Updated September 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team
Cloudflare and AWS overlap more every year: both offer a CDN, a web application firewall, DNS, serverless compute, object storage and databases. This guide compares Cloudflare with the matching AWS services (CloudFront, AWS WAF and Shield, Route 53, Lambda, S3, RDS and DynamoDB), explains where each is stronger, how pricing differs, and why most businesses end up using Cloudflare in front of AWS rather than choosing one.
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The short answerUse Cloudflare for what sits in front of an application: DNS, CDN, DDoS protection, WAF, bot management, and small full-stack apps on Workers, Pages, R2 and D1. Use AWS for what sits behind it: virtual machines, containers, managed relational databases, queues, machine learning and the long tail of enterprise services. Cloudflare is simpler and usually cheaper for edge and bandwidth; AWS is broader and deeper for compute and data. Most production sites we build run both: Cloudflare at the edge, AWS (or Vercel) for the origin.
Comparisons are based on each project’s official documentation as linked in the text. Progression Agency builds with all of the technologies compared and has no affiliate relationship with any of them.
Cloudflare vs AWS: what each is
Cloudflare began as a reverse proxy and CDN that protects and accelerates websites, and has grown into a developer platform (Workers, Pages, R2, D1, KV, Durable Objects) that runs code and stores data on its global network. AWS is the largest cloud provider, with more than two hundred services covering compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics and AI. They compete at the edge and in serverless; they do not compete for the core of a large application’s infrastructure. Documentation: developers.cloudflare.com and docs.aws.amazon.com.
| Need | Cloudflare | AWS | Usual pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDN | Cloudflare CDN (global network) | Amazon CloudFront | Cloudflare for simplicity; CloudFront when deep in AWS |
| DDoS protection | Included on all plans | AWS Shield Standard (free), Shield Advanced (paid) | Cloudflare |
| Web application firewall | Cloudflare WAF (managed rules, free tier rules) | AWS WAF (pay per rule and request) | Cloudflare for most sites; AWS WAF for AWS-native apps |
| DNS | Cloudflare DNS (free, fast) | Route 53 | Cloudflare |
| Bot management | Bot Fight Mode, Bot Management | AWS WAF Bot Control | Cloudflare |
| Static hosting | Pages | S3 + CloudFront, Amplify | Cloudflare Pages |
| Serverless compute | Workers (V8 isolates, edge) | Lambda (regional), Lambda@Edge | Workers for edge logic; Lambda for backend |
| Object storage | R2 (no egress fees) | S3 (egress billed) | R2 for public assets; S3 for AWS-integrated data |
| SQL database | D1 (SQLite at the edge) | RDS, Aurora (PostgreSQL, MySQL) | AWS for production relational data |
| Key-value / NoSQL | KV, Durable Objects | DynamoDB | Depends on access pattern |
| Virtual machines and containers | None (Workers only) | EC2, ECS, EKS, Fargate | AWS |
| Email sending | Email Routing (inbound) | Amazon SES | AWS |
| Machine learning | Workers AI (inference) | SageMaker, Bedrock | AWS for training; either for inference |
Cloudflare vs AWS CloudFront
Both are global CDNs. Cloudflare bundles the CDN with DNS, DDoS protection and a WAF in one proxy that takes minutes to enable and includes unmetered bandwidth on its plans; CloudFront bills per gigabyte and per request and integrates natively with S3, Lambda@Edge and AWS WAF. For a marketing site or a store, Cloudflare is the quicker win. For an application whose assets and functions already live in AWS, CloudFront keeps everything in one account and one bill.
Cloudflare WAF vs AWS WAF
Cloudflare’s WAF ships managed rulesets (including OWASP core rules), rate limiting and bot detection with little tuning, and the free plan includes a small set of rules. AWS WAF is pay-per-web-ACL, per-rule and per-million-requests, with managed rule groups from AWS and marketplace vendors; it protects CloudFront, load balancers and API Gateway directly. Teams without a security engineer usually get better protection faster from Cloudflare; AWS-native teams prefer WAF for its integration with their other controls. See website security services.
Cloudflare R2 vs Amazon S3
R2 is S3-compatible object storage with no egress fees, which is the point: serving images, video and downloads from S3 costs per gigabyte leaving AWS, and R2 removes that line. S3 remains the default for data that other AWS services process (analytics, machine learning, backups) and offers more storage classes and lifecycle tooling.
Cloudflare Workers vs AWS Lambda
Workers run at every Cloudflare location with very fast cold starts and a limited runtime (V8 isolates, not full Node.js), ideal for middleware, personalization, redirects, API gateways and small apps. Lambda runs full runtimes in a region with access to the whole AWS ecosystem, better for heavy backend work, long tasks and anything that talks to RDS or S3 constantly. Many stacks use both.
Pricing differences
Cloudflare prices are mostly flat per plan (Free, Pro, Business, Enterprise) plus usage on Workers, R2 and add-ons, with no bandwidth charges; AWS is usage-based on almost every dimension, including data transfer out. Cloudflare bills are easier to predict; AWS bills need budgets and alerts. Check cloudflare.com/plans and aws.amazon.com/pricing.
Using Cloudflare and AWS together
The most common production layout for a business web app: Cloudflare handles DNS, TLS, CDN caching, DDoS and WAF; the origin runs on AWS (EC2, ECS, Lambda) or on Vercel; the database lives in RDS or a managed Postgres service; public media sits in R2 or S3 behind Cloudflare. This gets Cloudflare’s edge protection and AWS’s depth without paying twice. See hosting types compared and backend hosting options.
Which should you choose?
| Situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Marketing site or store needing speed and protection | Cloudflare in front of any host |
| Static site or small full-stack app | Cloudflare Pages + Workers |
| Web application with relational data and background jobs | AWS origin, Cloudflare edge |
| Enterprise already standardized on AWS | AWS, with CloudFront and WAF; Cloudflare optional |
| Media-heavy site with large downloads | Cloudflare R2 + CDN |
| Machine learning training, big data | AWS |
How Progression Agency uses them
Every site we launch goes behind Cloudflare unless a client’s policy forbids it; applications run on Vercel or AWS depending on scale and compliance; heavy assets go to R2. Accounts belong to the client and the setup is documented. See cloud migration services and DevOps services.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudflare better than AWS?
Can Cloudflare replace AWS?
Is Cloudflare cheaper than AWS?
Can I use Cloudflare with AWS?
What is the difference between Cloudflare and CloudFront?
Cloudflare WAF vs AWS WAF: which is better?
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