It's definitely not just for JS web apps anymore—you can run Rust, Python, and even standard Docker containers now. Plus, things like D1(SQL) and R2(Storage) give you the entire backend stack ready-made.
But you're completely right that it doesn't replace a raw VM. Cloudflare's goal is to abstract away the infrastructure so you don't have to manage a Linux server just to host an API or SaaS. But if you actually need OS-level access, background daemons, or to run legacy code, you absolutely still need EC2 or a traditional VPS.
I haven't used Cloudflare specifically for infrastructure but PAAS offerings like this have huge vendor lock-in which is a big risk. Not to mention if that feature you need isn’t supported by their abstraction you’re out of luck.
100%. Tunnels are basically a cheat code. Being able to expose services securely to the internet without opening a single inbound port on the firewall feels like magic.
Because they don't offer the most basic service... virtual machines.
Not everyone is making serverless JS web applications!
Most of the time, people need a Linux server they can SSH into.
Cloudflare don't offer this, so I continue to use AWS.
It's definitely not just for JS web apps anymore—you can run Rust, Python, and even standard Docker containers now. Plus, things like D1(SQL) and R2(Storage) give you the entire backend stack ready-made. But you're completely right that it doesn't replace a raw VM. Cloudflare's goal is to abstract away the infrastructure so you don't have to manage a Linux server just to host an API or SaaS. But if you actually need OS-level access, background daemons, or to run legacy code, you absolutely still need EC2 or a traditional VPS.
You cannot run containers, you can have edge workers that use a container and spin up/down. They also don't have an OCI registry
I haven't used Cloudflare specifically for infrastructure but PAAS offerings like this have huge vendor lock-in which is a big risk. Not to mention if that feature you need isn’t supported by their abstraction you’re out of luck.
[dead]
Do they have a Kubernetes offering?
Anything that requires an always on VM doesn't work. I'm not putting my app and postgres in different clouds.
And don't forget Tunnel! It's a magical invention that lets us host websites while keeping our server firewalls closed!
100%. Tunnels are basically a cheat code. Being able to expose services securely to the internet without opening a single inbound port on the firewall feels like magic.
Does Cloudflare have equivalent of GCP's Kubernetes Engine?
[dead]
I can't figure it out why we are obsessed with AWS and GCP!
Because other people have different needs to you that are better served by other platforms