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Cloudflare outage takes down key websites: "Small businesses will suffer loss of earnings and customers"

ended 18. November 2025

A CLOUDFLARE outage has taken down key websites with experts warning “small businesses will suffer loss of earnings and customers”.

The issues – which have affected everything from ChatGPT to X to Spotify – have now been going on since this morning..

Cloudflare hasn’t given any indication of how long it thinks a fix would take.

But it has committed that it is “continuing working on restoring service”.

Experts warned that it will hit the websites of small businesses.

Colette Mason, Author & AI Consultant at London-based Clever Clogs AI, said: "For these tech giants, outsourcing your IT infrastructure is fantastic, right up until the moment it breaks. Then they realise that a boardroom decision in their interest has just paralysed millions of their own customers. Today’s Cloudflare outage, which took down giants like X and Spotify, proves we’ve traded resilience for convenience. 

"When a single provider’s 'service degradation' can turn off the lights for the global economy, it exposes the massive fragility of the modern web. We are building digital empires on rented land, relying on single points of failure we can’t fix. 

"It's the same old pattern: when you hand over the keys to the kingdom to save a few pennies, you eventually get locked out. The question now isn't just about technical uptime, it's about business sovereignty. Is their continuity plan really just 'hope they fix it'?" It feels like it."

Naina Clayton, Founder at Sandwoman Business Support, said small businesses will lose money and customers.

She added: “It is definitely detrimental to small businesses that big tech hold so much power. By holding big tech in one basket instead of spreading it over various sites, when there is an outage like today, it causes so many issues. It will cause a loss of earnings and customers even though it is not the small business' fault. It is time that big tech was held more accountable and spread over various sources, not all in one place.”

Kate Allen, Owner at Kingsbridge-based Finest Stays, said hacks and outages are becoming the new normal.

She continued: “I’m concerned this may be becoming the norm as our ‘friends’ overseas continue to exploit weaknesses in IT systems. 

"We’re certainly not going back to paper and pencil, but it’s a clear reminder that robust backups and multiple access points to critical data are absolutely essential.”

Patricia McGirr, Founder at Burnley-based Repossession Rescue Network, said it is affecting her business.

She added: “It’s a huge mess for small businesses. My own sites are affected right when we’ve campaigns running. It’s great until the whole system fails, taking your business with it.”

Michelle Lawson, Director at Fareham-based Lawson Financial, said that it shows the negative aspects to technology.

She continued: "Technology is starting to cause more problems than it solves and wastes so much time as a result. We have become so heavily reliant on it now that the backwards step would be harder. 

"These problems are going to escalate rather than go away which is quite a fearful place to be as many companies can no longer rely on manual labour."

 


 

7 responses from the Newspage community

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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
For these tech giants, outsourcing your IT infrastructure is fantastic, right up until the moment it breaks. Then they realise that a boardroom decision in their interest has just paralysed millions of their own customers.

Today’s Cloudflare outage, which took down giants like X and Spotify, proves we’ve traded resilience for convenience. When a single provider’s 'service degradation' can turn off the lights for the global economy, it exposes the massive fragility of the modern web.

We are building digital empires on rented land, relying on single points of failure we can’t fix. It's the same old pattern: when you hand over the keys to the kingdom to save a few pennies, you eventually get locked out.

The question now isn't just about technical uptime, it's about business sovereignty. Is their continuity plan really just 'hope they fix it'?" It feels like it.
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Editor
Naina Clayton
Founder at Sandwoman Business Support
It is definitely detrimental to small businesses that big tech hold so much power. By holding big tech in one basket instead of spreading it over various sites, when there is an outage like today, it causes so many issues. It will cause a loss of earnings and customers even though it is not the small business' fault.

It is time that big tech was held more accountable and spread over various sources, not all in one place.
Copy

Editor
Kate Allen
Owner at Finest Stays
I’m concerned this may be becoming the norm as our ‘friends’ overseas continue to exploit weaknesses in IT systems. We’re certainly not going back to paper and pencil, but it’s a clear reminder that robust backups and multiple access points to critical data are absolutely essential.
Copy

Editor
Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
Technology is starting to cause more problems than it solves and wastes so much time as a result. We have become so heavily reliant on it now that the backwards step would be harder. These problems are going to escalate rather than go away which is quite a fearful place to be as many companies can no longer rely on manual labour.
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Editor
Kate Underwood
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
ChatGPT is down. Cloudflare is glitching again. And small businesses across the UK are suddenly realising just how much they rely on tech, with no backup in sight.

We’ve raced ahead with Marty in Back to the Future but forgot to ask what happens when the future stops working.

Staff are sat around, tools are frozen, and the plan B seems to be “wait and hope.” One client told us, “We just assumed this stuff would always work.”

This isn’t a blame game. It’s what happens when we put all our eggs in the digital basket and call it progress.

I still remember those clunky carbon-copy credit card machines in hotels. They weren’t glamorous, but they meant you could keep trading when everything else failed.

What’s our version of that now? Honestly, we don’t have one. And maybe it’s time we started asking why.
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Katy Eatenton
Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Eatenton Finance
We've been here before, and it isn't any prettier the second time around.
It shows how reliant we are on tech, yet we are being pushed towards a cashless, online existence governed by digital ID. Whathappens when that doesnt work?
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Patricia McGirr
Founder at Repossession Rescue Network
It’s a huge mess for small businesses. My own sites are affected right when we’ve campaigns running. It’s great until the whole system fails taking your business with it.