Why does Cloudflare Pages have such a generous Free tier? - mattsayar.com
Cloudflare Pages offers unlimited bandwidth while competitors cap at 100GB—not out of charity, but because serving static sites is trivial for their network and it feeds a flywheel where a faster internet drives demand for their paid security products.
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TLDR
• Cloudflare Pages has unlimited bandwidth vs GitHub Pages' soft 100GB limit, Netlify's 100GB cap, and AWS S3's 100GB—but Cloudflare has never officially explained why
• Static sites are so lightweight (~2.2MB pages) that they're barely a blip on Cloudflare's optimized global network with caching
• The real strategy: fast internet → more companies online → more buyers for Cloudflare's security products (ecosystem flywheel)
• Freemium model at work: free tier creates favorable impressions and grassroots word-of-mouth, making you more likely to recommend their paid products later
• Author's diversification strategy: site partially hosted on GitHub as backup in case Cloudflare changes terms
In Detail
The author investigates why Cloudflare Pages offers unlimited bandwidth when competitors like GitHub Pages (soft 100GB), Netlify (100GB), and AWS S3 (100GB) impose caps. Through comparison tables and strategic analysis, they uncover that this isn't charity—it's calculated business strategy.
Three practical reasons emerge: First, static websites are trivial to serve. A typical page weighs ~2.2MB, and with Cloudflare's ubiquitous network, caching, and optimization, hosting sites like the author's (15MB, <150 files) barely registers. Second, there's an ecosystem flywheel effect—a fast, secure internet drives more companies online, which creates more potential buyers for Cloudflare's paid security products. Third, it's classic freemium marketing: zero-risk onboarding creates favorable impressions and word-of-mouth advocacy, while "Upgrade to Pro" buttons sprinkled throughout convert power users.
Interestingly, Cloudflare has never officially explained the unlimited bandwidth in their Pages announcements. The author couldn't find "bandwidth" mentioned in either the beta or GA launch posts. Despite the generous terms, the author practices diversification by partially hosting on GitHub—acknowledging that even sustainable free tiers can change.