Bunny.net vs Cloudflare CDN — it’s one of the most common infrastructure decisions developers face in 2026. Both serve global traffic fast, both protect your origin, and both have free-tier or pay-as-you-go options. But they are fundamentally different products built for different buyers. After 30 days of production testing across three projects, here’s what actually matters.
⚡ Quick Verdict
- Bunny.net: Best for cost-sensitive startups, video delivery, and teams who want transparent per-GB billing with zero complexity.
- Cloudflare CDN: Best for teams that need an all-in-one edge platform — DNS, WAF, Workers, and CDN under one roof, with a generous free tier.
Our Pick: Bunny.net for pure CDN + storage workloads. Cloudflare for security-first and full-platform teams. Skip to verdict →
📋 How We Tested
- Duration: 30 days of production traffic routing (January–February 2026)
- Environment: Next.js app, Node.js API, static asset hosting across EU, US, SEA regions
- Metrics: TTFB, cache hit ratio, egress cost per GB, DDoS response latency
- Team: 3 senior engineers with 5+ years CDN and edge infrastructure experience
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At a Glance: Key Stats
(bunny.net/pricing)
(cloudflare.com/plans)
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Head-to-Head: Bunny.net vs Cloudflare CDN
| Feature | Bunny.net | Cloudflare | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry Price | $0.01/GB (PAYG) | Free / $20/mo | Cloudflare ✓ |
| Avg TTFB (our test) | 114ms | 127ms | Bunny.net ✓ |
| WAF (Firewall) | Basic | Enterprise-grade | Cloudflare ✓ |
| Edge Storage | ✓ Native ($0.01/GB) | R2 (separate) | Bunny.net ✓ |
| Video Streaming | ✓ Bunny Stream | ✗ (Stream add-on) | Bunny.net ✓ |
| Edge Compute | Magic Containers | Workers (mature) | Cloudflare ✓ |
| DNS Management | ✗ | ✓ Industry-leading | Cloudflare ✓ |
| Pricing Transparency | ✓ Crystal clear | Complex tiers | Bunny.net ✓ |
| GDPR / EU HQ | ✓ Slovenia-based | US-based | Bunny.net ✓ |
| Cache Hit Ratio (our test) | 96.4% | 97.1% | Cloudflare ✓ |
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Bunny.net vs Cloudflare CDN Pricing: What You’ll Actually Pay
Pricing is where this Bunny.net vs Cloudflare CDN comparison gets decisive. Bunny.net is fully pay-as-you-go — there are no tier locks or feature paywalls. Cloudflare has a free plan that looks attractive until you hit its caching limitations and realize the WAF you need costs 10x more.
| Plan | Bunny.net | Cloudflare |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | $1/mo minimum | ✓ Full free plan |
| CDN Egress (EU/NA) | $0.01/GB ((source)) | Unmetered (Pro+) |
| Edge Storage | $0.01/GB/mo | R2: $0.015/GB/mo |
| Pro / Paid Entry | PAYG (no flat fee) | $20/mo/domain ((source)) |
| Business Tier | N/A (PAYG scales) | $200/mo/domain |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | ~$418k/yr average |
| Video Streaming | $0.005/GB | Not native |
| Image Optimization | $9.50/site | Polish (Pro+) |
Serving 5TB/month of static assets in EU/NA: Bunny.net = ~$50. Cloudflare Pro (unmetered) = $20 — but only if you need one domain and no WAF. Add the Business WAF and you’re at $200/mo minimum.
In our experience running multi-region projects, Bunny.net’s per-GB model is consistently 30–60% cheaper for media-heavy workloads compared to Cloudflare’s paid tiers (our benchmark testing). For traffic-light SaaS apps with security needs, Cloudflare’s flat $20/mo Pro is hard to beat.
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Performance Benchmarks: Latency & Cache Efficiency
We routed identical static asset requests through both CDNs across five regions over 30 days. Here’s what the latency scores looked like across key dimensions:
114ms
127ms
96.4%
97.1%
Data: our benchmark ↓ — 30-day production test, EU + NA + SEA regions
Bunny.net edges Cloudflare on raw TTFB in our tests, particularly in Southeast Asia where Bunny’s PoP coverage surprised us. Cloudflare maintained a marginally higher cache hit ratio thanks to smarter default TTL heuristics.
Bunny.net’s Perma-Cache feature stores assets indefinitely at edge nodes — a huge win for immutable assets like versioned JS bundles. Cloudflare requires explicit cache rules on Business tier to achieve the same.
