Easily compare CDNetworks and CloudFront for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
| Company | CDNetworks | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | As a leading network with over 2,800 global Points of Presence and more than 20 years of technology experience, CDNetworks has made huge leaps forward in edge computing, from basic CDN services to elastic, stable, and secure content delivery services and all-in-one WAAP Protection Solution. Recognized in Gartner Competitive Landscape: CDN and Edge Services in 2022. | CloudFront is the CDN of AWS (Amazon Web Services), the world's largest cloud services provider. CloudFront offers a mature set of content delivery products and has a big network of POPs on many continents. Solid documentation and APIs make CloudFront a developer-friendly CDN. |
Products
| Product | CDNetworks | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Web Acceleration | Dynamic Content Delivery |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Content Acceleration | |
| Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | Content Acceleration | |
| Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Media Acceleration Live Broadcast | Streaming Media |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Media Acceleration VoD | |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image Processing | |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | Cloud DNS+ | AWS Route53 |
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Application Firewall | AWS WAF |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | Flood Shield | AWS Shield |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Edge Computing Platform | Lambda@Edge |
Network
How many POP locations do CDNetworks and CloudFront have in different parts of the world?
| Region | CDNetworks | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 13 | 19 |
| Latin America | 6 | 7 |
| Europe | 14 | 31 |
| Russia & CIS | 27 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 35 | 18 |
| China | 66 | 4 |
| Oceania | 3 | 5 |
| Middle East | 10 | 5 |
| Africa | 7 | 4 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | CDNetworks | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 12 months | None |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | None |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | $0.0075 - $0.022 per 10k requests |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | $0.02 - $0.16 per GB (free if origin is AWS) |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.085 per GB |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.12 per GB (India: $0.109) |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.11 per GB |
Features
| Web acceleration | CDNetworks | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | CDN Pro has self signup and getting started. For other products you must talk to sales | |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | ~ 15 minutes | ~10 minutes |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Only if used together with AWS Route53 | |
| HTTP/2 | Docs | HTTP/2 announcement (Sep 2016) |
| HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | |
| WebSockets | Docs | Using WebSockets with CloudFront distributions |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | Docs | IPv6 support announcement (Oct 2016) |
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge
CloudFront can compress many content types on the edge and supports Brotli
|
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS | HTTP and HTTPS |
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? |
Configure specific other Host header
CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
|
Can't configure specific other Host header |
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Multiple POPs can act as shield | Origin Shield docs |
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Virtual Waiting Room on AWS | |
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | ||
| Cache control - CDN caching | Full and granular control | |
| Cache control - client caching | Full and granular control | |
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
Supports Cache-Control extensions | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Completion time is 5 - 10 minutes | Purge Speed |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, by directory, by cache tag | Purge all and by directory/file type (wildcards) |
| Analytics | Amazon CloudFront Reports & Analytics | |
| Log files |
Only delivered to S3
CloudFront delivers access logs for a distribution up to several times an hour
|
|
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | CDNetworks | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | Free (not SNI) | |
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | Free (SNI) or $600/m for non-SNI | |
| Token authentication | Serving Private Content through CloudFront | |
| Geo blocking | Restricting the Geographic Distribution of Your Content | |
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Use AWS WAF for Referer Checking | |
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting | Use AWS WAF to Block IP Addresses |
Support
| Customer support | CDNetworks | CloudFront |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Yes, public | Yes, public. API docs |
| Humans | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support | Community support is free. Email and phone support (AWS Support) available at extra costs |