Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Billing model and “overcharge” behavior

  • Many commenters agree Cloudflare Images is unusually expensive relative to Cloudflare’s other products and to alternatives like S3, R2, or Bunny.
  • The core complaint is about confusing, multi-step prorated charges when upgrading storage mid-cycle, which can make customers feel overbilled or like they’re “floating” Cloudflare money.
  • Some readers think the math likely works out roughly correctly in the end, but the timing, UI, and invoices are seen as opaque and error‑prone.
  • Others share similar billing oddities across Cloudflare products (domains, R2 “late usage,” Stream overages) and call the overall billing system a mess.

Support and escalation dynamics

  • Cloudflare support is widely described as slow, unhelpful, and prone to auto‑closing tickets, even for paying/pro accounts.
  • Several report needing to complain publicly (HN, Reddit, etc.) to get an engineer to look at issues.
  • This pattern erodes confidence and leads some to avoid or migrate away from Cloudflare add‑on services.

Cloudflare Images vs alternatives

  • Users question why one would choose Images over simpler object storage plus a CDN.
  • Defenses of image platforms: automatic resizing, format negotiation (WebP/AVIF/JXL), watermarking, and integration with CDN and auth.
  • Multiple commenters say they’ve switched from Cloudflare’s image/video products to specialized providers (Cloudinary, Imgix, Mux, Bunny, Gumlet), citing better reliability, clearer billing, and responsive support—sometimes at similar or lower cost.
  • Some recommend R2 plus a Worker and/or third‑party image optimization instead of Cloudflare Images directly.

R2 “free egress” and trust

  • Debate centers on whether “no egress fees” and “unmetered mitigation” can truly be unlimited.
  • One side argues R2 egress is contractually free and that vendor risk management (having an exit plan) is the real issue.
  • Skeptics expect some implicit upper bound or future policy change and point to Cloudflare’s history of selectively clamping down on high‑usage or “abusive” customers.

Self‑hosting and cost structure

  • Several argue that for modest image volumes (≈1 TB/month), self‑hosting on a box or VPS is cheap and easy; hardware is “dirt cheap.”
  • Others push back that reliability, uptime, complex image processing (new formats, web vitals), and scalability make managed services worth a premium, especially at large scale.