Contributing Technology Writer
For developers and web admins, it's no news that website speed is the kingpin of user experience. In an era where attention spans are shorter than a goldfish's memory, a sluggish website or application is a one-way ticket to losing traffic.
Enter the world of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), the unsung heroes that transform the internet into a racetrack. From applications and files to entire websites, the CDN services ensure your online services are delivered quickly, reliably, and at scale, no matter where your users are.
In this deep dive, we'll decode the intricacies of CDN technology and explore why it's as essential to your toolkit as that IDE you can't live without. We'll also introduce you to the top 7 CDN addons that every developer should eye in 2023, straight from the best CDN providers.
What is a CDN?
A CDN or Content Delivery Network represents global networks of multiple servers that swiftly and securely deliver internet content. It's not just about fast content delivery; CDNs also enhance website security by distributing the load across multiple servers, thereby shielding against DDoS attacks and other harmful traffic.
Hosted CDN addons, maintained by third-party providers, come in two forms:
Actual CDN addons: These addons provide CDN-as-a-service, similar to Heroku's Expedited CDN. They offer a complete CDN solution, where the addon itself functions as a CDN service. By using such addons, you can offload the delivery of your content to a distributed network of servers, improving performance and reducing the load on your own infrastructure.
Enhancements to existing CDN: Some addons are designed to enhance your existing CDN by providing additional benefits. These enhancements can include features like image optimization, bandwidth management, caching improvements, or advanced content delivery optimizations. These addons help augment your existing CDN capabilities, providing added functionality and performance benefits without requiring you to set up and manage a separate CDN service.
In both cases, the goal of these CDN addons is to simplify content delivery, improve performance, and relieve users from the complexities of setting up and managing a CDN infrastructure.
These add-ons make CDNs an appealing choice for businesses seeking to bolster their content delivery without the hassle of maintenance.
For the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on CDN providers, all of which offer access to their service via addons or so-called web service integrations.
Why are CDNs so important for developers
CDN networks and their associated add-ons have become indispensable tools in web development. They offer unique enhancements that provide a range of benefits for developers:
Automated asset optimization: CDN add-ons can take over the grunt work of optimizing assets like images and scripts, freeing developers to focus on core tasks. This includes mobile optimization, ensuring your content looks great on all devices.
Enhanced security: CDN add-ons, such as web application firewalls, provide robust security services. They act as a buffer against threats like DDoS attacks and SQL injections, ensuring the integrity of a developer's work is never compromised.
Insightful analytics: CDN add-ons provide developers with rich user behavior and content performance data. These insights can guide developers in fine-tuning their content to deliver the best user experience.
Image source: How Does CDN Work by Hostinger
Whether sold in the form of a CDN-as-a-service addon, or whether complemented by CDN-augmenting addons, CDNs deliver significant performance improvements for websites and applications:
Reduced latency: CDNs reduce latency by caching static content at internet exchange points closer to the user. This eliminates the need for the user's browser to fetch content from the origin server, leading to quicker page loads.
Improved scalability: Thanks to their globally distributed network of servers, CDNs can quickly scale to meet the demands of high-traffic websites and applications.
Increased availability: CDNs ensure high availability by providing multiple access points. This means that even if one server fails, users can access the website or application through another.
The combination of CDN networks and their add-ons offers a holistic CDN solution that bolsters website and application performance and streamlines developer workflows. It enhances security, all while delivering valuable performance insights.
Factors to consider when choosing a CDN provider
Here are some crucial considerations:
Provider details
Consider the reputation of the CDN provider. Are they reliable? Have they been around the block or fresh on the CDN scene? What's their track record in the CDN provider world?
The CDN industry was worth $19.2 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow at an annual compounded rate of 12.5% by 2027. The stakes are high, and you need a provider who'll be in it for the long haul, you need one of the best CDN providers.
Ideal use cases, key features, and unique benefits
Different CDNs excel at different things. The best CDN providers are ordained by your specific use case vs. what they're great at.
