Great market, good product (always improving) - Engineering Cloudflare Employee Review

4.0
Apr 21, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

CloudFlare is a small company (100 engineers, another 150 in other roles) which has a big and growing impact on the Internet -- for the good. Rather than locking website operators into a single "stack" from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or other hosting providers, CloudFlare lets websites choose how to host their site and then get top-quality network edge performance and security between their users and server infrastructure, for a price ranging from free (for millions of sites with less-demanding requirements) to about 10% of what incumbents charge for Enterprise customers. The biggest reason to work at CloudFlare is to be a part of making the Internet a better place. In contrast to a lot of other companies, CloudFlare has an extremely permissive terms of service, valuing free speech over everything else. While there are a lot of sites on CloudFlare which people find objectionable (for varying reasons), on balance, having open access at the network layer makes the Internet a better place. There are some big engineering problems to solve -- handling a huge volume of web requests means every other support system is also huge -- so it's a great place to get to work on hard challenges, the latest technology, and with some really smart people. CloudFlare has both a high media profile and a large userbase, so if you tell someone you work at CloudFlare, you're likely to get a positive response.

Cons

The biggest problem with CloudFlare is a legacy of flat organizational structure. For a long time, CloudFlare clung to a "flat" organization. This was great back when the company had 25 or 50 employees, but broke down at 100-150. CloudFlare now has a top-tier VP Engineering and some solid engineering managers, but is still implementing the kind of structure a company doing as much as CloudFlare does needs to have. For a long time, CloudFlare had below-market office environment (a cramped, poorly maintained space), but after 18 months of delays, we finally moved into an amazing dedicated building a block away. People visit and compare it favorably to any company in tech. If you want to be in San Francisco, the location is hard to beat -- a block from Giants Stadium and 2 blocks from Caltrain. CloudFlare cash compensation is essentially at-market. Equity compensation is less than market, but the company is also on a solid financial footing and good growth trajectory (because people actually need, value, and pay for the product), so it's hard to directly compare to more "bubble-based" valuations at other companies. Benefits are decent (free snacks, but only one free meal/week). Good health insurance, no other perks.

Explore other reviews about Cloudflare

5.0
May 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very good culture and strong talent

Cons

Expectation to manage up and extremely fast paced environment

3.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Exceptionally talented team. Every IC I worked with brought deep technical skills, genuine passion, and a collaborative, empathetic approach. Compensation and equity are strong.

Cons

Senior leadership lacks a clear vision, direction shifts constantly without concrete goals. Internal competition is actively encouraged by management, which creates a toxic dynamic. No 401k match. Raises and promotions are difficult to come by once you're in, and leadership feels largely out of touch with the realities on the ground.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All