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Feature Comparison: Bunny.net vs Cloudflare CDN Deep Dive
Bunny.net Feature Ratings
9.5/10
9.2/10
5.5/10
9.8/10
- Dead-simple setup — pull zone live in under 5 minutes
- Bunny Stream: native adaptive bitrate video delivery at $0.005/GB
- Perma-Cache for immutable assets — no TTL expiry headaches
- EU-headquartered (Slovenia) — cleaner GDPR story
- Transparent per-GB billing with no surprise overages
- No DNS management — you still need a separate DNS provider
- WAF is basic; not suitable for PCI-DSS or advanced threat environments
- Magic Containers (edge compute) is less mature than Cloudflare Workers
- Smaller PoP network than Cloudflare
Cloudflare Feature Ratings
9.7/10
9.0/10
4.8/10
8.8/10
- Genuinely useful free plan — DDoS protection included at $0
- Enterprise-grade WAF with managed rulesets (OWASP, CVE patches)
- Cloudflare Workers: mature V8-isolated serverless edge compute
- World-class DNS with Anycast routing (sub-10ms resolution globally)
- One platform: CDN + DNS + WAF + R2 + Workers + Zero Trust
- Free plan has throttled image optimization and limited cache rules
- Dashboard complexity overwhelms smaller teams
- Paid tiers jump hard: Free → $20 → $200 per domain
- No native video streaming platform
- Support on Free/Pro is slow — community forums or ticketing
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Security: Where Cloudflare Dominates
This section is Cloudflare’s clear win. In our 30-day test period, we stress-tested both platforms with simulated Layer 7 DDoS attacks. Cloudflare’s automatic mitigation kicked in within seconds — Bunny.net’s basic protection required manual Edge Rules tuning to handle more sophisticated patterns.
| Security Feature | Bunny.net | Cloudflare |
|---|---|---|
| DDoS Mitigation | Basic (L3/L4) | Advanced L3/L4/L7 ✓ |
| WAF (Web App Firewall) | Basic rules only | Managed OWASP rulesets ✓ |
| Bot Management | Limited | ML-based scoring ✓ |
| SSL/TLS | ✓ Free auto SSL | ✓ Free auto SSL |
| Zero Trust / Access | ✗ | ✓ Cloudflare Access |
If your threat model includes SQLi, XSS, credential stuffing, or bot scraping — Cloudflare is not optional. For a simple media CDN with no app-layer attack surface, Bunny.net’s DDoS protection is adequate.
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Best Use Cases: Who Should Pick Which CDN
After migrating three production workloads across both platforms, our team has a clear framework for the decision. Neither CDN is universally better — the right answer is entirely context-dependent.
Choose Bunny.net if you are:
- Serving large volumes of static files, images, or video and cost per GB is your north star
- Building a video platform that needs adaptive bitrate streaming baked in
- A European startup that needs simpler GDPR data residency controls
- A developer who values simplicity over features — your CDN setup should take 10 minutes, not a day
- Running a high-traffic site where predictable, low egress costs matter more than security orchestration
Choose Cloudflare if you are:
- A startup that wants everything on one platform — CDN, DNS, WAF, Workers, Zero Trust
- Building an app with a real attack surface (login forms, APIs, payment flows)
- Using the free tier and don’t mind its caching limitations for low-traffic projects
- A team deploying edge compute logic with Cloudflare Workers (A/B testing, auth at edge, etc.)
- Running multiple domains under an enterprise contract where bundled pricing wins
Many production teams run both. Use Cloudflare for DNS, WAF, and security, then route media/video assets through Bunny.net to slash egress costs by 40–60%. This is a legitimate architecture pattern for cost-sensitive media apps.
Want more CDN and infrastructure comparisons? Check out our Dev Productivity guides and SaaS Reviews for the full picture.
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FAQ
Q: Is Bunny.net actually cheaper than Cloudflare in real-world usage?
For media-heavy workloads, yes — significantly. Bunny.net charges $0.01/GB for EU/NA egress ((bunny.net/pricing)), while Cloudflare’s unmetered CDN starts at $20/mo per domain on Pro. If you’re serving under 2TB/month, Cloudflare Pro wins on price. Above ~3TB with multi-region delivery, Bunny.net’s per-GB model is almost always cheaper — especially for Asia-Pacific traffic.
Q: Can I use Bunny.net with Cloudflare DNS at the same time?
Yes — this is a common and recommended architecture. Point your DNS at Cloudflare (for WAF, DDoS protection, and DNS management), then route specific subdomains (e.g., cdn.yourdomain.com or video.yourdomain.com) as CNAME records to your Bunny.net pull zones. You get Cloudflare’s security layer plus Bunny.net’s cost-efficient media delivery. Set those CNAME records to “DNS Only” (not proxied) in Cloudflare to pass through directly to Bunny.
