Cloudflare Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Cloudflare alternatives: Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, Netlify, Vercel and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•3 min read•Web Hosting & Cloud Platforms
Verdict:Cloudflare's free plan is unusually generous: DNS, unmetered DDoS protection, a CDN, universal SSL and a managed WAF ruleset, with Pro at $20 a month billed annually. That is why replacing it is hard, and why most people who search for an alternative really want to replace one piece. If it is the CDN, CloudFront and Fastly both have free allowances of 100 GB a month plus 1 million requests, and Bunny is the cheapest pay-as-you-go at $0.01 per GB in Europe and North America with a $1 monthly minimum. If your site is a modern framework app, Vercel or Netlify bundle hosting with a CDN and make a separate one unnecessary. None of these replaces Cloudflare's DNS and WAF in one account, so a full move means choosing separate providers for DNS, protection and certificates. DDoS protection is the biggest gap: check what the replacement includes before you point traffic at it, because an unprotected origin is the real risk. Another trade-off is that Cloudflare's free tier has community support only and no uptime SLA, so paying elsewhere can buy you something real. Switch only if you have a concrete reason, such as a conflict with your host or a need for programmable caching, and move DNS last, with a low TTL ready for rollback.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon CloudFront | Free (Free flat-rate plan: 1M requests and 100 GB data transfer per month per distribution); paid from $15 per month per distribution (Pro: 10M requests, 50 TB) | Web | Sites already hosted on AWS | Docs only |
| Fastly | Free (free tier: 100 GB bandwidth and 1M requests per month, 5 TLS domains) | Web | Teams that need programmable caching | Docs only |
| Netlify | Free (Free plan: 300 credits per month); paid from $9 per month (Personal, 1,000 credits) | Web | Static sites and Jamstack projects | Docs only |
| Vercel | Free (Hobby: 100 GB Fast Data Transfer, 1M CDN requests, 1M function invocations per month); paid from $20 per month (Pro, plus $20 per developer seat) | Web | Next.js apps wanting hosting plus CDN | Docs only |
| bunny.net | Paid from $1 per month minimum (CDN from $0.01/GB in Europe and North America) | Web | Cheap pay-per-use CDN for small sites | Docs only |
| Gcore | Free (CDN is free to start with no credit card; allowance not stated on the page) | Web | Trying a second CDN with no upfront cost | Docs only |
| Sucuri | Paid from $9.99 per month (Basic Firewall; Pro Firewall $19.98/month) | Web browser | Website security / WAF | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You are on AWS and want a CDN next to your origin (Amazon CloudFront is the pick)
- You need programmable caching rules (Fastly is the pick)
- You host a framework app and want CDN included (Vercel is the pick)
- You run a static site and want builds plus CDN (Netlify is the pick)
- You want a very cheap pay-per-GB CDN (bunny.net is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Cloudflare features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Cloudflare today: Free (Free plan: DNS, unmetered DDoS protection, CDN, universal SSL, WAF managed ruleset); paid from $20 per month, billed annually (Pro; $25 billed monthly) (Cloudflare pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Cloudflare alternatives
Cloudflare's Free plan is meant for personal or hobby projects that are not business-critical: support is community forums and docs only, and there is no uptime SLA or service credits. Pro is $20 per month billed annually ($25 monthly) and adds tickets, while a 100% uptime SLA, chat support and PCI DSS 4.0 compliance arrive only on Business at $200 per month billed annually ($250 monthly). Free also caps rules at 70.
Amazon CloudFront
Compared with Cloudflare: CloudFront's free flat-rate plan includes 1M requests and 100 GB a month, and Pro is $15 per distribution. Cloudflare's free plan also bundles DNS and a WAF managed ruleset. You gain AWS integration; setup is more involved.
Price: Free (Free flat-rate plan: 1M requests and 100 GB data transfer per month per distribution); paid from $15 per month per distribution (Pro: 10M requests, 50 TB) (Amazon CloudFront pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Sites already hosted on AWS.
Fastly
Compared with Cloudflare: Fastly's free tier covers 100 GB of bandwidth and 1M requests a month, with usage-based pricing after that. It gives finer cache control than Cloudflare's free plan, but no all-in-one DNS and security bundle, and bills by region.
Price: Free (free tier: 100 GB bandwidth and 1M requests per month, 5 TLS domains) (Fastly pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Teams that need programmable caching.
Worth knowing: Beyond free: North America and Europe bandwidth is $0.12/GB from 100 GB to 10 TB.
Netlify
Compared with Cloudflare: Netlify's free plan gives 300 credits a month, charged at 20 credits per GB of bandwidth, and Personal is $9. It bundles CDN with hosting and builds, but is not a DNS or DDoS-protection service like Cloudflare.
Price: Free (Free plan: 300 credits per month); paid from $9 per month (Personal, 1,000 credits) (Netlify pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Static sites and Jamstack projects.
Worth knowing: Bandwidth is charged at 20 credits per GB.
Vercel
Compared with Cloudflare: Vercel's Hobby plan includes 100 GB of transfer and 1M CDN requests a month. Pro is $20 plus $20 per developer seat. You gain framework-aware hosting; you lose Cloudflare's DNS, WAF and general-purpose proxying for non-Vercel sites.
Price: Free (Hobby: 100 GB Fast Data Transfer, 1M CDN requests, 1M function invocations per month); paid from $20 per month (Pro, plus $20 per developer seat) (Vercel pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Next.js apps wanting hosting plus CDN.
bunny.net
Compared with Cloudflare: bunny.net charges $0.01 per GB in Europe and North America with a $1 monthly minimum and a 14-day trial. It has no free plan like Cloudflare, but pay-as-you-go can cost very little for a small site. Security features are lighter.
Price: Paid from $1 per month minimum (CDN from $0.01/GB in Europe and North America) (bunny.net pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Cheap pay-per-use CDN for small sites.
Gcore
Compared with Cloudflare: Gcore says its CDN is free to start with no credit card, so check its pricing page for allowances and paid prices. Compared with Cloudflare you get a smaller network and fewer bundled tools. Confirm limits before relying on it.
Price: Free (CDN is free to start with no credit card; allowance not stated on the page) (Gcore pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Trying a second CDN with no upfront cost.
Other popular options (paid)
Sucuri
Compared with Cloudflare: Security-first CDN and WAF. Basic Firewall is $9.99 per month and Pro Firewall $19.98 per month, both with a WAF and global anycast CDN. There is no free plan, unlike Cloudflare's.
Price: Paid from $9.99 per month (Basic Firewall; Pro Firewall $19.98/month) (Sucuri pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Which one to pick
- You are on AWS and want a CDN next to your origin: Amazon CloudFront
- You need programmable caching rules: Fastly
- You host a framework app and want CDN included: Vercel
- You run a static site and want builds plus CDN: Netlify
- You want a very cheap pay-per-GB CDN: bunny.net
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, Netlify, Vercel, bunny.net, Gcore: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Cloudflare. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
Related guides
More in Web Hosting & Cloud Platforms
All Web Hosting & Cloud Platforms alternatives →Sources
Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, Netlify, Vercel, bunny.net, Gcore, Sucuri. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.