Cloudflare improves performance out of the box, but thoughtful configuration can push your site (especially a Hugo/JAMstack site) to exceptional global performance.
This final chapter gathers Cloudflare’s performance-focused features into a calm, practical playbook. Each recommendation is designed to be simple to understand and safe to apply.

1. The Three Layers of Cloudflare Performance

Cloudflare performance can be thought of as three layers:

1. Global Network & Routing

Anycast routing, edge proximity, Argo Smart Routing.

Cloudflare’s CDN and caching layer is one of the platform’s greatest strengths. For static sites like Hugo, it delivers global performance with almost no configuration. Yet understanding how Cloudflare caches, when it bypasses the cache, and how to fine-tune caching behavior will help you create a site that stays consistently fast for users across the world.

This chapter provides a calm, practical explanation of Cloudflare’s CDN architecture and the tools available for controlling cache behavior: Cache Rules, Page Rules, Transform Rules, and more.

Cloudflare has grown into one of the most influential platforms in modern web architecture. What began as a CDN and security provider has expanded into a full edge-compute ecosystem used by small blogs, large SaaS platforms, and high-traffic global services.

This tutorial provides a calm, straightforward overview of Cloudflare — what it does, how its global network operates, and how each product fits into a modern developer workflow.

If you’re new to Cloudflare or simply want a clearer mental model, this is the place to begin.