Buying Cloudflare Pro direct and buying it through Tremhost’s Armor Guard give your website the same Cloudflare protection layer. The difference is who sets it up, who watches it and what you pay. Direct, Cloudflare Pro is $25 a month billed monthly or $20 a month billed annually, and your own team configures and monitors it. Armor Guard is $9 a month or $90 a year for one site, with the firewall rules, DNS move, SSL and daily monitoring handled by Tremhost’s team in Harare.
What stays the same
Tremhost does not replace Cloudflare. Armor Guard is built on Cloudflare’s network, the same one you would join by buying direct, including Cloudflare’s data centre in Harare. Either way, your site sits behind Cloudflare’s web application firewall, DDoS protection and content delivery network, with SSL at the edge.
What you get when you buy Cloudflare Pro direct
As listed on Cloudflare’s plans page on 5 November 2026, Pro costs $25 a month billed monthly, or $20 a month billed annually ($240 a year). Business costs $250 a month billed monthly or $200 billed annually. Buying direct gives you:
- A direct account relationship and full control of every setting.
- Freedom to change DNS, firewall rules, caching and page rules whenever you like.
- Cloudflare’s own documentation, community and support channels for your plan.
It suits organisations with an internal IT, network or security team that already understands DNS, web application firewall rules and SSL modes, and has time to watch traffic and respond to alerts.
What Armor Guard adds
As described on Tremhost’s Armor Guard page on 5 November 2026, the $9 a month includes:
- Setup: DNS moved to Cloudflare by Tremhost without taking the site down, and SSL installed and renewed automatically. Typically live in about an hour, on any hosting.
- Firewall rules written for your site: Cloudflare’s Managed Ruleset and the OWASP Core Ruleset, Super Bot Fight Mode, and an exposed-credentials check on login forms, tuned as your site changes.
- Unmetered DDoS protection and Cloudflare’s global CDN.
- Image and mobile optimisation for lighter pages on phones.
- Access control for up to 50 staff on admin pages.
- Daily monitoring of attacks and uptime, with alerts sent to you.
- Support from Tremhost engineers in Harare on WhatsApp, Monday to Friday 08:00 to 17:00 CAT.
The cost difference
- Billed monthly: Cloudflare Pro direct is $300 a year; Armor Guard monthly is $108 a year.
- Billed annually: Cloudflare Pro direct is $240 a year; Armor Guard yearly is $90.
On top of the licence, a direct purchase needs someone’s time to configure and monitor it. Count that time, or a contractor’s fee, when you compare.
How switching to Cloudflare works
Whichever route you choose, the steps are similar. Your domain’s nameservers are changed to Cloudflare’s, so Cloudflare answers DNS for the domain and proxies web traffic. Before that switch, every existing DNS record, including mail (MX), SPF, DKIM and any subdomains, must be copied across exactly, or email and other services can break. The SSL mode must match what the origin server supports, usually Full (strict) with a valid certificate on the server, to avoid redirect loops or insecure connections. Then firewall rules, caching and bot settings are tuned and tested against real traffic. Buying direct, your team does each step; with Armor Guard, Tremhost does them and checks the site afterwards.
Which route suits you
Buy direct if
- You have staff who can configure and maintain Cloudflare.
- You want every change under your own control, immediately.
- You manage many Cloudflare zones and already have processes for them.
Use Armor Guard if
- Nobody in the business owns website security today.
- You want someone to notice and act on attacks before customers do.
- You want local support in your time zone and payment by EcoCash, InnBucks, ZimSwitch, Omari, card or cryptocurrency.
- You are an agency protecting several client sites without running a security operation.
Guard or Shield?
Armor Guard suits business websites, blogs and small shops. Sites that cannot afford downtime, such as larger online stores and payment pages, may need Cloudflare Business features through Armor Shield, which includes cleanup after an incident and Cloudflare Business’s 100% uptime SLA.
Questions to ask before you decide
- Who holds the Cloudflare account, and how would you take it over if you left?
- Which settings can you change yourself, and how quickly are change requests handled?
- What happens if the site is already infected?
- What does monitoring cover, and how will you be told?
What neither option does
A firewall protects a site from the outside. It does not update an out-of-date WordPress plugin or remove malware already on the server. Keep software updated and backups tested. If your site is already compromised, Armor SOS offers free same-day triage on working days, then quotes the cleanup, before protection goes in front of it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Armor Guard the same Cloudflare Pro protection?
It is built on Cloudflare Pro, configured and monitored by Tremhost.
Can I try it first?
Yes. Tremhost offers a free 15-day Cloudflare Pro trial with no card needed.
Does my site have to be hosted with Tremhost?
No. Armor Guard works on any hosting.
What if I need more than Pro?
Armor Shield is Cloudflare Business, managed by Tremhost, at $200 a month, and carries Cloudflare Business’s 100% uptime SLA.
Next step
See everything included and protect your site on the Tremhost Armor Guard page, or begin with the free trial above.
