CDN or Content Delivery Networks enables users’ faster websites by restricting the range between the person visiting your site and the server which delivers the content. A CDN may be useful to you if your website has a lot of video and images because it will ensure you of reducing page load times. Below we have the top ten CDN providers to choose from for Individuals and SMBs so please choose base of your personal needs.
Best CDN 2016
CDN77
Imperva Incapsula
Akamai CDN
Rackspace CDN
CloudFlare CDN
SoftLayer CDN
Amazon CloudFront
CacheFly CDN
CDNetworks CDN
MaxCDN CDN
Shopping Tips on CDN
You might want to get a CDN service after skimming through above top 10 CDN providers. But here we would also like to give you some tips on CDN so that you can make better options.
What is CDN
Generally, a web hosting provider hosts your website on single server. But there is a question. When your visitors are far from your server, or your website gets huge visits at one time, user experience would be terrible due to slow page loading speed.
CDN comes to resolve the problem. It is the abbreviation of content distribution network or content delivery network. In short, CDN is a globally interconnected network based on many proxy servers in data centers throughout the world. Each server caches content of your website so that when your visitors access your site, CDN could optimize the routes and choose the closest server to transmit data.
Why You Need It
CDN is related to speed improvement without any doubt. If your server is in Dallas, when your visitors come from Europe or Asia, they might need some time to load pages, even if you have a great web host. The thing comes different when you use CDN service. It chooses closest servers to your visitors and shortens latency to improve speed. Meanwhile, your visitors will have better user experience. Besides, since CDN optimize routes and distribute load. It saves bandwidth for you.
Note that CDN is not for free. It makes your website faster but it is not essential. If your site is mission critical or has heavy traffic or has visitors from all over the world, you had better take CDN for better performance.
How to Choose a CDN Provider
Firstly, when choosing your CDN provider, think about Latency. The geographical range between your web servers and visitors has a big effect on the consumer experience; this will determine how quick each object on your web pages loads.
Next, take servers into account. CDN cannot always ensure fast speed especially if CDN providers use poor servers. For example, if a server comes with low network connectivity, old hard drives, inability to deal with concurrent connection number, and so on, you cannot expect great experience from a CDN provider with such servers.
Then, you need to make it clear what you want to get from a CDN. In general, the most of CDN services share some basic functionality, such as website reports, control panel, security protection, etc. Or you want some other functionality according to your demands.
Money is always an important factor, especially when it comes to server equipment. The cost of CDN will always vary, but you shouldn’t just take the cheapest CDN provider, choose quality over quantity.
How We Name the Best CDN Providers
We name the top 10 CDN provider in terms of their performance, usability, services and support. They 10 are all far outstanding in the 4 aspects.
- Performance – Take into the fact that performance is a key factor. A powerful server is essential because you want your servers to be reliable and running fast even though long peak traffic hours.
- Usability – Generally, it should be simple for users to implement a CDN onto their network. Customers don’t like to spend too much time on installing software especially if they are busy, so this process should be easy. What’s more is the CDN provider should provide at least a 7 day or more trial so that customers can test and try out their services before purchasing.
- Services – The customer should be able to manage and control the efficiency of their CDN from their PC, and its user interface should be user-friendly. You should be able to look up performance statistics instantly and change how your material is offered. Customers should be able to run multiple web-acceleration information on the CDN’s advantage web servers, and more.
- Customer Support – Your CDN customer support team should provide you with around the clock support (24/7) and should be polite, willing, fast and responsive to help you with your issues and questions.