A CDN does not have to mean handing your whole infrastructure to Cloudflare. With Privateflare you build your own private CDN out of ordinary, cheap VPS nodes: every node terminates TLS, caches and serves content, filters bad traffic and forwards clean requests to your backend. The result behaves like a commercial CDN, but the network is yours — no shared platform, no per-domain limits, no third party watching your traffic.
What your own node network gives you
- The backend stays hidden. The real origin and its IP sit behind the nodes — externally only the node addresses are ever visible.
- DDoS and abuse land on the nodes. Junk traffic and floods are absorbed on cheap, replaceable nodes rather than on your main server.
- Domains are decoupled from the core. Public domains resolve to the node network, not to the infrastructure that actually runs your services.
- Traffic and data stay with you. Because the platform is self-hosted, request logs, visitor data and caching decisions never leave for a third party.
- Failover keeps sites up. If the primary backend goes down, traffic shifts automatically to a backup origin, so the site stays reachable.
Unlimited free SSL
Every domain you attach to the node network gets a Let's Encrypt certificate issued and renewed automatically — for an unlimited number of domains, with no per-certificate fee. HTTP is redirected to HTTPS out of the box, so visitors always land on a secure connection. There is no manual, per-domain certificate work: you add the domain, and TLS is handled for you across the whole node network, including renewals before expiry.
Node deployment and masking
Onboarding a node is fast — you add a server by its SSH key and Privateflare provisions it into the network. From there each domain points to its own backend (origin), with automatic failover to a backup origin if the primary goes down. Services running on the origin's ports 80 and 443 are obfuscated behind the node, so from the outside only the node responds — the backend never announces itself.
Privateflare is a self-hosted platform that combines a private CDN, WAF, GeoDNS, auto-SSL and anti-bot in a single dashboard. Configuration propagates across every node instantly, and you get built-in monitoring with Telegram alerts, a full API, and native support for Keitaro, Binom and AlterCPA.
How to stand up a private CDN on Privateflare
- Add your nodes to the dashboard — each cheap VPS joins the network via its SSH key.
- Add domains and backends so the node network knows what to serve and where to forward clean traffic.
- Enable auto-SSL for all domains — certificates are issued and renewed automatically, with HTTP redirected to HTTPS.
- Turn on cache/CDN, WAF and anti-bot to serve content from the edge and cut scanners and floods at the nodes.
- Configure GeoDNS to route visitors to the right node by geography.
- Manage in bulk via the API to add nodes, domains and rules across the whole fleet programmatically.
Because every change is pushed to all nodes at once, scaling the CDN is just a matter of adding another VPS — the configuration, certificates and rules follow automatically.
FAQ
How does a private CDN beat Cloudflare?
A private CDN runs on your own nodes, so you control the traffic, the caching rules and the data. There is no shared platform that can throttle, ban or de-anonymize you, no per-domain limits, and no third party sitting between you and your visitors. You add cheap VPS nodes as you grow instead of paying for enterprise plans.
Is the SSL really unlimited and free?
Yes. Privateflare issues and renews Let's Encrypt certificates automatically for any number of domains, with no per-certificate fee and no manual work. HTTP is redirected to HTTPS automatically, so every domain you attach is served over TLS out of the box.
Does the node network hide the backend's real IP?
Yes. Visitors and scanners only ever see the node IPs. The nodes forward requests to your backend over an address only they know, so the origin's real IP never appears in DNS, in response headers or during port scanning. You can firewall the backend to accept traffic from the nodes alone.
How many nodes and domains are supported?
There is no hard cap. You can run as many nodes as you need — from a single VPS to a global network — and attach an unlimited number of domains. Configuration propagates to every node instantly, and you can manage the whole fleet in bulk through the dashboard or the API.