What are the best content delivery networks (CDNs)?

Question

23

Options
Considered

103

User
Recs.

Jul 30, 2020

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

21 Options Considered

Best content delivery networks (CDNs)	Price	Support	Data centers
86 CloudFront	-	-	-
80 CloudFlare	-	-	-
-- MaxCDN	-	-	-
-- Akamai	-	-	-
-- jsDelivr	-	-	-

See Full List

cdnjs

Add Video or Image

PageCDN

Add Video or Image

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score 13 · Answer 1

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score 24 · Answer 2

CloudFlare

Top Con

Practices Man-in-the-Middle certificate forgery

Https ("secure") comunications with sites using CloudFlare are intercepted at their servers, decrypted and recrypted with CloudFlare's certificates. This poses huge problem with what users perceive as safe communication - browsers fail to display notice about MitM taking place. See More

Top Pro

Very affordable

CloudFlare offers a free plan with basic DDoS protection and promises to always provide a free service with at least the feature set that it has today. More advanced DDoS protection is available for the higher plans, which can be added as your needs grow. See More

Top Con

Lowers usability of the web for Tor users

Tor users are required to enter captcha at each site using CloudFlare. In some circumstances, this introduces unsolvable roadblock. See More

Top Pro

Works with static and dynamic content

Top Con

Relies on intrusive captcha screens to validate visitors

During large attacks, Cloudflare will block users with captcha screens to filter out malicious attacks. Albeit effective, they cause a considerable annoyance to legitimate users. See More

Top Pro

Easy management interface

Top Con

Slow support

Even on paid (Pro) account, support often takes several hours per reply. So a single query can take days to resolve. See More

Top Pro

Highly secure

Top Con

Support doesn't have access to logs

Log access is an enterprise feature and priced at the "contact us" level. So when an error code is returned to the user that wasn't returned from your app, debugging this is impossible at the pro level. Unfortunately these logs aren't available to support personnel either so they have no way of tracking/validating issues. See More

Top Pro

Anyone can add or update libraries

Top Con

Lack of cache control

If you want to cache all kinds of content (e.g. HTML, JSON), you need the "Cache Everything" setting, and this imposes a long "max-age" directive of 2 hours. It ignores your origin server's value. See More

Top Pro

Has npm auto-update

Top Con

Layer 7 attacks must be manually identified

In order to enable layer 7 protection with Cloudflare, customers must manually press an "I'm under attack" button. See More

Top Pro

Site enhancing apps

Cloudflare has a wide selection of app support that allows the user to install the app easily through Cloudflare instead of in their site. This creates ease of use, time saved and less degradation of performance. See More

Top Pro

Works with other CDNs

Top Pro

Automatic IPv6

Top Pro

Page Rules are powerful

Top Pro

Railgun optimization for Business & Enterprise plans

Railgun allows caching dynamic and personalized sites, allowing for up to 140% performance increase. See More

Top Pro

SSL encryption

As of late 2014 Cloudflare offers SSL encryption for all sites using its service. See More

Top Pro

Handled some of the largest DDoS attacks in history

Cloudflare was able to deflect 2 massive DDoS attacks. During the March 2013 attack on Spamhaus, they were able to absorb a peak 120Gbps attack that lasted 4 days, as well as a 400Gbps attack in February 2014. Their track record shows their ability to protect against DDoS attacks in practice. See More

Top Pro

Official WordPress plugin

Cloudflare offers an official WordPress plugin that allows for customization through the user panel. See More

Top Pro

Has tag based cache spoilage for Enterprise plan

Top Pro

Free service is Best

See All

score 7 · Answer 3

MaxCDN

Top Pro

Powerful tools

Top Pro

100% uptime

MaxCDN promises an uptime of 100%. See More

Top Pro

Popular blogging, ecommerce and plugin solutions

Top Pro

HTTP and RTMP support

HTTP and RTMP variant audio and video streaming. See More

Top Pro

NetDNA uses the Packet Exchange backbone

Top Pro

Real-time live streaming support

Real-time live streaming support using Wowza Media Server Advanced 2 clusters. See More

See All

score 7 · Answer 4

Akamai

Top Pro

Large scale point of presence

Being one of the worlds largest CDNs, Akamai's large scale gives it a huge point of presence (PoP) to handle volumetric attacks. See More

Top Con

Expensive

Akami's services cost more than triple comparative packages from other security companies. At 13k a month for DDoS protection, there are many other choices out there that cost less for the same protection. See More

Top Pro

Lots of dedicated bandwidth specifically for DDoS absorption

Through Prolexic's PLXedge, Akamai provides their customers with a total of 2.3 Tbps of dedicated DDoS absorption bandwidth. See More

Top Con

Slower security rule propagation

Because of Akamai's large CDN structure, it can take some time for security rules to propagate, making it harder to adjust security responses on the fly. See More

Top Pro

Capped bursting fees

If a sudden attack sucks up a lot of bandwidth, the bandwidth costs are capped. See More

Top Pro

Rules for rate limiting

Akamai provides tools for rate controlling traffic segments based on their request rate behavior. See More

