CloudFlare Introduces HTTP/2 Support, Bringing All Customers Into the Modern Internet for Free

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 3, 2015) - CloudFlare, the leading Internet performance and security company, today announced HTTP/2 support for all customers. Now any CloudFlare customer can speed up their web properties with the latest version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for free. What's more, CloudFlare customers do not need to change their existing server configuration to get all of the benefits of the best available page load times and performance today.

"The last update to HTTP was in 1999 and the Internet has changed a lot since then. HTTP/2 was built to improve the performance of everything from traditional websites to modern mobile apps," said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of CloudFlare. "To give you a sense, if every request over the CloudFlare network came over HTTP/2, in one month we'd collectively save Internet users 95 thousand years they'd otherwise spend waiting for the Internet to load over HTTP/1.1."

HTTP/2 is the new and improved version of HTTP, the primary protocol over which data is exchanged online. HTTP/2 is based on the draft SPDY protocol, which CloudFlare has supported since June 2012. SPDY was created by Google to address many of the performance problems with the fifteen-year-old HTTP/1.1. HTTP/2 expanded on Google's work with SPDY and was codified as an official Internet protocol by the Internet Engineering Task Force in May 2015.

HTTP/2 for Faster Performance and A Better Online Experience

Websites and mobile apps are more complicated today than they were when HTTP/1.1 was created in 1999. HTTP/2 means that resources like images, CSS, JavaScript, and fonts can be multiplexed into a single request, increasing performance by an average of 30 percent per page view.

To use an analogy, HTTP/1.1 is like making a full trip to and from the store each time you need to buy an item. HTTP/2 is like multiple-item shopping: buying everything you need in a single trip. HTTP/2 allows several requests to be sent and received over a single TCP connection, resulting in significant performance gains and a better online experience for site visitors.

Better Performance Regardless of Site Protocol:

Support for HTTP/2 is being rolled out across all modern browsers. Approximately 30 percent of browsers seen across CloudFlare's network support HTTP/2, 50 percent support SPDY but not HTTP/2, and 20 percent support only HTTP/1.1. CloudFlare will continue to support SPDY and HTTP/1.1, falling back to whatever the fastest protocol a browser will support to ensure that even users without the latest software will continue to get the fastest possible experience.

"Today, CloudFlare continued our mission of helping build a better Internet by more than doubling the number of sites available over HTTP/2," Prince explained. "Beyond adding functionality for our customers, we think of rolling out HTTP/2 as CloudFlare's free holiday gift to every Internet user: the gift of time."

HTTP/2 support is enabled by default for all customers on the CloudFlare's Free and Pro tiers. Business and Enterprise customers can enable HTTP/2 from their control panel with a single click. To learn more please check out the additional resources below:

• See the difference in performance over HTTP/1.1 through CloudFlare's HTTP/2 Guide
• Introducing HTTP/2 (Blog) 

About CloudFlare
CloudFlare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) makes any Internet application lightning fast, protects them from attacks, ensures they are always online, and makes it simple to add web apps with a single click. Regardless of size or platform, CloudFlare supercharges Internet applications with no need to add hardware, install software, or change a line of code. The CloudFlare community gets stronger as it grows: every new site makes the network smarter. More than 5 percent of global Internet requests flow through CloudFlare's network; every month more than 2 billion people experience a faster, safer, better Internet. CloudFlare was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer, named the Most Innovative Network & Internet Technology Company for two years running by the Wall Street Journal, and ranked among the world's 50 most innovative companies by Fast Company. CloudFlare has offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, London and Singapore.