Some might be great for video streaming, while others shine at mobile optimization. Determine your primary use case and find a CDN solution that specializes in that area.
Global network coverage and edge server locations
Global network coverage isn't just about quantity but strategic server placement at crucial internet exchange points.
If your user base is spread across Europe and Asia, prioritize a CDN provider with numerous edge servers and multiple data centers.
Integration with popular development platforms
A top-notch CDN service should seamlessly integrate with popular CMS and cloud-hosted development platforms.
The goal? Deploy CDN addons with a few clicks from your developer or admin dashboard.
Speed and performance optimization
Speed is the name of the game. The best CDN providers need to be fast. Look for a CDN that can increase page load times by at least 50%.
Also, consider how the CDN provider handles load balancing and reduces latency. A fast and efficient CDN can reduce up to 60% bandwidth requirement.
Scalability and reliability
Will the CDN service scale as your traffic grows? Can it handle high-traffic events? Ensure the CDN is reliable and can handle any unexpected spikes in bandwidth usage.
Security features and DDoS protection
CDNs are your first line of defense against DDoS attacks. Ensure your CDN has robust security services and functionality, including a web application firewall.
Analytics and reporting capabilities
Think of your CDN as your data-driven co-pilot. It should provide valuable insights into traffic patterns, bandwidth usage, and threat analysis, helping you to optimize performance and react swiftly to security threats.
Pricing models and cost considerations
Look for CDN providers that give clear-cut, pay-as-you-go, or tiered pricing models based on your usage. For example, if you're a burgeoning startup, you might want a CDN that allows you to start small and scale up as your web traffic grows.
While a more expensive content delivery network provider might offer more features, assessing whether those features are worth the extra cost for your use case is essential.
Each of these criteria is vital when evaluating the top CDN add-ons for developers, and the best CDN provider for your business. Let's see how our top 7 contenders measure up.
Top 7 CDN add-ons for developers
You will find dozens of CDN add-ons on the market today. To help you narrow down your search, here are seven of the best CDN add-ons for developers in 2023.
CDN 1: Cloudflare by Cloudflare, Inc.
Cloudflare, lauded as one of the 2022 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for CDN, stands at the pinnacle of CDN providers.
Key features and unique benefits
Cloudfare is celebrated for its superb load times and superior performance standards.
Global network coverage and edge server locations
Extensive reach, and covering over 285 cities and 100 countries, Cloudflare CDN can deliver content within 50 milliseconds to 95% of global internet users.
Integration with popular development platforms
Cloudflare integrates seamlessly with many popular development platforms, control panels, and eCommerce platforms, including WordPress, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace.
Performance and speed
Cloudflare excels in speed, as its CDN exclusively uses SSDs, ensuring lightning-fast performance.
Scalability and reliability
Scoring high on ten criteria, including innovation, rule creation, and Log4Shell response, The Forrester Wave nominated Cloudflare as a leader in Web Application Firewalls (WAF).
They also offer uncompromised availability. You’ll get a 100% uptime promise backed by a 25x reimbursement SLA.
Ease of use and integration
Cloudflare's addon setup is straightforward, taking as little as 5 minutes. Its user-friendly dashboard enables quick and fine-grained configuration to enhance the performance of Internet applications and APIs.
Customer support and documentation
Cloudflare offers 24/7 customer support for enterprise users, onboarding guides, and a wide array of developer products, ensuring a smooth customer experience.
Pricing model and cost
Cloudflare is one of your top bets if you’re looking for a free CDN. The free plan offers unmetered DDoS protection combined with WAF. The pro plan is $240/year, and the Business plan is $2,400/year with plenty of advanced features like lossless image optimization and accelerated mobile pages.
CDN 2: Google Cloud CDN by Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud CDN is a high-performance, scalable, and reliable global CDN that leverages Google's global network to streamline content delivery for web apps served out of Google Compute Engine and Google Cloud Storage.
