Why choose Cloudflare R2? Ehhhh, because it’s FREE*! - as long as you keep your storage under 10GB of course :)

When launching a new project, I find that that the easiest way to get it online is by using Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions like Render, Fly.io, AWS ElasticBeanstalk or DigitalOcean's App Platform. These platforms streamline deployment, but they come with a catch: every time I deploy, my app runs on a fresh server instance, and local disk storage is wiped. That means any media uploads (like images or user files) are lost unless I use persistent storage.

Looking through all the available options, I find that Cloudflare R2 is the closest one to to having a "free-forever" option (nothing is ever free forever of course). It offers S3-compatible storage. AWS S3 is the go to for cloud storage, but if just starting out, Cloudflare R2 is a better option because it’s free for up to 10GB of storage. For proof-of-concept projects, MVPs, and side projects, that’s plenty of space. By the time usage outgrows it, it'll likely be ready to scale up.

Getting started with Cloudflare R2

To integrate R2 with Django, I created an R2 bucket, enable S3-compatible access, and configure credentials.Step 1: Create an R2 Bucket

1. Log in to the Cloudflare Dashboard.
2. Navigate to R2 Storage → Create Bucket.
3. Choose a Bucket Name (e.g., my-django-bucket).
4. Select a Region (leave it as auto for Cloudflare to decide).
5. Click Create Bucket.

Step 2: Enable S3-Compatible API

1. Open the newly created bucket.
2. Go to S3 API Compatibility and enable it.
3. Copy the S3 API Endpoint (e.g., https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com).

Step 3: Generate API Credentials

1. In Cloudflare Dashboard, go to R2 API Tokens.
2. Click Create API Token.
3. Assign Read and Write permissions to the bucket.
4. Click Create API Token and copy the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

Integrating R2 with Django

To connect Django to R2, I installed the necessary dependencies and update the settings.

Step 1: Install Dependencies

Add boto3 and django-storages in requirements.txt or pyproject.toml (whichever applies)

Step 2: Configure Django Settings

Modified my settings.py to use Cloudflare R2:

import os  
# Enable django-storages
INSTALLED_APPS += ["storages"]  

# Cloudflare R2 S3 Storage Settings 
AWS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID = os.getenv("R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID")
AWS_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = os.getenv("R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY")
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME = "my-django-bucket"
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT_URL = "https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com"
AWS_S3_CUSTOM_DOMAIN = f"{AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME}.r2.cloudflarestorage.com"  

# Set default storage backend (Django 4.2+) 
STORAGES = {  "default": {  "BACKEND": "storages.backends.s3.S3Storage",  },  "staticfiles": {  "BACKEND": "django.contrib.staticfiles.storage.ManifestStaticFilesStorage",  }, }

Replace <ACCOUNT_ID> with actual Cloudflare Account ID.

Configuring Environment Variables in Render

Since I'm deploying on Render, I need to set up environment variables for our Django project.Step 1: Add Environment Variables

1. Open Render Dashboard and navigate to the Django project.
2. Under Environment Variables, add:

R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID
R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
AWS_STORAGE_BUCKET_NAME
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT_URL