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Cloudflare versus Lumen

Easily compare Cloudflare and Lumen for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.

Cloudflare logo Lumen logo

Company

Company Cloudflare Lumen
Short profile Cloudflare provides a global CDN with unique performance capabilities and a strong focus on security. The company has a global infrastructure built from the ground up using only next-generation, high-performance equipment—no legacy software or hardware. The result is a CDN that's easy to set up, affordable, and built to continuously adapt and integrate emerging technologies to meet future needs of everyone's Internet properties. 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.

Products

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Product Cloudflare Lumen
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? Stream Live CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video Stream CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization Image Resizing, Mirage, Polish part of CDN Edge Compute
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain DNS
WAFWeb Application Firewall Cloud Web Application Firewall WAF
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. DDoS Protection 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 Workers Edge Compute

Network

How many POP locations do Cloudflare and Lumen have in different parts of the world?

Region Cloudflare Lumen
North America 49 28
Latin America 48 11
Europe 45 35
Russia & CIS 11 0
Asia excl. China 45 7
China 37 0
Oceania 10 5
Middle East 15 4
Africa 24 3

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration Cloudflare Lumen
Minimum contract term None Unknown
Minimum monthly costs $0 Unknown
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests None Unknown
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred None Unknown
NA/EU traffic (low volume) $0 Unknown
APAC traffic (low volume) $0 Unknown
LATAM traffic (low volume) $0 Unknown

Features

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration Cloudflare Lumen
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. Not yet, but coming soon.
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? Instant No longer than 15 minutes - Often instant
Apex/root domain OK Blog: Root domain on CDN and performanceNo performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com Global Anycast network Available with Section product for an additional fee
HTTP/2
HTTP/3 HTTP/3 Prioritization
WebSockets WebSockets docs
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6?
Compression CDN Guide: CompressionReduce 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? Can be an IP address Configure specific other Host header
tooltip CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP Tiered Cache, included in all paid plans
Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room Cloudflare Waiting Room
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin FTP, SFTP, rsync. Storage costs apply
Cache control - CDN caching Page rules for overriding caching headers
Cache control - client caching
Serve Stale CDN Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble Only 'stale while revalidate'
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate or delete cached objects on CDN Purge Speed Instant
Purge - capabilities Purge per file and purge all Purge all but not purge by directory or tag or header
Analytics Web analytics, threats and more. Live-updating for paying customers
Log files Only for Enterprise customers, instantly available
API Purge, analytics, configuration Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection Cloudflare Lumen
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net SNI
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate More info
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN
Token authentication More info
Geo blocking Access Rules
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content Possible with Workers
IP white/blacklisting Access Rules

Support

Customer support Cloudflare Lumen
Documentation Yes, public. Cloudflare Community. Yes, but not public
Humans Email support for all. Phone only for Enterprise customers