SaaS Radar

Is Cloudflare Web Analytics free, and is it enough for your site?

Published 2026-08-17 · Researched and price-checked on official sources

Cloudflare Web Analytics is free on every Cloudflare plan, but it is enabled by default on sites routed through Cloudflare's proxy, so switching nameservers can silently add its tracking beacon. It measures pageviews and Core Web Vitals without cookies. Most sites can keep it; those needing subdomain control should consider Plausible, Fathom, or Simple Analytics.

Key facts

What matters

Cloudflare Web Analytics is free on all plans and tracks pageviews, visits, page load time, and Core Web Vitals without cookies, per Cloudflare's docs and its privacy-first analytics blog.
It is enabled by default on proxied zones: switching nameservers to Cloudflare can silently add the beacon, and the fix is an opt-out dashboard setting, not an opt-in choice.
The Free plan allows zero rules, so the beacon fires on every subdomain; Pro ($20/mo billed annually) adds 5 rules, Business 20, Enterprise 100.
Non-proxied sites are capped at 10 tracked sites; proxied sites have no site limit.
Paid privacy-first alternatives start at $9/mo: Plausible (10k pageviews), Fathom $15/mo with no free tier, Simple Analytics $20/mo, and PostHog's free tier covers 1M events monthly.

What is Cloudflare Web Analytics?

Cloudflare Web Analytics is a free, privacy-first analytics service available on all Cloudflare plans, including the $0/mo Free tier. It measures pageviews, visits, page load time, and Core Web Vitals for your site visitors. Cloudflare's documentation describes it as web analytics "without compromising user privacy," and its blog confirms the service uses no client-side state such as cookies or localStorage and does not track users over time by IP address or User Agent.

Data is broken down by dimensions: country, path, referer, device type, browser, and operating system. A "visit" is defined by Cloudflare as a page view that arrived from a different website or direct link, so one visit can contain multiple page views. Filters and rules let you refine what gets reported, within the plan limits covered below.

The way the tool is installed depends on how your domain uses Cloudflare. For sites proxied through Cloudflare (the orange-cloud proxy mode), the analytics beacon can be injected automatically at the edge, so no code changes are needed. For sites that only use Cloudflare for DNS, you add a JavaScript snippet manually, and Cloudflare's docs cap that setup at 10 tracked sites.

Why Cloudflare Web Analytics turned on without you asking

On August 17, 2026, a Hacker News post titled "Tell HN: Cloudflare silently injects its analytics when you switch nameservers" documented the surprise in practice. The author switched his nameservers to Cloudflare so he could serve an R2 bucket from his own subdomain, then discovered that Cloudflare had injected a JavaScript analytics snippet into his HTML-only, JS-free site (textlog.cc). He had to go into the analytics dashboard and remove it manually.

This is not a bug, and it is not new. Cloudflare's get-started documentation states that for sites proxied through Cloudflare, the automatic setup "is enabled by default," and that "Web Analytics is enabled by default for sites proxied through Cloudflare that previously used Browser Insights." The default-on behavior was announced around a year ago in Cloudflare's RUM Diaries series. Commenters on the thread noted the feature is opt-out rather than opt-in, and one pointed out that proxy mode itself is also opt-out, calling the combination a "double opt-out." Zones on DNS-only mode do not get the beacon, which is why many users only notice the change after a nameserver or proxy-mode switch.

To turn it off: in the Cloudflare dashboard, open Web Analytics, select Manage Site for the hostname, and choose Disable. Two middle options exist: "Enable, excluding visitor data in the EU" keeps the beacon off for European visitors, and "Enable with JS Snippet installation" switches you to manual control of the snippet. None of these options cost anything.

Cloudflare Web Analytics limits: the honest catch

Zero rules on the Free plan. Cloudflare's limits page says rules exist only for proxied sites, and "for plans with a limit of zero, Web Analytics injects the JS snippet on all subdomains." If you run several subdomains on a Free zone, every one of them gets the beacon, and you cannot scope it without paying for Pro at $20/mo billed annually (5 rules), Business (20 rules), or Enterprise (100 rules).
10-site cap for non-proxied sites. Sites not proxied through Cloudflare are limited to 10 tracked sites. Proxied sites have no site limit.
No goals, funnels, or revenue tracking. The docs expose high-level metrics, page load time, Core Web Vitals, and dimensions. If you need conversion data, you will be shopping for a paid tool regardless of price.
One documented edge case: if your origin sends a Cache-Control header set to public, no-transform, Cloudflare's proxy cannot modify the payload, so the beacon is not injected and Web Analytics stops working.

Cloudflare Web Analytics vs paid alternatives

The reason a free analytics tool deserves a comparison article is that several paid tools exist specifically because free options are too limited. Here is what each alternative costs, verified on official pricing pages on August 17, 2026.

