Cloudflare Vs CloudFront

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Cloudflare and CloudFront have been rivals in the area of rapid website content delivery and protection. Both are CDNs, meaning they cache content upon a request to enhance web performance. Yet, they cater to different functions, provide different sets of unique features, and serve different types of users.

What Is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare optimizes performance, cyber protection, and domain name services-DNS-of websites. It is the most popular CDN and security provider. As it reverse-proxy, it acts between the user and the web server, filtering requests and delivering cached content whenever possible.

What is CloudFront

CloudFront is a CDN service offered by AWS (Amazon Web Services). It speeds up the distribution of content through caching in multiple locations across the world. It has a very deep integration with AWS services such as S3 (Simple Storage Service), EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), and Lambda Edge for more advanced functionality.

Performance Comparison

1. Speed and Latency

Both Cloudflare and CloudFront have global edge servers that can reduce latency. However, Cloudflare has an Anycast network that automatically directs traffic to its nearest server; CloudFront here requires you to configure different distribution settings.

2.Caching Mechanism

It is automatic Caching of static content from Cloudflare. It even makes optimizations to images and scripts so they load faster.

For CloudFront, users are required to manually configure caching policies and behaviours.

3.Integration & Compatibility

Cloudflare is platform-independent and because by default works on virtually any site, be it shared hosting, VPS, or cloud-hosted.

Deeply integrated into AWS, CloudFront is the best scenario for those users who already consume AWS infrastructures.

Security Features

Security by Cloudflare

• Inbuilt DDoS protection securing against flood of traffic.
• WAF is also present in a free plan.
• Bot protection is provided for automated attacks.
• Secure communications employing SSL/TLS encryption.

CloudFront Security

• It comes by default with basic DDoS protections.
• To avail advanced DDoS protections, AWS Shield comes with additional costs.
• The AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) requires a separate configuration.
• Field-level encryption for better security of data

Tools Used

Below is a comparison based on the tools used −

For Cloudflare

• Cloudflare DNS
• Cloudflare WAF
• Cloudflare Page Rules
• Cloudflare Cache Purge API

For CloudFront

• AWS Management Console
• AWS CloudFront API
• Terraform for infrastructure as code
• AWS CLI for command-line management

When to Choose What?

When to Use Cloudflare?

• If you want an easy-to-use CDN with good security.
• If you want DDoS support and WAF included in the free plan.
• If you are running a WordPress or generic website that requires speed improvement.
• If you want automated optimizations while still being relatively low on the technical knowledge.

When to Use CloudFront?

• When you are into AWS S3, EC2, or Lambda this much.
• When you need custom caching, granting you the power to configure everything.
• When your prime requirement is to serve video streams or dynamic content.
• When you prefer getting charged per use versus fixed plans.

Difference Between Cloudflare and CloudFront

Below table highlights the major differences between Cloudflare and CloudFront −

Example Code relating to CloudFront and Cloudflare

Below, we have shown the example codes relating to CloudFront and Cloudflare. Have a look at them −

CloudFront Distribution with Terraform

The below code is simple code snippet used in cloudfront distribution with terraform −

resource "aws_cloudfront_distribution" "cdn" {
  origin {
    domain_name = "example.s3.amazonaws.com"
    origin_id   = "S3-example"
  }
  enabled             = true
  default_cache_behavior {
    viewer_protocol_policy = "redirect-to-https"
    allowed_methods        = ["GET", "HEAD"]
    cached_methods         = ["GET", "HEAD"];
  }
}

Cloudflare API to Purge Cache

Below is a code snippet that used Cloudflare API to purge cache −

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/YOUR_ZONE_ID/purge_cache" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data '{"purge_everything":true}'  

How to Configure Cloudflare and CloudFront

Below are setting steps to configure Cloudflare and CloudFront −

Cloudflare Settings

• Register on the Cloudflare website for an account.
• Add your domain name under your website.
• Caching and security settings.
• Encrypt SSL/TLS for secure connections.

Settings for CloudFront

• Sign in to AWS Console.
• In CloudFront, Click on Create Distribution.
• Pick your origin domain, eg: S3 bucket or even Website URL.
• Configure cache behaviour and security settings.
• Deploy distribution and change DNS settings.