Easily compare CloudFront and Cloudflare for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
Company | CloudFront | Cloudflare |
---|---|---|
Short profile | CloudFront is the CDN of AWS (Amazon Web Services), the world's largest cloud services provider. CloudFront offers a mature set of content delivery products and has a big network of POPs on many continents. Solid documentation and APIs make CloudFront a developer-friendly CDN. | Cloudflare provides a global CDN with unique performance capabilities and a strong focus on security. The company has a global infrastructure built from the ground up using only next-generation, high-performance equipment—no legacy software or hardware. The result is a CDN that's easy to set up, affordable, and built to continuously adapt and integrate emerging technologies to meet future needs of everyone's Internet properties. |
Products
Product | CloudFront | Cloudflare |
---|---|---|
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Content Delivery | |
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | ||
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | ||
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Streaming Media | Stream Live |
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Stream | |
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image Resizing, Mirage, Polish | |
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | AWS Route53 | DNS |
WAFWeb Application Firewall | AWS WAF | Cloud Web Application Firewall |
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | AWS Shield | DDoS Protection |
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Lambda@Edge | Workers |
Network
How many POP locations do CloudFront and Cloudflare have in different parts of the world?
Region | CloudFront | Cloudflare |
---|---|---|
North America | 19 | 46 |
Latin America | 7 | 44 |
Europe | 31 | 43 |
Russia & CIS | 0 | 11 |
Asia excl. China | 18 | 45 |
China | 4 | 37 |
Oceania | 5 | 10 |
Middle East | 4 | 15 |
Africa | 4 | 22 |
Pricing
Pricing & contract duration | CloudFront | Cloudflare |
---|---|---|
Minimum contract term | None | None |
Minimum monthly costs | None | $0 |
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | $0.0075 - $0.022 per 10k requests | None |
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | $0.02 - $0.16 per GB (free if origin is AWS) | None |
NA/EU traffic (low volume) | $0.085 per GB | $0 |
APAC traffic (low volume) | $0.12 per GB (India: $0.109) | $0 |
LATAM traffic (low volume) | $0.11 per GB | $0 |
Features
Web acceleration | CloudFront | Cloudflare |
---|---|---|
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | ||
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | ~10 minutes | Instant |
Apex/root domain OK |
Only if used together with AWS Route53 | Global Anycast network |
HTTP/2 | HTTP/2 announcement (Sep 2016) | |
HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | HTTP/3 Prioritization |
WebSockets | Using WebSockets with CloudFront distributions | WebSockets docs |
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | IPv6 support announcement (Oct 2016) | |
Compression |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge
|
Resend from origin, or compress on edge |
Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS | HTTP and HTTPS |
Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? | Can't configure specific other Host header | Can be an IP address |
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Origin Shield docs | Tiered Cache, included in all paid plans |
Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Virtual Waiting Room on AWS | Cloudflare Waiting Room |
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | ||
Cache control - CDN caching | Page rules for overriding caching headers | |
Cache control - client caching | ||
Serve Stale |
Supports Cache-Control extensions | Only 'stale while revalidate' |
Purge |
Purge Speed | ~ 5 seconds |
Purge - capabilities | Purge all and by directory/file type (wildcards) | Purge per file and purge all |
Analytics | Amazon CloudFront Reports & Analytics | Web analytics, threats and more. Live-updating for paying customers |
Log files |
Only delivered to S3
|
Only for Enterprise customers, instantly available |
API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, configuration |
HTTPS & Content Protection | CloudFront | Cloudflare |
---|---|---|
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | Free (not SNI) | SNI |
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | More info | |
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | Free (SNI) or $600/m for non-SNI | |
Token authentication | Serving Private Content through CloudFront | More info |
Geo blocking | Restricting the Geographic Distribution of Your Content | Access Rules |
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Use AWS WAF for Referer Checking | |
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | Possible with Workers | |
IP white/blacklisting | Use AWS WAF to Block IP Addresses | Access Rules |
Support
Customer support | CloudFront | Cloudflare |
---|---|---|
Documentation | Yes, public. API docs | Yes, public. Cloudflare Community. |
Humans | Community support is free. Email and phone support (AWS Support) available at extra costs | Email support for all. Phone only for Enterprise customers |