Cloudflare Extends Its Lead Across More Networks
Back in September 2021, we published performance benchmarks covering 1,000 networks worldwide. The tests looked at TCP connection time, time to first byte, and time to last byte across different percentiles, and showed Cloudflare leading in 49% of those networks. Since then we expanded the scope to 3,000 networks and set a goal to increase the number of networks where we're fastest by at least 10% each Innovation Week. We hit that target during Platform Week in May 2022, and we're continuing the push through Cloudflare One Week in June 2022.
The latest results show Cloudflare as the fastest provider in 1,290 of the top 3,000 most-reported networks, up from 1,280 just one month prior.
How We Measure Global Performance
Getting a reliable picture of network performance at global scale requires data from diverse regions and network types. We use Real User Measurements (RUM) to collect performance data from users fetching a 100kB file from various providers. The more users contributing data, the clearer the signal. This helps us understand where other providers are faster and, more importantly, where Cloudflare has room to improve. The full methodology is documented in our original Speed Week post.
Here's the breakdown of fastest networks from Platform Week in May 2022:
The same breakdown for Cloudflare One Week in June 2022:
Country-Level Gains
Beyond popular networks, we're also focused on being the fastest provider in every country. The map below shows the fastest provider by country as of Platform Week:
And here's the same map for Cloudflare One Week:
During this period, Cloudflare notably improved its standing in several Eastern European countries.
Performance in a Zero Trust Context
A Zero Trust provider isn't just responsible for securing user traffic — it also needs to optimize the public internet the traffic depends on. Adopting Zero Trust can reduce reliance on corporate networks and let user traffic reach resources more directly. But because the Zero Trust provider ends up as the gatekeeper for all users and applications, performance becomes a critical evaluation criterion.
Cloudflare continually enhances its network through routing improvements, new peering arrangements, and additional locations. These ongoing efforts contribute to faster service across a growing number of networks and support high performance for all of our services. Many organizations are at the beginning of their Zero Trust projects, where improving user experience is often a top priority. We're committed to that same priority across our network to ensure teams get a seamless experience wherever they are.
