Cloudflare vs Netlify: Founders, CEOs and History
Cloudflare was founded in 2009 by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway and is led by Matthew Prince. Netlify was founded in 2014 by Mathias Biilmann, Christian Bach and is led by Mathias Biilmann.
Company facts
Cloudflare
- Founded
- 2009
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California
- Current CEO
- Matthew Prince
- Employees
- 5,156
Netlify
- Founded
- 2014
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Current CEO
- Mathias Biilmann
- Employees
- 244
Founders
Cloudflare
Matthew Prince
Matthew Prince is Cloudflare's co-founder, CEO, and board chair. In 2004 he and Lee Holloway built Project Honey Pot, which let website owners track spammers harvesting email addresses but could not stop them.
Michelle Zatlyn
Michelle Zatlyn is Cloudflare's co-founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer, and a member of its board. She met Matthew Prince at Harvard Business School, where the two developed the business plan that became Cloudflare in 2009.
Lee Holloway
Lee Holloway co-founded Cloudflare in 2009 and was its first lead engineer and systems architect. He had earlier built Project Honey Pot with Matthew Prince starting in 2004, and he designed much of Cloudflare's early software infrastructure.
Netlify
Mathias Biilmann
Mathias Biilmann is Netlify's co-founder and CEO, a role he has held since 2014. He coined 'Jamstack' in 2015, led the company's 2021 Series D at a $2 billion valuation and its five acquisitions from 2021 to 2023, and has steered Netlify toward AI agents since…
Christian Bach
Christian Bach co-founded Netlify with Mathias Biilmann in 2014. He has focused on strategy, brand and community, including the growth of the Jamstack movement that Netlify helped popularize.
CEOs and their tenures
Cloudflare
- Matthew Prince2009–present
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chair
Co-founded Cloudflare in 2009, led it through its September 2019 NYSE IPO, and has grown annual revenue past $2 billion (2025) while expanding from web security into Zero Trust, developer, and AI services.
Source - Michelle Zatlyn2009–present
Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer
Co-founded Cloudflare in 2009 with Matthew Prince and Lee Holloway and, as President and COO, has led operations and company-building as Cloudflare scaled to more than 5,000 employees.
Source - Thomas Seifert2017–present
Chief Financial Officer
Has led Cloudflare's finance organization since 2017, including its 2019 IPO.
Source
Netlify
- Mathias Biilmann2014–present
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Founder-CEO who took Netlify from a static hosting tool to a platform with more than 10 million developers.
Source - Chris Bach2014–present
Co-Founder
Co-founder focused on strategy, brand and the Jamstack developer community.
Source
Timeline: Cloudflare and Netlify side by side
2009Cloudflare
Cloudflare Founded
Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, and Lee Holloway founded Cloudflare, building on the Project Honey Pot spam-tracking project.
2010Cloudflare
TechCrunch Disrupt Launch
Cloudflare launched publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in September 2010, offering free website protection and acceleration.
2014Cloudflare
Universal SSL and Project Galileo
Cloudflare gave free SSL certificates to all customers with Universal SSL and launched Project Galileo to protect at-risk nonprofits and journalists for free.
2014Netlify
Founding by Mathias Biilmann and Christian Bach: Danish entrepreneurs Mathias Biilmann and Christian Bach start the company in San Francisco around BitBalloon, a drag-and-drop static hosting tool.
2015Netlify
Coined the Term "Jamstack": Biilmann coins and popularizes the term "Jamstack" (JavaScript, APIs, Markup), advocating for pre-rendering, decoupled architectures, and global CDN delivery.
2016Netlify
Launch of Deploy Previews for Git Pull Requests: Introduced Deploy Previews, automatically spinning up unique, immutable preview URLs for every Git branch and pull request, radically accelerating desi…
2017Cloudflare
Cloudflare Workers Announced
Cloudflare introduced Workers, a serverless platform built on V8 isolates that lets developers run code across its network.