Key features and unique benefits
Google Cloud CDN is down for its global reach and impressive cache controls. You’ll get complete control over your cache keys and TTLs based on the content types.
Global network coverage and edge server locations
Google Cloud CDN boasts a global network of edge points of presence (PoPs) in over 200 regions worldwide in more than 1,300 cities.
Integration with popular development platforms
Google Cloud CDN users can benefit from the vast Google Cloud marketplace and advanced security features. The app categories include maps, big data, VM, SaaS and APIs, Kubernetes apps, and more.
Performance and speed
Site performance will significantly improve as Google Cloud CDN leverages HTTP/2 and QUIC protocols. Moreover, the Media CDN makes it easy to bring large video files in a snap.
Scalability and reliability
The pay-as-you-go pricing tiers make it easy to upgrade (or downgrade) as needed. Also, Google’s proprietary Cloud Armor provides top-notch security from DDoS attacks.
Ease of use and integration
Google Cloud CDN addon works seamlessly with many apps and PaaS platforms. Moreover, you can install from the Google Cloud marketplace.
Customer support and documentation
Google provides users access to many learning resources with step-by-step implementation guidelines and how-to instructions. Google also offers a community of over 2 billion global users. Customer support is available for enterprise users.
Pricing model and cost
Google Cloud CDN charges for cache fill and cache egress. Cache egress costs range from $0.03 to $0.08 per GB depending on the destination, and cache fill costs $0.01 per GB for North America and $0.02 per GB for the Asia Pacific, South America, and other regions.
CDN 3: Amazon CloudFront by Amazon Web Services
Amazon CloudFront is a reliable, high-performance content delivery network that leverages Amazon Web Services.
Key features and unique benefits
They have an excellent free tier. Users can enjoy up to 1 TB of data transfer every month for free, without any restrictions.
They offer efficient OTA patches and updates. AWS lets you deliver critical and feature updates frequently over-the-air to your customer base.
Global network coverage and edge server locations
It currently has over 450 global POPs.
Integration with popular development platforms
Amazon CloudFront CDN integrates seamlessly with other Amazon Web Services (AWS) products, offering developers and businesses a comprehensive suite of tools.
Performance and speed
The service employs various technologies to optimize performance, including content caching, compression, and intelligent routing, leading to substantial performance improvements for your website or application.
Scalability and reliability
You’ll enjoy access to top security features provided by AWS, namely, AWS Shield, AWS WAF, Amazon Route 53, SSL/TLS encryptions, and customizable access control.
Ease of use and integration
Amazon CloudFront is well-integrated with AWS's ecosystem, making it straightforward to use and integrate for anyone already using AWS services. While it’s listed as a web service and not as an addon, the two are, in this case, one and the same.
Customer support and documentation
Amazon provides extensive documentation, tutorials, and resources to help users understand and make the most of CloudFront. AWS also offers customer support through various channels, including technical and account support.
Pricing model and cost
Amazon CloudFront pricing is usage-based, with a free tier that includes 1 TB of bandwidth per month. Beyond that, pricing starts at $0.01 per GB of bandwidth, depending on the region. You can also subscribe for additional features for a customized experience.
CDN 4: Microsoft Azure CDN by Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure CDN is a robust content delivery network that offers seamless integration with Microsoft technologies, including the ability to manage the CDN through PowerShell, .NET, a REST API, and Node.js.
Key features and unique benefits
They offer a free account with credits. Microsoft's CDN service lets you try it out with a 12-month free account with a $200 Azure credit and integrated cloud tools.
They offer various platform support.
Global network coverage and edge server locations
You can use Azure CDN to support your content delivery on the cloud or on-premises. They have edge servers located in over 100 countries or as a combined deployment model.
Integration with popular development platforms
Azure CDN lets you connect it to various content management and development platforms to meet diverse online content needs. You’ll have access to many integration tools, such as Logic Apps, Service Bus, API Management, and more.
