Cloudflare vs AWS vs Azure
In-depth feature comparison across 21 critical cloud capabilities, emphasizing the Edge vs. Centralized models.
Workers
Runs JS/Wasm code using the secure V8 Isolates model on 300+ edge locations for near-zero cold starts and minimal latency. Example: Processing authorization headers before a request hits the origin.
Lambda
Core event-driven serverless running in centralized regions. Lambda@Edge extends execution to CloudFront for low-latency tasks. Example: Image resizing on upload.
Functions
Compute service for event-driven apps, tightly integrated with Azure event sources and data. Example: Processing messages from Service Bus or Cosmos DB changes.
R2
S3-compatible, globally distributed object storage with zero egress fees for data transfer. Example: Storing large static assets or media files accessed frequently worldwide.
S3
Industry-leading, highly durable object storage with deep tiering and lifecycle policies. Example: Data lakes, backup archives, or origin for CloudFront distribution.
Blob Storage
Scalable storage for unstructured data, including Data Lake Storage Gen2 capabilities. Example: Storing log files, application data, or supporting Hadoop analytic workloads.
D1
Serverless, edge-first SQL database built on SQLite. Uses global read-replication and a centralized write region. Example: Storing per-user profile data accessed globally.
RDS / Aurora
Managed relational DBs (Postgres, MySQL, etc.), with Aurora offering cloud-native performance. Example: Traditional transactional OLTP systems requiring high consistency and durability.
Azure SQL Database
Fully managed, intelligent cloud version of Microsoft SQL Server with serverless options. Example: Migrating an on-premises SQL Server database without code changes.
KV / Durable Objects
KV offers eventual consistency for massive scale and reads. Durable Objects (DO) provides strong consistency and transactional guarantees for single-entity state. Example: Tracking a live shopping cart session (DO).
DynamoDB
Fully managed, high-performance NoSQL database offering single-digit millisecond latency. Example: Storing leaderboard scores or session data for mobile apps.
Cosmos DB
Globally distributed, multi-model (SQL, Mongo, Cassandra) database with guaranteed latency. Example: Supporting globally distributed IoT sensor data ingest and analysis.
N/A (Workers Model)
Focuses on serverless isolation (V8 Isolates/Workers) which eliminates the need for managing traditional Docker containers or Kubernetes clusters.
ECS / EKS / Fargate
Managed solutions for Docker (ECS/Fargate) and Kubernetes (EKS) orchestration. Example: Hosting large, monolithic applications or microservices packaged in Docker images.
AKS / ACI
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for scale and Azure Container Instances (ACI) for serverless containers. Example: Deploying containerized ML models or CI/CD testing environments.
N/A
Not an IaaS provider; focuses entirely on distributed, serverless compute infrastructure, abstracting away the operating system layer.
EC2
Elastic Compute Cloud for scalable, configurable virtual machine instances. Example: Hosting proprietary enterprise applications or running databases on dedicated hardware.
Virtual Machines
On-demand, scalable computing resources, offering specialized Windows Server images. Example: Running high-performance computing (HPC) jobs or domain controllers.
Workflows
Define and coordinate complex sequences of serverless functions and APIs on the edge network. Example: Running a long-lived, multi-step transaction across several Workers and databases.
Step Functions
Visual workflow service for orchestrating distributed applications and microservices. Example: Automating complex business processes like order fulfillment or machine learning pipelines.
Logic Apps
Cloud service for creating and running automated, enterprise-level workflows and integrations. Example: Connecting various SaaS services (Office 365, Salesforce) to backend Azure services.
Queues
Decouples Workers and services using reliable, serverless message queuing at the edge. Example: Buffering a high volume of sensor data before processing it asynchronously.
SQS / SNS
Managed message queuing (SQS) and pub/sub service (SNS) for large-scale distributed systems. Example: Distributing tasks to multiple worker processes (SQS) or sending notifications (SNS).
Service Bus / Event Hubs
Enterprise messaging broker (Service Bus) and high-throughput data streaming (Event Hubs). Example: Processing high-volume event streams from application clicks or financial trades (Event Hubs).
Workers AI
Runs popular LLMs (e.g., Llama 3) and inference models on GPUs distributed globally. Example: Real-time sentiment analysis of user input without server setup.
Sagemaker
End-to-end MLOps platform for model building, training, deployment, and hosting. Example: Iterative training and deployment of large custom deep learning models.
Azure AI Services
A portfolio of managed cognitive services and the secure Azure OpenAI access platform. Example: Integrating pre-built services for language translation or computer vision into an application.
Vectorize
Vector database for storing and querying embeddings, highly optimized for edge RAG workloads. Example: Storing text embeddings for a chatbot to perform rapid, local searches.
OpenSearch / Bedrock
Vector search capabilities in OpenSearch and foundation model access through Bedrock. Example: Building a knowledge base or product catalog search using vector similarity.
Cognitive Search
AI-powered cloud search service with native vector store integration and indexing pipelines. Example: Ingesting and searching unstructured documents like PDFs using semantic search.
WAF / Bot Management
Integrated Web Application Firewall and advanced bot protection layer globally deployed. Example: Blocking SQL injection and automatically managing sophisticated scraping bots.
AWS WAF / Shield
WAF that integrates with CloudFront and ALB, backed by DDoS protection (Shield). Example: Applying custom rules to block malicious IP ranges accessing specific API endpoints.
Application Gateway WAF
WAF capabilities within the Application Gateway for HTTP traffic management. Example: Protecting web apps deployed behind Azure’s internal network gateway.
