Cloudflare for SaaS pricing vs CustomDomain™: an honest comparison

Cloudflare for SaaS pricing at a glance

The Free, Pro, and Business plans each include 100 custom hostnames. After that, every additional custom hostname costs $0.10, up to a maximum of 50,000 hostnames. Enterprise plans are priced by contract and have no fixed maximum, though Cloudflare asks you to contact sales above 50,000. Those figures come from Cloudflare's plans page, which was last updated on August 14, 2026. We rechecked it on October 8, 2026.

The table multiplies $0.10 by the hostnames past the first 100 for a Free, Pro, or Business plan.

Custom hostnames	Billed hostnames	Hostname fee, if billed monthly
100	0	$0
1,000	900	$90
10,000	9,900	$990
50,000	49,900	$4,990

One caveat on the period. When Cloudflare cut the price in March 2022, it described the fee as $0.10 a month, down from $2. The current plans page lists $0.10 per additional hostname without naming a billing period, so confirm the period and how hostnames are counted with Cloudflare before you budget.

The hostname fee covers the hostname, its certificate, and traffic through Cloudflare's network. It does not cover the work of getting a customer's domain connected, which is what the next section lists. CustomDomain™ prices differently, by domain connection rather than by hostname held, with plans from $10 a month (see pricing and section 1 below), so the two bills are not directly comparable. Model both against your own customer count.

What the Cloudflare for SaaS fee does not cover

Cloudflare for SaaS gives you the custom hostname, the certificate, and the edge. These pieces are yours to build or buy:

• The customer-facing flow. Cloudflare provides an API and a dashboard page, not a connection experience for your customers. The DNS instructions, progress states, and error messages inside your product are yours to build.
• DNS records at the customer's provider. Your customer creates the CNAME record, and depending on the validation method a validation record, at their own DNS host. Cloudflare does not write DNS records there for you.
• Apex domains. Most DNS providers do not allow a plain CNAME on a root domain such as customer.com. Proxying an apex domain through Cloudflare for SaaS is a paid Enterprise add-on, so on other plans a customer on a root domain needs a subdomain, a provider that supports CNAME flattening, or a workaround you build.
• Enterprise-only features. Custom certificates, certificate signing requests, a selectable certificate authority, wildcard custom hostnames, and mTLS all require an Enterprise plan, and so does going past 50,000 hostnames.
• Monitoring and support. Cloudflare reports hostname and certificate status through its API, webhooks, and dashboard. Turning that into customer-facing alerts and a support workflow is your work.

How Cloudflare custom hostnames work

A custom hostname is a domain name that belongs to your customer, such as app.customer.com, registered with Cloudflare so it can serve your product over HTTPS. Cloudflare's getting started guide (last updated June 19, 2026) splits the setup in two.

One time setup

1. Add your own zone to Cloudflare (a Free plan works) and enable Cloudflare for SaaS for it.
2. Create a proxied DNS record that points at your application, then designate it as the fallback origin on the Custom Hostnames page of the dashboard. Cloudflare routes all custom hostname traffic there.
3. Optionally create a proxied CNAME target such as customers.yourproduct.com that points at the fallback origin, so every customer has one friendly name to point at.

For each customer hostname

1. Decide how the certificate will be validated.
2. Add the hostname on the Custom Hostnames page, or through the API, and choose the minimum TLS version, the validation method, and an optional custom origin.
3. Have the customer create a CNAME record at their DNS host that points at your CNAME target. Once validation succeeds, Cloudflare issues the certificate and renews it.

That is the whole Cloudflare side. Everything your customer sees before and after that CNAME record, including the instructions, the wait, and the error when they get it wrong, is the part the options below handle differently.

Cloudflare for SaaS alternatives

If you would rather not build the rest yourself, the six options below take different slices of the work, and Cloudflare for SaaS is one of them. One disclosure before anything else: we build CustomDomain™, the first product on this list, and this page lives on our own site. Read it with that in mind. Every claim about the other products comes from their own public sites, every price is dated, and every vendor is linked so you can verify things yourself.

1. CustomDomain™ (that is us)

CustomDomain™ covers the whole journey rather than one segment of it. Your customer connects their domain in one click, we verify ownership, configure DNS, issue the certificate, and keep watching the domain after it goes live. We support 63 DNS and registrar providers through one-click provider authorization, API tokens, or a guided manual flow that verifies automatically, and a domain is typically live in about 30 seconds. Under the hood there is a control plane plus a reverse-proxy edge that terminates TLS with strict multi-tenant isolation, all fully managed. The full flow is on our how it works page.

You can integrate at whatever depth suits you: an embeddable "connect your domain" widget and SDK for the fastest path, a full REST API covering connections, records, TLS, monitoring, webhooks, and registrar search and purchase, and an MCP server so AI agents can provision and debug domains directly. Pricing starts at $10 a month after a 14 day free trial: the Starter tier includes 10 domain connections a year with the API, webhooks, and dashboard. Larger tiers are flat with included volume, from $149 per month, and the $649 per month Growth tier adds the managed edge with automatic HTTPS.

