From Stackexchange · · 2m
CloudFlare's Free CDN with Unlimited Bandwidth Explained
CloudFlare offers free CDN service with unlimited bandwidth through strategic user growth and premium plans.
In brief
CloudFlare offers free CDN service with unlimited bandwidth through strategic user growth and premium plans. CloudFlare provides free CDN with unlimited bandwidth by leveraging free users for data analysis and marketing, while charging premium users for advanced features. Originally reported by Stackexchange.
CloudFlare Free CDN Service
CloudFlare offers unlimited bandwidth for free while other CDNs charge starting at $.10/gb.
“CloudFlare does not have bandwidth limits. As long as the domains being added comply with our Terms of Service, CloudFlare does not impose any limits.”
Free Tier Benefits
CloudFlare uses free users to analyze traffic, improve algorithms, and attract premium customers.
“They can offer this free plan because they earn enough from their Premium plans to cover the costs.”
Five Reasons for Free Tier
CloudFlare provides free tier for data collection, customer referrals, employee referrals, quality testing, and solving bandwidth chicken and egg problem.
“Five reasons we offer a free version of the service and always will: 1. Data: we see a much broader range of attacks than we would if we only had our paid users.”
Bandwidth Economics
CloudFlare calculates bandwidth on egress traffic, not ingress, which helps manage costs during DDoS attacks.
“CloudFlare is a caching proxy so egress (out) typically exceeds ingress (in), usually by around 4-5x.”
Terms of Service
CloudFlare may suspend accounts if users violate terms or cause excessive burden on their systems.
“If you cost them too much, they can stop providing you a service without notice.”
Freemium Model
CloudFlare uses freemium model to attract users and convert them to premium plans for advanced features.
“Freemium is a pricing strategy by which a product or service is provided free of charge, but money is charged for proprietary features.”
Business Model
CloudFlare achieves 70%+ gross margins and profitability through free tier users and premium plans.
“Today CloudFlare has 70%+ gross margins and is profitable (EBITDA)/break even (Net Income) even with the vast majority of our users paying nothing.”
User Experience
Free users help CloudFlare improve web application firewall and other security features.
“Their web application firewall is so smart because it's been created from data across the web.”
Bandwidth Limits
CloudFlare does not have bandwidth limits but may limit caching for heavy users.
“If you place a large burden on the CloudFlare systems, you are likely to be encouraged to upgrade to a paid plan.”
Free Tier Limitations
Free tier users may face reduced caching or other limitations as their usage increases.
“CloudFlare may suspend or terminate your account without notice if you cost them too much.”
Business Impact
CloudFlare's free tier helps them compete with other CDNs by offering unlimited bandwidth at no cost.
“It does not offer unlimited bandwidth. Unlimited bandwidth does not exist and is an impossibility.”
User Growth
CloudFlare's free tier attracts thousands of users who become premium customers over time.
“Many of our largest customers came because a critical employee of theirs fell in love with the free version of our service.”
Bandwidth Calculation
CloudFlare calculates bandwidth based on egress traffic, not ingress, to manage costs effectively.
“Our bandwidth bill is therefore calculated on egress so we don't pay for ingress.”
Free Tier Sustainability
CloudFlare's free tier is sustainable through premium users and data analysis from free users.
“They do this at scale and they've been doing it for a long time so I wouldn't worry about them going out of business.”
Key Takeaway
CloudFlare offers free CDN with unlimited bandwidth by leveraging free users for data and marketing, while charging premium users for advanced features.
“CloudFlare does not have bandwidth limits. As long as the domains being added comply with our Terms of Service, CloudFlare does not impose any limits.”
The takeaway
CloudFlare provides free CDN with unlimited bandwidth by leveraging free users for data analysis and marketing, while charging premium users for advanced features.
