diff --git a/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/cloudflare-environment.ts b/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/cloudflare-environment.ts
index 3f6ab7538783..a22b10f10997 100644
--- a/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/cloudflare-environment.ts
+++ b/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/cloudflare-environment.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 import assert from "node:assert";
-import { builtinModules } from "node:module";
 import * as vite from "vite";
 import { INIT_PATH, UNKNOWN_HOST } from "./shared";
-import { getOutputDirectory } from "./utils";
+import { getOutputDirectory, nodeBuiltInModules } from "./utils";
 import type { ResolvedPluginConfig, WorkerConfig } from "./plugin-config";
 import type { Fetcher } from "@cloudflare/workers-types/experimental";
 import type {
@@ -133,6 +132,10 @@ export function createCloudflareEnvironmentOptions(
 			noExternal: true,
 			// We want to use `workerd` package exports if available (e.g. for postgres).
 			conditions: [...defaultConditions, "development|production"],
+			// The Cloudflare ones are proper builtins in the environment
+			builtins: [...cloudflareBuiltInModules],
+			// The Node.js ones are no proper builtins in the environment since we also polyfill them using unenv
+			external: [...nodeBuiltInModules],
 		},
 		dev: {
 			createEnvironment(name, config) {
@@ -155,7 +158,6 @@ export function createCloudflareEnvironmentOptions(
 				//       dev pre-bundling crawling (were we not to set this input field we'd have to appropriately set
 				//       optimizeDeps.entries in the dev config)
 				input: workerConfig.main,
-				external: [...cloudflareBuiltInModules],
 			},
 		},
 		optimizeDeps: {
@@ -163,9 +165,8 @@ export function createCloudflareEnvironmentOptions(
 			noDiscovery: false,
 			entries: workerConfig.main,
 			exclude: [
-				...cloudflareBuiltInModules,
 				// we have to exclude all node modules to work in dev-mode not just the unenv externals...
-				...builtinModules.concat(builtinModules.map((m) => `node:${m}`)),
+				...nodeBuiltInModules,
 			],
 			esbuildOptions: {
 				platform: "neutral",
diff --git a/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/miniflare-options.ts b/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/miniflare-options.ts
index 4c2386244ec1..4ae6da4b164f 100644
--- a/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/miniflare-options.ts
+++ b/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/miniflare-options.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import {
 } from "./constants";
 import { getWorkerConfigPaths } from "./deploy-config";
 import { MODULE_PATTERN } from "./shared";
+import { nodeBuiltInModules } from "./utils";
 import type { CloudflareDevEnvironment } from "./cloudflare-environment";
 import type {
 	PersistState,
@@ -328,22 +329,16 @@ export function getDevMiniflareOptions(
 									const [moduleId] = invokePayloadData.data;
 									const moduleRE = new RegExp(MODULE_PATTERN);
 
-									// Externalize Worker modules (CompiledWasm, Text, Data)
-									if (moduleRE.test(moduleId)) {
-										const result = {
-											externalize: moduleId,
-											type: "module",
-										} satisfies vite.FetchResult;
+									const shouldExternalize =
+										// Worker modules (CompiledWasm, Text, Data)
+										moduleRE.test(moduleId) ||
+										// Node.js builtin node modules (they will be resolved to unenv aliases)
+										nodeBuiltInModules.has(moduleId);
 
-										return MiniflareResponse.json({ result });
-									}
-
-									// For some reason we need this here for cloudflare built-ins (e.g. `cloudflare:workers`) but not for node built-ins (e.g. `node:path`)
-									// See https://github.com/flarelabs-net/vite-plugin-cloudflare/issues/46
-									if (moduleId.startsWith("cloudflare:")) {
+									if (shouldExternalize) {
 										const result = {
 											externalize: moduleId,
-											type: "builtin",
+											type: "module",
 										} satisfies vite.FetchResult;
 
 										return MiniflareResponse.json({ result });
diff --git a/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/utils.ts b/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/utils.ts
index 61b7382237f0..8652c510dddc 100644
--- a/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/vite-plugin-cloudflare/src/utils.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
+import { builtinModules } from "node:module";
 import * as path from "node:path";
 import { Request as MiniflareRequest } from "miniflare";
 import * as vite from "vite";
 import type { IncomingHttpHeaders } from "node:http";
 
+export const nodeBuiltInModules = new Set(
+	builtinModules.concat(builtinModules.map((m) => `node:${m}`))
+);
+
 export function getOutputDirectory(
 	userConfig: vite.UserConfig,
 	environmentName: string