The honest tradeoffs: flat tiers mean you buy blocks of volume rather than paying cents per domain, which is simpler to budget but can cost more than metered billing at some in-between volumes. And if all you want is raw certificate plumbing on a network you already pay for, an infrastructure primitive like Cloudflare for SaaS may be cheaper, provided you are happy building the customer facing flow yourself.

2. Approximated

Approximated is a managed reverse proxy for custom domains. You make one API call to register a customer's hostname, their DNS points at your dedicated cluster, and Approximated handles certificate issuance, renewal, routing to your origin, and health monitoring. It advertises 99.993% average domain uptime, and its homepage carries a testimonial from Instantly's CTO.

Pricing is metered and public. As of October 2026, Approximated's pricing page lists $0.25 per domain per month with a $50 monthly minimum under 200 domains, 400 GB of bandwidth included, $0.05 per GB beyond that, and a volume discount that grows 4 points per 1,000 domains up to a 40% cap. Its own example puts 1,000 domains at $240 a month before bandwidth (check their site for current pricing). A 7 day trial is available.

Its strengths are depth and tooling: guides for frameworks including Next.js, Rails, Laravel, Phoenix, Django, Nuxt, and SvelteKit, monitoring of SSL status, DNS resolution, and proxy hits for every domain, and unusual edge capabilities such as request modification through Edge Sequences, a WAF, and DDoS protection. The tradeoffs: DNS setup is mostly your customers' job, helped by a DNS widget that shows provider specific values and checks the records, with automatic setup only where a supported provider integration exists; you build the onboarding UI around the API; and bandwidth metering is worth modeling if your tenants serve heavy traffic.

3. Cloudflare for SaaS

Cloudflare for SaaS is the infrastructure primitive underneath many platforms: custom hostnames on Cloudflare's global network. Your customer points a CNAME at your zone, Cloudflare issues and renews the certificate, and traffic rides one of the largest edges on the internet.

Entry pricing is hard to beat: the first 100 custom hostnames are free, then $0.10 for each additional hostname on the Free, Pro, and Business plans, as of October 2026 (check their site for current pricing). The pricing breakdown near the top of this page shows what that adds up to at 1,000, 10,000, and 50,000 hostnames. Standard plans cap at 50,000 hostnames, and advanced needs such as custom certificates, wildcard custom hostnames, and mTLS sit behind Enterprise contracts.

The tradeoff is that it is a primitive, not a product. There is no customer facing connection flow, no provider automation, and no guided verification. You build the DNS instructions, the ownership checks, the apex domain handling, the monitoring, and the support tooling yourself. For a team with infrastructure engineers and existing Cloudflare usage, that is a fine trade. For a team that wants domain onboarding to be someone else's job, it is the beginning of a project rather than the end of one.

4. SaaS Custom Domains

SaaS Custom Domains is a managed platform in a similar shape to Approximated. Your customers' hostnames terminate on its network, which advertises 119 locations, a 99.999% uptime guarantee, and average latency under 75 ms, with a CDN, WAF, and DDoS protection included. Integration is a REST API with webhooks and an analytics dashboard, and the company claims setups that go live in about five minutes.

As of October 2026, SaaS Custom Domains starts at $0.29 per domain per month, $29 a month for the first 100 domains, with automatic discounts up to 50% as volume grows (check their site for current pricing). Its FAQ lists a 7 day free trial with a credit card, no extra bandwidth charge, and a self-hosted option that goes through sales. The site lists more than 500 businesses as customers, including Memberstack and Val Town.

Strengths: a solid security and performance bundle for the price, and public metered pricing that gets cheaper per unit as you grow. The tradeoffs mirror the category: the connection experience inside your product is yours to design and build, and its features page describes DNS setup as configuration emails plus validation, without mentioning records written at the customer's provider.

5. Domainee

Domainee is a deliberately simple entry. One API call returns a CNAME target. Your customer adds the record at their DNS provider, or approves it in one click if their DNS is on Cloudflare, through its Domain Connect API. SSL provisions automatically through Let's Encrypt and renews indefinitely. It includes DNS health checks with a drift webhook, apex and subdomain support, a drop-in widget, and, notably, an MCP server with 11 tools so AI agents can manage domains, plus domain registration at wholesale price plus a flat $1 fee.

Its pricing is among the most generous in the category. As of October 2026, Domainee's pricing page lists 20 custom domains and 100 GB of monthly bandwidth free forever (a card goes on file with your first domain but is not charged while you stay under the free quota), then $0.20 per domain per month, falling a cent for every additional 1,000 domains to $0.10 past 10,000, with 100 GB of bandwidth included and $0.05 per GB beyond (check their site for current pricing). On that schedule, 1,000 domains cost $196 a month and 10,000 cost $1,546, before any bandwidth overage.

Strengths: a free tier that covers your first 20 customer domains, public metered prices, and the same API available to agents through the MCP server. Tradeoffs: it positions itself for teams with roughly 50 to 5,000 customer hostnames, so check the fit if you are well beyond that, and DNS setup means provider specific steps with automatic verification, with one-click approval only for DNS hosted on Cloudflare, rather than records written at every provider.

