Cloudflare announce end of cPanel partner integration (June 2022)

June 2022 - Cloudflare Announcement
Cloudflare have announced they are depreciating the cPanel partner integration. Any websites using it must move to an alternative solution. This article covers the technical implications and alternative solutions.

This is a working document. We are updating it with more information as it becomes available.

What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a proxy service, a layer between your website and web visitors. The main two reasons for using a proxy service is faster website speed and extra website security. Websites that are connected to Cloudflare benefit from a Content Delivery Network (CDN), a global network of servers that cache your website content and images, and mean that someone visiting your website from another part of the world will benefit from website content being loaded from a CDN server in the same geographic region as them. 

How is a website connected to Cloudflare?
There are two methods:
(1) The domain name is using Maxer Host nameservers and Cloudflare has been activated in the cPanel hosting control panel. This method is being depreciated. If your website uses this method, please read this article in full.
(2) The domain name is using Cloudflare DNS nameservers and the website owner has registered directly with Cloudflare. This method is not changing. If your website uses this method, you do not need to do anything and this article does not apply to you.

What is the cPanel partner integration?
The partner integration is the Cloudflare plugin that appears in your cPanel hosting control panel. It's an API connecting our hosting service to Cloudflare, to make it easier to signup and add your website to their service. Maxer Host began offering the plugin when we joined the Cloudflare Host Partner Program in September 2015. Until now it has been the most convenient (and non-technical) method for someone to connect their website to the Cloudflare service. Unfortunately Cloudflare have decided to depreciate it.

What are the immediate implications?
With immediate effect the "Cloudflare" page in your cPanel control panel will no longer work. You may have already noticed it's displaying an error "Child failed to make LIVEAPI connection to cPanel". Unfortunately your Cloudflare service can no longer be managed this way. Our technical team will remove this page from the the cPanel control panel during the next routine maintenance.
To manage your Cloudflare service you can continue to login to the Cloudflare dashboard at https://dash.cloudflare.com/ - If you have not logged in before you should request a password reset to your email address.

What is the deadline?
Cloudflare have set a deadline of 1st November 2022 by which we must review all websites under our partner account. The reality is that the cPanel integration stopped working early in 2022. If your website is using the cPanel integration, our support team will update the DNS technical records and remove your website from Cloudflare on 28th October 2022. You can then choose to do nothing, reconnect your website directly to Cloudflare, or connect your website to another CDN provider. If you are paying Cloudflare for their Pro service, we will email you regarding your options.

How can I disable Cloudflare now?
Note: We will do this for you on 28th October 2022. To do it earlier, follow these steps:
(1) Login to your cPanel hosting control panel by adding /cpanel to the end of your website address. If you need a reminder of your cPanel username/password please ask our support team.
(2) Once logged in navigate to the "Zone Editor" page.
(3) Click the 'manage' button beside your domain name to view the full list of DNS records
(4) Look for the CNAME technical record that has ".cdn.cloudflare.net" at the end of the record value, for example:

(5) and edit the record value to remove ".cdn.cloudflare.net" from the end of it and remove "www." from the start of it, so the record value is your non-www domain name, for example:

(6) Once you save the change, your website will stop using Cloudflare within 4 hours.

How can I continue using Cloudflare?
To continue using Cloudflare you must switch to the direct integration method (where your domain name uses the Cloudflare DNS nameservers). To do this you must follow these steps:
(1) Login to the Cloudflare dashboard at https://dash.cloudflare.com/ - If you have not logged in before you should request a password reset to your email address.
(2) Select your website from the list
(3) In the right menu look for "Advanced Actions" and then click on "Remove from site". Confirm you want to remove the site from Cloudflare.
(4) To setup Cloudflare with direct integration, click on the blue button "Add a site" and follow the steps. You'll need to update the domain name to use Cloudflare DNS nameservers. If your domain name is registered with Maxer Host, you can update the DNS nameservers in your Maxer Host client area.

Alternative CDN providers
Cloudflare have had exceptional growth in the last decade. They have become very profit-driven and less customer-focused. It's incredibly difficult to get technical support when things go wrong. For this reason, we see clients looking at alternative CDN providers. We will aim to provide more information on alternative CDN providers in due course.