The two most popular ways to put a frontend on the internet in 2026. Netlify wrote the JAMstack playbook and now bills everything in unified credits; Cloudflare Pages rides the biggest edge network on Earth and hands you unlimited free bandwidth.
Both have genuinely usable free tiers — but they run out in different ways. This comparison is about which failure mode you prefer.
| Netlify | Cloudflare | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Free $0: 300 credits/mo, commercial use allowed — but all projects pause when you hit the cap | Free: unlimited bandwidth, 500 builds/mo, custom domains — the best free tier in the category |
| Paid entry point | Personal $9/mo (1,000 credits); Pro $20/mo (3,000 credits) | Workers Paid from $5/mo; Pages hosting itself stays free |
| Team pricing | Pro $20/mo flat for the whole team — the best team math in static hosting | Paid-plan seats are per-member; Cloudflare prices usage, not team size — check official pricing |
| Bandwidth model | Metered in credits (20 credits/GB) — media-heavy sites chew through the free pool fast | Unlimited on free and paid — Cloudflare never charges for bandwidth |
| Edge compute | Edge Functions (Deno) draw from the same credit pool as builds and bandwidth | Workers + Pages Functions: 100K requests/day free, Paid from $5/mo |
| Ecosystem | Deploy previews, Forms, Identity, split testing — best DX, with proprietary lock-in | One vendor for everything: DNS, R2 storage, D1 database, Zero Trust access |
| Build minutes | Credit pool: a production deploy costs 15 credits (~20 free deploys/mo) | 500 builds/mo free — more than most projects ever touch |
Git-push publishing for the modern web.
Free ($0, 300 credits/mo, commercial use OK); Personal $9/mo; Pro $20/
Try Netlify →The edge giant: free bandwidth, global by default.
Pages free (500 builds/mo); Workers Free $0 (100K requests/day); Worke
Try Cloudflare →Netlify wins on developer experience and team pricing; Cloudflare wins on raw cost — unlimited free bandwidth is an offer nobody else in this list matches. Static or lightly dynamic site? Start on Cloudflare Pages. Team that lives in deploy previews and Forms? Netlify's $20/mo team flat rate is the best deal in the category.
The Pages hosting tier itself is free: unlimited bandwidth and 500 builds/mo. You pay only for paid Workers usage ($5/mo base) or premium features — check official pricing for the latest.
In late 2025 Netlify merged bandwidth, builds, and compute into one credit pool. It makes usage legible, but the free tier's 300 credits (~15 GB bandwidth, ~20 deploys) runs out faster than the old limits did.
Cloudflare Pages — unlimited free bandwidth means a viral post costs you nothing. On Netlify, bandwidth draws from your credit pool at 20 credits/GB.