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Amazon CloudFront vs CloudFlare: What are the differences?
Developers describe Amazon CloudFront as "Content delivery with low latency and high data transfer speeds". Amazon CloudFront can be used to deliver your entire website, including dynamic, static, streaming, and interactive content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for your content are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance. On the other hand, CloudFlare is detailed as "The Web Performance & Security Company". Cloudflare speeds up and protects millions of websites, APIs, SaaS services, and other properties connected to the Internet.
Amazon CloudFront and CloudFlare belong to "Content Delivery Network" category of the tech stack.
Some of the features offered by Amazon CloudFront are:
- Fast- Using a network of edge locations around the world, Amazon CloudFront caches copies of your static content close to viewers, lowering latency when they download your objects and giving you the high, sustained data transfer rates needed to deliver large popular objects to end users at scale.
- Simple- A single API call lets you get started distributing content from your Amazon S3 bucket or Amazon EC2 instance or other origin server through the Amazon CloudFront network.
- Designed for use with other Amazon Web Services Amazon CloudFront is designed for use with other Amazon Web Services, including Amazon S3, where you can durably store the definitive versions of your static files, and Amazon EC2, where you can run your application server for dynamically generated content.
On the other hand, CloudFlare provides the following key features:
- CDN
- WAF (Web Application Firewall)
- DDOS Protection
"Fast", "Cdn" and "Compatible with other aws services" are the key factors why developers consider Amazon CloudFront; whereas "Easy setup, great cdn", "Free ssl" and "Easy setup" are the primary reasons why CloudFlare is favored.
Instacart, Slack, and StackShare are some of the popular companies that use Amazon CloudFront, whereas CloudFlare is used by Stack Exchange, Lyft, and SendGrid. Amazon CloudFront has a broader approval, being mentioned in 3358 company stacks & 599 developers stacks; compared to CloudFlare, which is listed in 2300 company stacks and 712 developer stacks.
I don't think I have registered a domain in the last 10 years that hasn't been linked to CloudFlare within the first 2 hours from registration.
The benefits you get from even the free version of CloudFlare are amazing. From day 0: - 30/80% of bandwidth savings thanks to their CDN - Origin IP address protection - Managed SSL
Pros of Amazon CloudFront
- Fast245
- Cdn166
- Compatible with other aws services157
- Simple125
- Global108
- Cheap41
- Cost-effective36
- Reliable27
- One stop solution19
- Elastic9
- Object store1
- HTTP/2 Support1
Pros of CloudFlare
- Easy setup, great cdn420
- Free ssl272
- Easy setup196
- Security185
- Ssl179
- Great cdn96
- Optimizer76
- Simple70
- Great UI43
- Great js cdn28
- DNS Analytics11
- Apps11
- AutoMinify11
- HTTP/2 Support11
- Easy8
- Rocket Loader8
- Ipv68
- IPv6 "One Click"7
- Nice DNS6
- SSHFP6
- Fantastic CDN service6
- Cheapest SSL6
- Amazing performance6
- API6
- Free GeoIP6
- SPDY5
- DNSSEC5
- Free and reliable, Faster then anyone else5
- Ip5
- Asynchronous resource loading4
- Ubuntu3
- Easy Use3
- Global Load Balancing3
- Performance3
- Maker1
- Mtn1
- Support for SSHFP records1
- CDN1
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Cons of Amazon CloudFront
- UI could use some work3
- Invalidations take so long1
Cons of CloudFlare
- Expensive when you exceed their fair usage limits1
- No support for SSHFP records1