You need to know, Hono CRUD Backend on Cloudflare Workers
I was exploring free backend hosting options and ran into a common problem: many providers, like Railway, give you a one-time credit rather than a predictable monthly baseline. That makes it hard to plan for ongoing development and testing. I wanted something free, consistent, and modern. That's when I found Cloudflare Workers.
This guide will walk you through the essentials of setting up a minimal backend. By the end, you'll have a clear path to a lightweight, functional CRUD API.
What is Cloudflare Workers?
Cloudflare Workers is a serverless platform that runs your code at Cloudflare's global data centers (their "edge"). Instead of a single server or virtual machine, your code executes close to the user, which improves speed and reduces latency.
Think of Workers as a globally distributed runtime for JavaScript, giving your APIs ultra-low latency without worrying about infrastructure.
Key points:
- No servers to manage: Upload your code, and Cloudflare runs it.
- Edge execution: Code runs near users worldwide.
- Fast and secure: Uses a lightweight JavaScript environment (V8), not Node.js.
Example: A "Hello World" Worker
export default {
async fetch(request) {
return new Response("Hello World", { status: 200 });
}
}
This example illustrates how simple it is to deploy a global endpoint. Users anywhere in the world will hit the nearest edge and get an instant response.
Free Tier Limits
Cloudflare gives a clear free tier, more then enough for mid apps:
- 100,000 requests per day
- 1,000 requests per minute (burst)
- 10 ms CPU time per request
- 3,000 build minutes per month
- Up to 100 Worker scripts
- Key-value storage (KV): 100,000 reads/day, 1,000 writes/day, 1 GB storage
Static assets are free and unlimited.
Understanding the free limits upfront helps prevent surprises and lets you plan for realistic workloads. Most personal or mid-scale projects fit comfortably within these bounds.
Choosing a Framework for CRUD Apps
For a simple CRUD backend, you want something light and fast:
This section compares two popular frameworks suitable for Workers, focusing on footprint, structure, and flexibility.
1. Hono
- Express-like API, small (~22 KB), TypeScript-friendly
- Good for relational data or if you want some middleware
- Example:
import { Hono } from 'hono'
const app = new Hono()
app.get('/items', c => c.json([{ id: 1, name: 'item1' }]))
app.post('/items', async c => {
const body = await c.req.json()
return c.json({ id: Date.now(), ...body })
})
export default app