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To qualify for the Cloudflare startup program through FounderPass, your business must meet all of the following:
- You are building a software based product or service
- Your company was founded within the last 5 years
- You have raised between $50,000 and $5 million in funding
- You have a LinkedIn profile
- You have a valid business website and email address
Eligibility is reviewed by Cloudflare and final approval is at their discretion.
The Cloudfare deal you get:
If approved, you'll get 1 year of free Cloudflare services including:
- Unmetered mitigation of DDoS attacks with network prioritization
- Global CDN
- 100% Uptime
- Zero Trust
- Cloudflare Rules
- Certificates / ACM
- 24/7/365 Email Support
- Spectrum
- Rate Limiting
- Role-based account access
- Advanced web application firewall (WAF) with 50 custom rulesets
- Image optimization
- Mobile acceleration
* Up to $250,000 worth, For R2 storage you will be able to access up to $10,000 in usage for the duration of the program.
Redemption steps for this Cloudflare offer
Follow these steps in order to see if you qualify for this Cloudflare discount:
- Request this deal from us via the button at the top
- We send you information including a link to our partners form for you to complete.
- Cloudflare then reviews your application.
- If approved, your startup benefits are applied directly to your Cloudflare account.
Once approved, you can begin using Cloudflare’s services immediately under the startup program.
About Cloudflare and pricing
Cloudflare sits between your users and your servers. It acts as a global security and performance layer that protects your product, accelerates delivery and improves reliability without requiring you to manage complex infrastructure.
Instead of traffic hitting your servers directly, Cloudflare filters, optimises and secures it first. This reduces load, blocks malicious activity and ensures legitimate users get faster and more consistent access to your product.
Founders use Cloudflare to:
- Protect against DDoS attacks and malicious traffic
- Speed up websites and applications worldwide
- Secure APIs and backend services
- Manage DNS and traffic routing
- Improve uptime and reliability
Beyond performance and security, Cloudflare also helps with compliance, access control and modern web application protection, which becomes increasingly important as products scale.
Cloudflare pricing normally scales based on usage and feature access. As traffic grows, so does cost. The startup program allows early stage companies to access advanced protection and performance tools much earlier than standard plans would normally allow.
For founders, this means you can build on enterprise grade infrastructure from the start without enterprise level pricing pressure. It gives you room to grow while keeping your product fast, secure and resilient.
Why founders use Cloudflare
From our experience working with founders, Cloudflare is often one of the first infrastructure tools adopted once a product goes live. It quietly does critical work in the background while letting teams focus on building.
Founders choose Cloudflare because it:
- Reduces security risk without heavy setup
- Improves global performance automatically
- Scales as traffic grows
- Requires minimal maintenance
- Is trusted by some of the largest internet companies
Our perspective
Cloudflare is not the kind of tool you get excited about when building your product but it is the kind of tool you are grateful for when everything just works.
It protects your business quietly in the background while you focus on growth and with the startup program, you can access that protection much earlier than most companies normally would.
If you are building a software product, Cloudflare is one of the smartest infrastructure foundations you can put in place early.
Cloudflare alternatives
While Cloudflare is one of the most widely used internet infrastructure platforms, there are other options available to you. Most focus on content delivery, security and traffic management, but differ in ecosystem size, automation and ease of setup.
Cloudflare FAQs
Is Cloudflare only for large companies?
Not at all, many of the companies people associate with Cloudflare started using it when they were very small. The platform scales well in both directions, which is why it works just as well for early stage startups as it does for global enterprises.
Do I need a DevOps team to use Cloudflare?
No, while advanced teams can go very deep with Cloudflare, most startups use it initially for protection, speed and DNS with very little technical overhead. You can add complexity only when you actually need it. We'd advise that you need very little technical expertise to use this.
What problem does Cloudflare usually solve first?
For most founders, the first benefit is peace of mind. Cloudflare reduces exposure to attacks, traffic spikes and downtime before those problems become an issue for you.
Will Cloudflare slow my site down?
No. In almost all cases, Cloudflare improves performance by serving content closer to users and reducing the load on your servers.
Is Cloudflare just a CDN?
No, many people discover Cloudflare as a content delivery network, but it has evolved into a full internet infrastructure platform covering security, networking, performance and application protection.
Can I still host my site wherever I want?
Yes, Cloudflare works with your existing hosting provider so you do not need to move your servers to use Cloudflare.
What happens if I stop using the startup program later?
Your account simply moves onto Cloudflare’s standard pricing and plans, there is no technical lock in.
Is Cloudflare worth setting up before I have traffic?
Yes and no, many founders set it up early so that security and performance are already in place before growth starts but others wait till you are a little more established before introducing it.
Does Cloudflare replace my backend infrastructure?
No, it complements your infrastructure rather than replacing it. Think of it as a smart protective layer in front of what you already run.
What is the biggest mistake founders make with Cloudflare?
Waiting until something goes wrong before setting it up. We've been there many years ago and can say we wish we had it set up beforehand.
Deal change log
- January 12, 2026 - Redemption method change