Easily compare Kingsoft Cloud 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.
Company
| Company | Kingsoft Cloud | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | Founded in 2012, Kingsoft Cloud owns data centers and POPs around the globe, provides users services and solutions for vertical industries. Relying on technology accumulation, they focus on video and file delivery and support varied protocols including RTMP, HLS, HDS, HTTP TS and HTTP FLV. | 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
| Product | Kingsoft Cloud | 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? | Live Stream Acceleration | CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Video On Demand Acceleration | CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Need to enable Kingsoft Standard Storage Service | 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 Kingsoft Cloud and Lumen have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Kingsoft Cloud | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 5 | 28 |
| Latin America | 0 | 11 |
| Europe | 1 | 35 |
| Russia & CIS | 1 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 8 | 7 |
| China | 600 | 0 |
| Oceania | 0 | 5 |
| Middle-East | 1 | 4 |
| Africa | 0 | 3 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Kingsoft Cloud | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | No minimum | Unknown |
| Minimum monthly costs | No minimum | 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) | $0.03 per GB | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | $0.07 per GB | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | $0.08 per GB | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | Kingsoft Cloud | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | Account creation requires a Kingsoft Cloud employee's assistance | Not yet, but coming soon. |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | 5 minutes | No longer than 15 minutes - Often instant |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Available with Section product for an additional fee | |
| HTTP/2 | ||
| WebSockets | ||
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | ||
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge | |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? |
HTTP and HTTPS.
Match protocol
|
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
|
Configure specific other Host header
CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
|
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Setup by a Kingsoft Cloud employee | |
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | ||
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | Customers can use Kingsoft Standard Storage Service Product. Upload via API. $0.1 per GB stored | FTP, SFTP, rsync. Storage costs apply |
| Cache control - CDN caching |
By default, CDN honors origin headers
Full and granular control is possible
|
|
| Cache control - client caching |
By default, CDN honors origin headers
Full and granular control is possible
|
|
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
Cache-Control extensions support | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Avg. purge time is 40s, 99.97% completed within 5 minutes | Instant |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, purge by directory, soft purge | Purge all but not purge by directory or tag or header |
| Analytics | ||
| Log files | Accessible via UI and API. Free | |
| API | Purge, configuration, analytics, logs | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Kingsoft Cloud | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | SNI | |
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | SNI. Pricing is custom | |
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | SNI. Pricing is custom. EV cert possible | |
| Token authentication | Support is needed, custom pricing | |
| Geo blocking | Support is needed, custom pricing | |
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Whitelist/blacklist on Referer header (max 100 entries) | |
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting | Whitelist/blacklist on IP (max 100 entries) |
Support
| Customer support | Kingsoft Cloud | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Good documentation but not public | Yes, but not public |
| Humans | Free, 24/7 email support and phone support |