Easily compare CacheFly and SwiftServe 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 | CacheFly | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | Launched in 2002, CacheFly developed the world's first TCP-anycast based content delivery network. CacheFly has a focus on optimizing the CDN for throughput and has steadily built out the network to now have 50+ POPs on 6 continents. CacheFly provides a 100% uptime SLA and takes pride in acting as 'consultants to our customers'. | SwiftServe CDN, operated by Conversant, has a strong POP presence in Asia and especially Indonesia. Their services include web acceleration, file download optimisation, video on demand (VoD) and live streaming. Conversant operates the largest CDN Federation in Asia. |
Products
| Product | CacheFly | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | ||
| 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? | Ultra Low Latency Video Streaming | |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | VoD | |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Smart Image Optimization | |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | ||
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | ||
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | ||
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | Fully custom solution | |
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Custom solutions available for edge scripting |
Network
How many POP locations do CacheFly and SwiftServe have in different parts of the world?
| Region | CacheFly | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 17 | 2 |
| Latin America | 18 | 0 |
| Europe | 16 | 1 |
| Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 7 | 20 |
| China | 2 | 1 |
| Oceania | 3 | 0 |
| Middle East | 5 | 0 |
| Africa | 1 | 1 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | CacheFly | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 1 month | 12 months |
| Minimum monthly costs | $0 (5 TB/m) | Unknown |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | No | None |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | No | None |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | $0.03 per GB | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | $0.03 per GB | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | $0.03 per GB | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | CacheFly | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | ||
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | 5 - 180s depending on the change | 15 minutes |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Must purchase dedicated IP
Or use DNS provider that can do CNAME flattening
|
|
| HTTP/2 | ||
| HTTP/3 | ||
| WebSockets | ||
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | Custom enablement | |
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin | Resend from origin, or compress on edge |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? |
HTTP and HTTPS
Match client to edge request protocol is possible
|
HTTP and HTTPS |
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? | Set specific Host header value or forward value from client to edge request. Support for AWS Origin Secret Key Header | Can't configure specific other Host header |
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | ||
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | ||
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | FTP or Cloud Storage can be enabled | FTP or upload in portal. Storage costs apply |
| Cache control - CDN caching | Origin headers are honored. Can config caching overrides | Set override caching rules. Per file type. |
| Cache control - client caching | Origin headers are forwarded to client. Can config overrides | |
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
CacheFly support team can activate this edge behaviour | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Purge Speed | Up to 15 minutes |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all and by directory, not by tag or header | Purge file, all and by directory |
| Analytics | Near real-time, lots of metrics |
Updated daily or hourly (premium)
No metrics per config/zone
|
| Log files |
Pull via FTP or have pushed with Log Streaming to customer endpoint
Logs are 5 minutes delayed
|
Logs are daily |
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | CacheFly | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | Free | |
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | Upload your own Certificate or Include Automatic Certificate | |
| Token authentication | Self-service activation/configuration | |
| Geo blocking | Self-service activation/configuration. Predefined and custom rules | |
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | ||
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | Available in a Custom/Private CDN scenario | |
| IP white/blacklisting | Custom rules can be scripted (by support team at no extra charge) |
Support
| Customer support | CacheFly | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Yes, public | Yes, but not public |
| Humans | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support and a dedicated implementation/solutions engineer. Extra support ('Elite managed') available at a fee with SLA for support response time | All customers get email support. 24/7 phone support is available (costs extra) |