Cloudflare doesn't publish fixed partner requirements. Its channel program, PowerUP, offers four routes (resell, manage, distribute or consult), and its public pages say benefits grow with your capacity, your specialisations and your global coverage, without giving thresholds. Tier criteria, discounts and deal registration rules sit behind the partner portal at partners.cloudflare.com.
That's frustrating if you searched "Cloudflare partner requirements" hoping for a checklist. We read every Cloudflare partner page we could find on 8 October 2026, plus one older Cloudflare PDF that does give numbers, so you can see what's public, what's dated and what you'll only learn after you register.
PartnersWatch isn't affiliated with Cloudflare. Facts below come from Cloudflare's own pages unless we say otherwise, and Cloudflare can change the program at any time.
Cloudflare's partner tracks
| Program | Partner types | Terms | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Reseller, Distributor, Integrator / MSP | On request | — |
Cloudflare's main partners page lists five kinds of partnership. Only the first is the PowerUP channel program; the rest are separate relationships with their own teams.
| Track | Who it's for | What Cloudflare says it involves |
|---|---|---|
| PowerUP partner program | Resellers, MSPs, distributors, consultancies | Four routes to revenue, enablement and dedicated support |
| Technology alliance partners | Software vendors | Integrations with Cloudflare's application, Zero Trust, network and developer services |
| Global system integrators | Large consultancies | Large transformation projects with pre-built integrations and dedicated support |
| Service providers | Telecoms and connectivity providers | Bundling Cloudflare security and performance into their own services |
| Cloudflare@OCI | Oracle Cloud customers and partners | A joint offering for running Cloudflare application services with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure |
Our Cloudflare PowerUP listing tracks the channel program, which is what most agencies and MSPs mean.
The four PowerUP routes
Cloudflare defines the routes in a sentence each, and the differences matter for how you'd make money:
- Resell. "Resell and/or integrate Cloudflare products to create solutions that deliver business outcomes for customers." You buy from Cloudflare (or a distributor) and sell to the customer.
- Manage. Build, sell and remotely manage Cloudflare-based services. This is the MSP route: you run the customer's setup as an ongoing service.
- Distribute. Supply Cloudflare products, services and support to the partners who resell and manage. This is for distributors, not agencies.
- Consult. "Provide services and refer customers to Cloudflare. No solution reselling or service management." You bill for your own work, and Cloudflare sells the subscription.
If you're a small web or security agency, you're choosing between Consult and Resell. Consult is lighter: no billing relationship, no credit risk on unpaid invoices, but you don't earn on the subscription itself unless Cloudflare's incentives say so. Resell gives you the margin and the customer relationship, and also the support calls at 2am when the WAF blocks a client's checkout.
Cloudflare partner requirements by track
Here's what each public page says about who qualifies:
| Track | Published requirements |
|---|---|
| PowerUP | None stated. The page links to a partner portal login and a sales contact. |
| Technology partners | None stated. The page groups partners by solution area and has an Apply button. |
| Service providers | None stated. The page links to a separate partner portal login. |
| Global system integrators | None stated. |
So nobody outside the program can tell you the current entry bar. What we can show is the last set of numbers Cloudflare published itself. A Cloudflare "Partner Program Overview" PDF dated June 2020 is still hosted on cloudflare.com. It predates the PowerUP name and Cloudflare has restructured since, so read this as a picture of how Cloudflare thought about tiers at the time, not as current terms.
| 2020 tier | Monthly qualified opportunities | Certified sales people | Certified technical people | Reference customers per year | MRR | Discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Select | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | $10,000 | 20% |
| Advanced | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | $35,000 | 30% |
| Elite | 10 | 10 | 10 | 5 | $100,000 | 35 to 40% |
The 2020 PDF also required one partner-led event a year at Advanced and two at Elite, and it described a separate Alliance tier for OEM and platform partners with custom discounts and negotiable requirements.
What's useful here isn't the numbers, which are six years old. It's what Cloudflare chose to measure: certified people on both the sales and technical side, a steady flow of qualified opportunities, reference customers willing to talk, and recurring revenue. If you prepare those four things before you apply, you're ready for whatever the current thresholds turn out to be.
PowerUP tiers and benefits now
The current PowerUP page doesn't name tiers. It describes three things that earn benefits:
- Capacity: "proven performance and capacity to deliver results at scale."
- Capabilities: more benefits for expertise in a product, industry or services specialisation.
- Coverage: the highest benefits, for global capacity and capabilities.
When Cloudflare relaunched the program in March 2024, ChannelLife reported it as available across Registered, Select and Elite tiers. We couldn't find those tier names on Cloudflare's English pages in October 2026, so treat them as the 2024 structure until the portal tells you otherwise.
The benefits Cloudflare lists publicly are:
- technical training through Cloudflare University
- architecture reviews and demand generation support
- access to value-added distributors worldwide
- "transparent pricing, exclusive PowerUP Partner discounts, and incentives", with no amounts given
Cloudflare also points to outside recognition: CRN gave the PowerUP program a 5-star rating in its Partner Program Guide, which Cloudflare cites for both 2025 and 2026. A rating like that tells you the program is complete on paper. It doesn't tell you what the discount is, so don't let it stand in for the terms.
