Cloudflare vs Amazon CloudFront
Both publish flat monthly plans with a free entry level, but they wrap different things around the CDN. Cloudflare bundles DNS and unmetered DDoS protection, and asks you to hand over your nameservers on Free and Pro. CloudFront sells flat plans per distribution with no overage charges, or metered pay-as-you-go, and waives transfer from AWS origins. The practical question is whether your origin already lives on AWS.
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Choose Cloudflare ifyou want DNS, CDN and DDoS protection in one dashboard and you do not run your origin on AWS.
Choose Amazon CloudFront ifyour servers or storage already run on AWS and you want transfer from those origins waived, or you prefer a metered model with a free first terabyte.
Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront side by side
| Cloudflare | Amazon CloudFront | |
|---|---|---|
| Our CDN providers rank | #8 of 12 | #10 of 12 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| List price, 2 November 2026 | Contract custom; Business $250 monthly or $200 a month on annual billing; Pro $25 monthly or $20 a month on annual billing; Free $0 | Flat plans: Free $0, Pro $15, Business $200, Premium $1,000 (no overage charges, per distribution); pay as you go with the first 1 TB and 10M requests free each month |
| Free tier | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | Sites wanting DNS, CDN and DDoS protection from one dashboard | Teams whose servers and storage already run on AWS |
| Not for | Video or download distributors on the standard plans | Buyers who want one product without an AWS account |
Both are reviewed in full in our CDN providers ranking: Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront.
Where they differ
Cloudflare 1 · Amazon CloudFront 3 · open 1- 01
Entry price and the step up
Cloudflare lists Free at $0, Pro at $20 per month billed annually and Business at $200 annually. CloudFront lists Free at $0, Pro at $15, Business at $200 and Premium at $1,000, all with no overage charges. At the mid tier CloudFront is $5 cheaper than Cloudflare's annual Pro rate, and Business is the same $200 on both.
Edge: Amazon CloudFront
- 02
What the free plan allows
CloudFront's Free plan is stated as 1M requests and 100 GB. On Cloudflare's plans page, every plan including Free carries Universal SSL, DNS, CDN and unmetered DDoS protection, and no request or data cap is shown there. Heavy media is not a free-plan use case on either side, since Cloudflare's terms restrict video, plus large files beyond a modest share of traffic, unless you buy paid services.
Edge: Cloudflare
- 03
Setup and DNS
On Cloudflare, Free and Pro use a primary setup that makes Cloudflare your authoritative DNS provider, and CNAME setup is limited to Business and Enterprise. CloudFront's flat plans bundle Route 53 DNS, a TLS certificate, WAF and DDoS protection, but the pricing page does not say you must move your DNS. For a team that cannot change nameservers, CloudFront's route is less constrained.
Edge: Amazon CloudFront
- 04
Uptime guarantee
A 100% uptime SLA appears on Cloudflare's list from Business upward. CloudFront starts its uptime SLA, custom caching rules and private VPC origins at Business as well. On the paid tiers where it counts, the two put the guarantee at the same plan.
Depends on the buyer
- 05
Metered billing
CloudFront's pay-as-you-go page gives the first 1 TB out and 10,000,000 requests free each month, then $0.085 per GB for the next 9 TB, and HTTPS at $0.0100 per 10,000 requests in the US or $0.0120 in Europe. Cloudflare lists Cache Reserve as usage-based and publishes no other metered rate on its plans page. If you want to price a metered workload, only CloudFront gives rates to work from.
Edge: Amazon CloudFront
When neither fits
Bunny CDN charges per gigabyte and has no request fees. Fastly is the one built for controlling caching in code.
Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront: questions
3 answersIs CloudFront cheaper than Cloudflare Pro?
On list prices we read, CloudFront Pro is $15 and Cloudflare Pro is $20 per month billed annually ($25 monthly). The plans include different things, so check the bundle you need.
Do I have to move my DNS to use Cloudflare?
On Free and Pro, yes: the primary setup makes Cloudflare your authoritative DNS provider. A CNAME setup is limited to Business and Enterprise.
Is data from an AWS origin to CloudFront charged?
AWS states it is waived under the flat-rate plans, and free for origin fetches from any AWS origin on pay-as-you-go.
Sources
Checked 2 November 2026- Cloudflare pricing and plans: tier prices, bundled features, SLA tier, usage-based Cache Reserve.
- Cloudflare DNS full setup guide: Free and Pro use primary setup; Cloudflare holds authoritative DNS.
- Cloudflare DNS partial setup guide: CNAME option restricted to Business and Enterprise.
- Cloudflare application services terms: video and large-file restrictions without paid services.
- Amazon CloudFront pricing page: flat-rate plans and allowances, bundled services, SLA from Business, transfer from AWS origins waived.
- Amazon CloudFront pay-as-you-go pricing: first 1 TB and 10M requests free, $0.085/GB next 9 TB, HTTPS request rates.