Cloudflare hikes monthly plan prices 'for the first time'

Launches annual plan to preserve 2022 costs

Major web infrastructure company Cloudflare is increasing prices for its Pro and Business plans by 25%.

The Pro plan will cost $25 per month instead of $20 per month for new customers as of the 15th January 2023. Similarly, the Business plan will also go up from $200 per month to $250 per month for new signups.

The company defends the move by saying it is the first price rise in 12 years.

Customers who are already using the service or who sign up before 15th January will remain on the current monthly rates until the 14th May.

Additionally, Cloudflare is also introducing annual plans, offering discounts to customers willing to pay for the entire year up front. For the Pro and Business plans, an annual subscription will currently cost $240 and $2,400 respectively, the same as their current (pre-rise) monthly cost.

The Free plan will not change, and Cloudflare will keep introducing new features to its free users over time, the company says.

Cloudflare is a web security and content delivery network company that launched in 2010. It is a major global player, protecting millions of websites against DDoS attacks.

Cloudflare says it is not raising prices to boost sales, but to invest in expanding its network.

"We need to invest up front in building out our network, and the main reason we're making this change is to more closely map our business with the timing of our underlying costs," said CEO Matthew Prince and President Michelle Zatlyn.

The executives argue that customers paying monthly for a subscription "inherently, is a governor on our pace of innovation."

They added that Cloudflare will be able to use the extra revenue from the price rises to accelerate innovation and network growth.

"We can invest even faster - hire more engineers, deploy more servers - if those customers who know they're going to use us for the next year pay for us up front," the company says.

Receiving a year's worth of money up advance will also spare the company from the need to deal with short-term finance - an important point in a world where interest rates and inflation are rising quickly and lenders are becoming increasingly risk-averse.