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Cloudflare Stats: How Many Websites Use Cloudflare?

Backlinko Team

Written by Backlinko Team

Cloudflare Stats: How Many Websites Use Cloudflare?

Founded in 2009, Cloudflare has become a leading internet security company offering global cloud services.

The business generated $1.3 billion in revenue in 2023, showing a 32.97% year-over-year increase. According to Cloudflare, its customers include 30% of Fortune 500 companies.

Read on to discover the latest Cloudflare data for 2024.

Here’s a quick summary of what we’ll cover:

Cloudflare Key Stats

  • 24.03 million active websites use Cloudflare.
  • Cloudflare has a total of 210,166 paying customers.
  • The internet security company has 3,046 large customers (contributing more than $100,000 in annualized revenue each).
  • Cloudflare generated $1.3 billion in revenue in 2023.
  • Nearly half (47.7%) of Cloudflare’s revenue came from customers with a billing address outside of the United States.
  • Cloudflare currently has 3,902 full-time employees.

How Many Websites Use Cloudflare?

In total, 24,030,148 active websites use Cloudflare worldwide. Ranked by traffic, 4,332 out of 10,000 most popular websites globally use Cloudflare.

Of all the live websites using Cloudflare, 2,469,436 (10.28%) are registered in the United States.

How Many Websites Use Cloudflare?

Here’s a breakdown of the number of live websites by country. Included are the 10 regions with the highest number of active websites using Cloudflare:

Country Live Websites Using Cloudflare
United States 2,469,436
United Kingdom 779,134
Brazil 516,559
Germany 491,043
Russia 441,068
Australia 407,039
Canada 307,524
China 285,560
India 282,323
France 223,462

Source: Built With

Cloudflare Paying Customers

Cloudflare has 210,166 paying customers as of June 2024, showing a 20.7% year-over-year increase.

Cloudflare Paying Customers

Cloudflare’s paying customer base has grown by 2.19x since Q2 2020.

We’ve charted Cloudflare paying customer growth since 2016 (by quarter):

Date Cloudflare Paying Customers
Q4 2016 35,002
Q4 2017 49,309
Q1 2018 58,330
Q2 2018 62,653
Q3 2018 67,643
Q4 2018 72,823
Q1 2019 73,555
Q2 2019 77,626
Q3 2019 80,986
Q4 2019 84,154
Q1 2020 89,223
Q2 2020 96,178
Q3 2020 100,968
Q4 2020 111,183
Q1 2021 119,206
Q2 2021 126,735
Q3 2021 132,390
Q4 2021 140,096
Q1 2022 154,109
Q2 2022 151,803
Q3 2022 156,000
Q4 2022 162,086
Q1 2023 168,159
Q2 2023 174,129
Q3 2023 182,027
Q4 2023 189,791
Q1 2024 197,138
Q2 2024 210,166

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare Large Customers

The minimum threshold for being considered a “large customer” by Cloudflare is an annualized revenue of $100,000 or more per account.

Cloudflare had a total of 3,046 large customers in Q2 2024, contributing more than $100,000 in annualized revenue. The internet security company increased its enterprise segment by 29.51% over the past year.

Cloudflare Large Customers

Cloudflare has grown its number of large customers by 2.8x since Q2 2021.

Here’s a table showing a number of Cloudflare customers with an annualized spend of $100K or more since 2016:

Date Cloudflare Large Customers
Q4 2016 95
Q4 2017 160
Q1 2018 197
Q2 2018 235
Q3 2018 261
Q4 2018 294
Q1 2019 336
Q2 2019 387
Q3 2019 451
Q4 2019 526
Q1 2020 556
Q2 2020 637
Q3 2020 736
Q4 2020 828
Q1 2021 945
Q2 2021 1,088
Q3 2021 1,260
Q4 2021 1,416
Q1 2022 1,537
Q2 2022 1,749
Q3 2022 1,908
Q4 2022 2,042
Q1 2023 2,156
Q2 2023 2,352
Q3 2023 2,558
Q4 2023 2,756
Q1 2024 2,878
Q2 2024 3,046

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare Revenue

Cloudflare generated $401 million in revenue in Q2 2024. And $1.3 billion in revenue across 2023.

