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StackPath versus CloudFront

Easily compare StackPath 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.

StackPath logo CloudFront logo

Company

Company StackPath CloudFront
Short profile StackPath launched in 2016 and promises global, high performance content delivery + top notch security (integrated web application firewall and DDoS mitigation) while keeping things simple, transparent and affordable. StackPath is developer-friendly with 24/7/365 support and a fully-documented API. 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

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Product StackPath CloudFront
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... Dynamic Content Delivery
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB)
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB)
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? Streaming Media
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization Image Optimization
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain AWS Route53
WAFWeb Application Firewall Web Application Firewall AWS WAF
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. DDoS Mitigation AWS Shield
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs
Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers Edge Compute Lambda@Edge

Network

How many POP locations do StackPath and CloudFront have in different parts of the world?

Region StackPath CloudFront
North America 15 19
Latin America 6 7
Europe 12 31
Russia & CIS 0 0
Asia excl. China 6 18
China 0 4
Oceania 2 5
Middle East 0 5
Africa 1 4

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration StackPath CloudFront
Minimum contract term One month None
Minimum monthly costs $25 None
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests None $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) $0.04 per GB $0.085 per GB
APAC traffic (low volume) $0.04 per GB $0.12 per GB (India: $0.109)
LATAM traffic (low volume) $0.04 per GB $0.11 per GB

Features

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration StackPath CloudFront
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing.
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? Instant ~10 minutes
Apex/root domain OK Blog: Root domain on CDN and performanceNo performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com Only if used together with AWS Route53
HTTP/2 HTTP/2 announcement (Sep 2016)
HTTP/3 HTTP/3 announcement
WebSockets WebSockets docs Using WebSockets with CloudFront distributions
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? IPv6 support announcement (Oct 2016)
Compression CDN Guide: CompressionReduce file size for faster delivery Resend from origin, or compress on edge Resend from origin, or compress on edge
tooltip 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? Can't configure specific other Host header
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP 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 with EdgeRules
Cache control - client caching Full and granular control with EdgeRules
Serve Stale CDN Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble Supports Cache-Control extensions
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate or delete cached objects on CDN Instant! Purge Speed
Purge - capabilities Purge all, purge by directory/header, Purge all and by directory/file type (wildcards)
Analytics Real-time! Amazon CloudFront Reports & Analytics
Log files Only for larger volume plans Only delivered to S3
tooltip CloudFront delivers access logs for a distribution up to several times an hour
API Purge, analytics, configuration Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection StackPath CloudFront
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net Free. SNI Free (not SNI)
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN Free. SNI 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 StackPath CloudFront
Documentation Yes, public Yes, public. API docs
Humans 24/7 phone and email support included in all plans. Higher volume plans get a dedicated technical account manager Community support is free. Email and phone support (AWS Support) available at extra costs