Almost every site optimization tool advises to use CDN in order to speed up the loading times of the pages. Even a cursory look shows a lot big providers, but only a few of them are really not expensive.
A quick research we conducted places BunnyCDN, BelugaCDN and OVH at the top of the list of low-cost CDN providers. Let’s take a look at their offers.
BunnyCDN
Website: https://bunnycdn.com
By our estimations, this is the most consumer-friendly option on the market. It offers rates starting from $0.01/GB just for the traffic used and with no monthly fee. Among the options is the extra-cheap Volume package with seven points of presence (PoPs) for $0.005/GB.
The coverage of the PoPs is excellent and includes all continents. The company provides 1TB of traffic for 14 days as a trial offer, right away and with no questions asked.
Pros:
- 43 PoPs in 29 countries across all continents
- very user-friendly interface
- an in-house Wordpress plugin
- located in the EU, for those that care about GDPR
- allows transfer of adult content, if in compliance the EU laws.
Cons (here and hereafter are based on the subjective opinion of the author):
- account balance validity after deposit is one year
BelugaCDN
Website: https://belugacdn.com
The other popular service from among the low-cost providers, that offers the rate of $0.01/GB, with ability to save money using monthly subscriptions.
By default, only 9 so-called superPOPs are available, which are located just in the US and Europe. The company offers a 30-day trial, but it requires a credit card number, so be mindful, lest you’ll suffer from unwanted charges.
Pros:
- an in-house plugin for Grafana
- Anti-DDoS is available by default
Cons:
- 9 superPOPs in two regions: Europe and USA
- trial period activation requires a credit card number
OVH
Website: https://www.ovh.com
Price package deals by this well-known French host provider are comparable with the aforementioned offers only if you’re dealing with a big traffic volume.
The service comes with only three PoPs, which is unusual for CDNs. In such cases, it might be better and cheaper to create your own CDN, builded on VPS or dedicated servers. OVH offers no free trials.
Pros:
- the large European hosting company with its own infrastructure
- Anti-DDoS is available by default
Cons:
- small number of PoPs
- offers only fixed traffic volumes (1TB, 10TB, 100TB, etc.)
- no free trial
Conclusion
Almost all CDN services offer similar basic functionality: API, option to use own SSL certificates, detailed statistics, etc. That’s why the prices and the location of the PoPs become the key factors in choosing between them. Everything is clear with prices, but when it comes to PoPs — you should choose the network with PoPs closest to the location of your users.
If the content is for Europe and North America, any CDN will do. These are popular regions and all providers cover them. However, if you website is also visited by users from other regions of the world, good solution might be to use BunnyCDN.
