Affordable Cloudflare protection means getting Cloudflare’s firewall, DDoS protection, CDN and managed SSL in front of your website without paying for a security team to configure it. Tremhost, a Cloudflare partner in Harare, sells this as Tremhost Armor: Armor Guard is Cloudflare Pro-grade protection for one site at $9 a month, against $25 a month for Cloudflare Pro bought directly on monthly billing, and the setup and monitoring are included. It works with any hosting, and you can try Cloudflare Pro or Business free for 15 days without a card.
What “Cloudflare hosting” actually means
Cloudflare does not replace your web host. Your site stays on a normal server, and your domain’s DNS points visitors to Cloudflare’s network first. Cloudflare then forwards clean traffic to your server. Along the way it can:
- Filter attacks with a web application firewall (WAF) that inspects requests for common patterns such as SQL injection and malicious form submissions.
- Absorb DDoS floods at its edge, so a flood of junk traffic does not knock a small server offline.
- Challenge bad bots that guess passwords or scrape content.
- Cache content such as images, stylesheets and scripts in data centres near your visitors. Cloudflare has a data centre in Harare, which helps visitors in Zimbabwe.
- Handle SSL at the edge, and encrypt traffic to your server too when the SSL mode is set correctly.
- Hide your server’s IP address, making direct attacks harder.
What Cloudflare does not do
Cloudflare protects your site from the outside. It does not update an out-of-date WordPress plugin or theme, remove malware already on your server, replace your backups, or fix a slow database. It speeds up delivery of files, but the server still builds each dynamic page. A site that is already infected needs cleaning before protection is added.
Why buying Cloudflare is not the whole job
Two things often stop small businesses in Africa from getting the most out of Cloudflare.
Configuration
Cloudflare is only as good as its settings. Someone has to point the domain correctly, choose the right SSL mode so the site does not fall into a redirect loop, copy the email DNS records so mail keeps flowing, tune firewall rules so attacks are blocked without challenging real customers, and keep an eye on it when something changes. Many businesses switch it on once and never check it again.
Paying for it
Paying monthly in US dollars by international card is not easy for every business. Tremhost bills in US dollars and accepts EcoCash, InnBucks, ZimSwitch, Omari, Visa, Mastercard and selected cryptocurrencies.
Free, Pro and Business: what the plans add
Cloudflare’s free plan provides DNS, a CDN, basic DDoS protection and SSL, which is far better than nothing for a simple brochure site. Pro adds managed WAF rulesets, more bot protection and image optimisation, and suits most business websites with logins, forms or payments. Business adds more advanced firewall controls and stronger service commitments for high-value sites.
Tremhost Armor plans
All Armor plans work with any hosting provider, so you do not need to move your website. Annual billing gives two months free.
- Armor Guard, $9 a month or $90 a year: one website on Cloudflare Pro-grade protection, with firewall, DDoS protection and CDN configured by Tremhost, SSL renewed automatically, and attack monitoring and alerts. Usually live in about an hour.
- Armor Shield, $200 a month or $2,000 a year: Cloudflare Business-grade protection for sites that take payments or hold client data, against $250 a month for Cloudflare Business direct. It carries the Cloudflare Business 100% uptime SLA, uses rules written for your application, and includes malware cleanup, credential resets and blacklist delisting if something gets through. Per-site pricing is lower from five sites.
- Armor Workforce, $5 a person a month: protection for staff on every device, with a minimum of 10 people.
- Armor Mail, from $12 a month for 10 mailboxes: email security that catches fake invoices and phishing, and works with Microsoft 365, Google or Tremhost email.
Tremhost publishes the direct-versus-Armor comparison, with the date it checked Cloudflare’s list prices, on the Tremhost Cloudflare page.
One honest limit: Shield protects the edge and cleans the origin, but it does not make an insecure application secure by itself. If you run an old plugin with a known hole, you still need to patch what Tremhost reports.
Cloudflare included with hosting
If you are choosing hosting anyway, some Tremhost plans already include Cloudflare Pro. Managed WordPress hosting includes Cloudflare Pro on every site, alongside updates tested on staging, daily backups and malware scanning and removal, from $15 a month. The Big Mike premium hosting plan includes Cloudflare Pro for the main domain.
Which option to choose
- Brochure site, school site, blog or lead form: Armor Guard.
- Online store, payments, client portal or sensitive data: Armor Shield.
- A WordPress site you want fully looked after: managed WordPress, with Cloudflare Pro included.
- Staff paying suppliers by bank transfer: add Armor Mail.
- Several systems and no security staff: a Tremhost managed security plan puts one team in charge of websites, email, servers and laptops.
- A site that has already been hacked: start with Armor SOS, which offers free same-day triage, then add protection once it is clean.
How to get started
- Start the free 15-day Cloudflare Pro or Business trial. No card is needed.
- Make the DNS change that routes your domain through Cloudflare, with help from the Tremhost team. Your hosting, website and email stay where they are.
- Run the trial on your real traffic and see what is blocked.
- If you do nothing when the trial ends, your site moves to Cloudflare’s free plan and keeps working. To keep Pro or Business features with management included, choose Guard or Shield.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tremhost Armor the same as Cloudflare?
Armor runs on Cloudflare’s network. Tremhost is a Cloudflare partner and adds the configuration, monitoring and local support, with Tremhost support available Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 CAT.
Do I need to host my website with Tremhost?
No. Armor is set up through your domain’s DNS, so it works with a website on any host.
Will Cloudflare make my site faster?
Often, yes, because cached files are served from a data centre near each visitor, including Harare. Dynamic pages still depend on your server’s speed.
Can Cloudflare stop every attack?
No security tool can. A firewall blocks many attacks, but you still need updated software, strong passwords with two-factor authentication, and tested backups.
Next step
To protect one website now, get Armor Guard for $9 a month, or begin the free trial and decide once you see it working on your site.
