Easily compare Lumen and ChinaCache 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 | ChinaCache |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Founded in 1998, publicly traded on NASDAQ (CCIH), ChinaCache is the first CDN in China and generally considered to be one of the better CDNs for China delivery because of their network, knowledge and experience from working with (enterprise) multinational customers. The ChinaCache network and services are not limited to mainland China and ChinaCache has been growing steadily outside China in the past years. |
Products
| Product | Lumen | ChinaCache |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | CDN Edge Compute | Dynamic Content Acceleration |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | CDN and/or CDN Edge Compute | Static Content Acceleration |
| Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | Download Acceleration | |
| Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery | Media Acceleration |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | CDN and/or CDN Mesh Delivery | Media Acceleration |
| 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 ChinaCache have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Lumen | ChinaCache |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 28 | 8 |
| Latin America | 11 | 1 |
| Europe | 35 | 3 |
| Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 7 | 10 |
| China | 0 | 400 |
| Oceania | 5 | 0 |
| Middle East | 4 | 1 |
| Africa | 3 | 1 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Lumen | ChinaCache |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Unknown |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | Lumen | ChinaCache |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | <5 minutes |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Available with Section product for an additional fee | Non-Anycasted network |
| HTTP/2 | ||
| HTTP/3 | ||
| WebSockets | ||
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | At customer request | |
| 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. | 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 | ||
| 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 | |
| Cache control - CDN caching |
CDN can honor origin headers
Custom rules can be set by CDN support team
|
|
| 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 | <3 minutes delay |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all but not purge by directory or tag or header | Purge all, purge by directory |
| Analytics | ||
| Log files | Logs are daily or hourly | |
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, billing. Not configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Lumen | ChinaCache |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | Only for testing | |
| 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 | ChinaCache |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Yes, but not public | Yes, but not public. |
| Humans | Different levels of support are available. |