Cloudflare vs Vercel: Founders, CEOs and History
Cloudflare was founded in 2009 by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway and is led by Matthew Prince. Vercel was founded in 2015 by Guillermo Rauch and is led by Guillermo Rauch.
Company facts
Cloudflare
- Founded
- 2009
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California
- Current CEO
- Matthew Prince
- Employees
- 5,156
Vercel
- Founded
- 2015
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Current CEO
- Guillermo Rauch
- Employees
- 550
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.
Vercel
Guillermo Rauch
Guillermo Rauch founded ZEIT in San Francisco in 2015 and has been CEO since. ZEIT launched the Now deployment tool and open-sourced Next.js in 2016, then renamed itself Vercel in April 2020.
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
Vercel
- Malte Ubl
Chief Technology Officer
Former Google engineering director who co-created the AMP Project and Core Web Vitals; leads Vercel's engineering and infrastructure as CTO.
Source - Guillermo Rauch2015–present
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Founded ZEIT in 2015, open-sourced Next.js, renamed the company Vercel in 2020 and led its expansion into AI tooling.
Source
Timeline: Cloudflare and Vercel 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.
2015Vercel
ZEIT founded
Guillermo Rauch founded ZEIT in San Francisco.
2016Vercel
Next.js released
ZEIT open-sourced the Next.js React framework.
2017Cloudflare
Cloudflare Workers Announced
Cloudflare introduced Workers, a serverless platform built on V8 isolates that lets developers run code across its network.
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.
2020Vercel
Renamed Vercel
ZEIT changed its name to Vercel in April.
2021Vercel
$102M Series C
Raised $102 million in June; acquired Turborepo in December.
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.
2023Vercel
v0 and AI SDK
Launched v0 and the AI SDK.
2024Cloudflare
Revenue Reaches $1.67 Billion
Cloudflare reported 2024 revenue of $1.67 billion and free cash flow of $166.9 million.
2024Vercel
$3.25B valuation
Raised $250 million in May at a $3.25 billion valuation.
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.
2025Vercel
$9.3B Series F
Closed a $300 million Series F co-led by Accel and GIC on September 30.
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%.
2026Vercel
Board addition, breach, Better Auth
Mitchell Hashimoto joined the board in March, a security breach was disclosed in April, and Better Auth was acquired in July.
Acquisitions
Cloudflare
- Human Native2026Undisclosed
- Astro Technology Company2026Undisclosed
- VoidZero2026Undisclosed
- Replicate2025Undisclosed
- Nefeli Networks2024Undisclosed
- Baselime2024Undisclosed
Vercel
- Better Auth2026Undisclosed
- Tremor2025Undisclosed
- NuxtLabs2025Undisclosed
- Splitbee2022Undisclosed
- Turborepo2021Undisclosed
Questions about Cloudflare vs Vercel
Who is the CEO of Cloudflare, Inc. and Vercel Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc. is led by Matthew Prince and Vercel Inc. is led by Guillermo Rauch. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Cloudflare, Inc. founded vs Vercel Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc. was founded in 2009 — 6 years before Vercel Inc., which was founded in 2015. Cloudflare, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Vercel Inc..
How many employees does Cloudflare, Inc. have compared to Vercel Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc. employs approximately 5,156 people, while Vercel Inc. employs approximately 550. Cloudflare, Inc. has the larger workforce at 5,156 employees, compared to Vercel Inc.'s 550. 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 Vercel Inc. headquartered?
Both Cloudflare, Inc. and Vercel Inc. are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded Cloudflare, Inc. and Vercel Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc. was founded by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, Lee Holloway. Vercel Inc. was founded by Guillermo Rauch.
Which company has a longer operating history — Cloudflare, Inc. or Vercel Inc.?
Cloudflare, Inc. has been operating for approximately 17 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Vercel Inc. has been in operation for around 11 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 Vercel overview