- What Cloudflare's Free plan includes
- Cloudflare Free vs Pro at a glance
- The Workers Free plan and its daily limit
- How to set up a site on Cloudflare's Free plan
- Workers Free plan limits at a glance
- The uptime guarantee isn't on Free
- Who Cloudflare Free suits best
- Is Cloudflare's Free plan enough?
- Frequently asked questions
Yes, Cloudflare is free for most small sites. Its Free plan includes DNS, the CDN, a Universal SSL certificate, unmetered DDoS protection and a web application firewall, and Cloudflare describes it as being for personal or hobby projects that aren't business-critical.
That last phrase matters. The Free plan protects and speeds up a site well, but Cloudflare keeps its higher tiers for sites a business depends on. If you also use Cloudflare Workers, there's a separate daily request cap. Here's what you get and where the limits are.
What Cloudflare's Free plan includes
Cloudflare's plans page ticks these core features for the Free plan:
- Fast DNS.
- Unmetered DDoS protection.
- The Cloudflare CDN.
- A Universal SSL certificate.
- The Free Managed Ruleset and the web application firewall (WAF).
Cloudflare also says you can start building on its developer platform for free with no card needed, and support on the Free plan is through its community forums and Discord.
Cloudflare Free vs Pro at a glance
| Feature | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| DNS, CDN and Universal SSL | Yes | Yes |
| Unmetered DDoS protection | Yes | Yes |
| Web application firewall | Yes | Yes |
| Lossless image optimisation | No | Yes |
| Accelerated Mobile Pages | No | Yes |
| Who Cloudflare says it's for | Personal or hobby projects | Professional websites |
The table comes from Cloudflare's own comparison. Most of the protection is the same on both, and the differences are mainly speed and image features plus who Cloudflare thinks each plan suits.
The Workers Free plan and its daily limit
If you run code on Cloudflare Workers, you're on the Workers Free plan by default. Cloudflare's docs give these limits:
- 100,000 requests a day, resetting at midnight UTC.
- 10 milliseconds of CPU time per invocation.
- Limited use of Workers KV, Pages Functions and Hyperdrive.
When a Worker goes over the daily request limit, Cloudflare returns Error 1027. If you see that error on a busy day, the daily cap is the first thing to check. If a Worker uses too much CPU or memory, Cloudflare returns Error 1102 with the message that the Worker exceeded resource limits.
How to set up a site on Cloudflare's Free plan
- Create a Cloudflare account and add your domain.
- Choose the Free plan when Cloudflare asks which plan you want.
- Let Cloudflare scan your existing DNS records, and check they match what your host shows.
- Change the nameservers at your domain registrar to the two Cloudflare gives you.
- Wait for Cloudflare to confirm the domain is active, then check your site loads over HTTPS.
If DNS is new to you, my plain explainer on what DNS is makes the nameserver step much easier. Cloudflare sits in front of your host rather than replacing it, so you still need good hosting, and my guide to the best WordPress hosting covers that side.
Workers Free plan limits at a glance
Cloudflare's Workers limits page sets out the main caps on the free plan next to the upgraded one:
| Limit | Workers Free | Upgraded Workers plan |
|---|---|---|
| Requests | 100,000 a day | No limit |
| CPU time | 10 ms | 5 minutes |
| Memory | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Subrequests | 50 per request | 10,000 per request |
| Number of Workers | 100 | 500 |
| Static asset files per Worker version | 20,000 | 100,000 |
The uptime guarantee isn't on Free
One line on Cloudflare's comparison is easy to miss. The Free and Pro plans don't include an uptime SLA, while Business and the contract plans list a full uptime guarantee backed by service credits. For most small sites that's fine, but it's another reason Cloudflare describes Free as being for projects that aren't business-critical.
Cloudflare also runs a separate Zero Trust Free plan for teams under 50 users, listed on its plans page as free forever, if you want secure access tools as well as website protection.
Filtering staff traffic is a different layer, covered in web filtering software.
Who Cloudflare Free suits best
- Bloggers and creators who want SSL and a CDN without changing host.
- Small business sites that want DDoS protection and a firewall in front of a shared host.
- Developers testing Workers before a project has traffic.
If your site is the main way customers find you, read Cloudflare's own wording again: Free is for projects that aren't business-critical, and it comes with community support rather than tickets.
For the big-enterprise alternative, see how Akamai compares with Cloudflare.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Is Cloudflare's Free plan enough?
For a blog, a portfolio or a small business brochure site, it usually is. You get DNS, SSL, the CDN and DDoS protection without changing hosts. Where it runs short is image optimisation, mobile page features and support, which Cloudflare keeps for Pro and above.
A few smaller Workers Free limits are worth knowing before you deploy: each Worker can be up to 64 MiB, it gets 64 environment variables, it has 1 second to start up, and individual static asset files can be up to 25 MiB. Cloudflare's limits page lists all of these as the same or similar on the upgraded plan, so they rarely force an upgrade on their own.
My verdict: Cloudflare is free and the Free plan is one of the most useful free tools a small website can add. Take Cloudflare at its word, though: it calls the Free plan right for projects that aren't business-critical, so if your business depends on your site, look at Pro.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cloudflare free for small websites?
Yes. Cloudflare's Free plan includes DNS, the CDN, Universal SSL, unmetered DDoS protection and a web application firewall, and Cloudflare says it's for personal or hobby projects.
Does the free Cloudflare plan include SSL?
Yes. Cloudflare lists a Universal SSL certificate on the Free plan.
How many requests can Cloudflare Workers handle for free?
Cloudflare's docs say the Workers Free plan has a daily limit of 100,000 requests, resetting at midnight UTC.
What does Cloudflare Error 1027 mean?
Cloudflare returns Error 1027 when a Worker on the Free plan goes over the daily request limit.
What does Cloudflare Pro add over Free?
Cloudflare's comparison shows Pro adds lossless image optimisation and Accelerated Mobile Pages, and Cloudflare positions Pro for professional websites.
Does Cloudflare's Free plan have an uptime SLA?
No. Cloudflare's comparison shows no uptime SLA on Free or Pro. Business and contract plans list one.
How many Workers can I create on the free plan?
Cloudflare's limits page lists 100 Workers on the Workers Free plan, compared with 500 on the upgraded Workers plan.
What does Cloudflare Error 1102 mean?
Cloudflare returns Error 1102 when a Worker goes over its CPU time or memory limit, with the message that the Worker exceeded resource limits.
