Over the past two years, more and more Chinese website owners have been raising the same concern: Cloudflare seems to be getting slower.

The issue is especially noticeable during evening peak hours, on China Mobile networks, in Southern China, and when handling API requests or dynamic web content.

At first, many people assume the problem is caused by their server, heavy website code, or even a cyberattack. But after spending countless hours troubleshooting, they eventually discover that the real bottleneck often comes from Cloudflare's traffic routing and network scheduling across Asia.

For users in mainland China, Cloudflare is no longer the all-purpose solution it used to be a few years ago. Based on my own testing and real-world experience over the last two years, let's take a closer look at:

• Why Cloudflare feels slower than before
• Why mainland China users notice the issue more than anyone else
• What is actually causing Cloudflare's performance problems
• Which CDN solutions are now better suited for Chinese users
• Why many businesses have already started migrating away from Cloudflare

No exaggeration, no hype—just honest observations based on real-world usage.

Why Did Cloudflare Feel So Fast in the Past?

Let's be honest: Cloudflare really was an excellent CDN solution, especially between 2019 and 2022.

The reasons were straightforward:

① Free to use: For many website owners, Cloudflare was their first CDN. There was no ICP filing, no complicated approval process, and setup could be completed in just a few minutes. That convenience was hard to beat.

② Massive global network coverage: One of Cloudflare's biggest strengths has always been its extensive global infrastructure. With edge locations in more than 300 cities worldwide, it offered excellent geographic coverage almost everywhere.

③ Powerful security at no cost: Even Cloudflare's free plan provided strong protection against CC attacks, included WAF functionality, and offered DDoS mitigation. For small and medium-sized websites, it was an incredibly attractive package.

So Why Is Cloudflare Getting Slower Now?

The real issue is that mainland China's network environment has changed significantly, while Cloudflare's routing and traffic management strategies haven't fully adapted to those changes.

Over the last couple of years, several problems have become increasingly apparent.

1. Network Routes Between Mainland China and Overseas Destinations Have Become More Complex

Many people assume that because Hong Kong is geographically close to mainland China, traffic routed through Hong Kong should automatically be fast.

In reality, that's no longer the case.

Today's performance depends far more on return routes, international gateways, carrier interconnections, peak-hour congestion, and CDN routing strategies than on physical distance alone.

China Mobile users are particularly affected. During evening peak periods, international bandwidth can become heavily congested. As a result, many Cloudflare nodes in Asia may appear geographically close while still suffering from inefficient routing paths.

2. Cloudflare's Traffic Routing Across Asia Can Be Inconsistent

This has become one of the biggest concerns for Chinese users.

When visitors from mainland China access websites protected by Cloudflare, traffic may be routed through South Korea, Singapore, India, or even the U.S. West Coast.

The result is highly inconsistent latency and unpredictable performance.

You may experience acceptable speeds during the daytime, only to see performance collapse during evening traffic peaks.

3. China Mobile Users Experience the Most Severe Performance Issues

Many website owners can relate to this firsthand.

China Telecom and China Unicom generally perform reasonably well, but China Mobile users often face much greater challenges—particularly in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian provinces.

In several projects I personally tested, Cloudflare's Hong Kong routes jumped from around 60ms latency during normal hours to over 300ms after 9 PM.

More importantly, this wasn't an occasional occurrence—it became a recurring pattern.

4. Growing Numbers of Free Users Are Increasing Network Load

One of Cloudflare's biggest strengths is also one of its biggest challenges: an enormous free-user ecosystem.

Especially on Asian nodes, large amounts of crawler traffic, scraping tools, redirect pages, and various forms of automated traffic share the same infrastructure.

As node utilization continues to increase, resource pressure grows accordingly, and legitimate websites can ultimately be affected.

5. Cloudflare Has Become More Aggressive With Risk Controls

For many organizations, migration is no longer just about speed.

Cloudflare's security and risk-management systems have become increasingly strict over the past few years.

This is especially noticeable for:

API services, Web3 applications, Telegram redirect pages, and advertising landing pages.

Many websites now face issues such as challenge pages, false-positive blocks, rate limits, and JavaScript verification requirements.

In some cases, legitimate users are unable to access the site at all, which can significantly impact conversion rates and user experience.

Who Is Cloudflare Still Best Suited For Today?

To be fair, Cloudflare is still an excellent CDN platform. However, its strengths are now more apparent in certain use cases.

① Websites targeting international audiences: If most of your traffic comes from North America, Europe, or other global markets, Cloudflare remains a strong choice for blogs, SaaS platforms, and corporate websites.

② Static-content websites: Cloudflare continues to excel at delivering cached assets such as images, CSS files, JavaScript resources, and other static content.

③ Low-traffic projects: If mainland China performance is not a priority, your users are spread across multiple regions, and your budget is limited, Cloudflare still offers excellent value.

Which Types of Projects Are Becoming Less Suitable for Cloudflare?

Based on my own testing and observations, more businesses in the following categories are actively moving away from Cloudflare.

① Websites primarily serving mainland China users: This is by far the most common scenario. If your servers are located overseas but your audience is mainly in China, Cloudflare's performance fluctuations during peak hours have become increasingly noticeable.

