Cloudflare Alternatives & Competitors

Overview of Cloudflare Alternatives

Cloudflare is a content delivery network (CDN) and cloud security company that offers services for website performance, security, and optimization. It serves as an intermediary for a website's server and users, enhancing website stability and speed while also shielding it from internet threats. With a worldwide network of more than 200 data centres spread over more than 100 nations, Cloudflare can store static information and serve it to users from the closest location.

This can speed up a website significantly, especially for those who are based miles away from the website's server. Despite all the benefits of Cloudflare, there are still a few reasons to look for alternatives. For example, it is more expensive than other Cloudflare alternatives, slow performance during peak hours, privacy-related issues, and more.

Why are People Looking for an Alternative for Cloudflare?

Even though Cloudflare is a preferred option for companies of all kinds, there are a few reasons why some people would consider another platform. Some of the most typical explanations are listed below:

• Cost: Some companies, particularly those with high traffic on their website, find Cloudflare's pricing to be a bit costly.
• Features: There are many features offered by Cloudflare, however, not all of them are accessible with a free subscription. A premium package is required for businesses that want robust security or superior performance standards.
• Performance: Although Cloudflare is known for its performance, several companies have complained about its poor performance, particularly during high traffic.
• Privacy: Privacy policies of Cloudflare have drawn criticism because some users find them to be overly intrusive.

Must-Have Features in Any Cloudflare Competitors

If you are looking for competitors for Cloudflare, then you must look for some important features that are necessary, like:

• IP Reputation Filtering: Cloudflare alternatives should filter and restrict the transmission of IP addresses when it includes any malicious threat.
• Web Application Firewall (WAF): Cloudflare alternatives should be able to stop typical attack techniques like cross-site scripting and SQL injection.
• Bot Protection: Bots used for malicious activities like spamming or scraping must be recognized and blocked by Cloudflare competitors.
• SSL/TLS Encryption: All traffic on the website must be encrypted by the alternatives for Cloudflare to ensure protection of sensitive data.
• DDoS Mitigation: Companies similar to Cloudflare should shield their websites from massive DDoS attacks to prevent their malicious intentions.
• Load Balancing: Applications like Cloudflare should offer load balancing to enhance the website's performance (during heavy load) by distributing traffic among several servers.

What to Consider When Looking for Cloudflare Alternatives?

While considering any Cloudflare equivalent CDN software, one must look for:

• Global network: With this, users will be able to access your content from the closest data centre with a CDN having a global network. This will considerably boost the speed of your website.
• Security: To shield your website from threats like DDoS assaults, malware, and botnets, any alternative of Cloudflare should provide a few security features.
• DDoS protection: Competitors to Cloudflare must offer DDoS protection to prevent large-scale online attacks that might impact your website.
• Web application firewall (WAF): Competitors of Cloudflare must offer a WAF to assist in defending your website against threats like cross-site scripting and SQL injection.
• SSL/TLS encryption: Cloudflare similar companies must offer SSL/TLS encryption to encrypt the traffic between users' browsers and your website to safeguard the privacy of your visitors.
• Easy to use: A Cloudflare equivalent CDN should be simple to set up and operate.
• Customization: Cloudflare similar services should provide more customization options. This is crucial if you need to link your CDN with your own infrastructure or if you have any specific needs.
• Performance monitoring: You can track your website's performance with the best Cloudflare alternative that offers performance monitoring and changes your CDN configuration as necessary.
• Reporting: CDN software should provide you with reporting capability to monitor website traffic and assess the effectiveness of your CDN.

What Types of Businesses Are Looking for an Alternative of Cloudflare?

Large corporations as well as businesses of all sizes frequently use Cloudflare. It is an economical way to increase a website's performance and security, and it is simple to set up and operate. These are a few types of businesses that are looking for an alternative to Cloudflare:

• Businesses with high-traffic websites: Monthly requests for Bundled Worker Limits allowed under Cloudflare's free plan are 100,000. Businesses with busy websites need to upgrade to a premium plan, which gets costly. For high-traffic websites, other CDN providers like Akamai and Fastly have more reasonable premium plans and generous free plans.
• Businesses with specific security requirements: Although Cloudflare offers a number of security features, not all of them are included in the free plan. Businesses with particular security needs against malware or DDoS attacks, need to select a CDN provider that has more comprehensive security capabilities.
• Businesses that are concerned about privacy: Privacy policies of Cloudflare have drawn criticism because some users find them to be overly intrusive. Businesses that are concerned about privacy are switching to a CDN supplier that has a more open privacy policy.
• Businesses that are looking for a more customized solution: Most organizations are switching to a different CDN provider for a more specialized and customizable solution.

Techjockey’s Verdict

Cloudflare as a CDN and cloud security company helps with website performance, security, as well as website optimization. However, it often lacks in certain places. For instance, it is expensive, has privacy-related issues, performance gets slow, and more. If you are also facing these issues, you can opt for these alternatives like Akamai, Fastly, Alviy, StackPath CDN, CloudFront CDN, and more.