Cloudflare vs AWS CloudFront vs Fastly Pricing 2026
CDN pricing varies wildly depending on your traffic model. Cloudflare's free tier is unbeatable for small sites. AWS CloudFront charges per-GB with no setup cost (best for variable traffic). Fastly has the most control but highest per-GB cost. A high-traffic SaaS serving 100 TB/month can pay $8,500 with Cloudflare Pro vs $12,000 with AWS CloudFront vs $14,000+ with Fastly.
Quick Fee Comparison
| CDN | Free Tier | Entry Plan | Per-GB Cost | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | ✅ Yes ($0) | Pro $200/mo | $0.20 (Pro+) | Startups, blogs |
| AWS CloudFront | ❌ No | Pay-as-you-go | $0.085 (first 10TB) | AWS users, variable traffic |
| Fastly | ❌ No | $50/mo minimum | $0.12 (overage) | Video, media, real-time control |
Cloudflare Pricing Breakdown
Cloudflare dominates the free CDN market. Free plan includes global CDN, DDoS protection, and SSL. Paid plans add security features, workers, and email routing. Great entry point for startups.
Cloudflare Tiers
- Free: $0/month — Global CDN, basic DDoS, SSL included
- Pro: $200/month — Advanced security, analytics, email routing
- Business: $600/month — 24/7 support, custom SSL, detailed logs
- Enterprise: Custom pricing — Account manager, SLA guarantees
Cloudflare Hidden Costs
- Workers (serverless): Free tier 100K requests/day, then $0.15 per million requests
- KV (key-value store): $0.50 per million reads + $5 per million writes
- R2 (object storage): $0.015/GB storage + $0.10/million API calls
- Email routing: Free for limited inboxes; premium add-on $5–$20/mo for catch-all/forwarding
- Image optimization: Free processing, but overage images charge $1 per 100 images
AWS CloudFront Pricing Breakdown
CloudFront is pay-as-you-go. No monthly fee, only charged for bandwidth egress. Lowest per-GB cost of the three, but requires AWS account and more technical setup.
CloudFront Fees
- Data transfer out: $0.085/GB for first 10TB/month, $0.080/GB for 10–100TB, $0.060/GB for >100TB
- HTTP/HTTPS requests: $0.0075 per 10K HTTP requests, $0.0100 per 10K HTTPS requests
- Lambda@Edge: $0.60 per 1M Lambda@Edge invocations
- Origin Shield: $0.005/GB (optional, reduces origin load)
- Field-level encryption: $0.02 per 10K field-level encryption requests
CloudFront Hidden Costs
- No free tier: Even a test site costs $0.0075 per 10K requests if you get traffic
- Origin bandwidth: Transferring to CloudFront from your origin costs (usually $0.02–$0.05/GB)
- Lambda@Edge debugging: CloudWatch logs for Lambda@Edge add $0.50/GB storage cost
- Minimum no longer applies: AWS removed CDN minimum in 2020, but small sites might pay $2–5/month
- Regional pricing variation: If you use multiple AWS regions for origin, cross-region replication costs are separate
Fastly Pricing Breakdown
Fastly is the developer-preferred CDN. High performance, granular control, but expensive. Used by video platforms, media companies, and SaaS with strict latency requirements.
Fastly Tiers
- Starter: $50/month minimum — 1TB/month data transfer included, $0.12/GB overage
- Pro: Custom pricing — tiered overages, volume discounts available
- Enterprise: Custom pricing with volume discounts, dedicated support
Fastly Hidden Costs
- Compute (VCL, Wasm): $0.02 per GB for requests processed through compute
- Origin Shield: $0.075/GB (shields origin from CDN traffic spikes)
- Image optimization: $0.03 per million requests
- Logshipping: Various prices ($5–$50/month depending on volume)
- DDoS protection: Not included by default; Fastly DDoS protection is $400+/month
Real Cost Models by Traffic Volume
10 TB/month egress (startup/SaaS API)
100 TB/month egress (high-traffic SaaS)
1 PB/month egress (massive media platform)
Feature Comparison
Cloudflare
- ✅ Best free tier
- ✅ Global coverage (200+ cities)
- ✅ DDoS protection built-in
- ✅ Workers (serverless)
- ✅ Simple setup (DNS change)
- ❌ Per-GB costs for high traffic
AWS CloudFront
- ✅ Lowest per-GB cost
- ✅ AWS ecosystem integration
- ✅ Lambda@Edge (compute)
- ✅ No monthly minimum
- ❌ Requires AWS account setup
- ❌ Complex pricing tiers
Fastly
- ✅ Highest performance
- ✅ Real-time log streaming
- ✅ Granular control (VCL)
- ✅ Video optimization
- ❌ Most expensive
- ❌ Steeper learning curve
When to Choose Each
Choose Cloudflare If:
- You're a startup or small SaaS (<50TB/month)
- You want a free CDN with DDoS protection included
- You need serverless functions (Workers)
- You value simplicity over maximum performance
- You want an all-in-one security + CDN solution
Choose AWS CloudFront If:
- Your origin is already on AWS (S3, EC2, etc.)
- You have variable traffic (pay only for what you use)
- You're serving >50TB/month and want lowest per-GB cost
- You use Lambda@Edge for dynamic content
- You want AWS ecosystem integration (IAM, CloudWatch, etc.)
Choose Fastly If:
- You run a video platform or media company
- Real-time performance and control are critical
- You need advanced VCL scripting for edge logic
- You're willing to pay premium prices for best-in-class support
- You serve >500TB/month and can negotiate volume discounts
Migration Considerations
From Cloudflare to AWS CloudFront: Zero direct cost. Update DNS records and configure CloudFront distribution (4–6 hours of work). Switch when you exceed Cloudflare Pro benefits.
From any CDN to Fastly: One-way decision. Fastly is 3–5× more expensive, but justified only for performance-critical, high-traffic applications.
The Bottom Line
For most startups and mid-market SaaS, Cloudflare is the best choice. Free tier eliminates entry cost, and Pro tier ($200/mo) is reasonable for most traffic levels.
Switch to AWS CloudFront once you exceed 100TB/month and have infrastructure already on AWS.
Reserve Fastly for media platforms and latency-critical applications where performance justifies the premium.
Track CDN Pricing Changes
Cloudflare adjusted pricing in 2023 and 2024. CloudFront occasionally changes per-GB rates. Get alerts when CDN pricing changes with PricePulse.