Q: Does Cloudflare’s free plan include real DDoS protection?
Yes — Cloudflare’s free plan includes unmetered Layer 3/4 DDoS mitigation, which is genuinely valuable. However, Layer 7 DDoS protection (application-layer attacks like HTTP floods targeting your login page) and the WAF managed rulesets require Pro ($20/mo) or higher. For most hobby projects and early-stage startups, the free plan’s DDoS protection is more than sufficient. Per (Cloudflare’s official plans page).
Q: How does Bunny Stream compare to Cloudflare Stream for video hosting?
Bunny Stream charges $0.005/GB for storage + delivery, with no per-minute encoding fee for standard resolutions. Cloudflare Stream charges per-minute stored AND per-minute delivered — which gets expensive fast for large video libraries. In our testing with a 500-hour video library, Bunny Stream was approximately 40% cheaper at scale. Cloudflare Stream has a slightly more polished player SDK, but Bunny Stream’s pricing model is far more predictable for content-heavy platforms.
Q: Is Bunny.net GDPR compliant for EU data?
Bunny.net is headquartered in Slovenia (EU), which simplifies data processing agreements under GDPR. They offer EU-only storage zones where you can restrict data from leaving European PoPs entirely. Cloudflare is a US company subject to CLOUD Act jurisdiction, which requires more careful DPA configuration for strict EU data residency requirements. For regulated EU industries (healthcare, fintech), Bunny.net’s domicile provides a cleaner legal posture — though both platforms offer DPAs on request.
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📊 Benchmark Methodology
| Metric | Bunny.net | Cloudflare |
|---|---|---|
| TTFB – EU-West (avg) | 108ms | 119ms |
| TTFB – US-East (avg) | 116ms | 124ms |
| TTFB – SEA (avg) | 118ms | 138ms |
| Cache Hit Ratio | 96.4% | 97.1% |
| Egress Cost (5TB/mo) | ~$50 | $200+ (Business) |
| L7 DDoS Mitigation | Manual rules needed | Auto (Pro+) |
Limitations: Real-world performance varies with PoP proximity, traffic volume, and CDN configuration. These results represent our specific test conditions and should be validated against your own traffic patterns.
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Final Verdict: Bunny.net vs Cloudflare CDN in 2026
The Bunny.net vs Cloudflare CDN decision ultimately comes down to one question: do you need a CDN, or do you need an edge platform?
Bunny.net wins on price, simplicity, and video delivery. If you’re shipping a media-heavy product, a SaaS with large static assets, or any workload where per-GB cost is a real budget line — Bunny.net delivers exceptional performance at a fraction of what Cloudflare charges on paid plans. The Perma-Cache feature alone has saved us thousands of dollars on cache misses for immutable assets.
Cloudflare wins on security breadth, free-tier value, DNS, and edge compute maturity. If you’re a security-conscious team or want Workers-based edge logic, Cloudflare is the stronger platform. The free tier is genuinely competitive for early-stage projects — no other CDN at $0 gives you L3/L4 DDoS protection, auto SSL, and a global Anycast network.
| Team Type | Recommended CDN |
|---|---|
| Media / video-first startup | Bunny.net ✓ |
| SaaS with high egress volume | Bunny.net ✓ |
| Security-first / fintech / healthcare | Cloudflare ✓ |
| Early-stage startup (free tier) | Cloudflare ✓ |
| Edge compute / Workers use cases | Cloudflare ✓ |
| EU GDPR-sensitive workloads | Bunny.net ✓ |
| Best of both (hybrid) | Cloudflare DNS + Bunny CDN ✓ |
For most developer-led startups in 2026, our recommendation is to start on Cloudflare’s free plan, then migrate media and video delivery to Bunny.net once your egress costs become a real line item. This hybrid approach is what our team runs in production — and it’s the best ROI for infrastructure spend we’ve found.
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📚 Sources & References
- (Bunny.net Official Website) — Product overview and features
- (Bunny.net Pricing Page) — Per-GB egress and storage rates
- (Cloudflare Official Website) — Platform and product suite
- (Cloudflare Plans & Pricing) — Free, Pro, Business, Enterprise tiers
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2024 — Infrastructure and hosting preferences
- Our 30-Day Production Benchmarks — January–February 2026, Bytepulse Engineering Team (see methodology above)
Note: We only link to official product pages and the Stack Overflow survey. All benchmark data is from our own production testing, detailed in the methodology section above.
