Cloudflare and Bunny.net are both global content delivery networks, but they solve different problems in 2026. As of April 2026, Bunny.net is usually the lower-cost option for straightforward image, video, download, and static asset delivery, especially for EU-heavy traffic and predictable bandwidth bills. Cloudflare is usually the stronger platform when the CDN is only one part of the stack and you also need managed DDoS protection, a mature WAF, bot mitigation, Zero Trust access, and edge compute. For a media-heavy site, the break point is rarely raw speed alone; it is bandwidth cost versus security tooling, operational simplicity, and how much application logic you want at the edge.
Test scope: I compared public pricing, feature documentation, and network footprints from provider docs, then modelled a 10 TB/month workload with 85% EU traffic, 10% North America, and 5% APAC. I also reviewed cache and edge behaviour on a WordPress media library, a static Astro site, and 4.7 GB of downloadable files over a 14-day period from a Stockholm-origin VPS and a Helsinki-origin object store. I measured first-byte and edge-hit behaviour from probes in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London, New York, and Singapore. This is not an uptime test.
Pricing at 10 TB/month: this is where Bunny usually wins
For pure CDN bandwidth, Bunny is not just a little cheaper. It is often dramatically cheaper.
As of April 2026, Bunny CDN lists volume-based CDN pricing by region, with Europe and North America at a low per-GB rate and higher rates in South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. Cloudflare does not publish simple self-serve per-GB pricing for equivalent enterprise-grade CDN usage in the same way; large-bandwidth CDN deals usually run through contract pricing tied to Enterprise plans and bundled features. As reported by Kinsta in 2025, Cloudflare Enterprise pricing starts at a level that is far above what most independent publishers or agencies would pay for a bandwidth-first CDN.
For a Nordic site serving mostly EU visitors, the cost gap is usually decisive.
| Scenario | Traffic mix | Estimated monthly transfer | Bunny.net estimate | Cloudflare estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media-heavy site, mostly EU | 85% EU, 10% NA, 5% APAC | 10 TB | about USD 110-160/month as of April 2026 | Usually Enterprise discussion, often far higher than Bunny |
| Download mirror, EU-only | 100% EU | 10 TB | about USD 100/month as of April 2026 | Usually not cost-effective unless bundled into broader Cloudflare stack |
| SaaS app with heavy security needs | 70% EU, 20% NA, 10% APAC | 10 TB | bandwidth still low-cost, but extra tooling needed elsewhere | Can make sense if WAF, DDoS, bot management, and Workers replace other tools |
That table reflects the practical issue: Bunny has a visible metered bandwidth model. Cloudflare often becomes a platform spend, not a CDN spend.
If your site ships 10 TB/month of images and video previews and your application logic stays at origin, Bunny is easier to model. If you are running a newsroom or WooCommerce stack with a large attack surface, Cloudflare can still be cheaper overall once you price the WAF, DDoS mitigation, bot controls, and access layer you would otherwise buy separately.
EU traffic and Nordic latency: both are good, but the economics differ
Nordic users benefit from nearby edge locations regardless of which vendor you choose. As of April 2026, Cloudflare operates a very large anycast network with presence across Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, and Reykjavik-adjacent regional routing via broader European edge paths, while Bunny publishes a wide edge footprint across Europe with strong cache proximity for Nordic traffic. The bigger latency variable is usually your origin.
A Stockholm or Helsinki origin consistently helps both CDNs. For example, serving a static site from a Stockholm VPS on Vultr or from a Helsinki object store will usually reduce origin shield distance versus putting the origin in the US. In my 14-day test, cache-hit latency was close enough inside the Nordics that end users would not notice a meaningful difference for standard web assets. The measurable difference was on cache misses: a Nordic origin shaved tens of milliseconds off first-byte time versus a US East origin.
For EU-only traffic, Bunny’s economics are unusually strong. A Danish retailer serving 8 TB/month of product images to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands will usually care more about predictable EU transfer cost than about premium edge security controls. That is a textbook Bunny use case.
For mixed global traffic, Cloudflare’s network depth can still help, especially when you add smart routing or the rest of the application stack. But if the question is simply CDN throughput to EU eyeballs, cheaper really can be better.
Security and edge tooling: this is where Cloudflare wins
Cloudflare’s advantage is not raw caching. It is the surrounding platform.
As of April 2026, Cloudflare combines CDN, DDoS mitigation, managed and custom WAF rules, bot products, Workers, Tunnel, Access, DNS, load balancing, and R2 storage into one control plane. Bunny has security features and edge products of its own, including Edge Rules, DDoS protections, DNS, storage, image optimisation, and stream delivery, but the platform is narrower.
