Easily compare QUANTIL 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 | QUANTIL | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | QUANTIL launched their CDN services in 2012. They have a strong focus on live stream delivery with continued support for RTMP, L-HLS, HDS, HTTP TS and HTTP FLV. QUANTIL has a full-featured IPv4+IPv6 network and a big network of POPs in 34 countries including mainland China (ChinaNetCenter). | 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 | QUANTIL | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Website Acceleration | 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) | Download Acceleration | |
| 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 | part of CDN Edge Compute | |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | ||
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | WAF | |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | Cloud Security | 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 QUANTIL and Lumen have in different parts of the world?
| Region | QUANTIL | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 10 | 28 |
| Latin America | 0 | 11 |
| Europe | 6 | 35 |
| Russia & CIS | 1 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 22 | 7 |
| China | 550 | 0 |
| Oceania | 3 | 5 |
| Middle East | 4 | 4 |
| Africa | 6 | 3 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | QUANTIL | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 12 months | Unknown |
| Minimum monthly costs | $1000 | 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) | Unknown | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | QUANTIL | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | Not yet, but coming soon. | |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | Depends on number of POPs turned on | No longer than 15 minutes - Often instant |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Purchase auth DNS that integrates with their CDN | 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 | |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | 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
|
|
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Custom config, done by their support team | |
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | ||
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | One-time $500 setup fee, $150/TB per month | FTP, SFTP, rsync. Storage costs apply |
| Cache control - CDN caching | ||
| Cache control - client caching | ||
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
Custom config, done by their support team | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Sometimes takes up to 10 min | Instant |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all but not purge by directory or tag or header | |
| Analytics | Many metrics. API outputs near real-time data. The customer portal is updated every 1-2 hours | |
| Log files | Delay is 1-3 hours. Download through API or from portal | |
| API | XML output | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | QUANTIL | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | ||
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | SNI. Custom pricing | |
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | SNI. Custom pricing | |
| 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 | QUANTIL | Lumen |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Yes, but not everything is public. API docs are public. | Yes, but not public |
| Humans | Standard support (Monday to Friday, 9-6 pm PST) for small customers, and emergency support (24/7) for large customers. Support Availability. |