A
Cloudflare vs Let's Encrypt
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
C
Choose Cloudflare if…
- you work on Web
- you're in its core audience: website owners, developers
L
Choose Let's Encrypt if…
- you need an API to build on
- you're in its core audience: website owners, web developers
Side by side
Feature Cloudflare Let's Encrypt
Pricing modelFreemiumFree
Starting price$5/moFree
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
PlatformsWebAPI
CategoryDDoS protection & WAFSSL certificates
CompanyCloudflare, Inc.Internet Security Research Group (ISRG)
Full feature lists
C Cloudflare
- Unmetered DDoS protection on all plans
- Web application firewall and bot protection
- Global CDN and DNS in 335+ cities
- Universal SSL certificates
- Zero Trust access, SWG and DEX
- Workers serverless functions billed by CPU time
- R2 object storage without egress fees
- D1 SQL, Workers KV and Durable Objects
L Let's Encrypt
- Free TLS/SSL certificates for websites
- Automated issuance and renewal via the ACME protocol
- Domain control validation
- List of recommended ACME clients
- Public service status and statistics pages
- Community support forum
- Documentation in many languages
Their home pages
What each vendor shows first: the pitch, the plans and the sign-up.
What you'd pay
The cheapest plan that fits, per month, billed yearly where the plan offers it.
| Team size | Cloudflare | Let's Encrypt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $7 Zero Trust Pay-as-you-go | no published plan |
| 5 people | $20 Pro | no published plan |
| 20 people | $20 Pro | no published plan |
All plans and prices
Cloudflare
Free (Network & CDN)$0
Pro$20/mo billed annually or $25/mo billed monthly
Business$200/mo billed annually or $250/mo billed monthly
ContractCustom
Zero Trust Free$0
Zero Trust Pay-as-you-go$7/user/month
Workers Paid$0.30 / million requests + $0.02 / million CPU ms
Let's Encrypt
FreeFree
Strengths and limitations
Cloudflare
- Free plan includes unmetered DDoS protection, CDN and SSL
- Zero Trust free for up to 50 users
- Workers billed for CPU time, not idle wall time
- R2 storage has no egress fees
- Uptime SLA only on Business plan and above
- PCI DSS compliance requires Business plan
- Free Zero Trust plan keeps logs only 24 hours
Let's Encrypt
- Certificates are completely free
- Fully automated through ACME clients
- Run by a nonprofit and used by more than 700M websites
- Site is available in many languages
- Certificates are short-lived, so automated renewal is effectively required
- Support is through a community forum
More comparisons
Other options to consider
A
Paid
I
II
Contact
D
D
From $3830/mo
Z
ZFree and paid SSL certificates with ACME automation, REST API and site scans
Free, from $14.99/mo
Z
Free, from $14.99/mo
Z
Free and paid SSL certificates with ACME automation, REST API and site scans
SSL certificatesFree planAPI
S
SS
Free trial
Facts from each vendor's public pages, prices checked Nov 10, 2026. Editorial policy