Cloudflare application services plans are the subscriptions under which Cloudflare sells its website and application security and performance features: DNS, unmetered DDoS protection, the content delivery network (CDN), Universal SSL certificates, the web application firewall (WAF) and related rules and routing features.[1] The plans are Free, Pro, Business and an Enterprise plan sold as a contract. They are not licensed per user or per server. “Cloudflare plans are billed per domain on your account”, and each domain on a paid plan appears as a separate charge.[2] Catalog proof: Domain plans are billed per domain.
Editions
The public pricing page lists four plans for the Network & CDN product group.[1]
| Plan | Positioning on the pricing page | List price (USD, per domain) | Uptime SLA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | “For personal or hobby projects that aren’t business-critical.” | $0 per month | None |
| Pro | “For professional websites that aren’t business-critical.” | $20 per month billed annually, or $25 per month billed monthly | None |
| Business | “For small businesses operating online.” | $200 per month billed annually, or $250 per month billed monthly | 100%, 1x Service Credits |
| Contract (Enterprise) | “For mission-critical applications that are core to your business.” | Custom, billed annually | 100%, 10x (Standard) or 25x (Premium) Service Credits |
All four plans include DNS, unmetered DDoS protection, the CDN, a Universal SSL certificate, the Free Managed Ruleset and the WAF. Pro adds features such as lossless image optimization. Business adds PCI DSS 4.0 compliance features and the uptime SLA, and the Contract plan adds network prioritization.[1] The Units of Measurement define a “Pro domain” and a “Business domain” as domains entitled to that plan’s level of protection, products and support, “exclusive of any add-on or usage-based features for which you may be charged separately”.[4]
Enterprise orders use finer domain types. An “Enterprise primary domain” is any zone receiving Enterprise Services. An “Enterprise secondary domain” receives Enterprise Services but uses 50 GB or less of data transfer per month and/or uses Cloudflare for DNS resolution. An “Enterprise DNS-only domain” uses Cloudflare only for DNS and has 0 GB of data transfer per month.[4] Which type a zone is placed in affects the price, so the Order Form quantity for each type is worth checking against actual traffic.
Metrics
The billing unit is the Domain. Cloudflare defines it as a publicly registrable domain, such as example.com, together with its child subdomains, “that is configured individually in the Cloudflare dashboard and assigned its own unique zone ID”.[4] The technical object behind it is the Zone, an instance in the dashboard with a unique zone ID.[4]
SaaS providers that put their customers’ hostnames behind Cloudflare use custom hostnames instead. Every hostname sent to the custom hostname endpoint is a separate unit at any domain level, so foo.com, foo.co.uk, www.foo.com and x.foo.com count as four.[4]
Counting / floors
Counting is per domain, not per subdomain. “Subdomains do not count as billable domains.” Cloudflare’s own example: if test1.com and test2.com are both upgraded to Pro, the invoice has two charges, while subdomains such as blog.test1.com are not billable domains.[2] There is one exception. “If you require a subdomain to be managed separately from its parent domain, such subdomain must have its own zone ID and will be counted as a separate domain.”[4] Catalog proof: Subdomains are not billable domains; A separately managed subdomain counts as a separate domain.
On the invoice, plan charges are flat rate and billed in advance for the coming month or year. Cloudflare’s example shows 20 domains on Pro at $25 a month as one line item of 20 x $25 = $500, with the covered domain names listed in the description.[3] Domains on the Free plan still produce a $0 invoice.[2]
For custom hostnames, Cloudflare “will invoice you for any custom hostname that has been active during the billing month, regardless of the duration of the activity during such month”.[4] A hostname that is added and removed within a month is therefore still billed for that month. Catalog proof: Custom hostnames are billed if active at any time in the month.
There is no minimum number of domains. Per-plan limits apply instead: a domain that is downgraded may lose Page Rules, and Cloudflare warns that a customer who keeps more page rules than the lower plan allows “may be charged for additional rules”.[5]
Billing periods, upgrades and downgrades
Monthly plans are billed every 30 days and annual plans yearly; add-on services are billed monthly only.[2] The first paid purchase on an account sets the billing date for all monthly subscriptions, annual subscriptions follow their own cycle, and all billing dates use UTC.[3]
Upgrades “take effect immediately”: the customer pays a prorated amount for the rest of the period and is credited for the unused part of the lower plan. Downgrades and cancellations take effect at the end of the billing period, and Cloudflare does not refund the remaining time.[3] Switching from yearly to monthly billing is treated like a downgrade and does not take effect until the period ends.[6] Only Super Administrators can change a domain’s plan, and an upgrade is blocked while an invoice is unpaid.[5] The Enterprise App Sec Advanced and Enterprise App Sec Core plans cannot be downgraded without contacting Cloudflare.[5] Catalog proof: Upgrades are prorated immediately; downgrades apply at period end; Only Super Administrators can change domain plans.
