# Cloudflare Load Balancing vs NGINX

| Attribute | Cloudflare Load Balancing | NGINX |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 63.2 (26% (low)) | 37 (7% (low)) |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A traffic distribution service that intelligently directs user requests to the healthiest and fastest servers across different cloud providers and data centers, enabling continuous uptime and zero-downtime deployments. | An open-source HTTP web server and reverse proxy that handles traffic routing, content caching, load balancing, and TCP/UDP proxying. It powers core web infrastructure and Kubernetes deployments. |
| features.capabilities | - | `{"layer":"both","open_source":true,"waf_bundled":false,"pricing_model":"open-source-self-host","deployment_form":"software/self-host","http2_http3_support":true,"k8s_ingress_or_gateway_api":true}` |
| integrations.count | 3 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"GCP"},{"name":"Azure"}]` | `[{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"OpenShift Container Platform"},{"name":"Gateway API"},{"name":"F5 WAF","native":false,"category":"security","direction":"bidirectional"}]` |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | - | `{"cli":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Load Balancing","summary":"Starting at $5/month","features":["Active/Passive failover between data centers and cloud regions","Multi-cloud support (AWS, GCP, Azure, on-premise)","Geographic routing","Health checks from global network","Near-instantaneous global failover"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false}],"summary":"Starting at $5/month","currency":"USD","freeTier":false,"sourceUrl":"https://www.cloudflare.com/plans","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T13:44:09.368Z","startingPrice":{"amount":5,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source. Commercial support and NGINX Plus (30-day trial) available through F5, Inc.","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://nginx.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-19T13:44:38.584Z","freeTrialDays":30}` |
| pricing.free_tier | no | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.starting_price | `{"amount":5,"currency":"USD"}` | - |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | http://nginx.org/en/security_advisories.html |

## Capabilities (Load Balancers)

| Capability | Cloudflare Load Balancing | NGINX |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Layer | - | Both |
| Deployment form | - | Software/self host |
| Tls termination | - | - |
| Http2 http3 support | - | ✓ |
| Gslb multi region | - | - |
| K8s ingress or gateway API | - | ✓ |
| WAF bundled | - | ✗ |
| Autoscaling integration | - | - |
| Health check depth | - | - |
| Session persistence | - | - |
| Fips 140 validated | - | - |
| Open source | - | ✓ |
| Pricing model | - | Open source self host |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:37:23.384Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*