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Issues with Cloudflare Images (blog.klungo.no)

528 points by danielskogly · 1747 days ago · 140 comments on HN

Article summary

The article discusses issues with Cloudflare Images, a service that stores, resizes, optimizes, and serves images. The author lists nine problems, including confusing pricing, lack of tracking for image serves, and inability to retrieve original images. The author hopes that Cloudflare will address these issues, making the service more competitive with other image hosting tools. The article also mentions that some of the issues have been fixed since the initial writing.

Main themes

  • Cloudflare Images limitations
  • Pricing model concerns
  • Security and denial-of-service attacks
  • Vendor lock-in and migration
  • Caching and cost savings
  • Image hosting alternatives
  • Dynamic image resizing
  • Signed URLs and security features

What commenters say

  • Cloudflare Images has several limitations, including a lack of dynamic resizing and a limited number of image variants, which can be problematic for certain use cases.
  • The pricing model of Cloudflare Images is confusing and can lead to unexpected costs, especially for small images.
  • Some commenters argue that dynamic image resizing is a security risk and can be used for denial-of-service attacks, while others believe that Cloudflare should provide more features to mitigate this risk.
  • The inability to retrieve original images from Cloudflare Images is a major concern, as it can lead to vendor lock-in and make it difficult to migrate to other services.
  • Cloudflare's caching capabilities can significantly reduce the number of requests made to image hosts, resulting in cost savings.
  • The use of signed URLs can help prevent abuse and denial-of-service attacks, and Cloudflare should consider implementing this feature.
  • Limiting the number of allowed image sizes can help prevent denial-of-service attacks, but may not be practical for all use cases.
  • Cloudflare Images is not the only option for image hosting, and other services, such as Bunny CDN, may offer more competitive pricing and features.