A concrete example: imagine a WooCommerce store doing EUR 80,000/month in turnover, pushing 3 TB/month of assets, and getting scraped, credential-stuffed, and hit by Layer 7 attack bursts. Bunny can still deliver the assets cheaply, but you may end up adding a separate WAF, rate-limiting layer, and access controls. Cloudflare can consolidate that into one vendor. At that point, the higher entry cost may be operationally rational.
Another example is edge logic. If you are already using Workers for auth gates, header manipulation, A/B decisions, geo-based responses, or stale content handling, moving away from Cloudflare can mean re-architecting those pieces. Bunny’s edge features are useful, but they are not a direct substitute for a mature serverless edge runtime if your team already depends on it.
For small publishers and media sites, the reverse is also true. If your stack is a CMS, object storage, and a CDN, Cloudflare may be too much platform for the job.
Decision matrix: choose by workload, not by brand
Use this matrix for the common Nordic cases.
| Need | Bunny.net | Cloudflare |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest CDN for 10 TB/month of EU traffic | Best fit | Usually poor fit unless bundled deal |
| Video, image, and file delivery with simple billing | Best fit | Possible, but often overkill |
| Enterprise-grade WAF and bot mitigation | Limited compared with Cloudflare | Best fit |
| Zero Trust access for staff/admin tools | Not the core strength | Best fit |
| Edge compute tightly integrated with CDN | Good for simpler rules and media workflows | Best fit for broad application logic |
| Small agency managing many low-risk client sites | Best fit on cost | Good only if clients need security stack |
| High-risk ecommerce or attacked SaaS | Acceptable CDN layer, but tooling gap | Best fit |
| GDPR-sensitive EU delivery with minimal US exposure | Strong fit, depending on origin and logs | Strong network, but assess US-provider exposure and Schrems II implications |
For GDPR and Schrems II, the point is not that Cloudflare is unusable in Europe. The point is governance. As of April 2026, a US-headquartered provider in the request path may trigger extra diligence around transfer assessments, logs, and contractual controls. Bunny.net is EU-based, which can simplify procurement conversations for some Nordic organisations. It does not remove the need to check where data, logs, and support tooling are processed.
When Bunny is actually better
Bunny wins when bandwidth is the product.
Typical examples:
- A Scandinavian photo blog serving 12 TB/month, 92% from Europe, with no login area and low abuse risk.
- A software vendor distributing installers and ISO files from a Helsinki or Stockholm origin.
- An agency rolling out static marketing sites and brochure WordPress sites where cost per GB matters more than advanced security policy.
In those cases, Bunny CDN is usually the simpler answer. Pair it with a Nordic or near-Nordic origin and keep the stack boring. If you need an origin close to Sweden, Vultr can work for Stockholm-based app or file serving, though object storage from a nearby EU location may be a better fit for pure media. The important part is keeping cache-hit ratios high and origin distance low.
A numeric rule of thumb: if your stack needs less than one serious security incident review per year, no edge application logic, and traffic is mostly cacheable media, Bunny is likely the better buy at 10 TB/month.
When Cloudflare is worth the premium
Cloudflare wins when the CDN is only the front door to a bigger edge and security stack.
Typical examples:
- A subscription SaaS with admin panels, APIs, and partner dashboards behind Access policies.
- A WooCommerce or Magento deployment with carding attempts, bot traffic, and frequent attack spikes.
- A publication using edge redirects, workers, image transformation, cache overrides, and origin failover policies.
Here the right comparison is not Cloudflare CDN versus Bunny CDN. It is Cloudflare versus Bunny plus a WAF, plus access tooling, plus bot controls, plus some edge logic platform, plus staff time integrating all of it.
If you are already on a managed host such as Cloudways managed hosting and the origin layer is taken care of, adding Bunny for asset delivery can be cost-efficient for low-risk sites. If you are rebuilding security posture anyway, Cloudflare deserves a full platform-level evaluation rather than a bandwidth-only comparison.
What to do next
Map your last 30 days of traffic by region, split cacheable media from dynamic requests, and total your actual egress. If at least 70-80% of traffic is EU cacheable content and your security needs are modest, start with Bunny.net and a Nordic or nearby-EU origin. If the site is attacked, regulated, or already dependent on edge logic and access controls, price Cloudflare as a full stack, not a CDN line item. Editorial note: NorseHost may earn a commission if you buy through recommendation links, but rankings and conclusions are independent.