Cloudflare

Cloudflare is a major player in the internet infrastructure space, operating out of San Francisco. Since its founding in 2009 by Matthew Prince, Lee Holloway, and Michelle Zatlyn, the company has become indispensable for a huge chunk of the web. They offer a variety of services that sit between internet users and website servers. Think of them as a digital gatekeeper and accelerator, boosting website speeds and shielding them from online threats like distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Their reach is substantial. By January 2026, around 21.3% of all websites on the internet were using Cloudflare's services, according to W3Techs. This widespread adoption highlights the essential role they play in keeping the internet running smoothly and securely. Beyond their core offerings, Cloudflare has expanded into areas like edge computing with their Workers platform and even provides a public DNS resolver, 1.1.1.1, alongside a VPN service called WARP. They've also been busy integrating artificial intelligence into their systems, acquiring AI companies and developing tools to manage AI-driven bots.

Cloudflare's journey hasn't been without its challenges. The company has navigated complex issues surrounding content neutrality, sometimes facing public pressure to terminate services for controversial websites. They've also encountered legal battles, including a copyright infringement case that resulted in a loss against Japanese publishers in 2025. Furthermore, significant global outages in late 2025 brought attention to the sheer scale of their impact when services faltered for major international platforms. [edit]