Easily compare Lumen 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 | Lumen | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | Lumen (formerly known as Centurylink or Level 3) owns and operates a global Tier-1 network and - logically - their CDN runs on top of it. Lumen CDN has POPs on many continents and their product focus is on video, large object delivery and edge computing. | 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 | Lumen | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | CDN Edge Compute | |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | CDN and/or CDN Edge Compute | |
| Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | ||
| Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery | |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery | |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | part of CDN Edge Compute | |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | ||
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | WAF | |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | Lumen DDoS Hyper (on-demand) and DDoS Mitigation Service | |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | CDN Mesh Delivery for Enterprise | |
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Edge Compute |
Network
How many POP locations do Lumen and SwiftServe have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Lumen | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 28 | 2 |
| Latin America | 11 | 0 |
| Europe | 35 | 1 |
| Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 7 | 20 |
| China | 0 | 1 |
| Oceania | 5 | 0 |
| Middle East | 4 | 0 |
| Africa | 3 | 1 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Lumen | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | Unknown | 12 months |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | Unknown |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | None |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | None |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | Lumen | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | Not yet, but coming soon. | |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | No longer than 15 minutes - Often instant | 15 minutes |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Available with Section product for an additional fee | |
| HTTP/2 | ||
| HTTP/3 | ||
| WebSockets | ||
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | ||
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge | Resend from origin, or compress on edge |
| 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 | ||
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | ||
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | FTP, SFTP, rsync. Storage costs apply | FTP or upload in portal. Storage costs apply |
| Cache control - CDN caching | Set override caching rules. Per file type. | |
| Cache control - client caching | ||
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
||
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Instant | Up to 15 minutes |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all but not purge by directory or tag or header | Purge file, all and by directory |
| Analytics |
Updated daily or hourly (premium)
No metrics per config/zone
|
|
| Log files | Logs are daily | |
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Lumen | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | ||
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | ||
| Token authentication | ||
| Geo blocking | ||
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | ||
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting |
Support
| Customer support | Lumen | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Yes, but not public | Yes, but not public |
| Humans | All customers get email support. 24/7 phone support is available (costs extra) |