Plausible: from $9/mo, open source, EU-hosted

Plausible starts at $9/mo for 10k monthly pageviews on the Starter plan, $19/mo at 100k, with Growth and Business tiers above that. Annual billing gives 2 months free, and there is a 30-day free trial with no credit card. Plausible is EU-hosted, open source, and cookie-free, and its own materials say the script is 54 times smaller than Google Analytics, saving roughly 135KB per visitor. It adds what Cloudflare Web Analytics does not: goals, funnels, scroll depth, revenue tracking, and a Search Console connection. The Starter plan covers one site with 3 years of data retention. Plausible reports 20,000 paying subscribers and 260 billion tracked pageviews.

Fathom: $15/mo, no free tier, forever retention

Fathom prices by pageview slider: 100k pageviews costs $15/mo, 200k is $25, 500k (marked recommended) is $45, 1M is $60, and 25M is $470. There is no free tier; Fathom's own FAQ answers the question with "Nope, and here's why." Entry plans include 50 sites, forever data retention, a 7-day free trial, and 2 months free on annual billing. Extra sites cost $10/mo per pack of 50.

Simple Analytics: $20/mo, EU-hosted, compliant by design

Simple Analytics charges $20/mo for an estimated 100k pageviews, with a slider up to 2.5M and 2 months free on annual billing. Its pitch is zero configuration: no cookies, no consent banners, no personal data, hosted in the EU and "compliant by design."

PostHog: free tier, then usage-based

PostHog is a different shape: a product analytics platform with a monthly free tier that includes 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature flag requests, 100K exceptions, and 1,500 survey responses. Past the free tier, product analytics runs from $0.00005 per event between 1M and 2M events, dropping with volume. It is the choice when you want session replay and feature flags next to your traffic numbers.

Google Analytics 4: free, but cookie-based

GA4's standard tier is free and remains the default for most sites. The trade is privacy mechanics: Plausible markets itself on needing no cookie banners or GDPR consent, a direct contrast with cookie-based tools such as GA4, and GA4's script is far heavier than the lightweight alternatives. For a buyer whose only goal is traffic and Core Web Vitals without consent banners, GA4 is hard to justify against a free edge-injected beacon.

Who should keep Cloudflare Web Analytics and who should pay

Keep Cloudflare Web Analytics if you run a personal site, blog, or small business site on Cloudflare's free plan; you only need traffic levels and Core Web Vitals; and you accept the beacon running on every subdomain.
Pay for Plausible if you need goals, funnels, or revenue tracking; you want EU hosting and open source; or you manage one site and $9/mo fits the budget.
Pay for Fathom if you manage many sites (50 included at entry tiers) and want forever retention without a free tier tradeoff.
Consider PostHog if you are building a product and want session replay, feature flags, and surveys in the same tool as analytics.
Disable or go manual if you simply do not want Cloudflare's beacon running at all. That is a dashboard setting, and it is free.

Agencies are the group most likely to outgrow the free tier: the 10-site cap on non-proxied tracking plus the zero-rules limit on Free plans means a shop with a dozen client domains either proxies every site or pays for rules. In that scenario, a $9 Plausible plan per client or a $15 Fathom plan covering 50 sites can be cheaper than moving clients onto Cloudflare Pro.

One distinction worth making: traffic analytics measures visits. If what you need is search-query-level SEO data, keyword rankings, or backlink analysis, that is a different category, and no traffic tool covers it.

At a glance

Tool	Starting price	Included volume	Cookie banner	Best for
Cloudflare Web Analytics	Free on all plans	Unlimited proxied sites; 10 non-proxied	Not needed	Traffic and Core Web Vitals on a proxied zone
Plausible	$9/mo (Starter)	10k pageviews, 1 site	Not needed	Goals, funnels, revenue, EU hosting
Fathom	$15/mo	100k pageviews, 50 sites	Not needed	Many sites with forever retention
Simple Analytics	$20/mo	100k pageviews	Not needed	Zero-config privacy compliance
PostHog	Free tier	1M events/mo	Not needed	Product analytics and session replay
Google Analytics 4	Free (standard)	Free standard tier	Cookie-based	Audience and funnel tooling

Cloudflare Web Analytics vs paid privacy-first analytics, prices verified on official pages August 17, 2026

FAQ

Is Cloudflare Web Analytics free?

Yes. Cloudflare's docs state Web Analytics is available on all plans, including the $0/mo Free plan. Paid plans change rules limits (Pro at $20/mo billed annually gets 5 rules) but do not gate the analytics itself.

Does Cloudflare Web Analytics use cookies?

No. Cloudflare states it does not use client-side state such as cookies or localStorage for analytics, and it does not track users over time via IP address or User Agent. That is why no consent banner is needed for the beacon itself.

Cloudflare Web Analytics vs Plausible: which is better?

Cloudflare is free and zero-config on proxied zones but offers no rules on the Free plan (the beacon fires on all subdomains) and no goal, funnel, or revenue tracking. Plausible starts at $9/mo for 10k pageviews and adds goals, funnels, Search Console data, EU hosting, and open source. Choose Cloudflare for simple traffic and Core Web Vitals; choose Plausible when you need conversions.