Cloudflare vs F5 Distributed Cloud Services comparison

Cloudflare and F5 are both solutions in the CDN category. Cloudflare is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4, while F5 is ranked #10 with an average rating of 10.0. Cloudflare holds a 20.0% mindshare in CDN, compared to F5’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Cloudflare users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of F5 users who would recommend it.

Cloudflare

Read 77 Cloudflare reviews

38,465 Views
5,770 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Read 2 F5 Distributed Cloud Services reviews

2,136 Views
449 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cloudflare

F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

Cloudflare and F5 Distributed Cloud Services compete in the cloud service domain, each showing strengths. Cloudflare leads in customer satisfaction due to its pricing and support, while F5 Distributed Cloud Services stands out for its robust feature set.

Features: Cloudflare offers advanced CDN, DDoS protection, and internet security solutions. F5 Distributed Cloud Services provides comprehensive application security, multi-cloud networking, and enterprise-level solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cloudflare's deployment is straightforward with excellent customer service. F5 Distributed Cloud Services, though offering an advanced model, is more complex, requiring additional expertise but has reliable customer assistance.

Pricing and ROI: Cloudflare is known for cost-effective plans with good ROI due to lower setup costs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services requires a higher initial investment, offering significant ROI through its feature-rich offerings and scalability for larger enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloudflare vs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare vs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 879,259 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare

Ranking in CDN

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

WAN Optimization (4th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (1st), Managed DNS (1st), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (5th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (13th)

F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Ranking in CDN

10th

Average Rating

10.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (19th), API Security (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 20.0%, down from 21.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 Distributed Cloud Services is 2.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CDN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cloudflare	20.0%
F5 Distributed Cloud Services	2.3%
Other	77.7%

CDN

Featured Reviews

Herb Angle

Owner at Hga consulting

Has helped manage client domains with streamlined access control and threat visibility

I don't know what areas could be improved with Cloudflare WAF; Cloudflare is constantly improving and adding features to their feature set. They're doing a good job, and as far as DNS and support for any domains that I create or my clients create, it's mandatory for me to make sure that they have Cloudflare as their DNS provider. The Cloudflare load balancing capability hasn't really helped in enhancing my website's uptime and resiliency because we don't really get that much traffic; it's mostly remote users, and web hosting is done by a web hosting service. It doesn't pay to try to host your own website.

Read full review

Filip Mikulik

IT Analyst at Atlas.cz, a.s.

Protects web applications with comprehensive security features

All features are valuable. In a multi-cloud or distributed cloud, there are many protection possibilities from data to web application or API protection, including bot mitigation. This is a comprehensive package for web application security. The main benefit is Web App Security, offering a complete security package from DDoS to web application firewall, API protection, and bot mitigation.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Cloudflare DNS is its global reach and it is always evolving."

"DDoS attacks target unprotected machines. Cloudflare detects and stops these attacks using internal systems. It identifies incoming DDoS attacks, issuing challenges or blocking them immediately."

"The overall experience with Cloudflare is positive, with a rating of eight out of ten."

"The solution is very good at mitigating threats."

"Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. You don't necessarily need a certificate if you have a connection between your website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host."

"The most valuable feature is its usability."

"I rate its stability a ten out of ten."

"It is easier to configure and develop documentation to see how we have configured firewalls."

More Cloudflare pros

"The main benefit is Web App Security, offering a complete security package from DDoS to web application firewall, API protection, and bot mitigation."

"In a multi-cloud or distributed cloud, there are many protection possibilities from data to web application or API protection, including bot mitigation."

"F5 is known for being the best load balancer in the market. Customers with an existing module can easily adopt additional modules without investing in new hardware."

Cons

"Cloudflare's console should be made more user-friendly."

"Integration involving API with other products could be more user-friendly."

"Sometimes their more advanced caching tools can cause higher first-byte times and problems with JavaScript."

"They lack a good way to manage DNS as a company, since everything is relegated to single account logins until you get to the higher levels. They have come out with a paid feature to remedy this, but I have not had a chance to fully review it yet to know if it fixes the access problem."

"The product support needs to be accessible from more places, a wider area of coverage."

"Technical support is not well developed. While there are good engineers, Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model."

"There might be helpful if there was some web application firewall feature."

"The timing aspect can lead to it being considered overpriced. This is a particular concern we have with Cloudflare, as they may struggle with accurately detecting the client."

More Cloudflare cons

"The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF."

"The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF. There are some problems, mainly from the perspective of implementation and customer expectations, which sometimes differ from reality."

"The pricing could be adjusted to better meet the needs of typical customers in regions like Poland, where the product is considered too expensive."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cloudflare's pricing is not much higher and is good for middle-level organizations."

"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."

"The price is reasonable."

"The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive."

"We are using the free tier of the solution."

"When you compare Cloudflare DNS to other solutions, such as Akamai, the price is reasonable."

"I give the price a five out of ten."

"The product's pricing is cheap."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which CDN solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user68487

Security Expert with 51-200 employees

Nov 6, 2013

CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Web Application Firewall

CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Round 2 Web Application Firewall Comparative Penetration Testing Analysis Report v1.0 Summary This document contains the results of a second comparative penetration test conducted by a team of security specialists at Zero Science Lab against two cloud-based Web…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	25

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GRE tunnels. We have decreased site load times on Mobile 3G from 8 to 1,6 seconds ...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?

Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service that offers great redundancy and advanced security with built-in unmetered and ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cloudflare?

Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Distributed Cloud Services?

I am not involved in sales, so I do not deal with the pricing aspect directly. I give the cost of the solution a four out of ten since it is not a cheap product.

See all answers

What needs improvement with F5 Distributed Cloud Services?

It's a long way to be perfect, of course, as with all solutions. The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF. There are some problems, mainly from the pers...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for F5 Distributed Cloud Services?

There are two main use cases for Distributed Call Services: DDoS or Distributed attacks protection and WAF web application security or firewall.

See all answers

Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 52% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

Compared 3% of the time

Myra Security DDoS Protection vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Azure DNS vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

More Cloudflare Competitors

Akamai vs F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Compared 15% of the time

F5 Silverline Managed Services vs F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Compared 14% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Compared 12% of the time

Akamai API Security vs F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Front Door vs F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Compared 8% of the time

More F5 Distributed Cloud Services Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

December 2025

Download Cloudflare product report

Buyer's Guide

CDN

November 2025

Download F5 Distributed Cloud Services product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

No data available

Overview

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?

CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

F5 Distributed Cloud Services excel in enhancing security, optimizing web application delivery, and ensuring robust network performance. Users value its integrated Web Application Firewall, DDoS protection, global server load balancing, and intuitive management interface. It boosts organizational efficiency, reduces operational costs, and scales seamlessly, making it essential for businesses operating in distributed environments.

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare vs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services

December 2025

Free Report: Cloudflare vs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services

Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare vs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cloudflare vs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services report.

See our list of best CDN vendors.

We monitor all CDN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.