StackShareStackShare
Follow on
StackShare

Discover and share technology stacks from companies around the world.

Product

  • Stacks
  • Tools
  • Companies
  • Feed

Company

  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Legal

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

© 2025 StackShare. All rights reserved.

API StatusChangelog
  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Utilities
  4. CDN
  5. Security
  6. CloudFlare vs Cloudflare Spectrum

CloudFlare vs Cloudflare Spectrum

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

CloudFlare
CloudFlare
Stacks77.6K
Followers23.1K
Votes1.8K
Cloudflare Spectrum
Cloudflare Spectrum
Stacks9
Followers27
Votes0

CloudFlare vs Cloudflare Spectrum: What are the differences?

Key Differences between CloudFlare and Cloudflare Spectrum

CloudFlare and Cloudflare Spectrum are both products offered by Cloudflare, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Here are the key differences between the two:

1. CloudFlare: CloudFlare is a comprehensive content delivery network (CDN) and distributed DNS service. It provides various features like DDoS protection, CDN caching, and SSL/TLS encryption. CloudFlare acts as a reverse proxy for websites, routing traffic through its global network, which improves website performance and security.

2. Cloudflare Spectrum: Cloudflare Spectrum, on the other hand, is a service specifically designed to protect non-web traffic. It extends Cloudflare's DDoS protection and other security features to other TCP/UDP-based services, such as gaming servers, email servers, and IoT devices. Spectrum enables businesses to secure and protect their non-web services by leveraging Cloudflare's vast network.

3. DDoS Protection: Both CloudFlare and Cloudflare Spectrum provide DDoS protection, but whereas CloudFlare focuses on protecting web applications from layer 7 (application layer) attacks, Spectrum extends that protection to non-web services. Spectrum offers protection against volumetric attacks on gaming servers, for example, while allowing legitimate traffic to pass through.

4. Load Balancing: CloudFlare includes load balancing capabilities, allowing you to distribute traffic across multiple servers to optimize performance and reliability for your web applications. Spectrum, on the other hand, does not provide load balancing functionality. It is primarily focused on protecting non-web TCP/UDP-based services rather than distributing traffic.

5. SSL/TLS Encryption: CloudFlare provides SSL/TLS encryption for web applications, ensuring secure communication between the users and the server. It offers options for both flexible and full SSL/TLS configurations. In comparison, Spectrum does not directly handle SSL/TLS encryption for non-web services. However, if SSL/TLS termination is required for those services, it can be achieved by placing a separate SSL/TLS termination layer in front of Spectrum.

6. Pricing: CloudFlare has a tiered pricing structure based on the features and services required, with free and paid plans available. On the other hand, Spectrum is an add-on offering to Cloudflare's Enterprise plan. This means that in order to utilize Cloudflare Spectrum, you need to subscribe to Cloudflare's Enterprise plan in addition to paying for the Spectrum service itself.

In summary, the key differences between CloudFlare and Cloudflare Spectrum lie in their primary features and focus. CloudFlare is a comprehensive CDN and DNS service with a broad range of features for web applications, while Spectrum is specifically designed to protect and secure non-web TCP/UDP-based services, extending Cloudflare's protection beyond web traffic.

Detailed Comparison

CloudFlare
CloudFlare
Cloudflare Spectrum
Cloudflare Spectrum

Cloudflare speeds up and protects millions of websites, APIs, SaaS services, and other properties connected to the Internet.

Extend the power of Cloudflare's DDoS, TLS, and IP Firewall to not just your web servers, but also your other TCP-based services, keeping them online and secure. Reduce the ability for attackers to snoop and steal sensitive data. Protect your origin and all TCP services you expose to the Internet.

CDN;WAF (Web Application Firewall);DDOS Protection;
DDoS Protection for TCP Services - ensures all your TCP services are protected against Layer 3 and 4 DDoS attacks, remaining online and performant; Secure TCP traffic with TLS - encrypts services running on TCP to prevent unencrypted data, such as user credentials, from falling into the wrong hands; IP Address & Range Blocking - integrates with Cloudflare’s IP Firewall, allowing you to block or challenge IP addresses or entire IP ranges from reaching your TCP services
Statistics
Stacks
77.6K
Stacks
9
Followers
23.1K
Followers
27
Votes
1.8K
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 426
    Easy setup, great cdn
  • 278
    Free ssl
  • 200
    Easy setup
  • 191
    Security
  • 181
    Ssl
Cons
  • 2
    Expensive when you exceed their fair usage limits
  • 2
    No support for SSHFP records
No community feedback yet
Integrations
CodeGuard
CodeGuard
Google Analytics
Google Analytics
GoSquared
GoSquared
Clicky
Clicky
UserVoice
UserVoice
SnapEngage
SnapEngage
Blitz
Blitz
Pingdom
Pingdom
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to CloudFlare, Cloudflare Spectrum?

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront

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.

KeyCDN

KeyCDN

KeyCDN offers super fast and secure content delivery for minimal loading time. In addition to the CDN, it also offers advanced image processing and many other features such as live logs and Let's Encrypt SSL.

Fastly

Fastly

Fastly's real-time content delivery network gives you total control over your content, unprecedented access to performance analytics, and the ability to instantly update content in 150 milliseconds.

MaxCDN

MaxCDN

The MaxCDN Content Delivery Network efficiently delivers your site’s static file through hundreds of servers instead of slogging through a single host. This "smart route" technology distributes your content to your visitors via the city closest to them.

Let's Encrypt

Let's Encrypt

It is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the non-profit Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

Sqreen

Sqreen

Sqreen is a security platform that helps engineering team protect their web applications, API and micro-services in real-time. The solution installs with a simple application library and doesn't require engineering resources to operate. Security anomalies triggered are reported with technical context to help engineers fix the code. Ops team can assess the impact of attacks and monitor suspicious user accounts involved.

jsDelivr

jsDelivr

jsDelivr is a free CDN for open source developers, with advanced features for javascript projects with access to NPM and Github It uses multiple CDN providers, resulting in the best possible uptime and performance.

Instant 2FA

Instant 2FA

Add a powerful, simple and flexible 2FA verification view to your login flow, without making any DB changes and just 3 API calls.

Moovweb XDN

Moovweb XDN

All-in-one platform to develop, deploy, preview, experiment on, monitor, and run your frontend.

Limelight CDN

Limelight CDN

Whether it’s your website, mobile applications, videos, music, software, games, or APIs, your content needs to reach customers quickly, reliably, and securely. It provides the capacity, coverage, and performance to cost-effectively deliver a better experience for you and your customers.

Related Comparisons

Bootstrap
Materialize

Bootstrap vs Materialize

Laravel
Django

Django vs Laravel vs Node.js

Bootstrap
Foundation

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Node.js
Spring Boot

Node.js vs Spring-Boot

Liquibase
Flyway

Flyway vs Liquibase