Best Content Delivery Networks (CDN’s) In 2020 [IN PROGRESS]

Click here to read user comments on CDN’s

Write about what CDN you use

If you’re hosting a website with any decent traffic these days, you definitely want to get a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that will be able to speed up your website. CDN’s are made up of many servers that cache your website. When someone visits your website, the server closest to that visitor will load the site, which reduces latency and reduce bandwidth consumption.

Currently, the biggest CDN provider is Cloudflare, which we use ourselves to host OutwitTrade.com. Cloudflare has already served millions of requests for us, and we can recommend it. But there are loads of alternatives to Cloudflare:

  • KeyCDN
  • MaxCDN
  • Sucuri
  • StackPath
  • Google Cloud CDN
  • CacheFly
  • Amazon CloudFront
  • Fastly
  • MetaCDN
  • Akamai
  • Microsoft Azure CDN
  • CDN77
  • Leaseweb

If for whatever reason you’re looking for a CDN other than Cloudflare, we definitely recommend checking these out, and we are currently collecting user reviews and comments for different CDN’s – and we’ve already got some good comments. Earlier we had put out this request, and we’re still looking for more people to comment on this:

We’re doing some research on Content Delivery Networks (CDN’s) and especially the alternatives to Cloudflare, as there are a number of good competitors that not everyone knows about, like KeyCDN and MaxCDN. What CDN do you use and can you recommend it? What do you like/dislike about it? All comments welcome, the more detail the better.

Below are the submissions we’ve received so far on different CDN’s that people have recommended. We hope this page will eventually be the definitive resource for finding the CDN that’s best suited for your needs.

I am using BunnyCDN (https://bunnycdn.com) and am very happy with what they offer. Getting started could not have been any easier, and I was using it live on my site to serve images within minutes of signing up. There are 2 main reasons I picked them over the competition. First, they have lower bandwidth prices than almost every other CDN. Secondly, they have a minimum monthly fee of only $1, and that includes around 100GB of traffic, which is enough for many smaller sites like mine. They also offer CDN cloud storage, where I can upload my image files directly to their server, and they host it (via the CDN) for only $1/month per 100GB of files. I am not currently using that feature, but will in the future when my hard drive fills up. I also, of course, considered Cloudflare, but for my situation, I only needed to put images on the CDN, so having my entire site on a CDN was overkill. Unlike other CDNs, with Cloudflare, you change your site to use their DNS, so they are basically hosting a copy of your entire site. That has a lot of potential advantages but really wasn't necessary in my case.

--Eric Borgos, BoredHumans.com

PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/best-cdn#eric

The CDN that I use and will recommend is Imperva. This CDN is previously known as Incapsula, and since using it for my company, we never encountered any known threat issues because it also provides reliable website security features. Imperva is exceptionally steady in determining incoming traffic data and in optimizing performance with its load balancing services. The way Imperva handles a huge influx of website traffic with its load balancing features is the reason it stood out for me.

By using Imperva in conjunction with other best practices to enhance my site's speed, I saw an improvement of almost 65% in its speed performance.

--Samantha Griffith, Loveys Baby

PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/best-cdn#samantha

The one we recommend the most is MaxCDN.

Using their service, we have never experienced any trouble at all. In fact, everything is so easy with them. From initial setup to the end of the process, everything is very straightforward.

Some of the features of MaxCDN that I like are:

- The clear cache feature where you can just click a button and your caching problem will be gone instantly.

- There is no need for you as the user to re-upload the content elsewhere. It all can be done from within the MaxCDN dashboard.

- The fact that connection is very fast with MaxCDN is another reason why we choose their service.

- Last but not least, it is always the price. They have affordable pricing options that I think would suit almost everyone's wallet.

Those are the reasons why I think MaxCDN is one of the best CDN network providers out there.

--Henry Chen, Syncoria

PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/best-cdn#henry

When it comes to CDNs, I have used them for a variety specific reasons, but most recently more-so for speed optimization.

I am VERY familiar with CloudFlare, as it serves as a one-stop shop for all your caching and optimization needs, but I am also familiar with the downsides as well (expensive to scale, fairly complicated due to the amount of functionalities).

As you mentioned, one of the less known but equally powerful CDNs is KeyCDN. If my clients don't use CloudFlare, I usually refer them to this second CDN, due to its' costs, ease of use and efficiency. It still offers things like real-time analytics and Let's Encrypt (Free SSL) while costing next to nothing comparably to CloudFlare.

Some extra features which I love as an SEOer are, GZIP compression (for text-compression), Image processing and logging. It also has simple integration with all of the modern CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, Magneto and Drupal. So, if you're looking to not break the bank and still want most of your CDN optimizations - give KeyCDN a try!

--William Chin, ProLightingRental.com

PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/best-cdn#william

Google Cloud CDN is a fast and reliable web and audio content delivery network used globally. It brings consistently great web and video experiences, provides privacy and data security, and also activates with a single click for the Cloud Load Balancing users.

*Key Features *

* Google Cloud Network offers connectivity with every major end-user ISP around the globe.

* It supports every modern protocol like HTTP/2 and QUIC - developed by Google, improving the performance of sites.

* The Google Cloud CDN is tightly integrated with Cloud Monitoring and Cloud Logging providing the detailed latency metrics that dramatically reduce as well as request logs exported from Cloud Storage for deeper visibility.

* It’s a low-cost content delivery service with 90+ data centers around the world.

* It comes with an SSL - Secure Socket Layer to secure the websites.

The company offers CDN services with a free usage tier for a whole year with a 50GB of outbound transfer facility. Other than that it offers services in $300 for a year with access to other Cloud CDN platforms.

I would highly recommend it as it is a one-click solution to deploy any WordPress website across multiple cloud providers. But, what I dislike about the Google Cloud CDN is that the configuration with other platforms is not that easy and you will definitely need the support of technical professionals.

--Gintaras Steponkus, Solid Guides

PERMALINK: https://outwittrade.com/best-cdn#gintaras