2017Netlify
Series A Funding Led by Andreessen Horowitz: Raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Peter Levine at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), validating cloud-native developer infrastructure.
2018Netlify
Series B Funding Led by Kleiner Perkins: Secured $30 million Series B round led by Mamoon Hamid at Kleiner Perkins, funding high-performance CDN edge infrastructure expansion.
2019Cloudflare
NYSE IPO
Cloudflare completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NET in September 2019 at $15 per share, raising about $525 million.
2020Cloudflare
Cloudflare One Launched
Cloudflare bundled its Zero Trust access, secure web gateway, and network services into Cloudflare One, its SASE platform.
2020Netlify
Series C Funding Led by EQT Ventures: Raised a $53 million Series C led by EQT Ventures in March 2020 with about 800,000 developers on the platform; it passed 1 million that August.
2021Netlify
Series D Funding at $2 Billion Valuation: Raised a $105 million Series D led by Bessemer Venture Partners in November 2021 at a $2 billion valuation.
2022Cloudflare
Area 1 Security and R2 General Availability
Cloudflare acquired email security company Area 1 Security for about $162 million and made R2 zero-egress object storage generally available.
2023Netlify
Acquisition of Gatsby Inc.: Acquired open-source framework Gatsby and Gatsby Cloud, uniting the two most popular developer platforms in the Jamstack ecosystem.
2024Cloudflare
Revenue Reaches $1.67 Billion
Cloudflare reported 2024 revenue of $1.67 billion and free cash flow of $166.9 million.
2024Netlify
5 Million Developers: Netlify passed 5 million developers, about four years after reaching 1 million.
2025Cloudflare
Revenue Passes $2 Billion
Cloudflare reported 2025 revenue of $2.17 billion (+29.8%) and closed its largest contract ever, averaging $42.5 million per year in ACV.
2025Netlify
10 Million Developers: Netlify crossed 10 million developers on December 24, 2025, helped by AI app builders such as Bolt.new.
2026Cloudflare
VoidZero Acquisition and Growth Acceleration
Cloudflare acquired VoidZero, the company behind the Vite JavaScript tooling ecosystem, in June 2026 and reported Q2 2026 revenue growth of 36%.
2026Netlify
Seat-Free Pro Plan: In April 2026 Netlify made Pro $20 a month with unlimited seats and simplified usage billing to five credit meters.
Acquisitions
Cloudflare
- Human Native2026Undisclosed
- Astro Technology Company2026Undisclosed
- VoidZero2026Undisclosed
- Replicate2025Undisclosed
- Nefeli Networks2024Undisclosed
- Baselime2024Undisclosed
Netlify
- Gatsby Inc.2023Undisclosed
- Stackbit2023Undisclosed
- Quirrel2022Undisclosed
- OneGraph2021Undisclosed
- FeaturePeek2021Undisclosed
Questions about Cloudflare vs Netlify
Who is the CEO of Cloudflare, Inc. and Netlify?
Cloudflare, Inc. is led by Matthew Prince and Netlify is led by Mathias Biilmann. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Cloudflare, Inc. founded vs Netlify?
Cloudflare, Inc. was founded in 2009 — 5 years before Netlify, which was founded in 2014. Cloudflare, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Netlify.
How many employees does Cloudflare, Inc. have compared to Netlify?
Cloudflare, Inc. employs approximately 5,156 people, while Netlify employs approximately 244. Cloudflare, Inc. has the larger workforce at 5,156 employees, compared to Netlify's 244. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Cloudflare, Inc. and Netlify headquartered?
Both Cloudflare, Inc. and Netlify are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded Cloudflare, Inc. and Netlify?
Cloudflare, Inc. was founded by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway. Netlify was founded by Mathias Biilmann, Christian Bach.
Which company has a longer operating history — Cloudflare, Inc. or Netlify?
Cloudflare, Inc. has been operating for approximately 17 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Netlify has been in operation for around 12 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Cloudflare vs Netlify overview