# Cloudflare: how AI models rank it, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Named in 162 judge labels across 7 categories by 14 of 14 models. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [DDoS protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/ddos-protection/index.md) | 94% | 1 | 3% | 68 |
| [Content delivery networks](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/content-delivery-networks/index.md) | 93% | 1 | 11% | 75 |
| [Proxy and web data providers](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/proxy-networks/index.md) | 2% | 11 | 0% | 1 |
| [DNS filtering](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/dns-filtering/index.md) | 0% | 16 | 33% | 12 |
| [Client-side protection](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/security/client-side-protection/index.md) | 0% | 23 | 0% | 4 |
| [Cloud hosting](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/cloud-hosting/index.md) | 0% | 60 | 100% | 1 |
| [Website and synthetic monitoring](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/operations/website-and-synthetic-monitoring/index.md) | 0% | 38 | 0% | 1 |

## What the models said for it

- "Cloudflare (`1.1.1.2` for malware blocking, `1.1.1.3` for malware + adult content blocking) offers high-performance, privacy-focused filtering with strict no-log policies" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, DNS filtering)
- "For most mid-sized B2B companies, I'd recommend starting with Cloudflare due to its balance of affordability, ease of deployment, and comprehensive protection" (Claude Haiku 4.5, DDoS)
- "The best DDoS protection service for a company with a limited budget is Cloudflare, which offers a free version and a Pro plan starting at $20/month." (Llama 4 Maverick, DDoS)
- "Often ranked #1 for overall value and ease of use... Start with your traffic sources (e.g., multi-cloud needs a neutral provider like Cloudflare)." (Grok 4.20, DDoS)

## And against it

- "investigate the back-end connection of 14 leading CDNs (including Cloudflare, Microsoft Azure, Amazon, and Fastly), where we could create an account... back-end TLS connections are vulnerable to security issues" (Muse Glimmer 30B, CDN)
- "A 2023 researcher demonstrated techniques to bypass their firewall/DDoS protection ... Heavy reliance on a single infrastructure creates concentration risk." (Kimi K2, DDoS)
- "Cloudflare experienced three significant outages between 2020 and 2025, with November 2025 being its worst outage since 2019" (Claude Haiku 4.5, CDN)
- "be wary of its broad data logging, potential for "privacy-invasive" features ... Avoid if handling highly sensitive data" (Grok 4.20, CDN)

## By model

| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 14 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 10 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 14 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Grok 4.20 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| Mistral Small | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 10 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| Kimi K2 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 15 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 |

## Sources returned with these answers

The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Cloudflare, from 421 of the 496 answers that named it (only the models that return a source list).

### Domains cited

- cloudflare.com: 157 (its own site)
- fastly.com: 139
- edgeone.ai: 85
- g2.com: 83
- ioriver.io: 81
- myrasecurity.com: 81
- blog.blazingcdn.com: 77
- developers.cloudflare.com: 72 (its own site)
- github.com: 72
- cdnetworks.com: 70

### Pages cited

- https://cdnetworks.com/blog/web-performance/best-cdn-providers: 64
- https://myrasecurity.com/en/the-10-best-ddos-protection-services: 64
- https://esecurityplanet.com/products/distributed-denial-of-service-ddos-protection-vendors: 50
- https://geekflare.com/cybersecurity/ddos-protection-service: 50
- https://softwareadvice.com/ddos-protection/small-business: 43
- https://cloudflare.com/plans: 42
- https://cloudflare.com/products/ddos: 40
- https://fastly.com/blog/best-ddos-mitigation-providers-2025-2026: 38

## In its own words

What Cloudflare's own pages state, read 2026-09-28. Stated by the vendor, not checked by the index.

- Positioning: Build for the agent era (https://cloudflare.com/)
- For: developers, startups and the world’s largest enterprises (https://cloudflare.com/)
- Price stated: Free plan $0/month; Pro $20/mo billed annually or $25/mo billed monthly; Business $200/mo billed annually or $250/mo billed monthly; Contract Custom billed annually; Zero Trust Free $0 forever; Pay-as-you-go $7/user/month; Contract Custom annual price per user; Developer platform Free and Paid starts at $5/month (https://cloudflare.com/)
- Starting price: $0 (https://cloudflare.com/)
- Free plan or trial: Start building for free; No credit card needed (https://cloudflare.com/)
- Certifications: PCI DSS
- Hosting: 335+ cities around the world, 330+ cities instantly, Cloudflare's global network
- Customers named: Shopify, Character.AI, Intercom, DoorDash, Discord, Zendesk, Lovable, npm

## What it publishes

Every page cloudflare.com exposes, read 2026-09-29: 15567 addresses. By kind, pages and the last 90 days:

- blog: 690 pages, 71 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-28
- case study: 262 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- webinar or virtual event: 32 pages, 1 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-07-22
- conference or event: 5 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-04-23
- report or ebook: 71 pages, 23 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-09-28
- comparison: 23 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-06-30
- template or tool: 46 pages, 12 in the last 90 days, latest 2026-08-14
- glossary or explainer: 458 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- podcast or video: 29 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- news or press: 7 pages, 0 in the last 90 days, latest undated
- Recent: 2026-09-28 blog: Introducing the cold start https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-the-cold-start/
- Recent: 2026-09-28 blog: Vinext nextjs on vite https://blog.cloudflare.com/vinext-nextjs-on-vite/
- Recent: 2026-09-28 blog: Cloudflare cf cli launch https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-cf-cli-launch/
- Recent: 2026-09-28 blog: Forge open source generation pipeline https://blog.cloudflare.com/forge-open-source-generation-pipeline/
- Recent: 2026-09-28 blog: How fast is the web https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-fast-is-the-web/
- Recent: 2026-09-28 blog: Emdash cms plugin registry https://blog.cloudflare.com/emdash-cms-plugin-registry/

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.