Amazon CloudFront vs. Cloudflare

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amazon CloudFront
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
CloudFront is the content delivery network (CDN) from Amazon Web Services.
$0.02
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Cloudflare, from the company of the same name in San Francisco, provides DDoS and bot mitigation security for business domains, as well as a content delivery network (CDN) and web application firewall (WAF).
$20
per month
Pricing
Amazon CloudFrontCloudflare
Editions & Modules
Over 5PB
$0.02
Next 524TB
$0.03
Next 4PB
$0.03
Next 350TB
$0.04
Next 100TB
$0.06
Next 40TB
$0.08
First 10TB
$0.09
Pro
$20
per month
Business
$200
per month
Free
Free
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon CloudFrontCloudflare
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amazon CloudFrontCloudflare
Considered Both Products
Amazon CloudFront
Chose Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront free Tier allows up to 50 GB of data transfer per month which is not there in any of the above. Amazon CloudFront provides detailed reporting around the most frequently used objects, monitoring and usage charts. Amazon CloudFront is suitable to help you …
Chose Amazon CloudFront
CloudFlare is another great CDN service. It comes with a lot of things set up of the box for you, and gives you a basic and reasonable set up straight away. It also has a free-tier for smaller sites. CloudFlare doesn't quite have the same level of configurability, however. …
Chose Amazon CloudFront
Cloudfront is one of the oldest CDN with presence in a lot of locations. This really helps in making the content load faster in all the locations globally. Other products have also caught up with this but still AWS has a lot of other services which can be connected with the CDN …
Chose Amazon CloudFront
We use a great set of AWS features and it was easy to implement Amazon CloudFront. It fulfills our needs, and the learning curve was not difficult given the AWS configuration we already have.
Chose Amazon CloudFront
If you are using other AWS services, then no other CDN can compete with AWS CloudFront. Its integration with WAF, Route53, ACM allow it to provide a whole ecosystem for building websites and using a CDN. It gives developers access to inexpensive, pay-as-you-go pricing. …
Chose Amazon CloudFront
We ended up selecting CloudFront because we were already using an Amazon stack. To be honest, since we were already in the ecosystem there was little reason to deviate once we saw pricing was comparable.
Chose Amazon CloudFront
We went with CloudFront primarily because we have all of our other services with Amazon already. We are using EC2, S3, Elastic Beanstalk, and are very familiar with the interface. It did not disappoint.
Chose Amazon CloudFront
CloudFront is well-suited for a particular use case with its native tie-ins to other Amazon/AWS services, like S3. If choosing from a platform-specific CDN, we tend to go with whichever CDN is available for use on that platform (e.g. Google or Azure). In rare cases we might …
Cloudflare
Chose Cloudflare
Amazon CloudFront is a higher level CDN. It can require a bit more expertise and take some extra time to get working, but can provide better performance results. It can replace some of CloudFlare's functionality or be integrated with it. We often use CloudFlare for smaller …
Chose Cloudflare
Compared to Fastly and Amazon CloudFront, CloudFlare blows away the competition. It is incredible how much CloudFlare offers for free compared to these other solutions. With Fastly, expect a minimum bill of $50 per month, if not $X00 for decently trafficked sites. AWS …
Chose Cloudflare
Compared to CloudFront, CloudFlare provides a great deal of value beyond simply being a content delivery network (CDN). We have found ourselves in some cases using Amazon CloudFront in combination with CloudFlare because we might have a bunch of assets stored in Amazon S3 which …
Chose Cloudflare
AWS Cloudfront is so poon in UI, features. Almost you cannot compare them because the scale is too large.
Chose Cloudflare
Cloudflare outperforms in majority of the categories such as Ease of Use, Pricing Transparency, Security & Edge computing capabilities with global network reach. Cloudflare is known for providing a seamless onboarding experience for users of varying technical expertise in …
Chose Cloudflare
  • Simple and consistent UX across the product suite.
  • DNS + CDN layer complete with SSL is amazing
  • Security layer built in
Chose Cloudflare
  • AWS
    • EC2: Cloudflare does not have a comparable product.
    • Cloudfront is up to 2x faster than Cloudflare caching!
Chose Cloudflare
It has been over six years since we started using Cloudflare. After using KeyCDN for just about a year, we think that it's not a bad CDN, but Cloudflare stands out because it offers so many other services simultaneously. There's not been a single domain that we purchased and …
Chose Cloudflare
Cloudflare is notably simpler and cheaper as compared to CloudFront. If we also consider the corresponding edge compute mechanism, CloudFront has more complexity in maintaining it. For instance, in order to maintain our A/B test stack on CloudFront, we need to maintain three …
Chose Cloudflare
Cost-efficient and easy to use. Developer-friendly, unlike Fastly which is very complex to use. Several products combined in the same offering making it a single tool to solve several problems like CDN, Image Management, DDOS Prevention, Smart Network Routing.
Chose Cloudflare
Cloud flare is very easy to setup and use. It does come along with multiple security features which makes it to stand out of the crowd.
The pricing is well suited for our usage.
Chose Cloudflare
Cloudflare proved to be the winning choice over its competitors because it was the only solution that's so complete. The other solutions we analyzed were convincing for the caching/CDN aspect but had gaps in other aspects such as security or DDoS protection. Cloudflare also …
Chose Cloudflare
Cloudflare was 4x cheaper to use as our image CDN over Cloudfront for the same content in our AWS S3 bucket.
Chose Cloudflare
We use CloudFront in combination with Cloudflare on some of our sites where the content is stored on AWS servers. It works well together as long as the records are set up properly. Ultimately we use Cloudflare as an easier solution to integrate with and one that is bulletproof …
Chose Cloudflare
Cloudflare is a full DNS and load balancing system. AWS CloudFront handles load balancing and DDoS prevention, but on its own requires other services to handle DNS and various other features that are baked directly into Cloudflare. If you're hosting on AWS already, using the …
Chose Cloudflare
We used to use Cloud front as our CDN but the pricing was leagues higher than Cloudflare's. Similar reliability and ease of use.
Chose Cloudflare
Cloudflare and CloudFront are both great tools. I would recommend Cloudflare for sites that are not hosted on Amazon, and CloudFront for sites using Amazon Web Services.

