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Cloudflare vs Flywheel

Based on 2145 and 1 real audits

View Cloudflare details | View Flywheel details
MetricCloudflareFlywheelWinner
Performance4965Flywheel
Accessibility8890Flywheel
Best Practices8696Flywheel
SEO8940Cloudflare
Security6861Cloudflare
TTFB298ms18msFlywheel
Composite7574Cloudflare
Performance
Cloudflare
49
Flywheel
65
Accessibility
Cloudflare
88
Flywheel
90
Security
Cloudflare
68
Flywheel
61
SEO
Cloudflare
89
Flywheel
40
Composite
Cloudflare
75
Flywheel
74

Flywheel outperforms Cloudflare in 4 of 7 categories, with a stronger composite score (74 vs 75). Cloudflare leads in SEO, security, composite score.

When to choose Cloudflare

Choose Cloudflare when your primary concern is SEO and security. Its audit data shows consistent strength in these areas across the sampled sites.

When to choose Flywheel

Choose Flywheel when your primary concern is server response time and performance. Its audit data shows consistent strength in these areas across the sampled sites.

How this comparison was built

Scores are medians across 2145 audited Cloudflare sites and 1 audited Flywheel sites in the BeaverCheck database. Every audit runs the same 100+ checks — Lighthouse performance, security headers, accessibility, SEO, server response time — against a real URL. No vendor input, no sponsorship, no affiliate links. Read the full methodology →

Small sample: one or both technologies have fewer than 10 audited sites. Treat these numbers as directional — medians stabilize around 20–30 audits per side.

FAQ

Which is faster, Cloudflare or Flywheel?
Based on real BeaverCheck audits, Flywheel sites score higher on Lighthouse performance (65 vs 49 on average).
Which has better security, Cloudflare or Flywheel?
Cloudflare sites score higher on security analysis (68 vs 61 on average).
Which has better accessibility, Cloudflare or Flywheel?
Accessibility scores measured by Lighthouse WCAG 2.1 checks favor Flywheel (90 vs 88). Both technologies can be made fully accessible with care — the difference reflects common patterns in the sampled sites, not inherent platform limits.
Which is better for SEO, Cloudflare or Flywheel?
Cloudflare sites score higher on Lighthouse SEO signals (89 vs 40 on average), which cover meta tags, crawlability, mobile friendliness, and structured data. Content strategy and backlinks still matter more than platform choice for ranking.
Which has faster server response (TTFB), Cloudflare or Flywheel?
Flywheel sites show lower Time to First Byte (18 ms vs 298 ms on average). TTFB depends heavily on hosting and CDN setup rather than the technology itself, but the sampled sites suggest a meaningful difference in common deployment patterns.
Should I choose Cloudflare or Flywheel for my website?
Both platforms have trade-offs. Flywheel scores higher on overall composite score while Cloudflare may excel in metrics you care about most. Run a free BeaverCheck audit on a real site using each to compare the metrics relevant to your use case.
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