Is Cloudflare Web Analytics free?

Yes. Cloudflare Web Analytics is included for Cloudflare zones and is often the easiest no-cost baseline for simple traffic visibility.

Why choose Beam over Cloudflare Web Analytics?

Choose Beam when you need decision-ready analytics beyond baseline counts: goals and custom events, stronger source/channel clarity, and change alerts that flag shifts automatically.

When is Cloudflare Web Analytics the better choice?

If your site already runs on Cloudflare and you only need a lightweight free heartbeat metric with minimal setup, Cloudflare Web Analytics is often the simplest answer.

Comparison

Beam vs Cloudflare Web Analytics

Cloudflare Web Analytics is a strong default for teams already on Cloudflare: it is free, private, and easy to enable. Beam serves a different use case: helping teams move from passive traffic checks to clearer decisions with goals, source context, and alerts.

Feature	Beam	Competitor
Setup model	Create Beam site + paste script	Toggle in Cloudflare dashboard
Privacy posture	Cookieless, no PII, no consent banner	Cookieless, privacy-focused
Goals and custom events	Yes	No goals/events workflow
Traffic channels	Organic, direct, referral, paid, social, email	High-level source views
Change alerts and insights	Daily anomaly alerts + weekly digest insights	No built-in alerting workflow
API access	REST API for pageviews, events, and goals	No public analytics API
Embeddable badges	Public share links + embeddable stat badges	No share or embed support
Pricing	Free tier + $5/mo Pro (500K pv)	Included with Cloudflare
Best fit	Teams needing decision-ready analytics	Teams wanting the lightest free baseline

Cloudflare Web Analytics is credible for what it is designed to be: a lightweight, privacy-first dashboard directly inside Cloudflare. If your goal is a quick pulse-check and your traffic stack already lives in Cloudflare, it is hard to beat the setup speed and zero incremental cost.

Beam is a better fit when your team needs more than passive totals. It adds explicit goals and custom events, clearer traffic source/channel interpretation, and automated change detection so you can catch meaningful shifts without watching charts all day.

The practical decision is simple. Choose Cloudflare Web Analytics for the easiest free baseline. Choose Beam when you need analytics that actively support decisions on content, campaigns, and conversion behavior while staying privacy-first and lightweight.

Compare more options

Beam vs Google Analytics

See how Beam compares when privacy and consent friction are core concerns.

Beam vs Plausible

Compare Beam with another hosted privacy-first analytics option.

Beam vs Umami

Evaluate hosted simplicity against open-source self-hosting flexibility.

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