What is Cloudflare used for?

Cloudflare is a global edge platform offering CDN, DNS, DDoS protection, a web application firewall and edge computing, with free and paid plans. It is a good fit for speeding up and protecting a website, mitigating DDoS attacks, and building applications on edge compute.

Yes. Cloudflare has a free plan. Free plan at $0; Pro from $20/month billed annually; Business from $200/month billed annually; custom Contract plans. Compute, storage and AI are usage-based.

Is Cloudflare open source?

No. Cloudflare is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Cloudflare include Zrok, PowerDNS and Pangolin.

What are some alternatives to Cloudflare?

Cloudflare competes with Fastly, Amazon CloudFront and Akamai. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Cloudflare alternatives.

Cloudflare: features, pricing and alternatives

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a network platform that sits in front of websites and applications to speed them up and protect them. Its core services are a content delivery network, DNS, unmetered DDoS protection, universal SSL certificates and a web application firewall, all managed from a single dashboard.

Beyond web performance and security, Cloudflare sells a SASE and Zero Trust suite and a compute and storage platform for building applications at the edge, with AI services priced on usage as well. Higher website plans add features such as lossless image optimization, PCI DSS 4.0 compliance and an uptime SLA.

Cloudflare is a hosted, proprietary service with no self-hosted version. Website plans range from Free through Pro and Business to a custom Contract tier, so it suits everything from hobby sites to businesses running mission-critical applications.

Key features

Global CDN for caching web content
DNS hosting for domains
Unmetered DDoS protection
Web application firewall with managed rulesets
Free universal SSL certificates
Compute and storage platform for edge apps
Zero Trust and SASE services

Good fit for

→Speeding up and protecting a website
→Mitigating DDoS attacks
→Building applications on edge compute

Tags: cdn; dns; ddos-protection; waf; edge-computing; security; networking; zero-trust

Cloudflare: questions and answers

What is Cloudflare used for?: Cloudflare is a global edge platform offering CDN, DNS, DDoS protection, a web application firewall and edge computing, with free and paid plans. It is a good fit for speeding up and protecting a website, mitigating DDoS attacks, and building applications on edge compute.
Is Cloudflare free?: Yes. Cloudflare has a free plan. Free plan at $0; Pro from $20/month billed annually; Business from $200/month billed annually; custom Contract plans. Compute, storage and AI are usage-based.
Is Cloudflare open source?: No. Cloudflare is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Cloudflare include Zrok, PowerDNS and Pangolin.
What are some alternatives to Cloudflare?: Cloudflare competes with Fastly, Amazon CloudFront and Akamai. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Cloudflare alternatives.