Cloudflare Revenue

Here’s a table with Cloudflare revenue since 2016:

Year Cloudflare Revenue
2016 $84.81 million
2017 $134.91 million
2018 $192.67 million
2019 $287.02 million
2020 $431.06 million
2021 $656.43 million
2022 $975.24 million
2023 $1.3 billion
Q1 2024 $378.6 million
Q2 2024 $401 million

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare Revenue Breakdown by Region

Cloudflare provides a revenue breakdown based on customer billing address with an active contract.

In 2023, Cloudflare generated $678.18 million in revenue from clients with a billing address in the United States, accounting for a 52.3% share of global revenue. The company’s revenue from the US market has increased by 31.5% over the previous year.

Cloudflare US Revenue (Share of Total)

Here’s a table showing Cloudflare’s revenue from customers in the United States since 2016:

Year Cloudflare US Revenue (Share of Total)
2016 $43.18 million (50.91%)
2017 $64.94 million (48.14%)
2018 $92.65 million (48.09%)
2019 $144.57 million (50.37%)
2020 $218.19 million (50.62%)
2021 $342.58 million (52.19%)
2022 $515.72 million (52.88%)
2023 $678.18 million (52.3%)
Q1 2024 $196.46 million (51.89%)

Cloudflare brought in $356.57 million in revenue from customers with a billing address in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in 2023. That represents an increase of 35.08% over the previous year.

EMEA Revenue (Share)

Cloudflare’s EMEA revenue share has reached 27.84% in Q1 2024 (27.5% in 2023), increasing from 20.86% in 2016.

We’ve charted Cloudflare’s revenue from customers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa since 2016:

Year EMEA Revenue (Share)
2016 $17.69 million (20.86%)
2017 $31.88 million (23.63%)
2018 $48.44 million (25.14%)
2019 $68.42 million (23.84%)
2020 $109.27 million (25.35%)
2021 $172.13 million (26.22%)
2022 $258.29 million (26.48%)
2023 $356.57 million (27.5%)
Q1 2024 $105.38 million (27.84%)

Cloudflare’s revenue from customers in the Asia Pacific region reached $168.83 million in 2023 – a 26.6% year-over-year growth.

Asia Pacific Revenue (Share)

Here’s a table including Cloudflare’s revenue from customers with a billing address in the Asia Pacific region since 2016:

Note: Asia Pacific revenue data for 2016 and 2017 excludes China.
Year Asia Pacific Revenue (Share)
2016 $8.5 million (10.02%)
2017 $15.46 million (11.46%)
2018 $38.85 million (20.16%)
2019 $55.13 million (19.21%)
2020 $76.12 million (17.66%)
2021 $96.54 million (14.71%)
2022 $133.35 million (13.67%)
2023 $168.83 million (13.02%)
Q1 2024 $47.65 million (12.59%)

In 2023, Cloudflare generated $93.17 million in revenue from “other markets” (outside of the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific). This represents a growth of 37.26% over the previous year.

Cloudflare Other Markets Revenue

We’ve charted Cloudflare’s revenue from other markets since 2016:

Year Cloudflare Other Markets Revenue
2016 $5.37 million
2017 $8.2 million
2018 $12.73 million
2019 $18.9 million
2020 $27.42 million
2021 $45.18 million
2022 $67.88 million
2023 $93.17 million
Q1 2024 $29.1 million

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare Revenue Breakdown by Type of Customers

Cloudflare’s sales team and channel partners each generate revenue from sales transactions.

As such, the company brought in $1.09 billion in direct customer revenue in 2023 – an 84.39% share of total revenue. Cloudflare’s direct customer revenue increased by 28.34% over the past year.

Cloudflare Direct Customers Revenue (Share of Total)

Here’s a detailed overview of Cloudflare’s direct customer revenue since 2016:

Year Cloudflare Direct Customers Revenue (Share of Total)
2016 $81.34 million (95.91%)
2017 $127.07 million (94.19%)
2018 $179.44 million (93.13%)
2019 $260.53 million (90.77%)
2020 $385.76 million (89.49%)
2021 $582.62 million (88.76%)
2022 $852.72 million (87.44%)
2023 $1.09 billion (84.39%)
Q1 2024 $308.15 million (81.39%)

Cloudflare generated $202.4 million in channel partners revenue in 2023. And $70.45 million in the first three months of 2024.