Performance and speed
Microsoft Azure CDN guarantees a 99.99% uptime for HD streaming through its Firstlight Media when you connect Azure with your on-premise structures.
Scalability and reliability
You can take full advantage of Microsoft’s DevOps tools like Azure DevOps, Functions, and Logic Apps to have full control over the scalability of your website.
Ease of use and integration
Azure CDN supports cross-platform mobile integrations for seamless and dynamic content delivery through Azure Machine Learning, App Services, and Cognitive Services.
Customer support and documentation
Azure CDN offers 24/7 customer support for business and enterprise customers. They also offer comprehensive documentation to help you learn how to use Azure CDN.
Pricing model and cost
You can start the free trial with the $200 Azure credit with a 30-day validity period. Afterward, you can opt for a pay-as-you-go pricing or keep using over 55 basic services for free for up to a year.
CDN 5: Stackpath by Stackpath Technologies, Inc.
Stackpath CDN offers robust CDN solutions with dynamic caching through its 73 edge locations to meet high delivery demands with features for content protection, asset optimization, and customization tools.
Key features and unique benefits
Offering unparalleled control, Stackpath CDN provides comprehensive analytics, manageable policies, and customization for detailed command over your delivery process.
They're also cost-efficient. By reducing bandwidth consumption and downtime and improving accessibility, Stackpath CDN optimizes asset monetization and lowers operational costs. You can also mitigate costs through serverless scripting to utilize the global edge network for app development.
Global network coverage and locations of edge servers
They offer robust CDN solutions with dynamic caching through its 73 edge locations.
Integration with popular development platforms
Stackpath provides full API integration, GitHub integration, and connectivity with major content management platforms.
Performance and speed
Stackpath achieves very low time to first byte (TTFB) through its large number of Tier-1 carrier connections, strong private network, and global Anycast. The edge network boasts a 100+ Tbps total egress capacity.
Scalability and reliability
You’ll get a full range of content protection features, including SSL, DDoS protection, and several other platform-wide security measures.
Ease of use and integration
Users can set custom rules and policies for their unique content and delivery using EdgeRules and its cache control features.
Customer support and documentation
You’ll find a full range of development support on Stackpath’s official website. Resources include API documentation, Edge Academy, blogs, case studies, and more.
Pricing model and cost
Stackpath pricing plans start from $27.50 per month, which includes bandwidth, requests, EdgeRules, SSL certificate, and standard support. Additional bandwidth is available from $0.044/GB or less. You can add features like origin shield, direct connect, and additional CDN sites to your plan.
CDN 6: KeyCDN by KeyCDN, LLC
KeyCDN offers an affordable and user-friendly content delivery network with a diverse network of 120,920 zones across six continents. It supports both origins pull and push, allowing flexible content handling.
Key features and unique benefits
Known for their diverse push and pull zones, KeyCDN offers state-of-the-art push and pulls zone features, including instant purge, Rsync transfer, query strings, Brotli compression, etc.
They also offer advanced customization. The RESTful API lets you customize CDN for any language and platform application.
Global network coverage and edge server locations
Offers a diverse network of 120,920 zones across six continents.
Integration with popular development platforms
KeyCDN integrates with CMS and frameworks, including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Typo3, Ruby on Rails, Swift, Azure Blob, and many others.
Performance and speed
KeyCDN has established over 60 data centers across over 40 countries to ensure exceptional speed and performance.
Scalability and reliability
KeyCDN is highly scalable through its pay-as-you-go pricing models, starting from only $0.01 per GB.
Ease of use and integration
You’ll find all the documentation and implementation guidelines for each supported platform and CMS. The deployment takes only a few minutes.
Customer support and documentation
KeyCDN offers detailed support and documentation. You can access the tutorials and knowledge base. Customers can also effortlessly submit support tickets.
Pricing model and cost
The KeyCDN pay-as-you-go pricing plans start from $0.01/GB for North America and Europe, $0.02/GB for Asia and Oceania, and $0.04/GB for Africa and Latin America. All plans let you manage unlimited HTTP and HTTPS requests. The plans also include free SSL.