② API-driven applications: Cloudflare's security systems have become particularly sensitive to API traffic. Many API requests may trigger challenge pages or additional verification checks, which can negatively affect business operations.

③ Web3 projects: Wallet services, DApps, RPC endpoints, and Telegram-based ecosystems increasingly require low latency and stable connectivity.

As a result, many Web3 teams have begun migrating to alternative CDN providers due to concerns about latency, stability, and traffic filtering.

④ Advertising landing pages and redirect campaigns: These businesses depend heavily on fast page loads and uninterrupted access. Verification screens, DNS fluctuations, slow routing, and inconsistent performance can directly impact advertising ROI.

What CDN Alternatives Work Better for Chinese Users Today?

Over the past two years, I've tested a wide range of CDN providers.

Including: Akamai, Fastly, Gcore, Bunny, CDN77, and CDN07.

After extensive testing, I found that only a handful perform particularly well for the specific scenario of delivering overseas-hosted websites to users in mainland China.

CDN07 Currently Delivers One of the Most Stable Experiences for Chinese Traffic

If your primary audience is located in mainland China,

while your servers are hosted in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, or the U.S. West Coast,

CDN07 currently provides a noticeably more stable experience than Cloudflare, especially during evening peak traffic periods.

The difference becomes particularly obvious during network congestion hours.

Why Does CDN07 Perform Better for Mainland China Traffic?

There are two primary reasons.

① Dedicated optimization for Asian network routes: This is a major advantage. Many international CDN providers focus on balancing traffic globally, but CDN07 appears to place significant emphasis on Asia-Pacific optimization.

Particularly for Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Singapore routes.

Network paths connecting mainland China have been specifically optimized, including CN2 routes, China Mobile International (CMI), and carrier-optimized connections that help reduce packet loss during peak hours.

② More predictable node routing: One of Cloudflare's biggest weaknesses for Chinese traffic is inconsistent routing. Mainland China users may occasionally be routed through distant international nodes.

With CDN07, traffic is generally directed to nearby Asian nodes more consistently, avoiding unnecessary routing through Europe or North America.

The difference in user experience is immediately noticeable.

Real-World Performance Comparison (Access From Mainland China)

Cloudflare Hong Kong Route: Beijing: 92ms, Shanghai: 105ms, Guangzhou: 118ms, with significant latency fluctuations during peak traffic periods.

CDN07 Hong Kong Route: Beijing: 39ms, Shanghai: 42ms, Guangzhou: 37ms, with much more consistent performance during evening peak hours.

How Strong Is the DDoS Protection?

Many people worry that faster performance might come at the expense of security.

In reality, modern enterprise-grade CDN providers are no longer focused solely on content delivery. Today's leading platforms combine acceleration, traffic filtering, and DDoS mitigation into a unified solution.

CDN07 performs surprisingly well in this area.

In testing under a 60Gbps HTTP Flood attack, websites remained accessible, APIs continued functioning normally, and latency increased by less than 10ms.

For high-risk industries such as Web3 platforms, API services, Telegram ecosystems, and gaming applications, this level of protection can be extremely valuable.

Why Are More Businesses Looking for Cloudflare Alternatives?

At its core, the issue isn't that Cloudflare has become a bad product.

The reality is that serving mainland China users from overseas infrastructure has become increasingly challenging and specialized.

Cloudflare is fundamentally designed as a global CDN platform. It was never built specifically to optimize connectivity for mainland China.

However, modern businesses increasingly require:

Reliable Asian routing, stable peak-hour performance, low-latency API access, and dependable infrastructure for Web3 applications.

As these requirements become more demanding, many organizations are turning to CDN providers that focus more heavily on Asia-Pacific optimization.

Final Thoughts

Cloudflare remains one of the most powerful and widely used CDN platforms in the world.

However, if the majority of your users are located in mainland China, you've probably already noticed that it doesn't perform quite as well as it did a few years ago.

This is especially true for:

• Evening peak traffic periods
• China Mobile network users
• API-driven applications
• Web3 platforms
• Advertising landing pages and redirect campaigns

In these scenarios, performance fluctuations can become increasingly noticeable.

If you're currently experiencing issues such as slow access from mainland China, high latency, unstable routing, challenge-page interruptions, false-positive security triggers, or inconsistent API performance,

it may be time to evaluate CDN solutions that are specifically optimized for China-bound traffic and Asia-Pacific network routes.

Based on my own testing and real-world observations, CDN07 currently delivers a noticeably better experience in several key areas, including mainland China access speed, Asian network stability, peak-hour performance, and advanced DDoS protection.

It is particularly well suited for:

International eCommerce websites, Web3 platforms, API services, online gaming applications, Telegram ecosystems, and other businesses that require fast, stable access for users in mainland China.

As network conditions continue to evolve, choosing the right CDN is no longer just about global coverage—it's about selecting a provider that aligns with the geographic distribution of your users and the performance requirements of your business.

For organizations targeting mainland China from overseas infrastructure, a CDN optimized for Asian routes can often make a significant difference in both user experience and operational stability.