AWS is a comprehensive Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider offering 200+ services for compute, storage, and databases, while Cloudflare is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and edge computing platform specializing in performance, security, and DDoS protection. AWS dominates enterprise cloud infrastructure; Cloudflare excels at website acceleration and security for businesses of all sizes.
AWS vs Cloudflare — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Comprehensive cloud infrastructure platform with 200+ services for enterprise and scalable applications
Global CDN and edge computing platform focused on performance, security, DDoS protection, and API acceleration.
Primary Use Case. Service Breadth. Global Data Centers. Starting Price (Monthly). DDoS Protection Included. Global Request Latency (Average). Market Share (Cloud Infrastructure)
Choose AWS if you need a complete, scalable cloud infrastructure platform for applications, databases, machine learning, and enterprise workloads with deep compliance certifications. Choose Cloudflare if you need fast, secure content delivery, DDoS mitigation, and edge computing for website acceleration and API security without managing complex infrastructure—or use both together, with Cloudflare as your edge layer in front of AWS.
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.023 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.004 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Multiple models via Bedrock | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS Outposts (limited) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Fargate (feature-rich) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32% | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 5/10 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8/10 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Moderate (Outposts) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 4/10 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Largest | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Strong (ECS/EKS) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Via Athena/Redshift | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS only | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Pay-per-use only | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33 regions | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 105+ zones | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 190+ native services | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 30-45 (via Console/CLI) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS CloudFormation requires manual GitHub setup | Cloudflare: N/A
Monthly Cost (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, Standard Instance)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $9.50 (t3.micro on-demand) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0116 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32% of global cloud infrastructure (2024) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0416 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.02 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8-12 hours (SageMaker) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 15-30 seconds (Athena, 1TB scan) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $15,000 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 18-25 steps (EKS setup) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 12 months + always-free services | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 1 hour (Business Support) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): SageMaker, Bedrock, Forecast, Lookout, Kendra | Cloudflare: N/A
Monthly Cost for 10TB Egress Data Transfer
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $116 (after 1GB free) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 120 minutes | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 125ms (Lambda standard) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 45-60 (configure VPC, IAM, EC2, security groups) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, Neptune, DocumentDB, Keyspaces, Timestream) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 99.99% (us-east-1 region) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 50,000+ (t3.large EC2) | Cloudflare: N/A
Estimated Learning Time for New Developer
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 80-100 hours | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A (not a single GitHub repo) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 3 languages (YAML, JSON, TypeScript/Python/Java via CDK) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ AWS-specific services (largest portfolio in cloud) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Free (1 year, then pay-as-you-go infrastructure costs) | Cloudflare: $0/month
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33+ geographic regions with 105+ availability zones | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 1M+ AWS Certified professionals | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0 (free tier + pay-per-use) | Cloudflare: N/A
Cost for Standard Production App (2 dynos + add-ons)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $100-150 (EC2 Reserved + RDS) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 24,576 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 100-3000 | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): No, requires CodePipeline ($0.02/active pipeline) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32 regions | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 108 availability zones in 33 regions | Cloudflare: 300+
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ services | Cloudflare: 25+ core services
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0 (free tier), pay-as-you-go | Cloudflare: $20 (Pro plan)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): No (Shield Advanced: $3,000/month) | Cloudflare: Yes, all plans
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 120+ minutes (full configuration) | Cloudflare: 5 minutes (DNS change)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 15+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, etc.) | Cloudflare: 1 (Cloudflare D1 beta)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~80ms (median global) | Cloudflare: ~30ms (median global)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~700 Gbps (AWS Shield Advanced) | Cloudflare: 150 Tbps (Pro plan)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~75% | Cloudflare: N/A
Compute Instance Starting Price (hourly)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0116/hour (t3.micro) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): up to 72% | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): RDS for SQL Server (third-party) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): SageMaker (launched 2017) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ services | Cloudflare: 15-20 core services
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 105+ zones across 33 regions | Cloudflare: 275+ edge locations
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 50-150ms | Cloudflare: 30-60ms
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Layer 3/4 only (Advanced costs $3,000+/mo) | Cloudflare: Full DDoS protection included
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Pay-as-you-go from $0 | Cloudflare: Fixed plans from $20/month
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 99.99% | Cloudflare: 99.95%
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 30-60+ minutes (account setup, IAM, networking) | Cloudflare: 5 minutes via DNS change
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32% of public cloud (2024) | Cloudflare: 21% of top 10K websites (not IaaS competitor)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 120-240 minutes | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ services | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 0.75GB RDS micro (750 hours/month) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): $3,000-8,000 (optimized EC2 + RDS) | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Extensive—full SQL, custom queries, advanced analytics | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8-12 weeks | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32% of developers use AWS | Cloudflare: N/A
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $10.20
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $130+
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Developer-focused
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Cloudflare DNS primary
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: DDoS, threat intelligence, WARP, Magic
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Community & documentation
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $10.20 (at-cost)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Excellent for enterprise
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 4.5 stars
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 476 reviews
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 30%
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Industry standard
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Highly accessible with strong freemium
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 74% planning to expand
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Comprehensive and standardized
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Superior and broader distribution
