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Matthew Prince on why Cloudflare offers a free version and always will (2016)
opinion
1 min read
Cloudflare’s free CDN tier does not provide literally unlimited bandwidth, according to a Stack Exchange answer citing the company’s terms. The answer characterizes “unlimited” as a marketing term meaning capacity exceeds the needs of most users rather than an absence of limits. Cloudflare’s terms include a limitation on non-HTML caching that permits the company, at its sole discretion, to suspend or terminate an account when usage creates an excessive burden, risks adverse effects on its systems or other users, or affects processing power, memory, or abuse controls. The terms allow service restrictions without notice or liability under those conditions. The answer also notes that free service does not establish a guarantee against major outages. From a business perspective, Cloudflare can fund a free CDN tier because some free customers convert to paid plans, creating a marketing and customer-acquisition channel. Customers that impose a large load may be encouraged to upgrade, while Cloudflare may also limit how many items are cached.