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Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

jpetazzo.github.io

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Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#91

Post by danielskogly »

I've written about the issues with CF Images before[0], and a lot of these issues still remain. A while back they joined their two image resizing products together though, and now CF Images is basically a hosted version of the previously named "Image Resizing", but weirdly (though for some use-cases great) priced, and you can bring your own storage if you so like.

In my opinion, CF Images is best if you use it with a Worker in front and R2 as storage, as you have (most) all the convenience of R2, the CDN, and CF Images, but without the unusual pricing.

Perhaps it's time I did a write-up on how to do this - it works very well for the purposes of our SaaS[1] at least :)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29474743

[1] https://instorier.com/

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#92

Post by ssijak »

adityapatadia wrote: post #65
Scaevolus wrote: post #6

I clicked assuming this was analyzing how hilariously expensive Images is compared to most of their offerings, but it's about how hilariously bad Images' payment structure is. Nice! > It’s likely that we will replace Cloudflare Images in the long run. Looking at storage costs alone, S3 would be 4 times less expensive for our use-case. Cloudflare R2 would likely be a good choice too, if you're willing to bet that the…

S3 costs seem low at start but their data transfer is very expensive at volume (~10 cent per GB) It's almost always best to use some sort of image processing service (like Gumlet.com) to optimise images and then pay lower per GB bandwidth costs.

S3 is not a CDN

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#94

Post by wkat4242 »

ssijak wrote: post #92
adityapatadia wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

S3 costs seem low at start but their data transfer is very expensive at volume (~10 cent per GB) It's almost always best to use some sort of image processing service (like Gumlet.com) to optimise images and then pay lower per GB bandwidth costs.

S3 is not a CDN

True but you can use it as such for simple usecases. I have :)

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#95

Post by wkat4242 »

csande17 wrote: post #61
fragmede wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've not tried Amazon walkout technology but it sounds like a good application of technology. if the system knows you took something, just charge the user for it rather than making a fuss about it. (in b4 it's Actually Indians.)

> (in b4 it's Actually Indians.) Bad news: https://gizmodo.com/amazon-reportedly-ditches-just-walk-out-... > Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

Lol when people are cheaper than AI...

Must be a soulcrushing job though

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#96

Post by wkat4242 »

reaperman wrote: post #26
bobbob1921 wrote: post #22

I feel many cloud billing models are set up to initially account for the abusers of the service, and then account for the legitimate users. (in other words everyone’s assume to be a scammer or abuser, until you prove otherwise). It’s an interesting concept, a corollary would be walking into a physical store and being treated as a thief, until you check out and make payment. (in fact the opposite is true generally as…

These days I get the feeling of being treated as a thief whenever I walk into a Walmart or some Home Depots. Gotta go through a pedestrian gate set up well inside the store (turnstile basically) and lots of cameras in your face specifically to say “Hey you thief, we’re watching you with our AI”.

Yeah and in some countries like Australia they actually demand to look in your bag even when you've done nothing suspicious.

Never happened to me anywhere in Europe but many times in Australia so it must be a local law that they can do that.

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#97

Post by theamk »

ffsm8 wrote: post #63
xmorse wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's free until it isn't anymore

Egress was pretty much always unmetered until AWS came along. And it still is with most providers other then the usual suspects (AWS,azure, Google cloud)

unmetered != unlimited

There might not be precise measurement system which bills you by the byte, but many provides monitor (or periodically sample) bandwidth utilization, so and using too much data will catch someone's attention.

Example from Hetzer, which claims to provide "unlimited" traffic. https://lowendtalk.com/discussion/180504/hetzner-traffic-use...

> We will routinely check your traffic use. If we continue to see such a high amount, we may choose to cancel your contract.

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#98

Post by CtrlAltDelete51 »

bgentry wrote: post #88
zaidf wrote: post #35

(I work on the Images product at Cloudflare) While I continue to dig in to the specifics of the billing and support issues described, I can confirm this bit from the blog post: if you stored 2 million images and delivered 1 million images, your total cost for that month for the Images product should be ~$210, not $400+ I've reached out to the author to get some additional information which will help me investigate th…

It seems like the author already went above and beyond to try to get this resolved through the proper channels. Why did it take an HN front page post to get it actually looked into? It does not inspire confidence in your service.

Cloudflare outsources its ticket triage to HN voting.

The support experience described matches all of my experiences with CF support over the years.

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#99

Post by yawnxyz »

danielskogly wrote: post #91

I've written about the issues with CF Images before[0], and a lot of these issues still remain. A while back they joined their two image resizing products together though, and now CF Images is basically a hosted version of the previously named "Image Resizing", but weirdly (though for some use-cases great) priced, and you can bring your own storage if you so like. In my opinion, CF Images is best if you use it with a…

didn't know you could place CF Images + Worker in front of R2, would love to know how you did that + what the benefits are. I've been serving images from Workers + R2 and it's great. I don't deal w/ lots of images though, and don't need resizing (but it'd be nice!)

Re: Is Cloudflare overcharging us for their images service?

#100

Post by vbezhenar »

bgentry wrote: post #88
zaidf wrote: post #35

(I work on the Images product at Cloudflare) While I continue to dig in to the specifics of the billing and support issues described, I can confirm this bit from the blog post: if you stored 2 million images and delivered 1 million images, your total cost for that month for the Images product should be ~$210, not $400+ I've reached out to the author to get some additional information which will help me investigate th…

It seems like the author already went above and beyond to try to get this resolved through the proper channels. Why did it take an HN front page post to get it actually looked into? It does not inspire confidence in your service.

That's the way tech companies work today. You need to have connections or spend social capital to reach people who can solve issues. Or you need to bang your head in support channels for weeks hoping that someone will escalate your issue.

Sometimes there's workaround, if you pay big bucks, you might get "personal" manager who can actually connect you with necessary people. But that service is not available for every company out there. And if you don't pay big bucks, you don't have a chance.

This scheme probably makes sense. At certain scale you just can't talk to everyone. When you have 20 developers and 20 million clients, one person can have only so much time. And most support issues are stupid anyway.

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