Cloudflare Channel Partners Revenue

Here’s Cloudflare’s channel partners revenue since 2016:

Year Cloudflare Channel Partners Revenue (Share of Total)
2016 $3.45 million (4.07%)
2017 $7.85 million (5.82%)
2018 $13.23 million (6.87%)
2019 $26.5 million (9.23%)
2020 $45.3 million (10.51%)
2021 $73.8 million (11.24%)
2022 $122.52 million (12.56%)
2023 $202.4 million (15.6%)
Q1 2024 $70.45 million (18.61%)

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare Total Operating Expenses

Cloudflare’s operating expenses totaled $1.18 billion in 2023. That’s an increase of 24.52% over the previous year.

Cloudflare Total Operating Expenses

The following table shows Cloudflare’s total operating expenses since 2016:

Year Cloudflare Total Operating Expenses
2016 $77.86 million
2017 $115.86 million
2018 $234.04 million
2019 $331.54 million
2020 $436.77 million
2021 $636.98 million
2022 $943.83 million
2023 $1.18 billion
Q1 2024 $348.11 million

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare Sales and Marketing Expenses

Cloudflare’s sales and marketing expenses amounted to $599.12 million in 2023, making up 50.98% of total operating expenses.

Cloudflare Sales and Marketing Expenses

Here’s a table displaying Cloudflare’s sales and marketing expenses:

Year Cloudflare Sales and Marketing Expenses (Share of Total)
2016 $40.12 million (51.53%)
2017 $61.9 million (53.43%)
2018 $94.39 million (40.33%)
2019 $159.3 million (48.05%)
2020 $217.87 million (49.88%)
2021 $328.07 million (51.5%)
2022 $465.76 million (49.35%)
2023 $599.12 million (50.98%)
Q1 2024 $194.1 million (55.76%)

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare Research and Development Expenses

In 2023, Cloudflare reported $358.14 million in research and development expenses. The company’s research and development expenses grew by 20.06% over the previous year.

Cloudflare Research and Development Expenses

We’ve charted Cloudflare research and development expenses since 2016:

Year Cloudflare Research and Development Expenses (Share of Total)
2016 $23.66 million (30.39%)
2017 $33.65 million (29.04%)
2018 $54.46 million (23.27%)
2019 $90.7 million (27.36%)
2020 $127.14 million (29.11%)
2021 $189.41 million (29.74%)
2022 $298.3 million (31.61%)
2023 $358.14 million (30.47%)
Q1 2024 $87.7 million (25.19%)

Source: Cloudflare

Cloudflare General and Administrative Expenses

Cloudflare spent $217.97 million in general and administrative expenses in 2023. And an additional $66.31 million in Q1 2024.

Cloudflare General and Administrative Expenses

Here’s a table showing Cloudflare’s general and administrative expenses since 2016:

Year Cloudflare General and Administrative Expenses (Share of Total)
2016 $14.07 million (18.07%)
2017 $20.3 million (17.52%)
2018 $85.18 million (36.4%)
2019 $81.58 million (24.61%)
2020 $91.75 million (21.01%)
2021 $119.5 million (18.76%)
2022 $179.77 million (19.05%)
2023 $217.97 million (18.55%)
Q1 2024 $66.31 million (19.05%)

Source: Cloudflare

How Many People Work at Cloudflare?

As of June 2024, Cloudflare has 3,902 employees worldwide. The company’s headcount has grown by 21.29% since December 2022.

As of June 2024, Cloudflare has 3,902 employees worldwide

Here’s a table showing Cloudflare’s employee count since Q1 2018:

Date Cloudflare Headcount
2018 1,069
2019 1,270
2020 1,788
2021 2,440
2022 3,217
2023 3,682
Q1 2024 3,704
Q2 2024 3,902

Average compensation is estimated to be $138,324, according to Comparably data. Based on 86 records of employees with an H1B visa, the median base salary at the company is $164,500.

Sources: Cloudflare, Macrotrends, Comparably, H1B Salary Database

Conclusion

That’s all for our list of Cloudflare stats in 2024.

The web infrastructure and security company is gaining increased market traction with additional paying customers, including the growth of its enterprise segment.