The pricing and features are comparable. Overall, Cloudflare's free tier offers more services, which gives …
Chose Cloudflare
CloudFlare shines in a situation where you need a low-cost solution that can be un-integrated with other aspects of your deployment. For websites that have larger DDoS risk, their DDoS solutions are also attractive. Up-market, their enterprise offerings are on par with services …
Top Pros
Top Cons
TrustRadius Insights
Amazon CloudFrontCloudflare
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Amazon CloudFront and Cloudflare are both content delivery networks. Cloudflare is a comprehensive product that includes DDoS protection and web firewall along with a CDN. CloudFront is the CDN portion of Amazon Web Services, and works as an add-on for those who already use AWS. As a single product with many features, Cloudflare is most popular with smaller businesses looking for a single solution for all their website security and performance needs, while Amazon CloudFront is favored by large businesses that need multiple, fully-featured products that work together. 

Features

Though Amazon CloudFront and Cloudflare have similar offerings, there are some significant differences between them. 

CloudFront is an umbrella product that, depending on your pricing tier, includes DDoS attack mitigation, web firewall, mobile optimization, cache analysis and more, in addition to its CDN which is a standard feature at every tier. Each pricing tier includes guaranteed support via chat or email, and the free tier is robust enough that many small businesses never have to move to a paid plan. The DNS manager makes it fast and simple to move websites to different nameservers.

Amazon CloudFront is the CDN portion of Amazon Web Services. Businesses who already use other parts of AWS find that CloudFront integrates seamlessly with their other AWS services. Like Cloudflare, CloudFront has a free tier, but CloudFront pricing tiers are separated by usage, not services offered. Those with relatively low usage on their sites may find this pricing structure to their liking.  

Limitations

Both products have drawbacks that are unique to them.

Cloudflare can cache aggressively, leaving users confused as to why no new content is available.Additionally, support at the free tier is hit or miss, and the user interface is a bit clunky. 

Amazon CloudFront works well for large businesses that already use AWS, but for small businesses without AWS it may not make sense to commit to several different services under the AWS umbrella when one will suffice. Additionally, usage-based pricing may result in a large bill when there is an unexpected traffic spike. CloudFront can be difficult to set up and use for folks who are new to CDN. 

Pricing

As mentioned above, Cloudflare and CloudFront are priced quite differently. Cloudflare’s pricing is service based: above the free tier they have Pro at $20 per month and Business at $200 per month, and the Enterprise tier is custom priced. CloudFront has a free tier, and pricing above that tier is based on usage. They also offer custom bundled pricing for customers who are willing to make certain minimum traffic commitments. 