Top Pro

Deeply customizable rules

The Kona Site Defender rules are all customizable, with continuous updates from Akamai. This means you can see how they are protecting your site under the hood, and adjust them to your needs. See More

Top Pro

Any type of content

Static, dynamic and streaming content delivery. See More

Top Pro

Application protection

Akamai utilizes a proprietary web application firewall in order to provide scalable protection against application layer attacks. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 5

jsDelivr

Top Pro

Multi-CDN

jsDelivr uses multiple CDN providers resulting in better uptime and performance. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

jsDelivr offers free CDN services for developers. See More

Top Pro

Effective load balancing

Top Pro

Version aliasing

Top Pro

Multiple files via single HTTP request

Top Pro

Fully featured API

See All

score 10 · Answer 6

CDN77.com

Top Pro

Cost-effective monthly plans

You can choose between Pay-As-You-Go and Worldwide Monthly Plans - with a fixed price for all locations, starting at $19/TB. See More

Top Con

Doesn't allow for much user-customization

CDN77 lacks any advanced configuration options, making it a poor choice for any users wanting to do anything out-of-the-norm. See More

Imperial Play Developer Admin's Experience

Just took over managing this from a previous employee so I was needing some tech support and explanations. On a public holiday, on-line chat was answered immediately and carefully explained everything clearly. It's that level of support that makes the difference. See More

Specs

Support:24/7

Data centers:34

Network Capacity:14 Tbps+

Website Acceleration:Yes

Top Pro

Strong and responsive support team

Support helped with a migration from another provider and made the process seamless. See More

og1's Experience

Excellent POP coverage and network performance. Great user interface. See More

Top Pro

Very easy to use

CDN77 is organized into a few tabs (dashboard, CDN, reports, support), which can quickly be accessed through buttons top dead center of the page. Setting it up is very easy as well, with just a few basic steps - create your storage, show CDN77 where your files are, then start using it. See More

SkillfulDercetius's Experience

Absolutely awesome. Strongly recommended. See More

Top Pro

Only pay for the data you use

Pricing starts at 49¢/GB, and will drop down to 29¢/GB if you receive lots of traffic. See Pay As You Go plan details here. If you have lots of traffic, instead you can opt for monthly plans which offer up to 2PB for just under $15,000/month. Check out High Volume plans here. See More

Top Pro

Great user interface

Much clearer and easier to use than e.g. AWS. See More

Top Pro

Video Processing and Delivery solution

CDN77 also offers a standalone Video Processing and Delivery solution called Streamflow. Video delivery competitors usually use a 3rd party CDN for global video delivery, while CDN77 has built it upon their own datacenter network. This is more reliable and allows for a flexible pricing. See More

Top Pro

Extensive global network coverage

Good global network coverage in both North America and Europe. See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 7

KeyCDN

Top Pro

Transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing

Traffic prices are as low as $0.04/GB and volume pricing starts at 10TB/month. See More

Top Con

Unreasonable anti-spam policy

Not suitable if you have an association with online advertising. A single email that may include your domain that appears on Spamcop will result in a threat to terminate your account and a requirement to disable the URL -- even if you are not responsible for the production or sending of the email. See More

Top Pro

Simple and easy setup

CDN configuration is instantly deployed. See More

Top Con

Config changes take 5-10 minutes

Any config change is queued for several minutes before being applied, without any time estimate. Combined with caching and DNS delays, it can make debugging a bit more difficult. See More

Top Pro

Free Lets Encrypt SSL certificates for custom zone names

Top Pro

HTTP/2 Support

One of the 1st providers to support HTTP/2 See More

Top Pro

Custom SSL for free

Allows uploading own certificate at no extra cost. Shared SSL is also available. See More

Top Pro

Brotli support

KeyCDN supports Brotli compression for users who have Brotli enabled on their origin server. See More

Top Pro

POPs in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan at no extra cost

Top Pro

Real-time raw logs available for free

Top Pro

Support SPDY 3.1

KeyCDN supports SPDY 3.1 for even faster secured connections. See More

See All

Answer 8

Incapsula

Top Pro

Real time dashboard

Incapsula provides a dashboard that shows traffic data in real time, allowing you to respond to threats immediately as they happen, and see the results of your response as quickly as possible. See More

Top Con

Enterprise package pricing not listed

Potential enterprise customers will need to call Incapsula to find out the pricing for their enterprise plans as they are not listed on the site and appear to be priced on a case by case basis. See More

Top Pro

Massive network capacity

Incapsula's proprietary "Behemoth" machines handle 170 Gbps each, and process up to 100 million packets per second. As of March 10th 2015, they have a network of 13 data centers with these machines, allowing them to process more than 2 Tbps of bandwidth on top of their existing capabilities. See More

Top Con

Scripting language and rules for IncapRules has steep learning curve

While there is a rules editor that offers a shortcut into rule definition, the learning curve to master how to utilize in full IncapRules is pretty steep. See More

