有沒有一家雲端服務公司佛心到讓你覺得它該取消免費方案的？ 那家公司叫 Cloudflare。
作為一家長期為了改善網路主業經營 CDN 的公司 Cloudflare 在 2022/12/1 宣布對其服務的方案進行漲價， 這是 12 年以來首次的漲價，這一次僅針對兩個付費方案做調整，沒有影響到免費方案。
調整項目：
- Pro 方案：月繳 $20 美調漲為 $25 美。
- Business 方案：月繳 $200 美調漲為 $250 美。
2023/1/15 起，新註冊用戶將會採用新的價格，而老客戶會等到 2023/5/15 才開始被收取調整後的價格； 同時 Cloudflare 也推出年繳方案，如果使用年繳方案則可繼續享有原來的價格， 所以這次的漲價對於長年都在使用 Cloudflare 的客戶只要切換成年繳根本不受影響。
作為 Cloudflare 多年客戶的我認為早該漲了！ 甚至應該取消免費方案或應該設限免費方案的用量。
有用過 AWS Cloudfront CDN 服務就知道 Cloudflare 的收費方式有多麼佛心， 免費方案沒有限制流量大小還幫你擋惡意流量，早在 Let’s Encrypt 還沒普及的時候就率先讓你用簡單的方式為網站上免費的 SSL 憑證， 還有諸如 Page Rule 各式各樣方便的工具，減輕開發者的負擔輕鬆實現許多功能。
Cloudflare 與台灣網路業者存在爭議，致使免費及 Pro 方案用戶的 CDN 節點可能會繞到香港、日本甚至美國(LAX)去， 還記得早期因為這樣的情況有用 CDN 比沒用 CDN 還要慘，有時候還得把功能暫停，才能使網站速度得到改善， 雖然免費方案的 CDN 沒有台灣節點，與 AWS Cloudfront 在延遲無法相比，畢竟是免費的還附加那麼多功能，且也沒有早期那種那種慘況了。
因此，免費方案就能滿足大部分使用者的需求的情況下，Cloudflare 形成一股炫風， 讓許多網站(特別像是 Wordpress 架設的網站)都使用 Cloudflare 的服務為網站加速， 造就這間公司的用戶穩定成長但也難以獲利，雖然近幾個季度已經接近損益平衡， 要實現真正獲利還是得從源頭設法，這可能也是為什麼 Cloudflare 這次終於要漲價了。
信件原文
Upcoming pricing changes to your Cloudflare subscription
Cloudflare is raising prices on our Pro and Business plans for the first time in 12 years. After not raising prices in our history, this was something we thought about carefully. Alongside these increases, however, we’re also introducing annual plans — and if you opt into one, the price you pay won’t change at all.
Early on, we only charged monthly because we were an unproven service we knew customers were taking a risk on. Today, that’s no longer the case. The majority of our customers have been using us for years and, from our conversations with them, plan to continue using us for the foreseeable future. In fact, one of the top requests we receive is from customers who want to pay once per year rather than getting billed every month.
A detailed explanation of our thinking can be found in this blog post: https://blog.cloudflare.com/adjusting-pricing-introducing-annual-plans-and-accelerating-innovation/
If you do nothing and continue to pay monthly, then on May 15, 2023, the Pro Plan will increase from $20 per month to $25 per month, and the Business Plan will increase from $200 per month to $250 per month. As a thank you for being a loyal customer, we are keeping you at the existing price until May 15, 2023, while new signups start paying the new price from January 15, 2023.
But if you’d like to lock in the existing pricing, you can opt to pay annually. If you do so, then your “monthly” price won’t change at all. You’d pay $240 per year on the Pro Plan and $2,400 per year on the Business Plan — the same total cost as today.
As we detail in the blog post explaining our rationale for making these changes, we’re hoping that you opt for the annual plans — you’ll get to lock in the existing pricing, and you’ll help us further accelerate our network growth and pace of innovation.
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