Hi everyone! I’ve been lurking for a while, but this is my first post here. I’m helping run the tech side for a small marketing team (about 15 people), and I finally convinced our team to switch from AWS WAF to Cloudflare about three months ago. We’re a classic “small team with a limited budget,” and I was completely overwhelmed trying to compare all the options.
I wanted to share our real-world cost numbers because I desperately searched for posts like this when we were deciding. We host a couple of client-facing web apps and our main website on AWS (EC2 & S3).
**Our old AWS WAF & Shield setup:**
We were using AWS WAF with some managed rule groups (like the Core Rule Set) and had Shield Standard (the free one). We were constantly tweaking rules, and the logs were… a lot. Our monthly bill just for WAF (not including data transfer or the actual resources) was typically between **$130-$180**. It felt like every little request processed was adding up, and we were always anxious about a DDoS spike sending costs through the roof.
**Migrating to Cloudflare:**
We signed up for the **Pro plan** ($20/month) which includes their WAF and DDoS protection. The migration itself was a weekend of DNS changes and reconfiguring our origin to only allow traffic from Cloudflare’s IPs.
**The 3-month cost comparison:**
This is what blew my mind. Our Cloudflare Pro plan is a flat **$20/month**. That’s it. For the past three months, our total spend on WAF and DDoS protection has been exactly that. With AWS, we averaged about **$155/month**. So we’re saving roughly **$135 per month**, which is huge for our small operation.
But beyond the raw cost, the simplicity has been a game-changer. The dashboard is much easier for my non-specialist teammates to understand. We haven’t had any security incidents, but the peace of mind knowing DDoS mitigation is just *on* without worrying about per-event costs is worth a lot.
Has anyone else made a similar switch? I’m curious if our experience is typical, especially for smaller teams. I’m also wondering about the higher-tier plans—did anyone start on Pro and feel the need to upgrade later? For now, I feel like we’ve found a perfect fit for our scale and budget.
Small team, big decisions
Hey, great timing on this post. I'm also a marketing tech person at a small B2B SaaS (around 20 people), and I handle everything from our HubSpot automation to the security side of our public-facing assets. We're entirely on AWS for hosting but made the Cloudflare jump for WAF and DNS about two years ago.
Here's my breakdown based on that experience:
1. **Actual Cost Structure:** AWS WAF charges per rule group, per rule, and per million requests processed. For a moderate traffic site, that $130-$180 is spot on, and it scales directly (and scarily) with traffic spikes. Cloudflare Pro's $20 is fixed, with WAF, DDoS, and a performance suite. The hidden cost is time: AWS's granular control is more complex to manage.
2. **Deployment & Rule Management:** Migrating rule logic took me a full weekend. AWS WAF rules are powerful but verbose, requiring you to manage IP sets, regex patterns, and logging buckets. Cloudflare's dashboard has simpler toggle-and-go managed rules (like the OWASP Core). The trade-off is less granular logging out of the box for that price.
3. **Performance & Integration Fit:** If your stack is deeply embedded in AWS (CloudFront, API Gateway, Application Load Balancer), AWS WAF feels native, but you're locked into their ecosystem and cost model. Cloudflare acts as your proxy, so it's easier to mix hosting providers and get a unified layer. For a small marketing team with client sites, that flexibility wins.
4. **Real Limitation:** Cloudflare's Pro plan has limits on custom rules (5) and the depth of WAF tuning. If you need to write dozens of highly specific, cascading rules for a complex app, you'll hit a wall and need a Business plan ($250/month). AWS WAF lets you go as deep as your patience and budget allow.
I'd recommend Cloudflare Pro for any small team with straightforward marketing sites and web apps where predictable cost and simplicity are the main goals. If you were running a single, complex web app with very specific threat models needing constant custom rule tweaks, I'd lean AWS. For your described setup, you made the right call.
automate the boring stuff
Wow, $130-$180 just on the WAF component is wild to see written down. That's a huge difference from a fixed $20.
I'm actually looking at a similar move for our sales tools, and I'm curious about something. You mentioned the logs being "a lot" with AWS. Has the switch to Cloudflare made it easier to actually review blocked threats and tune rules, or is the monitoring just different? I'm worried about losing too much visibility for the sake of simplicity.
The per-request pricing on AWS WAF is the real budget killer for small teams. It scales linearly with traffic, so a bot surge or a marketing spike directly hits your bottom line. Cloudflare's fixed fee gives you predictable costs, which is a huge operational win for planning.
But don't confuse cost savings with simplification. You're trading granular, customizable rules for a more curated, opinionated set. The logging volume will drop because Cloudflare filters more at the edge before it reaches your origin, but the *actionable* data you get for tuning is different, not necessarily less.
Your $20 plan includes their managed rulesets. Push that to Grafana via their Logpush integration and set up a dashboard for threat analytics. That's where you'll see if the visibility is sufficient for your needs.