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 265,000+
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 31% (Q3 2025: $562M)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Growing (not disclosed)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Workers Bindings, multimodal models, AI agents
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 230+ billion threats blocked
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Free tier + affordable paid plans
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Not specified
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 200+
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 230
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 0
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 74%
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Per-domain flat-rate plans
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Limited; requires manual configuration
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 100+ countries
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 230 billion threats (2026)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Yes, included in plans
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Cloudflare Workers (lightweight functions)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Limited, requires manual configuration
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Simple DNS-based setup
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Predictable, no hidden charges
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 275+ edge cities
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Unlimited on all plans
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Free tier available
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 310+ globally
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 73%
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Included on all plans
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 24/7 community + paid support
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: No (requires external provider)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Not applicable
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 30-60 minutes
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 3.8M requests/month
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 121 Tbps network capacity
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: No native VMs; Workers $5-200/month
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $20/month Pro plan
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 23ms (fastest DNS globally)
Supported Programming Languages (Workers/Serverless)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, C, C++ (WebAssembly)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 15 minutes (Enterprise)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $9.00
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $12.00
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 300+ across 100+ countries
DNS Query Response Time (Global Average)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: ~65-85ms
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 3.2 Tbps
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Yes - full CDN, DNS, DDoS protection
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Cloudflare Workers - included
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 275+
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Yes - full-featured
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 37% average
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Advanced (free tier + enterprise)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Free Universal SSL all plans
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Unlimited (CDN-based)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 71+ Tbps
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Partial (requires Access addon)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 50+
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 10-15 minutes
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $20
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Unlimited
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Not optimized
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Yes, included
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 5-10 (DNS propagation)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 120
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Cloudflare Workers (full serverless)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 5-15 minutes
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Yes ($20/month plan)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Native REST + GraphQL APIs
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $20 (Pro plan)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 1 (D1 SQLite)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Workers AI (beta), limited models
Serverless Function Cost (1M executions/month)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $1.50 (Workers)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Not offered (Kubernetes at edge via Workers)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 300+
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Yes (with core features)
Global Website Speed Improvement (Average)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: 30-35%
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: L3/L4 included
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: N/A (not a registrar)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: $0 (included)
Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A | Cloudflare: Yes (Pro plan+)
How to choose between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Cloudflare
Compare Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs Cloudflare
AWS vs Cloudflare — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for AWS vs Cloudflare. Contains 193 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
AWS vs Cloudflare — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for AWS vs Cloudflare.
No, they serve different purposes. AWS is a full cloud infrastructure provider for hosting servers, databases, and applications. Cloudflare is a CDN and edge security layer. Most organizations use both: AWS for backend infrastructure and Cloudflare (or similar CDN) for front-end performance and DDoS protection. Cloudflare cannot host your databases or run your application servers.
Which is cheaper for a small business website?
Cloudflare is usually cheaper for content delivery and security. A basic Cloudflare plan costs $20-30/month with included DDoS protection. AWS for a small app costs $20-100+/month depending on usage (EC2, RDS, bandwidth). For just a static website with CDN and security, Cloudflare wins. For applications requiring databases and compute, AWS is necessary.
Does AWS have a CDN and DDoS protection?
Yes, AWS offers CloudFront (CDN) and Shield (DDoS protection). However, CloudFront pricing is complex (varies by data transfer, requests, and region), and Shield Standard is basic—Shield Advanced costs $3,000+/month. Cloudflare's CDN and DDoS are simpler and cheaper for smaller sites, but CloudFront integrates better with other AWS services for large-scale deployments.
Cloudflare is better for simple API acceleration with Workers (serverless edge functions) and built-in caching—setup takes minutes. AWS is better for complex APIs requiring database connections, authentication, or custom logic, using Lambda + API Gateway. For public APIs needing global speed, Cloudflare wins. For private APIs with backend logic, AWS wins.
Can I use both AWS and Cloudflare together?
Yes, this is a common setup. Point your domain to Cloudflare (via DNS), configure Cloudflare to route traffic to AWS origin servers. Cloudflare acts as the edge security/performance layer, AWS handles backend infrastructure. This gives you AWS's compute power + Cloudflare's CDN speed and DDoS protection. Many enterprises use this architecture.
How to Choose Between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Cloudflare
Primary Use Case: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Full cloud infrastructure (compute, storage, databases, ML), while Cloudflare has CDN, security, DDoS protection, edge computing.
Service Breadth: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 200+ services across 30+ categories, while Cloudflare has 15-20 core services focused on performance & security.
Global Data Centers: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 33 regions, 105+ availability zones, while Cloudflare has 275+ cities, 200+ countries (edge network focus).
Starting Price (Monthly): Amazon Web Services (AWS) has $0-100+ (pay-as-you-go, highly variable), while Cloudflare has $20-200+ (fixed tiers + usage).
DDoS Protection Included: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Basic layer 3/4; Advanced requires $3,000+/month, while Cloudflare has Standard DDoS protection included in all plans.
Consider: Global Request Latency (Average)
Global Request Latency (Average): Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 50-150ms depending on region, while Cloudflare has 30-60ms via edge network optimization.
Consider: Market Share (Cloud Infrastructure)
Market Share (Cloud Infrastructure): Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 32% of public cloud market (2024), while Cloudflare has Powers 21% of top 10K websites; not direct IaaS competitor.