Pages
Full-stack platform for deploying JAMstack/static sites and Workers apps via Git integration. Example: Building a high-performance portfolio site with serverless API routes.
Amplify
Full-stack development platform for building scalable web and mobile applications. Example: Quickly setting up a full React app with managed authentication and database backends.
Static Web Apps
Serverless hosting for static front-ends with dynamic APIs powered by Azure Functions. Example: Deploying a Vue/React frontend while coupling it with a simple Azure Function API.
Hyperdrive
A database connector that pools connections and caches data locally, allowing Workers (massive scale) to safely and efficiently access existing centralized Postgres databases.
Direct Connect / VPC
Dedicated, private network connection from on-premise to AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Example: Establishing a high-bandwidth, low-latency link between a corporate data center and an AWS region.
ExpressRoute / Private Link
Private, secure connectivity to Azure services using the Microsoft global network infrastructure. Example: Ensuring traffic to Azure SQL Database stays entirely on the Microsoft backbone, avoiding the public internet.
Global CDN
Massive, globally distributed CDN with integrated caching, security, and smart routing. Example: Serving a website’s images and stylesheets from the closest PoP to every visitor.
CloudFront
Fast, global content delivery network integrated seamlessly with S3 and EC2. Example: Caching dynamic content using Lambda@Edge or integrating with custom S3 origins.
Azure CDN
Global CDN solution with options powered by Microsoft, Akamai, or Verizon. Example: Accelerating the delivery of web content for applications hosted within Azure App Service.
Load Balancing / Argo
Global DNS and HTTP load balancing combined with optimized routing (Argo Smart Routing). Example: Routing users to the closest healthy origin server based on latency, even across clouds.
ELB / Route 53
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) and DNS-based traffic routing (Route 53). Example: Distributing incoming application traffic evenly across multiple EC2 instances within a region (ELB).
Front Door / Traffic Manager
Global, scalable entry-point (Front Door) or DNS-based traffic load balancing (Traffic Manager). Example: Providing WAF and SSL offloading for a global application across multiple Azure regions (Front Door).
Logpush / Analytics
Pushes all edge logs in near real-time to centralized platforms; includes detailed edge analytics. Example: Sending CDN, WAF, and Worker logs to an S3 bucket or Splunk for compliance and analysis.
CloudWatch / X-Ray
Metrics, logs, and alarms (CloudWatch) and distributed tracing (X-Ray) for all services. Example: Setting up an alarm to page an engineer if Lambda error rates exceed a threshold.
Monitor / App Insights
Comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry data (App Insights for tracing). Example: Tracing a user request across an Application Gateway, Functions, and Cosmos DB to identify performance bottlenecks.
Zero Trust / WARP
Zero Trust platform replaces corporate VPNs, providing secure, identity-aware access to internal apps. WARP encrypts device traffic to the nearest Cloudflare PoP. Example: Granting a contractor access to only one specific internal web application without full network VPN access.
Client VPN / Transit Gateway
Managed VPN solution for remote users and hub-and-spoke connectivity for VPCs. Example: Allowing remote employees to securely connect to resources within an AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
VPN Gateway / Virtual WAN
Creates encrypted cross-premises connections and simplified network hub architecture. Example: Securely extending an on-premises network into Azure for hybrid cloud operations.
Authoritative DNS
Fastest global DNS with integrated security and secondary DNS options. Example: Using Cloudflare as the primary DNS provider for maximum redundancy and speed.
Route 53
Highly available and scalable cloud DNS web service with health checking. Example: Implementing complex failover routing rules based on the health status of EC2 instances.
Azure DNS
Managed DNS service for hosting public domains and private DNS zones in Azure. Example: Resolving internal domain names for VMs inside an Azure Virtual Network (Private DNS).
Pages / Wrangler
Built-in CI/CD for Pages and Workers, integrating directly with Git (using Wrangler CLI). Example: Automatic creation of a preview deployment URL for every new Git pull request.
CodePipeline / CodeBuild
Managed continuous delivery services for releasing software updates rapidly and reliably. Example: Orchestrating a deployment that builds a Docker image (CodeBuild), pushes it to ECR, and updates an EKS cluster (CodePipeline).
Azure DevOps / Pipelines
Full suite of DevOps tools, including robust, customizable CI/CD pipelines. Example: Using YAML to define a multi-stage deployment pipeline targeting both Azure App Service and on-premises servers.
API Gateway
Edge-based API management (rate limiting, auth, WAF) integrated with Workers. Example: Implementing rate limiting policies globally to protect the origin from traffic spikes before they reach the data center.
API Gateway
Fully managed service to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale. Example: Creating RESTful APIs that connect directly to Lambda functions or EC2 instances.
API Management
Hybrid, multi-cloud management platform for all APIs, with consumption tier available. Example: Centralizing policy enforcement (security, throttling) for APIs hosted across Azure, on-premises, and other clouds.
DDoS Protection
Always-on, unmetered L3-L7 protection using global network scale to absorb attacks. Example: Automatically mitigating a 1 Tbps volumetric attack without affecting legitimate traffic or requiring manual intervention.
AWS Shield
Managed DDoS protection service providing safeguards against various types of attacks. Example: Shield Advanced provides protection for resources like EC2 and Route 53 with 24/7 DDoS response team access.
DDoS Protection
Enhanced protection service for Azure resources, integrated with Virtual Network. Example: Combining with Azure Firewall and WAF to create a layered defense strategy for VNet-deployed resources.