Cloudflare Access vs GoodAccess Software-defined perimeter: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Cloudflare Access

Teams moving away from VPN to enforce identity-first access will find Cloudflare Access fastest to deploy because it routes all traffic through Cloudflare's edge without requiring appliances or network redesigns. The platform covers PR.AA (Identity Management) and PR.IR (Technology Infrastructure Resilience) at scale, handling millions of authentication decisions daily across startups through enterprises with negligible latency. Skip this if your organization needs deep continuous monitoring of lateral movement or behavioral anomalies post-authentication; Cloudflare Access excels at the gate, not what happens after users are through it.

GoodAccess Software-defined perimeter

SMB and mid-market teams replacing VPN with zero-trust access will appreciate GoodAccess for its simplicity; the platform handles identity-based least-privilege access control and device posture checks without the complexity enterprise SDP tools layer on. The native support for major identity providers (Okta, Entra, Google Workspace) and multi-OS clients means you can deploy this without custom integrations or lengthy rollouts. Skip this if your organization needs advanced threat detection or assumes your network perimeter will handle detection work; GoodAccess emphasizes access control and monitoring compliance, not hunting anomalies inside encrypted tunnels.