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Can Rising Adoption of Workers Platform Boost NET's Long-Term Growth?
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Key Takeaways
NET's Workers platform reached 10 million active developers, up from 7 million in the prior quarter.
AI and technology firms signed Workers contracts worth $11 million and $9.5 million, respectively.
NET's dollar-based net retention rate rose to 122% from 119% a year earlier.
Cloudflare, Inc. (NET - Free Report) is seeing strong adoption of its Workers Developer Platform as businesses increasingly use it to build and run applications, including AI-powered workloads. The platform's growing popularity is supporting customer additions and increasing usage across Cloudflare's broader business. During the third quarter of 2026, Cloudflare crossed 10 million active developers on its Workers platform, up from 7 million in the previous quarter. The company added more than 158,000 paying customers, nearly double its previous quarterly record.
The growing adoption of Workers is also helping Cloudflare win larger customer contracts. During the third quarter, a rapidly growing AI company signed a one-year, $11 million pool-of-funds contract for the Workers Developer Platform. In another deal, a technology company signed a 39-month, $9.5 million contract covering application services and the Workers Developer Platform. These wins highlight the platform's growing role in supporting AI development and enterprise workloads.
Cloudflare is also seeing greater adoption of Workers among its existing large customers. Management noted that the platform is becoming an important part of nearly every pool-of-funds deal. As more enterprise developers use Workers, customers are consuming their committed funds faster, leading to earlier renewals and larger contracts. This is also supporting cross-selling opportunities across Cloudflare's security and application services. The company's improving customer spending trends were reflected in its dollar-based net retention rate, which increased to 122% in the third quarter from 119% a year earlier.
With developer adoption rising and more enterprises using Workers for AI and other applications, the platform could become an increasingly important contributor to Cloudflare's growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cloudflare’s 2026 and 2027 revenues indicates year-over-year growth of 36.5% and 30.9%, respectively.
Cloudflare Faces Tough Competition
Cloudflare faces competition from Fastly (FSLY - Free Report) and Akamai Technologies (AKAM - Free Report) in edge computing and distributed cloud infrastructure.
Fastly offers an integrated platform combining content delivery, security and computing capabilities. During the third quarter of 2026, Fastly expanded its partnership with Comcast to deploy its entire platform, including security and compute, within Comcast's network. This allows applications and content to run closer to end users, helping improve performance and reduce latency. Fastly’s third-quarter revenues increased 20% year over year, while security revenues grew 32% year over year.
Akamai is also expanding its distributed cloud infrastructure business to capture demand for AI and enterprise workloads. Its Cloud Infrastructure Services platform offers virtual machines, managed Kubernetes, storage and networking services. With more than 4,000 points of presence across 130 countries, Akamai can run computing workloads closer to users, helping reduce latency. During the third quarter of 2026, Cloud Infrastructure Services revenues increased 34% year over year. The company expects Cloud Infrastructure Services revenues to reach $1.1-$1.3 billion in 2027, more than double its expected 2026 level.
NET’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
Shares of Cloudflare have jumped 55.7% in the year-to-date period against the Zacks Internet – Software industry’s decline of 2.8%.
NET YTD Price Return Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, NET trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 28.34, significantly higher than the industry’s average of 3.80. The Zacks Value Score of D suggests that NET stock is overvalued.
NET Forward 12-Month P/S Ratio
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NET’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $1.28 per share, revised up by 2 cents over the past seven days, indicating a 37.6% increase from the previous year.
View the Zacks #1 Rank List
Image: Bigstock
Can Rising Adoption of Workers Platform Boost NET's Long-Term Growth?
Key Takeaways
Cloudflare, Inc. (NET - Free Report) is seeing strong adoption of its Workers Developer Platform as businesses increasingly use it to build and run applications, including AI-powered workloads. The platform's growing popularity is supporting customer additions and increasing usage across Cloudflare's broader business. During the third quarter of 2026, Cloudflare crossed 10 million active developers on its Workers platform, up from 7 million in the previous quarter. The company added more than 158,000 paying customers, nearly double its previous quarterly record.
The growing adoption of Workers is also helping Cloudflare win larger customer contracts. During the third quarter, a rapidly growing AI company signed a one-year, $11 million pool-of-funds contract for the Workers Developer Platform. In another deal, a technology company signed a 39-month, $9.5 million contract covering application services and the Workers Developer Platform. These wins highlight the platform's growing role in supporting AI development and enterprise workloads.
Cloudflare is also seeing greater adoption of Workers among its existing large customers. Management noted that the platform is becoming an important part of nearly every pool-of-funds deal. As more enterprise developers use Workers, customers are consuming their committed funds faster, leading to earlier renewals and larger contracts. This is also supporting cross-selling opportunities across Cloudflare's security and application services. The company's improving customer spending trends were reflected in its dollar-based net retention rate, which increased to 122% in the third quarter from 119% a year earlier.
With developer adoption rising and more enterprises using Workers for AI and other applications, the platform could become an increasingly important contributor to Cloudflare's growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cloudflare’s 2026 and 2027 revenues indicates year-over-year growth of 36.5% and 30.9%, respectively.
Cloudflare Faces Tough Competition
Cloudflare faces competition from Fastly (FSLY - Free Report) and Akamai Technologies (AKAM - Free Report) in edge computing and distributed cloud infrastructure.
Fastly offers an integrated platform combining content delivery, security and computing capabilities. During the third quarter of 2026, Fastly expanded its partnership with Comcast to deploy its entire platform, including security and compute, within Comcast's network. This allows applications and content to run closer to end users, helping improve performance and reduce latency. Fastly’s third-quarter revenues increased 20% year over year, while security revenues grew 32% year over year.
Akamai is also expanding its distributed cloud infrastructure business to capture demand for AI and enterprise workloads. Its Cloud Infrastructure Services platform offers virtual machines, managed Kubernetes, storage and networking services. With more than 4,000 points of presence across 130 countries, Akamai can run computing workloads closer to users, helping reduce latency. During the third quarter of 2026, Cloud Infrastructure Services revenues increased 34% year over year. The company expects Cloud Infrastructure Services revenues to reach $1.1-$1.3 billion in 2027, more than double its expected 2026 level.
NET’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates
Shares of Cloudflare have jumped 55.7% in the year-to-date period against the Zacks Internet – Software industry’s decline of 2.8%.
NET YTD Price Return Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, NET trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 28.34, significantly higher than the industry’s average of 3.80. The Zacks Value Score of D suggests that NET stock is overvalued.
NET Forward 12-Month P/S Ratio
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NET’s 2026 earnings is pegged at $1.28 per share, revised up by 2 cents over the past seven days, indicating a 37.6% increase from the previous year.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Cloudflare currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.