Best Alternatives
Amazon CloudFrontCloudflare
Small Businesses
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 9.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 9.0 out of 10
BIG-IP
BIG-IP
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Azure CDN
Azure CDN
Score 8.5 out of 10
BIG-IP
BIG-IP
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Amazon CloudFrontCloudflare
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(17 ratings)
9.0
(156 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(8 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(4 ratings)
8.8
(125 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amazon CloudFrontCloudflare
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
Amazon CloudFront is the perfect solution for any type of company. If a company is small or medium size, CloudFront offers 1 TB monthly free bandwidth which is more than for any small and medium size companies. If we compare the speed of CloudFront with other CDN, CloudFront is way ahead of their competitors and with 1 TB free bandwidth. If someone is ready to invest time in CloudFront documentation then he/she definitely go for it.
Read full review
Cloudflare
It is easy to set up, and within 10 minutes it is up and running. You can add many domains in one dashboard. So no need for a separate Cloudflare account. I can access all my domain DNS, and customize/add it further. For example by adding the Google Webmaster DNS key or my email provider.
Read full review
Pros
Amazon AWS
  • if a website’s static data are based in New York City, people in Boston will get the content faster than people in San Francisco or Tokyo. The farther away customers are from a company’s data center, the slower the website or application loads. This problem can be fixed with a content delivery network like Amazon CloudFront
  • When a visitor requests a file from your website, Amazon CloudFront automatically sends the request to a copy of the file at the nearest edge location. This results in faster download times.
  • You may have great hosting but it doesn’t have the capacity or scalability offered by Google, Microsoft or Yahoo. The better CDNs like Amazon CloudFront offer higher availability, lower network latency and lower packet loss.
  • Amazon CloudFront provides 24/7 email and phone support
  • Amazon CloudFront Free Tier allows you to free up to 50 GB of data transfer and 2,000,000 HTTP and HTTPS requests / month for one year.
Read full review
Cloudflare
  • Registrar and DNS services are impeccable, with registrations done at cost and without ADs. DNS services setting standards for speed of resolution.
  • DDOS protection. With their content distribution network to back them they have the bandwidth and tools to be both proactive and reactive to bad actors.
  • WAF - Their Web Application Firewall helps mitigate common site vulnerabilities and has active zero-day protection running for breaking exploits
Read full review
Cons
Amazon AWS
  • Kinda of costlier when compared to rivals providing the same service
  • The setup of Distribution is kinda little complicated, need good exposure before setting up the service
  • Sometimes we can go with S3 Delivery service rather than Cloudfront if the website is providing static content and its way cheaper
Read full review
Cloudflare
  • In some cases, using Cloudflare can actually lead to slower website speeds if the network is congested or if the website's traffic is particularly heavy.
  • Some website owners may find that the level of customization offered by Cloudflare is limited, especially in comparison to other solutions.
  • While Cloudflare is easy to set up and manage, it may be too complex for users who are not familiar with web technologies.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
lower cost
Read full review
Usability
Amazon AWS
Easy way to integrate a CDN within the AWS infrastructure. It allows further customization based on company needs.
Read full review
Cloudflare
Everything is extremely concise and all settings apply immediately and take effect globally. There is no reason to explicitly plan/think in terms of individual regions as one would have to traditional cloud offerings (AWS, OCI, Azure). All Cloudflare products integrate seamless as part of a single pipeline that executes from request to response.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
In 6+ years of relying on Cloudflare, I think we experienced one or two brief outages that were Cloudflare's fault.
Read full review
Performance
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
Their Argo for the global network is the core feature we love.
Read full review
Support Rating
Amazon AWS
CloudFront is a good CDN solution. It can be a bit complicated to implement depending on your needs, but AWS tech support is great. You get to avoid a ton of upfront costs by going with CloudFront. It works best in conjunction with other AWS services in your infrastructure. Once you set it up, you won't need to do much to maintain it. It just works.
Read full review
Cloudflare
We really like to talk to a person on the phone or using chat. But the system is very slow and sending to much email to get the issue solve. Something we don't like to spend time writing on the community forum our issue because we don't want to share detail information of our POC.
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Implementation Rating
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
Very well executed implementation where our team was able to handle the implementation with guidance.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
Amazon has always been creative and leading, and I have been using its services for years. They are very reassuring and have fast and responsive support--you can call them from any time zone to respond quickly. High security on servers, open hands on changes, and increasing and decreasing server resources and features.
Read full review
Cloudflare
Firebase can be a good starter for basic projects but as I scaled up, I found it lacking the maturity Cloudflare has. Naturaly, I opted for Cloudflare for bigger projects. I still use Firebase, but for small scale hobby projects only.
Read full review
Scalability
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
Cloudflare
They are built for scale and have the capacity to handle all the traffic we could ever expect to get.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • RoI for using CloudFront is immense. You can use it for all your certificate management and static asset management of your websites using CloudFront.
  • It is as good or better than any other CDN provider with multi-region support across the world using AWS regions.
Read full review
Cloudflare
  • A lot of requests are cached and so egress costs from downstream providers are mitigated.
  • DDoS protection has also managed to keep our site up and our cloud computing bill down.
  • Setting up a proxy with a worker made putting various Google Cloud Functions running behind a single URL very easy and performant. Plus they offer API Shield on top of this.
Read full review
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