3 ms·

How does Cloudflare offer it for free?

by weird-eye-issue 3y ago

withinboredom 3y ago
Um. It’s not. They have a free plan, but it’s subsidized by their paying customers.
- Syonyk 3y ago
  And a lot of their "good" features are only available to paying customers. Image resizing, Argo (fancy... routing aware something or another to your server), more than a few cache rules, and a range of other custom stuff. I think they do a really good job of it, personally. It's trivial to get your free account set up to play with and even host a pretty serious amount of "simple" traffic, and you can easily explore the features, see what's available for paid (they're quite transparent about the assorted costs which is nice), etc. It feels a bit like an honest version of Microsoft and Adobe's "look the other way for casual piracy, because you're familiar with the product..." of the late 90s and early 2000s. "Hey, try it out for free, and if the free stuff works for you, great. But if you need more, this is what else we offer!"
- weird-eye-issue 3y ago
  I'm not saying Cloudflare is free I'm saying they don't charge bandwidth
  - withinboredom 3y ago
    They are eating the costs, as a marketing ploy. It won’t be free forever. They’ve said as much in their press releases. Basically, they are trying to pressure AWS and friends to lower their egress fees. Once they’re lowered, they’ll start charging for it.
    - weird-eye-issue 3y ago
      Source? I'm incredibly skeptical that one day they will suddenly make a 180 and start charging for bandwidth
      - withinboredom 3y ago
        I'd literally have to find the press releases from the day they announced R2, which kinda goes into depth on it a bit (and I can't find it). But logically, why wouldn't they do a 180? It has to be eating into their margins. Wholesale costs alone would estimate that it's eating 15-20% of their revenue. Remember when Uber used to be cheaper than a taxi? It's the same issue, different market; there is so much being subsidized by other money that if they ever run into any financial issues, hire the wrong executive, or simply get market dominance ... they'll shift this all to the customer.
        weird-eye-issue 3y ago
        It's not going to happen and you're talking out your ass. Speculation is fine but let's not pretend like you have any source for your pet theories By the way I say all of this as a Cloudflare Enterprise customer. I imagine you have a tiny fraction of the experience I do with Cloudflare and completely fail to understand the ramifications of what such a decision would entail on their business
        withinboredom 3y ago
        Start searching dude: https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/press-releases/ https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/press-releases/. You lost my respect in this convo so I give zero fucks, believe in whatever you want to believe. Fairies, Monopoly money, whatever.
        weird-eye-issue 3y ago
        You won this one. Your sources of "just trust me bro" and "start searching dude" are truly notable.
        3y ago

How does Cloudflare offer it for free?

withinboredom 3y ago

Um. It’s not. They have a free plan, but it’s subsidized by their paying customers.

Syonyk 3y ago
And a lot of their "good" features are only available to paying customers. Image resizing, Argo (fancy... routing aware something or another to your server), more than a few cache rules, and a range of other custom stuff. I think they do a really good job of it, personally. It's trivial to get your free account set up to play with and even host a pretty serious amount of "simple" traffic, and you can easily explore the features, see what's available for paid (they're quite transparent about the assorted costs which is nice), etc. It feels a bit like an honest version of Microsoft and Adobe's "look the other way for casual piracy, because you're familiar with the product..." of the late 90s and early 2000s. "Hey, try it out for free, and if the free stuff works for you, great. But if you need more, this is what else we offer!"
weird-eye-issue 3y ago
I'm not saying Cloudflare is free I'm saying they don't charge bandwidth
- withinboredom 3y ago
  They are eating the costs, as a marketing ploy. It won’t be free forever. They’ve said as much in their press releases. Basically, they are trying to pressure AWS and friends to lower their egress fees. Once they’re lowered, they’ll start charging for it.
  - weird-eye-issue 3y ago
    Source? I'm incredibly skeptical that one day they will suddenly make a 180 and start charging for bandwidth
    - withinboredom 3y ago
      I'd literally have to find the press releases from the day they announced R2, which kinda goes into depth on it a bit (and I can't find it). But logically, why wouldn't they do a 180? It has to be eating into their margins. Wholesale costs alone would estimate that it's eating 15-20% of their revenue. Remember when Uber used to be cheaper than a taxi? It's the same issue, different market; there is so much being subsidized by other money that if they ever run into any financial issues, hire the wrong executive, or simply get market dominance ... they'll shift this all to the customer.
      - weird-eye-issue 3y ago
        It's not going to happen and you're talking out your ass. Speculation is fine but let's not pretend like you have any source for your pet theories By the way I say all of this as a Cloudflare Enterprise customer. I imagine you have a tiny fraction of the experience I do with Cloudflare and completely fail to understand the ramifications of what such a decision would entail on their business
        withinboredom 3y ago
        Start searching dude: https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/press-releases/ https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/press-releases/. You lost my respect in this convo so I give zero fucks, believe in whatever you want to believe. Fairies, Monopoly money, whatever.
        weird-eye-issue 3y ago
        You won this one. Your sources of "just trust me bro" and "start searching dude" are truly notable.
        3y ago