How to apply
- Decide your route first. Register as Consult if you only want to advise and refer. Pick Resell or Manage if you want to own billing or run the service. You can change later, but your first conversation goes better if you know which you want.
- Register on the partner portal. PowerUP partners log in at partners.cloudflare.com. Cloudflare's partner pages also link to a sales contact if you'd rather talk to someone first. Service providers use a separate portal linked from their page.
- Get people through Cloudflare University. Certifications for sales and technical staff were the core of the 2020 tier model, and enablement is still the first benefit Cloudflare lists.
- Bring a pipeline. Have two or three named customer opportunities ready. Partner teams at infrastructure vendors pay attention to partners who arrive with deals.
- Ask for the current tier guide. Once you're in, ask your partner contact for the current requirements and discount schedule in writing.
If you're a software company building an integration rather than a services business, apply through the technology partner page instead. It covers application services, Zero Trust (identity, endpoint, email security), network services and developer services such as edge databases and Workers observability.
Does Cloudflare have an affiliate program?
None of the Cloudflare partner pages we read describe an affiliate or referral-link program that pays per sign-up. The closest thing is the Consult route, where you refer customers to Cloudflare, and Cloudflare doesn't publish what it pays for that. If you want to earn from recommending infrastructure in content, look at hosting programs with published commissions, covered in our web hosting affiliate programs guide.
Cloudflare vs Vercel, Netlify and other developer platforms
Developer platforms split into two groups: those that publish their partner economics and those that don't. Cloudflare is in the second group.
| Program | Partner types | Terms | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Reseller, Distributor, Integrator / MSP | On request | — |
| Netlify | Referral partner, Agency, Reseller | 20% revenue share for 12 to 24 months | Revenue share |
| Vercel | Agency, Integrator / MSP | On request | — |
| DigitalOcean | Reseller, Integrator / MSP, Agency | Up to a 25% margin | Revenue share |
| Supabase | Integrator / MSP, Agency | On request | — |
| Program | Partner types | Published terms |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare PowerUP | Resellers, distributors, integrators, agents | No public commission or discount |
| Netlify Partners | Referral, agency, reseller | 20% revenue share for 12 to 24 months |
| DigitalOcean Partner Pod | Resellers, integrators, agencies | Up to a 25% margin |
| Vercel Partner Program | Agencies, integrators | No public commission; co-marketing, referrals, priority support |
| Supabase Partner Program | Integrators, agencies | No public commission; catalog listing, launch-week co-marketing |
Netlify is the only one in that group that publishes a plain revenue share and lets you join without being a customer, which makes it the easiest to model. DigitalOcean states a margin ceiling. Vercel and Supabase reward partners mainly with visibility and referrals rather than cash. Cloudflare sits closest to a classic enterprise channel program: discounts and incentives, tiered on capability, disclosed after you join.
The practical difference for an agency: with Netlify you can forecast income before you sign up. With Cloudflare you can't, so the case for joining rests on whether your clients already need Cloudflare's security products. If they do, the margin and support are a bonus on work you're doing anyway. If they don't, a program with published terms is the safer first move. More options are on the Cloudflare alternatives page and in our SaaS reseller programs guide.
FAQ
What are the Cloudflare partner requirements?
Cloudflare doesn't publish entry requirements for its PowerUP program. Its pages describe benefits earned on capacity, capabilities and coverage. Cloudflare's own 2020 overview measured certified sales and technical staff, qualified opportunities, reference customers and monthly recurring revenue, so prepare those before applying.
What is the Cloudflare PowerUP partner program?
PowerUP is Cloudflare's channel partner program. It offers four routes to revenue (resell, manage, distribute or consult) with training through Cloudflare University, architecture reviews, demand generation support and partner discounts. Partners register and log in through partners.cloudflare.com.
What are the Cloudflare partner tiers?
Cloudflare's current English pages don't name tiers. 2024 press coverage of the relaunch reported Registered, Select and Elite tiers. An older Cloudflare PDF from June 2020 used Select, Advanced and Elite, with discounts of 20%, 30% and 35 to 40% at the time.
How do I become a Cloudflare reseller?
Register through the Cloudflare partner portal and choose the Resell route, or the Manage route if you'll run the service for customers. Cloudflare also works through value-added distributors, so some resellers buy through a distributor rather than directly. Ask for the current discount schedule once registered.
Does Cloudflare pay referral commission?
Cloudflare's Consult route lets you refer customers to Cloudflare, but its public pages don't state a referral fee or commission. There's no published affiliate program. Ask the partner team what the Consult route pays before relying on it as income.
Is the Cloudflare partner program free to join?
Cloudflare's partner pages don't mention a fee. Registration happens on the partner portal, and the costs you'll actually carry are staff time for Cloudflare University training and the work of building a Cloudflare practice.