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CDN, DNS, WAF and DDoS protection

Cloudflare

Reverse-proxy CDN with free DNS, unmetered DDoS protection and a WAF on a 330-city network, billed per plan rather than per gigabyte.

Visit cloudflare.com ↗ Alternatives Free tier EU region
Cloudflare homepage
§1

Overview

Cloudflare works as a reverse proxy: you move your domain's nameservers to Cloudflare, mark records as proxied, and traffic then passes through its network of more than 330 locations. That gives you caching, TLS certificates, DDoS mitigation and firewall rules without changing your origin server.

The plan ladder is about features and guarantees, not traffic. Free already includes DNS, the CDN, universal SSL, unmetered DDoS protection and a free managed WAF ruleset. Pro ($20 a month on annual billing, $25 monthly) adds the full WAF and image optimisation, Business ($200 a month annual, $250 monthly) adds a 100% uptime SLA and PCI DSS 4.0 support, and Contract plans are negotiated.

Before you commit, note that Cloudflare's DNS generally requires using its nameservers for full-zone setup on self-serve plans, and proxied traffic means Cloudflare terminates TLS. Developer products such as Workers, R2 and D1 are priced separately on usage, and features like Load Balancing are add-ons.

§2

Pricing and plans

Free tier · no card

Free plan: DNS, CDN, universal SSL, unmetered DDoS protection and the free managed WAF ruleset, with no bandwidth charge; no SLA.

At the limit Not stated The vendor does not say what happens at the limit, or we have not found it yet.

Plan Price What you get
Free $0 DNS, CDN, universal SSL, unmetered DDoS, free managed ruleset
Pro $20/mo annual, $25/mo monthly Adds WAF, lossless image optimisation; no additional usage charges
Business $200/mo annual, $250/mo monthly 100% uptime SLA, PCI DSS 4.0 support
Contract (Enterprise) Custom Billed annually; 10x or 25x SLA credits, network prioritisation

Pro is $20/mo billed annually or $25/mo billed monthly (Cloudflare's Pro page lists 'no additional usage charges'); Business is $200/mo annual or $250 monthly. Argo ($0.10/GB), Load Balancing, Workers, R2 and other products are billed separately. EU data localisation (regional inspection and log location) is offered for enterprise customers.

Source: www.cloudflare.com/plans/ · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Authoritative DNS
Free DNS hosting on every plan with one-click DNSSEC and API access.
CDN
Caches static and dynamic content across 330+ locations; Cloudflare says it is within about 50 ms of ~95% of internet users.
DDoS protection
Unmetered DDoS mitigation is included on all plans, including Free.
WAF
A free managed ruleset on the Free plan; the full Web Application Firewall starts at Pro.
Universal SSL
Automatic edge TLS certificates for proxied hostnames on every plan.
Edge compute
Workers runs code at the edge with 100k free requests per day, then $0.30 per million requests.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • A free plan that includes DNS, CDN, SSL and DDoS protection with no bandwidth bill.
  • Flat plan pricing makes costs predictable even when traffic spikes.
  • One dashboard and API for DNS, caching, security rules and edge code.
  • Large network of 330+ locations.
  • Long list of stated certifications, including SOC 2, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP High.

Limitations

  • No uptime SLA on Free or Pro; the 100% SLA starts at Business.
  • PCI DSS 4.0 compliance support is listed only for Business and Contract plans.
  • Load balancing, Workers, R2 and other products are billed on top of the plan.
  • EU data localisation controls are an enterprise offering.
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Hobby and indie sites that want free DNS and CDN
  • Startups needing DDoS protection and a WAF at a flat price
  • Teams that want DNS, caching and edge code from one provider

Look elsewhere if

  • Teams that want a plain DNS host without a proxy in the traffic path
  • Workloads that need an SLA on a budget below the Business plan
§6

Alternatives to Cloudflare

Tool From Free option Stages
Amazon CloudFront CDN with bundled WAF and DNS plans
$15/mo Free tier
DNSimple DNS hosting and domain management
$0.5/mo Paid
Gcore CDN Pay-as-you-go CDN with DNS and WAF
Usage-based Free tier
DigiCert DNS (DNS Made Easy) Managed DNS with SLA
$300/yr Paid
ClouDNS Managed DNS with free and low-cost plans
$2.95/mo Free tier
easyDNS Managed anycast DNS and registrar
$20/yr Paid

All CDN, DNS and edge security →

§7

Questions

Is Cloudflare's free plan free for bandwidth?

Yes. The Free, Pro and Business plans are priced per plan, and the plans page lists no per-GB bandwidth charge for the CDN.

Does the Cloudflare free plan include a WAF?

It includes the free managed ruleset. The full WAF with managed rules starts at the Pro plan.

Which Cloudflare plan has an uptime SLA?

Business ($200/mo annual) has a 100% uptime SLA with 1x service credits; Contract plans offer 10x or 25x credits.

Can I use Cloudflare only for DNS?

Yes. Records can be set to DNS-only so traffic goes straight to your origin while Cloudflare answers DNS queries.

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