Top Pro

24x7 chat support

Incapsula chat support is always available. Chat can be much easier to use than phone support, as you can easily copy and paste technical data through text, and get instant feedback you don't get through email. See More

Top Pro

Protects non-web assets

Incapsula has an extra layer of DDoS protection that also protects subnet network infrastructure, like FTP and email. See More

Top Pro

Great value for the price

For a full ADC package Incapsula comes in at 4k a month, compared the Akami's 13-14k, it is quite the bargain. See More

Top Pro

Instant propagation of security rules

Incapsula uses their own GUI called In IncapRules that allows for testing and implementation of user created rules, all on the fly. See More

Top Pro

Intelligently recognizes bots to counter layer 7 attacks

Incapsula has a bot recognition engine to achieve a low rate of false positives on layer 7 attacks. These attacks are notoriously hard to detect as they are designed to look like regular network traffic. Their always on recognition solution automatically triggers layer 7 protection without user intervention, protecting you during downtimes like holidays, weekends, and late nights. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 9

CacheFly

Top Pro

30-day trial

CacheFly offers a 30-day trial. See More

Top Pro

Service level agreement guarantees 100% abailability

Top Pro

Scalable delivery

Top Pro

Reverse Proxy and SSL Support

See All

score 1 · Answer 10

Windows Azure

Top Pro

Flexible and easy

Top Pro

Ensured uptime

Top Pro

Reliable

See All

score 2 · Answer 11

StackPath

Top Pro

Flat pricing

Easy to understand the pricing of their CDNs. See More

Top Con

Not many services yet

Not really a con, just really good secure content delivery right now, but hopefully they will add more services soon. See More

Top Pro

Free WAF and DDoS

Hard to beat the value for some security and CDN. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 12

BitGravity

Top Pro

Robust analytics engine

Top Pro

Stream bandwidth optimization

Top Pro

Region control

See All

score 1 · Answer 13

Level3

Top Pro

Unified Communications technology

Top Pro

Level3 offers a front end optimisation service

Top Pro

Powerful video encoding suite

See All

score 1 · Answer 14

Microsoft Ajax CDN

Top Pro

Visual Studio .vsdoc support

Top Pro

Supports SSL

score 1 · Answer 15

CDNetworks

Top Pro

PCI certified

Top Pro

SSL-VPN application support

Top Pro

Only multinational CDN

Top Pro

Secure

See All

score 4 · Answer 16

Fastnow

Top Pro

Enhances your website performance and delivers your contents to end users significantly and greatly

Answer 17

AppTrana

Add Video or Image

score 2 · Answer 18

CDNsun

Top Pro

HTTP/2 Support

Supports HTTP/2 ON SSL connections See More

Top Con

It's a bit hard to use a Let's Encrypt certificate

It only lets you to use Let's Encrypt with Push, and to use it with Pull you need to create one manually from your computer. See More

21 Options Considered

My Recommendation for CloudFront

My Recommendation for CloudFront

Any type of content

Can get expensive quickly

Dynamic scaling

Simple interface

Tight integration with other Amazon Web Services

My Recommendation for CloudFlare

My Recommendation for CloudFlare

Practices Man-in-the-Middle certificate forgery

Very affordable

Lowers usability of the web for Tor users

Works with static and dynamic content

Relies on intrusive captcha screens to validate visitors

Easy management interface

Slow support

Highly secure

Support doesn't have access to logs

Anyone can add or update libraries

Lack of cache control

Has npm auto-update

Layer 7 attacks must be manually identified

Site enhancing apps

Works with other CDNs

Automatic IPv6

Page Rules are powerful

Railgun optimization for Business & Enterprise plans

SSL encryption

Handled some of the largest DDoS attacks in history

Official WordPress plugin

Has tag based cache spoilage for Enterprise plan

Free service is Best

My Recommendation for MaxCDN

My Recommendation for MaxCDN

Powerful tools

100% uptime

Popular blogging, ecommerce and plugin solutions

HTTP and RTMP support

NetDNA uses the Packet Exchange backbone

Real-time live streaming support

My Recommendation for Akamai

My Recommendation for Akamai

Large scale point of presence

Expensive

Lots of dedicated bandwidth specifically for DDoS absorption

Slower security rule propagation

Capped bursting fees

Rules for rate limiting

Deeply customizable rules

Any type of content

Application protection

My Recommendation for jsDelivr

My Recommendation for jsDelivr

Multi-CDN

Free and open source

Effective load balancing

Version aliasing

Multiple files via single HTTP request

Fully featured API

My Recommendation for CDN77.com

My Recommendation for CDN77.com

Cost-effective monthly plans

Doesn't allow for much user-customization

Strong and responsive support team

Very easy to use

Only pay for the data you use

Great user interface

Video Processing and Delivery solution

Extensive global network coverage

My Recommendation for KeyCDN

My Recommendation for KeyCDN

Transparent, pay-as-you-go pricing

Unreasonable anti-spam policy

Simple and easy setup

Config changes take 5-10 minutes

Free Lets Encrypt SSL certificates for custom zone names

HTTP/2 Support

Custom SSL for free

Brotli support