Cloudflare Workers vs AWS Lambda — Serverless 2026
Which free tier wins for solo developers? Cloudflare Workers (100k req/day free) vs AWS Lambda (1M req/month free).
✅ Cloudflare Workers (Free)
- 100,000 requests/day free forever
- Zero cold starts (V8 isolates)
- Global edge deployment (300+ cities)
- No credit card needed
- Workers KV for free key-value storage
Downsides
- 10ms CPU limit on free tier
- No persistent connections
- Limited to JavaScript/WASM
AWS Lambda ($30+/mo)
- 1M requests/month free (12 months)
- Multiple language runtimes
- Full OS access (Docker)
- 800GB-second memory free
Downsides
- Credit card required
- Cold starts: 100ms to 5 seconds
- Regional deployment only
- Complex pricing tiers
- Free tier expires after 12 months
🏆 Verdict
For solo devs: Cloudflare Workers wins (truly free, no credit card, instant). AWS Lambda is better for complex backends with heavy compute needs.