2025-04-13

Understanding Cloudflare Workers with Hono

Arnab das

3 min read · Apr 13, 2025

What is Serverless Architecture?

Serverless architecture is a cloud computing execution model where the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation and provisioning of servers. A serverless application runs in stateless compute containers that are event-triggered and fully managed by the cloud provider.

When should you use a serverless architecture?

  • When you have to get off the ground fast and don’t want to worry about deployments
  • When you can’t anticipate the traffic and don’t want to worry about autoscaling
  • If you have very low traffic and want to optimise for costs

Zoom image will be displayed

Why Choose Cloudflare Workers

  • ⚡ Super Fast: Runs at 300+ edge locations globally — near-instant response times.
  • 💸 Cost-Effective: 100K requests/day free forever — perfect for small apps & APIs.
  • 🛠️ Zero Maintenance: No servers, no cold starts, no setup — just deploy and chill.

How Cloudflare Workers Work

Zoom image will be displayed

  1. Edge Network Execution
    • When a user makes a request, Cloudflare routes it to the nearest edge location.
    • The Worker code runs on Cloudflare’s edge servers, reducing latency and improving performance.
  2. Event-Driven Execution
    • Cloudflare Workers are event-driven. They execute code only when triggered by an HTTP request, scheduled event, or other triggers.
    • This means no cold starts like traditional serverless platforms (AWS Lambda).
  3. JavaScript Runtime (V8 Isolates)
    • Unlike traditional container-based functions, Workers run inside V8 isolates (same engine as Chrome).
    • This makes them lightweight and fast compared to container-based alternatives.
  4. Request Handling with Fetch API
    • Workers listen to incoming requests using the fetch event. You can modify requests/responses, cache data, and even call external APIs.

Want to understand more details? Check out the official documents.

How to set up the Cloudflare workers:

Please sign up on Cloudflare

Zoom image will be displayed

Example: Cloudflare Worker with Hono

1. Initialize a new Hono app

npm create hono@latest my-app
cd my-app
npm i

2. Hello World

import { Hono } from 'hono'
const app = new Hono()
 
app.get('/', (c) => c.text('Hello Cloudflare Workers!'))
 
export default app

3. Run

npm run dev

Run the development server locally. Then, access http://localhost:8787 in your web browser.

4. Deploying

Make sure you’re logged into Cloudflare (wrangler login), then:

npm run deploy

🎉 Congratulations on successfully deploying a Hono app in Cloudflare Worker.

Conclusion

Cloudflare Workers and Hono offer a modern, lightweight, and scalable solution for building APIs and edge-first applications. Whether launching a side-project or optimizing for global speed, this stack empowers you to ship faster with minimal overhead.

LinkedIn
X