Removing a domain from Cloudflare’s DNS does not end the subscription. “Changing the DNS on your domain does not cancel your account or active subscriptions”; subscriptions have to be cancelled in the dashboard.[6] Domains that were migrated away but never cancelled are a common source of continued charges. Catalog proof: Changing DNS does not cancel a subscription.
If an automatic payment fails, the account has a 5-day grace period with up to 5 retries. If payment is not made, the account is downgraded to the Free plan; the websites stay active but paid features are lost, and each product must be subscribed to again after the balance is paid.[3] Catalog proof: Unpaid self-serve accounts are downgraded to Free after a 5-day grace period.
Add-ons
Add-ons are billed separately from the plan. Flat-rate add-ons such as Load Balancing, Argo Smart Routing, an Images and Stream bundle or Cache Reserve are billed at the start of each period, while their metered parts, such as Argo data transfer and Cache Reserve operations, are billed in arrears.[3] The usage-based billing page lists Argo Smart Routing (data transfer, first 1 GB included), Cache Reserve (reads, writes and storage), Load Balancing (DNS queries, first 500,000 included), Spectrum (data transfer) and Rate Limiting (rule requests) among the products billed on consumption.[10]
Virtualization & partitioning
Plans are not tied to servers, cores or virtual machines. The partitioning question is how domains are divided into zones. In general a zone covers one registrable domain and all its subdomains, but a subdomain that needs a different performance or security setting can get its own zone ID or share one with similar subdomains.[4] Each extra zone ID for a subdomain is a separately counted domain, so an architecture decision to split configuration by subdomain also changes the licence count.
Cloud / BYOL
There is no bring-your-own-licence route. Two use restrictions shape what a plan may be used for. First, unless authorized in writing, Cloudflare Services may be used only with zones for domains the customer owns, and “Customers may not configure Zones in Cloudflare for their end customers’ Domains”.[4] Self-serve customers also may not “sign up for the Services on behalf of a third party” without written permission.[12] Agencies and managed service providers therefore need either the customer’s own account or an arrangement Cloudflare has approved, for example custom hostnames. Catalog proof: Zones only for domains the customer owns; Self-serve accounts may not resell or sign up for third parties.
Second, on Free, Pro and Business, the CDN is meant for web pages. “Unless you are an Enterprise customer”, video and other large files must be served through specific Paid Services such as the developer platform, Images or Stream, and Cloudflare may limit CDN use that serves video or a disproportionate share of large files without them.[7] Catalog proof: Free, Pro and Business CDN may not be used to serve video or large files.
Programs
- Self-serve subscription. Free, Pro and Business are bought in the dashboard. By enabling a paid plan, the customer agrees to a continuous month-to-month subscription that renews automatically, with “a minimum one month purchase obligation” and no refund for the month of cancellation.[2]
- Enterprise Subscription. Enterprise customers work with the Cloudflare account team on a customized plan and contract, and receive invoices from Cloudflare’s accounting team; they can pay by ACH.[2]
- Preview services. Contracted customers can enable products such as Advanced Certificate Manager, API Shield, Argo Smart Routing, Bot Management, Cloudflare for SaaS, Load Balancing and Advanced Rate Limiting for 30 days before buying them.[11]
Service levels
The Business SLA commits to serving customer content 100% of the time; Service Credits are the sole remedy and are capped at one month of fees in any 12-month period.[8] The Enterprise SLA makes the same 100% commitment, sets support response times by success offering (Standard or Premium), and caps Service Credits at six months of Monthly Fees in an annual billing period.[9] Catalog proof: Business plan Service Credits are capped at one month of fees per year; Enterprise Service Credits are capped at six months of fees per year.
Out of scope
This page does not cover the Cloudflare Registrar, Zero Trust and SASE services (see Cloudflare Zero Trust seat licensing), the Workers developer platform (see Cloudflare Workers and developer platform pricing), network services such as Cloudflare WAN, or the China Network, which has its own terms and 95th-percentile bandwidth measurement.