Inquiry about Free Plan Features: WAF Services and Zero Trust Tunnels

[NiklasH]

Hello Cloudflare Community,

I have a couple of questions regarding the features included in the Cloudflare Free Plan. I’ve been in contact with Cloudflare Support, but I couldn’t get clear answers to my questions, so I’m hoping the community can provide some insight.

1. Web Application Firewall (WAF) Services: The Cloudflare plans page (Our Plans | Pricing) states that the Free Plan doesn’t include WAF services. However, I’ve noticed that I can configure WAF rules while logged in as a free user. Is this a feature that’s actually available for free, or is it a paid service?
2. Zero Trust Tunnels: I understand that Zero Trust tunnels are designed for HTTP/HTTPS traffic, but I’m curious if I can use them for HTTP-based applications that involve large file transfers, such as Nextcloud. For example, is it possible to run HTTP applications that handle significant file transfers over Zero Trust tunnels without incurring additional costs?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

[headinthecloud]

Hi there @NiklasH,

Thanks for reaching out to our Community, I will try to clarify your questions the best I can.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Services : The Cloudflare plans page (Our Plans | Pricing) states that the Free Plan doesn’t include WAF services.

I can confirm that the FREE plan does in fact include WAF, albeit some advanced features are indeed unlocked in paid tiers.
You can obtain more information on them here: Cloudflare Web Application Firewall · Cloudflare Web Application Firewall (WAF) docs

Additionally, I will reach out internally to our marketing team to get this information corrected on our Plans page, thanks for bringing this up!

For example, is it possible to run HTTP applications that handle significant file transfers over Zero Trust tunnels without incurring additional costs?

Using significant file transfers over Cloudflare Tunnels in a FREE plan might actually trigger a violation of our terms of service (check Section 2.8), so I would recommend caution:

Self-Serve Subscription Agreement

Use of the Services for serving video or a disproportionate percentage of pictures, audio files, or other non-HTML content is prohibited

Here are some relevant threads on this matter:

Can I serve video or large files through argo tunnel

From the ToS: Use of the Services for serving video or a disproportionate percentage of pictures, audio files, or other non-HTML content is prohibited Caching isn’t the factor, it’s serving. So absent a separate paid service/ agreement to deliver video or serve as something like a file locker it’s not covered under the Self-Serve subscription.

Can I use cloudflare tunnels to reverse proxy my nextcloud server at home?

Hello, I am planning to use Cloudflares tunnels to act as a reverse proxy for my nextcloud server running at home but I’ve done some digging and found out that it might violate Cloudflares TOS. I looked on the community forum here as well and discovered this post from another user who had the same question. The answer isn’t a straight yes or no and they’re discussing Argo tunnels which I’m not using. Is it possible to get confirmation from the team at Cloudflare to confirm if this action would…

I hope this information was useful, let us know if we can further assist you in this matter!