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Best Free Alternatives to Cloudflare Enterprise
Stop paying $3,000 - $10,000+/mo. Discover professional-grade tools that won't break your budget.
Category: CDN / WAF / Zero TrustVerified for 2025
Top Recommended Replacements
Bunny.net
Best for Content/Media
Why we like it
The 'Dev' favorite CDN; extremely simple pricing ($0.01/GB); actually faster than Cloudflare for static file delivery in many regions; includes a built-in 'Perma-Cache' and video transcoding service.
Keep in mind
Lacks the comprehensive WAF/DDoS mitigation features of Cloudflare (it's primarily a CDN, not a security suite).
Cloudflare Free / Pro
FREEBest Downgrade
Why we like it
You get the same 200Tbps network capacity as Enterprise users; the Pro plan ($20) adds the WAF; the Business plan ($200) adds custom SSL. Unless you need 'Logpush' or 99.99% SLAs, you don't need Enterprise.
Keep in mind
Support is slow (email only); strict rate limits on API calls.
CrowdSec
FREEBest WAF Alternative
Why we like it
A collaborative IPS; if a hacker attacks a CrowdSec user in France, your server blocks that IP instantly; replaces Cloudflare's 'Bot Fight Mode' with a community-driven firewall running on your own server.
Keep in mind
Protects the server, but doesn't hide your IP (you still need a CDN/Proxy in front if you want DDoS masking).
Hetzner Load Balancer
Best for Infra
Why we like it
If you use Cloudflare just for Load Balancing, Hetzner's managed LBs are fraction of the cost; allow simple round-robin traffic distribution.
Keep in mind
No global edge network (traffic goes to the data center directly).
Fastly
Best for Programmability
Why we like it
The choice for developers who want to write code at the edge (VCL/Wasm); arguably more flexible than Cloudflare Workers for complex caching logic.
Keep in mind
Usage-based billing can get expensive if you get DDoS'd (unlike Cloudflare's flat rate).
Gcore
FREEBest for Gaming/Socket
Why we like it
Excellent global performance for low-latency apps (gaming, WebSockets); aggressive free tier; strong presence in regions where Cloudflare is sometimes slower (CIS/LATAM).
Keep in mind
UI is less polished than Cloudflare.
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