I’ve run 15 Niche sites on Cloudflare’s free tier since 2019. Yesterday I moved two of them to Tencent EdgeOne International. Same SSL, same WAF, 40 % faster TTFB and zero bill. If you’re tired of CF’s 1.1.1.1 mystery lag or the 5-second “checking your browser” screen, here’s the no-fluff field report from a U.S. dev who just finished the migration.
Why EdgeOne International Is Worth 30 Minutes of Your Life
- Truly unlimited bandwidth – no 100 GB “fair-use” trap written in 2-pt font.
- HK + Tokyo POPs – 32 ms from LAX to Hong Kong, 68 ms to Tokyo, way below CF’s 140 ms.
- Free TLS 1.3 certs – auto-provision, 2-min issue, wildcard included.
- NS or CNAME – you keep your DNS vendor; no need to go full NS-delegation.
- WAF rules out-of-the-box – SQLi, XSS, even Log4j sigs, all ticked by default.
- No credit card, no phone – e-mail only, GitHub OAuth also works.
Quick Numbers (Real Crunch, Not Marketing)
| Metric | Cloudflare Free | EdgeOne Intl. Free |
|---|---|---|
| TTFB (US → HK, cached) | 185 ms | 112 ms |
| Download 2 MB img on 4G | 3.1 s | 1.4 s |
| Failed requests (24 h) | 17 | 0 |
Tested with WebPageTest Virginia node, Moto G4, 9 runs median.
Step-by-Step: How to Get the Free “Personal Plan” in 180 Seconds
- Grab the promo code
https://edgeone.ai/get-free-plan → click “Run Speed Test” → pick 3 nodes → share popup (you can close it immediately) → copy the share URL → paste back → code appears instantly. - Create an intl. account
Head to https://console.tencentcloud.com/edgeone → Sign up with e-mail → no phone, no KYC. - Redeem
Console → Package Management → Redeem → paste code → Personal Plan (forever-free) activated. - Add a site
Click “Add site” → enter domain → choose “Global (excl. Chinese mainland)” if you don’t have ICP license → NS or CNAME, your call → Done.
Migration Tips That Docs Won’t Tell You
1. Page Rule Quirk
EdgeOne calls it “Priority URL Rewrite”. You get 20 rules for free (CF only gives 3). Remember to toggle “Cache Level: Cache Everything” or static HTML won’t cache.
2. Always Use “Custom Port” Origin
If your origin listens on 8443, type it explicitly. Leaving the field blank defaults to 80/443 and will throw 525 SSL handshake error.
3. Purge API Is Blazing
Single file purge hits in < 2 s globally. CF often needs 30-45 s. Great during theme updates.
4. Brotli Is On by Default
But the toggle is buried under “Optimization → Compression”. Turn it off if you run a tiny VPS that can’t handle decompression CPU spikes.
5. Log Download = CSV Only
No JSON option. If you need to feed logs to Grafana, pipe the CSV through `mlr --c2j` (Miller).
When NOT to Use EdgeOne
- You need Workers / KV – EdgeOne serverless is still beta & China-only.
- You rely on CF Access / Zero-Trust – no equivalent yet.
- Your audience is 100 % South America – CF has 14 POPs vs. EO’s 3.
Pricing After the Free Tier (So You’re Not Surprised)
| Plan | Price | Bandwidth | WAF Rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $0 / mo | Unlimited | 20 |
| Basic | $29 / mo | Unlimited | 100 |
| Standard | $199 / mo | Unlimited | 500 + Bot Management |
All tiers include unlimited requests. That’s already cheaper than CF Pro ($20) + $5 WAF.
Bottom Line
If you simply need fast HTTPS + WAF + global POPs and don’t want to drop $20-$200 on Cloudflare bills, EdgeOne International is the best free-layer CDN in 2025. The signup is friction-less, the HK speed is real, and the promo code still works as of today. Try it on a staging subdomain first—chances are you’ll move the rest before the week ends.
— Written by Mbits / MGREI. Feel free to repost, just link back to the original.
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