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Cloudflare vs Fly.io
Short answer: Pick Cloudflare if you want global edge network with integrated security; pick Fly.io if you want hardware-isolated edge VMs for agents. Cloudflare has a free plan, paid from $20/month; Fly.io has a free plan, paid from $29/month.
Which to pick
Pick Cloudflare if you want…
- Global edge network with integrated security
- The lower starting price: $20/month against $29/month
- Integrations with Git, GitHub Actions or VS Code (on Cloudflare's list, not Fly.io's)
Pick Fly.io if you want…
- Hardware-isolated edge VMs for agents
- Full-stack edge hosting
- Integrations with OpenRouter, GitHub or Slack (on Fly.io's list, not Cloudflare's)
Side by side
- What it is
- Cloudflare:Cloudflare provides a global network platform offering CDN, DNS, DDoS protection, Zero Trust security, and edge compute services.
- Fly.io:Fly.io provides hardware-isolated Linux VMs (Sprites and Machines) that run close to users for AI agents and full-stack apps.
- Best for
- Cloudflare:Global edge network with integrated security
- Fly.io:Hardware-isolated edge VMs for agents
- Who it’s for
- Cloudflare:Developers and teams needing fast, secure, and scalable web infrastructure.
- Fly.io:Developers building AI agents, personal assistants, or apps that need low-latency edge compute.
- Pricing
- Cloudflare:Freemium
- Fly.io:Freemium
- Starting price
- Cloudflare:$20/month (Pro)
- Fly.io:$29/month (Support Standard)
- Free plan or trial
- Cloudflare:Free plan (Free)
- Fly.io:—
- Plans
- Cloudflare:Free $0 · Pro $20 per month billed annually · Business $200 per month billed annually
- Fly.io:Machines shared-cpu-1x $0.0027 per hour · Machines performance-2x $0.0861 per hour · Sprites compute $0.07 / CPU-hour · Support Standard $29 per month · Support Premium $199 per month
- Works with
- Cloudflare:Git, GitHub Actions, VS Code
- Fly.io:OpenRouter, GitHub, Slack, any HTTP API
Cloudflare features
- Unmetered DDoS protection. Mitigates large-scale attacks at no extra cost across all plans.
- Global CDN & DNS. Delivers content from 335+ cities, keeping latency under 50 ms for most users.
- Zero Trust SASE platform. Provides ZTNA, SWG, DEX, and SSO for secure access to apps and data.
- Edge serverless compute (Workers). Runs JavaScript, Rust, C/C++ code at the edge with no cold starts.
- Integrated AI & agents. Deploys AI agents, inference, and governance on the same network.
Fly.io features
- Sprites. Sleep-aware VMs that checkpoint filesystem and services, allowing instant wake-up and rollback.
- Machines. Fast-booting, hardware-isolated VMs that scale to tens of thousands of users.
- Block Device Storage. Object-storage backed block device with automatic checkpointing and unlimited scaling.
- Connectors. Configure a credential once and share it across all Sprites with granular permissions and auto-rotation.
- Zero-Management Disk. Disk grows automatically up to 100 GB per Sprite, billed only for used bytes.
- Global Edge Network. Deploy in 18+ regions with <1 s boot time and 99.9 % SLA.
Cloudflare vs Fly.io FAQ
What is the difference between Cloudflare and Fly.io?+
Fly.io: Runs full-stack apps close to users but does not bundle DNS, DDoS, or identity security features.
Should I use Cloudflare or Fly.io?+
Pick Cloudflare if you want global edge network with integrated security, the lower starting price: $20/month against $29/month or integrations with Git, GitHub Actions or VS Code (on Cloudflare's list, not Fly.io's). Pick Fly.io if you want hardware-isolated edge VMs for agents, full-stack edge hosting or integrations with OpenRouter, GitHub or Slack (on Fly.io's list, not Cloudflare's).
Is Cloudflare or Fly.io free?+
Cloudflare has a free plan; paid plans start at $20/month (Pro). Fly.io has a free plan; paid plans start at $29/month (Support Standard).
Which is cheaper, Cloudflare or Fly.io?+
Cloudflare is cheaper to start with: Cloudflare's Pro plan ($20/month) against Fly.io's Support Standard plan ($29/month).
Do Cloudflare and Fly.io integrate with the same tools?+
Their integration lists don't overlap: Cloudflare lists Git, GitHub Actions and VS Code; Fly.io lists OpenRouter, GitHub, Slack and any HTTP API.
On DevHunt
Based on each tool's website and DevHunt data. Details may change; check the official sites.