6. SaaSKevin

SaaSKevin optimizes for one thing: the least integration work possible. You paste an embeddable widget into your app, your customer adds their domain through it, and your backend reads a single HTTP header to know which tenant a request belongs to. The company claims about three lines of backend code and roughly five minutes to a working setup, with proxying, certificates, and DNS verification handled for you. Its homepage also advertises one-click DNS setup, in which your users add the right DNS record in one click.

As of October 2026, SaaSKevin's pricing page lists a flat $0.15 per domain per month after 3 free domains, with traffic included under a fair use policy (check their site for current pricing). That is the lowest entry rate among the managed platforms on this list, with no separate bandwidth line to model.

Strengths: setup the vendor describes as quick, a widget included by default, and simple billing. Tradeoffs: the free allowance is small, the widget-first approach can feel constraining for teams that want to own every pixel of onboarding, and, as with any vendor in your critical path, it deserves the usual diligence.

Comparison at a glance

Product	Model	Starting price	Free tier	Writes DNS records at the provider	Managed TLS edge
Entri (reference)	Connection automation, infrastructure add on	$249/mo for 600 connections/yr	None listed	Yes, 70+ providers	Via the Power and Secure add ons (price not published)
CustomDomain™	End to end platform	$10/mo for 10 connections/yr	14 day free trial	Yes, 63 providers	Yes, on Growth and above
Approximated	Managed proxy	$0.25/domain/mo ($50 minimum under 200 domains)	7 day trial	Instructions and record checks; automatic at supported providers	Yes
Cloudflare for SaaS	Infrastructure primitive	$0.10/hostname past the first 100	First 100 hostnames	No	Yes
SaaS Custom Domains	Managed proxy	$0.29/domain/mo ($29/mo for 100 domains)	7 day trial	Not stated; setup emails and validation	Yes
Domainee	API platform	Free; then $0.20/domain/mo	20 domains + 100 GB	One click on Cloudflare; provider specific steps elsewhere	Yes
SaaSKevin	Widget platform	Free; then $0.15/domain/mo	3 domains	Advertises one-click DNS setup	Yes

Pricing was checked against each vendor's own site in October 2026: Approximated, Cloudflare, SaaS Custom Domains, Domainee, SaaSKevin, and Entri. Check each site for current pricing before you commit.

How to choose

By scale

Under 100 domains, free tiers decide it. Cloudflare's first 100 hostnames are free if you will build the flow, Domainee gives you 20 domains, CustomDomain™'s Starter tier gives you 10 connections a year with the full API for $10 a month after a 14 day free trial, and SaaSKevin gives you 3. From hundreds to a few thousand domains, do the arithmetic: at 1,000 domains, the metered list prices run from about $150 a month (SaaSKevin) to $290 (SaaS Custom Domains, before any volume discount), with Domainee at $196 and Approximated at $240 on their published schedules, and Cloudflare's hostname fee alone is $90 a month at that size if billed monthly, before any build work. Flat tiers trade a higher floor for predictable invoices and bundled connection automation. At 10,000 domains, Cloudflare's hostname fee is $990 a month if billed monthly, Approximated's own example is $1,500 and Domainee's schedule gives $1,546 (both before any bandwidth overage), and Cloudflare Enterprise and the top tiers of Entri and CustomDomain™ are quoted individually.

By budget

If the budget is zero, start free and defer the decision until customers force it. If the budget is real but modest, metered vendors keep spend proportional to adoption. As of October 2026, SaaSKevin is $0.15 per domain after 3 free, Domainee is $0.20 after its 20 free domains, Approximated is $0.25 with a $50 minimum under 200 domains, and SaaS Custom Domains is $0.29. If predictability matters more, or domain connections gate your revenue and you want the DNS step itself automated rather than explained, flat tiers from Entri or CustomDomain™ buy you fewer billing surprises.

By build versus buy appetite

Be honest about how much of this you want to own. Cloudflare for SaaS is a build: excellent primitives, everything else on you. The managed proxies (Approximated, SaaS Custom Domains, Domainee) are a partial build: they run the edge and the certificates while you design the onboarding, although Approximated and Domainee also offer embeddable DNS setup widgets. Widget-first approaches, meaning SaaSKevin and our own widget and SDK, are closest to a pure buy. And the broadest automation we could verify, where records are written at the customer's DNS provider instead of pasted by hand, comes from Entri, which advertises 70+ providers, and CustomDomain™, with 63. Domainee offers one-click approval for DNS hosted on Cloudflare, and Approximated's widget configures records automatically where a supported provider integration exists. Our guide to adding custom domains to your SaaS walks through the decision in more depth, and automating TLS for customer domains covers the certificate half, including multi-tenant TLS.

The bottom line

Every product here is a credible way out of DNS support tickets, which is more than this category could say a few years ago. If you want raw primitives and have the team, take Cloudflare. If you want metered simplicity, look at Approximated, SaaS Custom Domains, Domainee, or SaaSKevin. If you want the connection flow itself automated across 63 providers, with TLS, monitoring, a widget, an API, and an MCP server from one vendor, that is what we built. You can start a 14 day free trial in a few minutes, or book a demo and we will walk through it against your own stack.