Do you own your own website and despite the high performance of your web hosting , it still loads slowly for some users?
In that case, there may be a problem with their geolocation – many webmasters do not realize that visitors to their websites can come from different corners of the world.
It may be hard to believe, but the distance between the hosting and the Internet user still matters (even in this modern age).
Based on this, we have prepared for you an interesting article about CDN – a solution that connects people all over the world and delivers content significantly faster compared to one basic hosting where your website is located.
So let’s get to it.
What is CDN ?
CDN (Content-Delivery-Network) is a network of servers that are located in different geographical areas across countries, for the purpose of faster delivery and loading of content on the Internet.
Thanks to CDN systems, website users can get content to their web browser faster, download data, reduce latency and overall improve UX quality.
Nowadays, CDN is a necessity for every major website or streaming content provider trying to deliver data to people in different countries around the world.
How does CDN work?
In order to explain how CDN works, it is necessary to look at one problem that perhaps every person connected to the Internet faces – and that is latency.
Latency is the time delay that slows down the transfer of data from one device to another. It can usually occur with a slow WiFi router, but it can also occur with high-speed network cables.
As such, data moves using cables and WiFi at a certain speed. Usually it is only fractions of milliseconds, but if, for example, we would like to load the content of a website from a server that is hosted somewhere in Asia (and we are located in Slovakia), there may be a slight delay, or it will take time for all the data about the site to reach us.
CDN solves this problem in a very “simple way” – by deploying servers in different countries, which each time temporarily store (and update) data from the main server with the given content, and then the server closest to the user delivers the content to his device.
This is a process called geo-distribution – each CDN provider usually has dozens (or even hundreds) of so-called “edge” servers in different parts of the world, which try to quickly and reliably deliver content to Internet users.
For example, let’s imagine a website that has a main hosting server in Europe but also CDN system in various other countries.
In this case, the user from the USA does not have to load data directly from Europe, but simply connects to one of the servers in his country and thus shortens the time of loading the content.
When is it worth using CDN ?
CDN brings with it a number of advantages that, depending on the nature of your website or a certain Internet platform, you can consider:
- Improved loading speed – perhaps one of the main advantages CDN is simply the fact that your website will load faster for users. Instead of a user from a remote country having to load the page directly from your hosting server, he simply downloads it from one edge server that is closest to him.
- Greater reliability – with sensitive online sites, streaming or applications, it is important that data is available as quickly as possible and without potential problems. CDN can help you with this, as each of the edge servers temporarily stores data on its own storage, and in case one of the servers goes down, the other server will replace it.
- Better security – CDN provide a higher level of security (such as SSL certificates or protection against unauthorized access). In DDoS attacks, CDN plays an important role as it can distribute the attack to several servers at once (instead of only your primary server being loaded) and thus lighten the load and potentially repel the attack without major problems.
- Optimization of web pages – as we mentioned above, CDN can increase the speed of page loading by remote users. This can significantly strengthen your online marketing – especially SEO – as Google emphasizes that the speed is as high as possible and the user does not have to wait long for the content.
How to choose a CDN provider?
When choosing CDN it is important that you first think about what you need it for and for what type of people (or customers or simply internet users) it will play an important role. Then you should look at the following parameters:
- Number and distribution of CDN servers – perhaps the most basic factor that should play a role in choosing a CDN provider is how many edge servers it has and how they are geographically distributed in countries. If you only have a narrow audience of people to whom you need to deliver your content (e.g. only in 2-3 distant countries), a large CDN network would probably be unnecessary for you. And vice versa – if you have a huge group of web visitors all over the world, you will have to find a bigger CDN provider.
- Price – the price list of the given CDN provider is a matter of course. Be sure to look and compare the prices of several providers, as well as the volume of data offered, which they are willing to transfer between their servers for a fee.
- Functions and security – although CDN is primarily about speed and the number of servers, do not forget to look at what protection elements the providers offer (protection against DDoS attacks, data backup, SSL certificates, etc.).
- Technical support – last but not least, you should also consider the provider’s level of support in case there is a technical problem with the edge servers. Make sure that technical support can be reached at all times and that it consists of experts who will be able to advise you.
The most popular CDN providers
1. Cloudflare
Cloudflare is one of the most popular CDN service providers in the world. As CDN it offers many free features such as DDoS protection, SSL certificates or even WAF security.
In addition, Cloudflare provides really wide geographical coverage of edge servers, thanks to which you have the possibility to deliver your content even to the most distant countries.
Depending on the price package, you have at your disposal a wide range of data volume as well as the number of visitors allowed to the given servers.
One of the main advantages of this CDN provider is its great technical support – Cloudflare has detailed documentation about its CDN , along with a useful forum platform, chat, phone support, and “ticket” support.
You can also use Cloudflare for free in the ” Free ” package, with a larger volume of data you can also use the ” Pro “, ” Business ” and ” Enterprise ” packages:
2. Fastly
Fastly is another popular CDN provider that offers its services on a global scale.
Similar to Cloudflare, Fastly has a wide range of features available along with a large coverage of edge servers across the globe.
In addition, it also provides great protection against DDoS attacks along with WAF protection.
One of the interesting features of Fastly is its economic efficiency – this CDN provider tries to save its customers costs for its services thanks to its configurable CDN and efficient “cache” cleaning.
You can try Fastly for free, or use its ” Starter “, ” Advantage ” or ” Ultimate ” plans, the prices of which gradually increase with the number of functions and data volume:
3. Amazon CloudFront
Amazon’s CDN is popular in the world of ecommerce as it can effectively reduce server latency and increase transmission speed to the maximum.
This CDN provider provides more than 450 PoPs (Points of Presence) with automatic network mapping and intelligent routing.
Amazon CloudFront offers increased security by encrypting web traffic, along with AWS Shield Standard against DDoS attacks.
In addition, this CDN provider also offers dynamic content acceleration and various APIs, thanks to which you can optimize the performance of your website and deliver its content to users as quickly as possible.
Amazon CloudFront has an interesting price list – you can try it yourself either completely free of charge, or calculate the price yourself based on your requirements and agree on the final amount for its services:
4. Akamai
Akamai is one of the largest CDN providers in the world that you can find.
This leader boasts superior API performance with enhanced data and network automation.
Akamai provides storage of any content – be it web pages, images, videos – and all this in proxy servers near the user’s physical location.
Thanks to this, people can easily (and especially quickly) watch content, film, download software or even use banking applications quickly and easily.
However, the price is often a bit higher than other CDN providers (and may be too high for smaller websites or businesses).
On the other hand, it is necessary to realize that Akamai is not only CDN provider but also a cloud platform with robust security elements.
If you are interested in a certain CDN solution on a larger scale, be sure to first visit the official website of this provider and consider whether Akamai is suitable for you.
5. Bluehost
Although Bluehost does not focus directly on CDN services (it is primarily a web hosting provider), it also offers CDN protection as part of its security monitoring service packages.
SiteLock monitors websites and warns website owners about potential security threats or breaches.
If a problem occurs, SiteLock will immediately alert you to the threat with a notification or message.
So, if you are still considering the choice of hosting along with security features (and especially CDN ), you should definitely look at Bluehost and think about whether it would be “the right nut” for you.
In addition to hosting and great security, Bluehost also offers a free domain and CDN , along with various discounts for WordPress sites:
đź’ˇ Tip: If you would like to learn more about this provider (also) CDN services, be sure to read my article: Bluehost – hosting recommended by the WordPress community (Review) .
