Your customers install your app straight onto their own Cloudflare account, from your site and under your name. They sign in with Cloudflare, pick a domain and watch each step go green. There's no app store in between, no dashboard to install first, and no setup guide to write. We build it with you, and then you run it yourself.
Already in use: every KT8 Mail install and update goes through kt8.com/install, built this way.
app.smith-family.co.ukAccess key removedAn app that costs pennies a month to run can still take a non-technical customer an afternoon to set up, if they manage it at all. Every step is a chance to give up, or to email you for help.
Everything in the left-hand list happens for them, in order, with a plain-English message if something needs their attention. Updates are the same three steps.
Now you pay the bills, hold everyone's data and answer for it under GDPR. Your one-off app has become a SaaS business.
Most people stop at step two. The ones who get through send you their error messages.
That's a small, price-conscious market, and it's not who most useful apps are for.
There are good free ways to get a Cloudflare app onto someone's account. If one of them fits, use it. We'd rather point you there than sell you something you don't need.
It's free, it's built into Cloudflare, and it gives developers their own copy of your code to change.
Cloudflare's guide →A free app store for open-source Cloudflare apps, with updates and custom domains built in. Adding your app takes one small file.
Appflare's catalogue →Your own installer on your own site, for an app you sell, with your name on it and steps the others don't cover, like email or licence keys.
Tell us about your app →| Deploy to Cloudflare button | Appflare | Installs.dev | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A button that copies your code to the customer's GitHub and builds it | A free app store for open-source Cloudflare apps | Your own installer for your own app, built with you |
| Made for | Developers | Self-hosters choosing from a catalogue | Your customers, technical or not |
| Accounts your customer needs | Cloudflare, plus GitHub or GitLab | Cloudflare | Cloudflare |
| Steps for the customer | Copy the code, then build it | Install the Appflare dashboard, then pick your app | One install, straight from your website |
| Whose name is on it | Cloudflare's | Appflare's | Yours, on your own web address |
| Who runs the installer | Cloudflare | Appflare's hosted page | You, on your own Cloudflare account |
| Email Routing and mail records | Not covered | Not built in, as far as we can see | Switched on, and MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC checked and repaired |
| Your own steps and checks | No | No | Yes, for example a domain check or a welcome email |
| Selling your app | Not built in | Not built in | Licence keys that work offline |
| Help from people | Docs | Community | We build and test it with you |
| Price | Free | Free | Fixed price per app, then a yearly licence |
Open-source app already on Appflare? You can have both: an Appflare listing for people who browse, and your own installer for your customers.
KT8 Mail is a complete email service that runs on your own Cloudflare account. It's for people who want their own email address and their own data, without the technical bit.
The app came together quickly. Getting it onto other people's accounts didn't. It needs a Worker, storage, web files, a web address, Email Routing, the right mail records and sign-in protection, all set up in the right order. No guide was going to get a non-technical person through that.
So we built an installer instead. People sign in with Cloudflare, choose their domain, and it does the rest. It checks and repairs the mail records, and then it lets go of the access it was given. Their mail keeps working even if kt8.com disappears.
An installer looks like a weekend job: sign in, call a few APIs, done. Here's what we ran into building the one for KT8 Mail.
Our first real install needed six changes before every step went green. Each was a missing permission or a Cloudflare quirk you only find on a live account, like Email Routing needing an empty request to switch on.
The permission our installer first needed was replaced in September 2026. Someone has to notice when that happens and fix the installer before customers do.
Letting anyone sign in with Cloudflare needs a verified domain, a logo, a listed set of permissions and Cloudflare's approval. Once it's public, it stays public.
Every week spent on installs, updates, DNS records and removal is a week not spent on the app your customers actually pay for.
If you enjoy this kind of work and have the time, build your own. We did. If you'd rather it just worked, that's what we're here for.
