KBExit
From a technical point of view, the main issue I see is that there are simply too many layers in the request path:
Client → Cloudflare → Traefik → Apache → PHP-FPM
Each additional layer introduces overhead and small latencies, which add up, especially when the workload itself is very small. On top of that, a lot of general complexity has been introduced without a clear benefit for this specific use case.
The forum run by @ernestdefoe currently has extremely low load: around 60 posts from 14 users. Realistically, even a $2 shared hosting plan would handle this effortlessly, and in practice, it would likely achieve better PageSpeed results than the current stack.
So in its current form, the setup feels like technical overkill. To use a metaphor: it’s a bit like placing a toothpick on top of an ark, impressive in scale, but not really justified by what it’s carrying. 😅
This kind of architecture would make sense if additional services or future scaling were planned, but for a single, very low-traffic Flarum forum, I’m honestly not convinced by the performance results relative to the complexity involved.
Just my technical impression, clean design and proportional architecture usually win here.
