Zaraz exits beta with tiered pricing
Cloudflare Zaraz has officially left beta and is now generally available. The service, which loads third-party tools such as Google Analytics 4, Facebook CAPI, and TikTok from Cloudflare's edge instead of the browser, is bundled into the free, paid, and enterprise tiers of the Cloudflare Developer Platform. Zaraz is in use on more than 25,000 websites, ranging from personal projects to major enterprise properties.
Zaraz's approach to third-party tooling moves data collection and tag firing to the server side. Instead of a browser loading a pile of JavaScript from various vendors, Zaraz handles the requests from Cloudflare's network. That removes a significant chunk of client-side overhead and sidesteps many browser-level restrictions on third-party cookies and scripts. Server-side data collection has become increasingly important as browsers tighten those limits, and Zaraz aims to make the switch easy: no separate cloud environment to stand up and no extra changes to the website itself.
One distinctive element is Worker Variables, which lets tools use dynamic data at the edge—something Cloudflare says isn't available in comparable products because it relies on running atop the company's global network. The beta period also produced a certified-developer ecosystem and an active Discord community around the product.
The scale of third-party usage on the web is the backdrop for Zaraz's positioning. Per the Web Almanac's 2022 data, 94% of mobile pages used at least one third-party solution, and third-party requests accounted for 45% of all requests made by websites. Those tools are integral to how the web works today, and Zaraz's pitch is that developers need a proper way to manage that layer, not just more scripts to pile on.
How Zaraz is priced
Pricing is based on two components: Zaraz Loads and access to feature tiers. A Zaraz Load is counted each time a page loads the Zaraz script and/or the Pageview trigger fires; in single-page applications, each URL navigation counts as a new load. The Zaraz Monitoring dashboard shows how many loads a site has generated over a given period.
Free plan
The free plan allows up to 100,000 Zaraz Loads per month per account—enough, Cloudflare says, for personal sites and side projects. Beyond that cap, Zaraz simply stops functioning. The free tier includes auto-injection, the Zaraz Debugger, Zaraz Track and Zaraz Set from the Web API, the consent management platform (CMP), and Data Layer compatibility mode, among other features. Sites generating more than 100,000 combined loads per month need to move to the Workers Paid plan to avoid an interruption, and the advanced feature set also requires the upgrade.
Paid plan
The Workers Paid plan bundles its own allocation: the first 200,000 Zaraz Loads per month per account are included at no extra charge. Beyond that, overage is billed at $0.50 per additional 1,000 Zaraz Loads, with no hard stop. Account-level notifications are available to track usage against a chosen threshold.
Paid features include Zaraz E-commerce from the Web API, custom endpoints, Worker Variables, the preview/publish workflow, and privacy features. For sites generating millions of loads, Cloudflare points to the Workers Enterprise plan, which adds volume discounts and professional services.
Enterprise plan
Workers Enterprise also starts with 200,000 free Zaraz Loads per account per month. Volume-based discounts are available through Cloudflare's sales team, and Enterprise customers get the full paid feature set.
What existing users should do
For those who used Zaraz during the free beta, there's a grace period to evaluate options. Nothing changes until September 20, 2023; after that date, the pricing described above goes into effect. Cloudflare advises users to:
- Check the Monitoring dashboard to understand recent Zaraz Loads. If usage is trending past 100,000 per month, upgrading to Workers Paid on the plans page avoids a service interruption. High-volume users should contact sales about volume discounts.
- Review whether any paid features are in use. If so, a Workers Paid subscription at $5/month is required; on September 20, those features will stop working without the upgrade.
Free-plan users won't gain access to paid features under the new structure. However, anyone already using a paid feature without a Workers Paid subscription can continue risk-free until September 20. Cloudflare says it will follow up with affected users by email, with next steps and support channels. Direct help remains available via the Zaraz team on Discord and the Cloudflare community forum.
