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DDoS Protection

Cloudflare provides free, unmetered DDoS protection for every domain on its platform. This means there is no cap on the size or duration of an attack that Cloudflare will mitigate — and you are never charged for attack traffic.

Why This Matters

A DDoS attack can take your site offline in seconds. Traditional DDoS mitigation services charge $3,000–$10,000/month — and often charge per-attack surges. Cloudflare's protection is included free.

How Cloudflare DDoS Protection Works​

flowchart LR
    ATTACKER["Attacker\n(Botnet)"] -->|Flood of traffic| CF["Cloudflare Edge\n(330+ PoPs)"]
    LEGIT["Legitimate\nVisitor"] -->|Normal request| CF
    CF -->|"Analyze & Filter"| FILTER{"DDoS\nDetection"}
    FILTER -->|"✅ Clean Traffic"| ORIGIN["Your Origin\nServer"]
    FILTER -->|"❌ Attack Traffic"| DROP["Dropped\n(Never reaches origin)"]

    style CF fill:#f6821f,color:#fff,stroke:#e5711e
    style DROP fill:#dc2626,color:#fff,stroke:#b91c1c
    style ORIGIN fill:#16a34a,color:#fff,stroke:#15803d

Cloudflare's network capacity exceeds 296 Tbps — larger than any recorded DDoS attack. Attack traffic is absorbed and dropped at the edge, across 330+ data centers worldwide.

What You Will Learn​

LessonWhat It Covers
L3/L4 and HTTP DDoS ProtectionHow Cloudflare detects and mitigates volumetric and application-layer DDoS attacks

Prerequisites​

  • Domain added to Cloudflare with proxied DNS records (Module 1)
  • Understanding of the OSI network model (helpful but not required)