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EdgeNext versus CloudFront

Easily compare EdgeNext 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.

EdgeNext logo CloudFront logo

Company

Company EdgeNext CloudFront
Short profile EdgeNext is a leading provider of edge cloud services specializing in China, APAC, MEA and global cloud delivery. As the only service provider with extensive POPs in China to be recognized by Gartner as possessing 'global' network capabilities, EdgeNext is one of the fastest-growing companies in the CDN space. 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 EdgeNext CloudFront
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... Dynamic Acceleration Dynamic Content Delivery
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) CDN
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) CDN
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? Streaming Streaming Media
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video Streaming
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain Global, including China AWS Route53
WAFWeb Application Firewall Part of the Security CDN AWS WAF
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. Part of the Security CDN AWS Shield
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs
Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers Lambda@Edge

Network

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

Region EdgeNext CloudFront
North America 29 19
Latin America 14 7
Europe 16 31
Russia & CIS 4 0
Asia excl. China 38 18
China 1100 4
Oceania 1 5
Middle East 18 5
Africa 5 4

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration EdgeNext CloudFront
Minimum contract term None for self-service customers None
Minimum monthly costs None for self-service customers 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 None $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

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration EdgeNext CloudFront
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. Self-service create account and configure account (EdgeNext to approve account)
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? <5 minutes ~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 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
tooltip Fetch compressed or uncompressed from origin (configurable)
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? Configure specific other Host header
tooltip 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 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 Upload in the portal or via API
Cache control - CDN caching Full and granular control
Cache control - client caching Full and granular control
Serve Stale CDN Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble Cache-Control extensions support Supports Cache-Control extensions
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate or delete cached objects on CDN Instant Purge Speed
Purge - capabilities Purge all, purge by directory, soft purge Purge all and by directory/file type (wildcards)
Analytics Many metrics in the UI Amazon CloudFront Reports & Analytics
Log files Available for download in Portal or via API. Format can be customized. Only delivered to S3
tooltip CloudFront delivers access logs for a distribution up to several times an hour
API Purge, configuration, analytics, logs Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection EdgeNext CloudFront
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net Free (not SNI)
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate SNI. Pricing is custom.
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN Pricing is custom Free (SNI) or $600/m for non-SNI
Token authentication Not self-service, support is needed Serving Private Content through CloudFront
Geo blocking Not self-service, support is needed Restricting the Geographic Distribution of Your Content
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content Self-service Use AWS WAF for Referer Checking
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content Self-service
IP white/blacklisting Self-service Use AWS WAF to Block IP Addresses

Support

Customer support EdgeNext CloudFront
Documentation Good documentation Yes, public. API docs
Humans 24/7 email support and phone support. Multiple support packages are available Community support is free. Email and phone support (AWS Support) available at extra costs