CDN 7: CacheFly by CacheFly, Inc.
Introduced in 2002, CacheFly is one of the world’s pioneers in the CDN industry and among the top free CDN providers. The CDN service boasts a 100% uptime in the past year.
Key features and unique benefits
Known for excellent speed, CacheFly promises up to 10 times faster site speed than traditional, non-CDN methods and up to 30% faster than many other CDN providers.
You can opt for an Elite Managed package and enjoy exclusive customer support for the implementation and training.
Global network coverage and locations of edge servers
Cachefly offers a comprehensive global network across 50+ locations worldwide.
Integration with popular development platforms
You can add CacheFly to popular CMS, PaaS providers, and development platforms like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
Performance and speed
CacheFly's ultra-low latency (less than a second) video streaming feature provides an end-to-end solution for delivering live video content. A total of 109 PoPs in its cloud infrastructure are there to provide you with consistent data transfer speed.
Scalability and reliability
CacheFly servers experienced 100% uptime for the past year, and you’re also covered with its SLA.
Ease of use and integration
CacheFly provides active customer support through several communication channels, including online forums, emails, live chats, and support tickets.
Customer support and documentation
Users will enjoy exclusive customer support through Slack, a dedicated point of contact, and priority support.
Pricing model and cost
CacheFly is one of the best free CDN providers letting you set up a reliable and free content delivery network. The free plan is available through its 19 POPs for North America and Europe users. Free plan users enjoy 5 TB traffic per month. The Business plan starts from $295 per month that lets you handle up to 50 domains.
What CDNs can I provision via Addons.io?
We're a brand new but fast-growing addon marketplace and while, at the time of writing, Addons.io has yet to list its first CDN service addons, by the time you read this, there should be numerous options available from the best CDN service providers!
We are actively expanding our addon portfolio with an aim to be your go-to addon resource—no matter what type of critical service you need for your app. Watch our listings, as we're adding more addons on the daily.
We already boast an array of top-notch, ready-to-go addon services across categories like data stores, monitoring, caching, network services, and many more.
Are you a CDN developer? If so, we invite you to list your addon solutions with us today! Addons.io offers a fairer revenue share agreement than any other addon marketplace. With Addons.io, you can expand your reach, increase your earnings, and connect with a thriving developer community.
Are you an application developer? If so, we urge you to sign up and explore our growing platform. Together, we can shape the future of app development and turn Addons.io into the world's leading add-on marketplace.
Conclusion
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are indispensable for novice and advanced application developers.
Choosing from the most popular CDN providers involves a thoughtful process. It's not merely about the setup process but about aligning the provider's capabilities with your needs, performance requirements, and budget constraints.
As we look ahead, we see a future where the CDN industry is set for significant growth, welcoming a wave of innovation from the best CDN providers—with a lot more to come in the addon department!
At Addons.io, we'll continuously expand our platform to keep pace with these advancements. Stay connected with us as we offer a broad range of add-on services, allowing you to tailor and optimize your applications, no matter which PaaS you use.
Frequently asked questions
What CDN is best?
Cloudflare has stood out as the best CDN provider in our review due to its robust features, extensive global network, and competitive pricing. However, the best content delivery network can vary greatly depending on your needs, budget, and technical requirements.
It's essential to consider the CDN service provider's global coverage, speed and performance optimization, security features, web console interface, and integration with development platforms. Addons.io is introducing an expanding range of CDN add-ons to help you choose the best solution tailored to your needs.
What is a CDN?
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a worldwide assembly of servers that collaborate to expedite the delivery of internet content, such as web pages, WordPress sites, JavaScript files, images, stylesheets, and videos.
Its primary objective is to ensure superior availability and performance by geographically dispersing services concerning users. In addition, a CDN solution provides advantages like load distribution, failover support, and enhanced security measures.