Switch from Cloudflare for Better TTFB

QUIC.cloud brings a plethora of new features and performance to WordPress websites. One of its major features is that it helps you to improve your SEO by improving your website’s Time to First Byte (TTFB), which will help Google to open your website faster and get it a better ranking.

Today, we’re pleased to show you a feature which takes our dream of making WordPress websites faster even further, and that is Cloudflare Integration: a 10-minute setup to shift your website to QUIC.cloud while using Cloudflare’s DNS.

This feature will allow new users coming from Cloudflare to take advantage of super-fast caching and TTFB benefits that QUIC.cloud CDN provides, all with an easy setup.

Prerequisites

To start with this you’ll need:

1 – A domain registered at Cloudflare, or using Cloudflare’s Nameservers
2 – Access to the domain’s Cloudflare account to create API keys
3 – WordPress with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin installed on the same domain

Note: By the end of this tutorial, your website will be using QUIC.cloud CDN, while still utilizing Cloudflare DNS. This will not change your DNS servers, nor require you to change your nameservers or cause any downtime during propagation.

Now that we’ve talked basics, let’s move ahead.

Step 1: Take TTFB Measurements

Let’s ensure that the requirements are ready, and take some TTFB measurements too.

In the above screenshot, the x-litespeed-cache : hit header confirms that Litespeed Cache is installed and working correctly, and server: Cloudflare shows it is currently using Cloudflare CDN.

The TTFB for this cached LiteSpeed request using Cloudflare’s CDN is 231ms.

231ms is kinda alright for now, since the server where this website is hosted and my browser are about 13000 kms away from each other.

But don’t worry, This is what QUIC.cloud is known for and we’re going to make this distance not matter at all using QUIC.cloud CDN.

Step 2: Link Domain to QUIC.cloud

Now we will request a Domain Key in the Litespeed Cache plugin, and link the domain to a QUIC.cloud account.

Request a Domain Key

If you already have a Domain Key, please skip to the next section.

To request a Domain Key for your WordPress website, log into your WordPress Admin area and then from the left menu, navigate to Litespeed Cache > General, and click the Request Domain Key button.

The Domain Key approval may take somewhere between 2-60 seconds in general. Once it is approved, you should see the Domain Key populated in the Domain Key field.

Link to QUIC.cloud

Once you have the Domain Key for your WordPress website, the Link to QUIC.cloud button will appear. Clicking it will take you to my.quic.cloud, where you can link your domain to an existing my.quic.cloud account, or to a new account.

Note: If you see the View My Dashboard button, instead of Link to QUIC.cloud, it means that your domain is already linked to a QUIC.cloud account. If you have access to that account, please skip to Step 3. If you do not have access to that account, or do not know which account your domain is linked to, Please contact our Support Team for assistance.

Step 3: Cloudflare Integration

Now we have the domain ready to be enabled with QUIC.cloud CDN, and this is where the main part comes in: to link Cloudflare’s DNS with QUIC.cloud CDN and make them work together, automatically.

At QUIC.cloud

Access your QUIC.cloud Dashboard at https://my.quic.cloud, log into the account where the domain is linked, click the domain name, and then click CDN.

Once there, deal with any configuration issues that might be listed above the Enable CDN button, and then click the button when ready.

In this example, the screenshot shows that I was required to first set the domain’s Server IP (found in the Settings section, in the top navigation menu of the same CDN page). I also needed to enable the QUIC.Cloud CDN in WordPress Admin > Litespeed Cache > CDN.

I did those steps and then clicked Enable CDN.

You will be asked which DNS method you’d like to use. Choose the option that says I’m switching from Cloudflare, but I want to continue using it for DNS. This option will enable Cloudflare Integration and automate all DNS changes.

At Cloudflare

On the next step, when QUIC.cloud asks you for the API Token, open another browser tab, go to your Cloudflare Account, and navigate to My Profile > API Tokens > Create Token.

Select the Edit zone DNS template. This gives QUIC.cloud access to edit the DNS Zone for your domain.

On the next page, set the permissions to Edit, Select the domain you want to use for QUIC.cloud, and click the Continue to summary button.

And finally, click Create Token and copy the created API token to your clipboard by pressing the Copy button.

Note: This API token only appears once. Please ensure that you copy it, otherwise you may have to recreate your token again.

At QUIC.cloud

Once you have copied the API token, go back to my.quic.cloud, and paste it into the Cloudflare API Token setting. Click the Continue button.

And voila, now the connection between QUIC.cloud CDN and Cloudflare DNS should be complete. You should see a message like this on my.quic.cloud side:

Cloudflare API connection verified, Cloudflare Integration turned on.

Within a minute or so, QUIC.cloud will attempt to change the DNS records at Cloudflare automatically for you and set up QUIC.cloud CDN.

You may view the status in the DNS Status section at my.quic.cloud.

Once the DNS is verified, you will see that the CDN is working in the Summary section on my.quic.cloud.

Step 4: Verify QUIC.cloud is Working Properly

The presence of the x-qc-cache and x-qc-pop headers confirms that the website is using QUIC.cloud CDN.

And guess what: the TTFB for this website is now down to 24ms from 231ms. That is a 10x improvement in TTFB!

Conclusion

We built QUIC.cloud with WordPress performance in mind. Our CDN is now compatible with one of the biggest DNS providers in the world, and that’s a nice bonus for users looking to make their websites load QUIC-er!

Please do not hesitate to contact our support team if you run into any questions, or doubts while setting up QUIC.cloud. We’re all ears!