website to another hosting provider was one thing. Making sure the client’s email kept working was another. I worried about changing something that would affect both.

Sometimes I would mess things up. I knew what I wanted to achieve, but I didn’t always understand which records needed to change and which ones needed to stay.

Using Cloudflare gave me more opportunities to work with those records and understand what they did. Over time, I became more comfortable separating the website’s hosting from the client’s email setup.

I could move the website while preserving the records the email service needed. I started to understand the changes I was making instead of just following instructions and hoping everything would work.

An online store pushed me beyond DNS

While managing an online store, we were dealing with repeated login attempts and attacks on the site.

I can’t confidently say whether any of it was a DDoS attack. What I remember clearly is that it became a problem we had to deal with, and we eventually moved from shared hosting to a VPS.

That experience pushed me to use Cloudflare for more than connecting a domain.

I added challenges and worked on settings for caching, performance, and security. I also made security and optimization changes within WordPress.

There were several changes involved, so I wouldn’t put the whole outcome down to one setting or tool. Moving hosting, configuring Cloudflare, and working on WordPress were all part of the process.

It made me pay more attention to what happens around a website after it has been built. The hosting, incoming traffic, login attempts, and security settings all needed attention too.

It became part of my usual workflow

Since then, my use of Cloudflare has grown. I’ve bought quite a few domains through it, including domains for clients. I’ve also recommended it to friends.

What started with DNS has become part of how I handle domains, caching, optimization, and website security.

But the biggest change for me has been confidence.

I now understand tasks that used to make me nervous much better. These include moving hosting, pointing a domain to a different server, and keeping email working during a move.

I still need to check what I’m changing. Cloudflare doesn’t remove that responsibility. But I’m more comfortable because I understand the records and the services that depend on them.

Looking back, that first experience in 2020 was a small moment. I saw a friend do something differently and decided to try it.

I didn’t expect it to become such a regular part of my work, or to help me understand DNS as much as it has.

What’s a tool you started using for one task that gradually changed how you work?