Zero-trust access and business VPN · Comparison
Cloudflare Zero Trust vs NordLayer
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Cloudflare Zero Trust | NordLayer |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceZero-trust access, DNS and web filtering and device posture for up to 50 users at no cost, with a $7 per-user plan above that. | Built-in reachA business VPN with gateways in 40+ countries, a dedicated IP for your team, and SSO, DNS filtering and posture monitoring on one per-user plan. |
| Overall score | 8.2Best | 6.2 |
| Free option | Free plan | Paid only |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $7/user/mo | $8/user/mo |
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per user who authenticates; no device count published | Per user per month, 5-user minimum, plus a dedicated server on Core and Premium |
| Free option | Free plan for up to 50 users, business use allowed; no trial | No free plan; 14-day money-back guarantee on the first purchase |
| Reference scenario (25 users) | $0/mo on Free (25 of 50 users), computed | $315/mo on Core ($11 × 25 + $40 server, yearly), $12.60 per user, computed |
| Annual vs monthly price | $7 per user on Pay-as-you-go; pages disagree on monthly or annual billing | Core $11 yearly or $14 monthly; server $40 or $50 |
| Devices per user | Not stated | 6 simultaneous connections |
| Okta / Entra ID sign-in | Every plan (any SAML or OIDC provider) | Every plan |
| SCIM | SAML and OIDC providers; no plan restriction stated | Premium; unpriced add-on on Lite and Core |
| Device posture | Built-in checks and EDR or MDM integrations on every plan | Monitoring on Core, blocking on Premium; SentinelOne and CrowdStrike integrations on every plan |
| Network flow logs | Every plan; 24 hours on Free, 30 days on Pay-as-you-go | Every plan, 60 days |
| SIEM streaming | Logpush on Contract per the plans page; the docs say all customers | CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM; plan not stated |
| Self-hosted parts | cloudflared connector (open source) | None |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II (in the dashboard, under NDA); ISO 27001:2022 | SOC 2 Type 2 (Type I on the pricing page); ISO/IEC 27001:2022 |
| HIPAA BAA | Enterprise-level customers handling PHI | Yearly subscriptions, on request |
| EU data storage | Data Localization Suite, Enterprise add-on | Not stated |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Cloudflare Zero Trust puts access, filtering and posture on a Free plan for up to 50 users. Activity logs are short below Contract, and SIEM export, egress IPs and EU storage go through sales. | From its public pages, NordLayer is a managed business VPN with SSO on every plan, a fixed IP and a strong compliance file. The required server raises the per-user cost on Core, and there is no free plan, admin API or Terraform provider. |
Evidence: Cloudflare Zero Trust: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; NordLayer: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
When to pick each
In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.
From our Cloudflare Zero Trust review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Cloudflare Zero Trust when
- You want filtering and posture without a dedicated server fee.
- Pick NordLayer when
- You want a dedicated static IP and a HIPAA BAA on a self-serve annual plan.
From our NordLayer review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick NordLayer when
- You want a dedicated static IP and a HIPAA BAA on a self-serve yearly plan.
- Pick Cloudflare Zero Trust when
- You want a free plan for up to 50 users and an admin API with a Terraform provider.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- Cloudflare Zero TrustPay-as-you-go$7/user/moNo user limit; the plans page says billed monthly, the Access page says paid annually
- Activity logs kept 30 days
- Up to 50 DNS locations
- Remote Browser Isolation as an add-on
- Log Explorer: 10 GB free, then $1 per GB a month
- NordLayerLite$8/user/moBilled yearly; $10 month to month; 5 users minimum
- Shared gateways in 40+ countries
- SSO with Okta, Entra ID, OneLogin, Google and JumpCloud
- Activity reports kept 60 days
- No Virtual Private Gateway
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Cloudflare Zero Trust 2026-10-16, NordLayer 2026-10-16.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Cloudflare Zero TrustSelf-serve sign-up; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (8.2/10).
- Lowest starter price
- Cloudflare Zero Trust$7/user/mo for the Pay-as-you-go plan.
- Highest overall score
- Cloudflare Zero Trust8.2/10 (Excellent). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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