Are you looking for the best CDN providers for your blog?
Then this guide is for you.
A content delivery network or content distribution network is one of the best ways to increase your site speed and request serving time.
It caches all content and static assets like images, videos, and files and distributes them to its graphical locations over the world. At the time of writing this, Cloudflare and cloudinary have the highest geographical CDN servers in the world.
So when the user visits your site and asks for a file then it is being served from the nearest location to the user and that makes web pages load faster.
Why CDN is necessary?
To achieve the fastest loading time of your page, you will need to optimize the time gap between the request and response.
Now, let’s think if a user is making a request from India and you have a server that is located in the USA then the time latency between different locations would be higher.
At this time, a content distribution network comes into the picture. It distributes your content to all major locations from where you will have a chance to get more traffic.
Now, if a user makes a request from India then CDN will serve static files and pages from its India server to the user and make time gapless.
In this guide, I have gathered a list of Best CDN Providers(Free + Paid) in 2024 based on many factors like Number of servers(Pops), Average response time, On-fly image optimization support, instant purge, and cookie-free domain support, and how much bandwidth it serves on pricing.
5 Best CDN Providers of 2024
Cloudflare
When it comes to optimizing your site for better speed, Cloudflare comes to mind. They are serving 10-15% CDN of the internet. One feature that I like the most is faster DNS. If you don’t know about DNS then let me brief it for you.
A domain name server is responsible for converting your domain name to an associated Ip address. A browser just shows the domain name and for downloading it uses an IP address.
Now, when any user opens your site for the first time, the browser makes a first DNS request to download all site content.
That means if your DNS is faster then you will have a faster loading site.
Recently, Cloudflare comes up with a domain registration and transfer process. Hence, if you want a faster domain name server and low TTFB then you should go with Cloudflare CDN.
Benefits:
- Fast CDN
- Built-in caching and image optimization support
- GZip Support
- Free SSL
- HTTP2 support for modern browsers
Bunny CDN
While you want to use WebP dynamic delivery and cookie-free domain features for your site then you will have to go with BunnyCDN.
What is WebP image optimization?
It’s a modern image format that provides high-quality lossless and lossy compression for the images and images are 26-30% smaller than PNGs.
As you know, image optimization is the key factor to increase the speed of your site.
Why BunnyCDN?
I did a comparison between Cloudflare and Bunny and I came to the conclusion that if you consider features by pricing then the winner is BunnyCDN.
Because you won’t get image optimization and dynamically content delivery in Cloudflare free plan. For that, you will have to go with a Paid Plan.
Try BunnyCDN once, you will love it.
Benefits:
- Support dynamic WebP delivery
- On the fly image compression, resizing & WebP conversion (Cheaper than other CDN providers)
- Cookie free domain support
- CSS and JavaScript minification
KeyCDN
KeyCDN is another content delivery network that has around 34 different locations to help your visitors serve content at a fast speed.
They also support HTTP2 and TLS 1.3 and come up with detailed analytics with real-time logs and tracking which I think most don’t provide.
Hence, if you have a heavy content-loaded site which needs continuous monitoring on logs and user behaviors including locations and events then I would say KeyCDN is the best.
They also provide Free let’s encrypt SSL and image processing. One thing I really don’t like about KeyCDN is they charge a minimum of $4 per month(at the time of writing) to use their services.
Benefits:
- 3 zones are free, then $1 per zone per month
- Image processing
- Log forwarding
- Instant purge
- DDoS Protection
- TLS certificate
StackPath (MaxCDN)
StackPath is one of the powerful content delivery networks in the market. MaxCDN has been acquired by StackPath with more features and good security.
They have edge cutting technologies like powerful intelligent caching mechanism, customizable caching rules to reduce the unnecessary bandwidth.
One-click button to purge caches from all locations and standard cache hit ratio to serve content in minimum time.
EdgeRules feature makes your site more SEO friendly and responsive while Free private EdgeSSL provides you the better security.
Real-time analytics gives you a better understanding of what is going on in your site in real-time.
Other benefits:
- Segmented Downloads
- Custom rules creator
- EdgeEngine serverless scripting
- More than 36 locations
- 301 redirects
- Add/ Remove headers
- Try StackPath Today
Jetpack
I know if you are using WordPress then you must have heard about JetPack. Right?
JetPack is a must-have WordPress plugin for bloggers to get stats of your site, automated social media posting, brute force protection, unlimited image hosting, and lazy loading support.
How much do all these benefits cost you? Nothing! 🙂
Yes, they provide all of the above benefits in the free plan. If you want to take daily backups then it will cost you $39 per year including more security and downtime monitoring as an added advantage.
Thus, if you want to go with a Free option then I would say JetPack or Cloudflare is the best option.
Benefits:
- Automated spam filtering
- Downtime monitoring
- Unlimited image hosting
- 100+ free WordPress themes
Final Thoughts:
Blog speed is the most important thing to do nowadays. No one likes a slow speed!
And to improve loading speed you need to go with the best CDN providers which don’t break your pocket and at the same time give you better service.
If you have not high traffic on your site then you can try free options first. Even BunnyCDN gives 14 days free trial, try their premium service from here.
I hope you liked this article if you have any queries then let me know I would be happy to help you.
Thanks!
What is High-Speed CDN?
Most people are confused about this term. It does not mean if the number of servers is more than it has good speed. According to my, the better the cache hit ratio, the good speed it serves
What is the cache hit ratio?
Cache hit ratio is a measurement of how many contents requests a cache is able to fill successfully, compared to how many requests it receives.
Higher is better.
Do you really need a CDN?
No, it’s not necessary that you always need it. Thus, if you don’t get high speed even after optimizing server and static resources. I would recommend you to consider CDN.
Is there a Free CDN?
Yes, Cloudflare and Jetpack provide free services.
These are some good ones Saurabh. I think my developer has me on CloudFlare, I believe. We need a CDN to speed things up as our image usage and traffic increases.
Ryan