Cloudflare vs Public Cloud Comparison
Compare Cloudflare vs Public Cloud features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Cloudflare
7.6/10
Cloudflare is a global edge network. It offers CDN, DNS, DDoS protection and a WAF, plus serverless compute and storage (Workers, R2, D1) for developers and businesses.
Public Cloud
6.1/10
OpenStack-based pay-as-you-go IaaS from Swiss host Infomaniak. It offers instances, block and S3-compatible object storage, and Kubernetes, all hosted in Swiss data centers.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7.6/10 | 6.1/10 |
| Integration | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Support | 4/10 | 5/10 |
| Cost | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Customization | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 7/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 7/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 3/10 |
| Scalability | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $5/mo Workers Paid | Contact for pricing |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Free | Contact for pricing |
| Features | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Cloud Compute | Not listed | |
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| Free SSL Certificates | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Serverless Functions | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
Cloudflare vs Public Cloud cost by team size
| Team size | Cloudflare | Public Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree | Contact for pricing |
| 5 users | FreeFree | Contact for pricing |
| 10 users | FreeFree | Contact for pricing |
| 25 users | FreeFree | Contact for pricing |
| 50 users | FreeFree | Contact for pricing |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Cloudflare
- Has a free plan (Public Cloud does not)
- Higher Analytics score (7/10 vs 3/10)
- Higher Scalability score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for enterprise (8/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for startups (9/10 vs 6/10)
Why choose Public Cloud
- Higher Support score (5/10 vs 4/10)
Pros & Cons
Cloudflare
Pros
- The free plan includes unmetered DDoS protection, a CDN, a WAF and universal SSL.
- R2 object storage charges no egress fees.
- Workers has very low entry pricing: a $5 monthly minimum and $0.30 per additional million requests.
- The Business plan adds a 100 percent uptime SLA and PCI DSS compliance for $200 a month billed annually.
Cons
- Reviewers report slow support on Free and Pro, which have no chat or phone support.
- Global outages in November and December 2025 disrupted many sites at the same time.
- Reviewers report billing problems, such as charges after cancelling add-ons.
- It offers no traditional shared hosting, VPS or dedicated servers, so you still need an origin host for conventional workloads.
Public Cloud
Pros
- Owned data centers located only in Switzerland, which supports data-sovereignty requirements
- Built on standard OpenStack, so existing tooling works and moving to another provider is easier
- Hourly billing that excludes most charges for stopped instances
- CHF 300 of free credit for the first 3 months
- S3-compatible object storage, encrypted block storage and DDoS protection
Cons
- All regions are in Switzerland, so there is no wider geographic footprint
- Invoices can only be paid by credit card
- Third-party benchmarks note missing monitoring charts and reverse DNS
- Very few independent user reviews on G2 or Capterra
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudflare scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 7.6/10 against 6.1/10 for Public Cloud. The largest gap is in Analytics: 7/10 for Cloudflare and 3/10 for Public Cloud.
Cloudflare has a free plan; Public Cloud does not list one.
Cloudflare is the better fit for enterprise: we rate it 8/10 for them, against 5/10 for Public Cloud.
