40 Hours of Free SQL: Picking a Database on Cloudflare vs Azure as a Solo Founder
40 Hours of Free SQL: Picking a Database on Cloudflare vs Azure as a Solo Founder In my last post I priced the same small project on Cloudflare and Azure, round by round. Azure won the database round in four sentences: deeper toolbox, real PostgreSQL and SQL Server, decades of enterprise tooling. That's true. But four sentences is too short for the one decision that's hardest to undo. You can…
In this piece, a solo founder compares the time it takes to get a database up and running with Cloudflare vs Azure, focusing on four options: Cloudflare's D1 (SQLite), Azure SQL Database, Cosmos DB, and Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server.
The first round looks at the time to get a query running. Cloudflare D1 requires only three steps, with no password needed. The process is simple: create a database binding, create a table, and execute a SQL query. On the other hand, Azure SQL Database involves several more steps, including setting up a resource group, logical server, firewall rule, connection string, and database driver.
Azure also mentions the challenges of serverless databases pausing and the need for retry logic. PostgreSQL Flexible Server and Cosmos DB have similar setups, with extra choices around networking and partition keys.
The second round examines the free tier of each platform. Cloudflare's D1 offers 5M rows read and 100K rows written per day, plus 5 GB total. Azure SQL Database provides 100,000 vCore-seconds of serverless compute per month, which translates to roughly 40 hours of usage. Cosmos DB offers 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB storage, free for a year. Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server provides a B1ms server for up to 750 hours and 32 GB of storage, with a 12-month commitment.
Ultimately, the choice between Cloudflare and Azure depends on the solo founder's specific requirements, particularly the platform their backend runs on and the expected usage of the database.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