Anyone with an app that's better off on the customer's own account, and who wants the install to carry their own name. It's cheaper for the customer, there's less risk for you, and their data stays theirs.
Your install page is often a customer's first real experience of your app. Make it yours: your name, your wording, your own checks along the way.
For example: a booking tool that sets up its web address and confirmation emails during the install.
Sell a licence. Customers run the app on their own account, so you have no servers, no hosting bills and no customer data to look after.
For example: a booking page or invoicing tool sold for a one-off price.
Build once, then install it onto each client's own account under their name. They own it and pay Cloudflare directly. You charge for setup and support.
For example: an online forms tool rolled out to twenty clients.
Schools, charities, clinics and law firms often can't send data to a third-party service. An app on their own account solves that.
For example: a private document search using Cloudflare's AI.
Larger customers want your product but not your hosting. Offer them an install on their own account alongside your normal plans.
For example: an analytics product's enterprise tier.
If you write or teach about owning your data, give readers something they can install themselves, not just read about.
For example: KT8 Mail, sold to the readers of a tech blog.
We write one small file listing the storage, databases, web address, email and settings your app uses, plus any steps of your own. Your app's code doesn't change.
It runs on your own Cloudflare account, at your own web address, with your name and logo. We test full installs and updates with you before launch.
Put "Install on Cloudflare" on your website or sales page. Customers go straight to your install page. There's no catalogue and nothing else to install first.
Publish a new version and your customers update in one click. Database changes run for them. You don't need us for any of it.
// What the installer sets up, in order { "name": "Simple Stats", "worker": "simple-stats", "webAddress": { "suggest": "stats" }, "storage": ["simple-stats-files"], "databases": [{ "name": "stats", "migrations": "./migrations" }], "signIn": { "protect": "/admin", "owner": "their email" }, "settings": [ { "key": "SITE_NAME", "ask": "What's your website called?" } ], "email": false }
The access Cloudflare gives the installer is used once and then revoked. We can't get back into anyone's account.
Your installer runs on your account and your customers' apps run on theirs. If Installs.dev disappeared tomorrow, nothing would stop.
Customers see every permission on Cloudflare's own sign-in screen before anything is installed.
We run full installs, updates and removals on real accounts before your customers see the button.
Cloudflare is where we started, but the same idea works on other platforms where customers can sign in and give an installer permission to set things up. If your app runs somewhere else, tell us where.
We take on a small number of apps at a time and do the work with you.
Fixed price quoted per app
Yearly optional
Yes, and it's great for developers. It copies your code into the customer's own GitHub or GitLab account and builds it from there. Installs.dev is for customers who don't have GitHub and never will: no account to create, and no code to look after. It also sets up the things around the app, like the web address, email and sign-in protection. See the full comparison.
Appflare is a free app store for open-source Cloudflare apps, and it's good at that. Your customers install the Appflare dashboard first, then find your app in its catalogue. With Installs.dev, they install your app straight from your website under your name, and the installer can do things specific to your app. If your app is open source and ready to launch, Appflare may be all you need, and we'll happily say so. It can also be on both. See the comparison.
No. Your installer runs on your account, your customers' apps run on theirs, and we have access to neither once we hand over. The installer's access to a customer's account ends when their install finishes.
Today it sets up Workers, R2 storage, Durable Objects and their migrations, web files, custom web addresses and DNS, Email Routing with mail record checks, and Cloudflare Access sign-in. D1 databases, KV, Queues, scheduled jobs and settings your customer types in are next.
Whatever Cloudflare charges for what your app uses. Many small apps fit in Cloudflare's free allowance, and the Workers Paid plan is $5 a month. They pay Cloudflare directly.
Yes. We can build licence keys into your installer and app: customers buy a key, and the app checks it on their own account without contacting anyone. KT8 Mail's Pro plan is being built the same way.
No. Installs.dev is an independent service that uses Cloudflare's public sign-in and API, the same way any third-party app does.