About 16; min
CDN providers speed up your website by serving content from servers closest to your visitors. In 2026, CDNs do much more than cache static files — they run code at the edge, protect against DDoS attacks, and handle SSL termination. Here are the best CDN providers for websites and applications.
Quick Comparison
| Provider | Best For | Starting Price | Free Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Best free CDN + security | Free | Yes (unlimited bandwidth) |
| Fastly | Real-time content delivery | $0.12/GB | No ($50 trial credit) |
| Bunny CDN | Best price per GB | $0.01/GB | No (14-day trial) |
| AWS CloudFront | AWS infrastructure integration | $0.085/GB | Yes (1TB/mo free, 12 months) |
| KeyCDN | Simple pay-as-you-go CDN | $0.04/GB | No (14-day trial) |
| Akamai | Enterprise global delivery | Custom | No |
1. Cloudflare — Best Free CDN
Cloudflare’s free plan includes unlimited CDN bandwidth, DDoS protection, SSL/TLS, and DNS for any number of websites. The Pro plan at $25 per domain per month adds WAF with managed rulesets, image resizing, and cache analytics. Business at $250 per month includes custom SSL, 100% SLA, and advanced security. Cloudflare operates 310+ data centers worldwide. Workers (edge computing) start free at 100,000 requests per day. R2 object storage costs $0.015/GB/month with no egress fees. For the vast majority of websites, Cloudflare’s free plan delivers better CDN performance and security than many paid competitors. The expanding product suite (Workers, R2, D1, Queues) makes Cloudflare an infrastructure platform, not just a CDN.
2. Fastly — Best Real-Time CDN
Fastly charges pure pay-as-you-go at $0.12 per GB in North America/Europe, with no minimum commitments. The standout feature is 150ms global cache purging — content updates propagate worldwide in under a second. VCL (Varnish Configuration Language) gives engineers precise control over caching logic, request routing, and response manipulation. Compute (edge computing) runs WebAssembly at the edge. Real-time log streaming is available on all plans. For media companies, e-commerce sites, and APIs where stale cache costs credibility or revenue, Fastly’s instant purge and granular cache control provide capabilities that other CDNs approximate but don’t match.
3. Bunny CDN — Best Price Per GB
Bunny CDN offers the lowest per-GB pricing in the industry — $0.01 per GB in Europe and North America, $0.03 in Asia, $0.06 in South America and Africa. Minimum monthly spend is $1. Features include HTTP/2, Brotli compression, real-time analytics, custom SSL, and an image processing engine (Bunny Optimizer at $9.50/mo). Bunny Stream handles video delivery with adaptive bitrate streaming. The 114 PoPs provide solid global coverage. For cost-sensitive projects where bandwidth is the primary expense — file hosting, video delivery, software distribution — Bunny CDN delivers reliable performance at 5-10x lower cost than major CDN providers.
4. AWS CloudFront — Best AWS Integration
CloudFront is AWS’s CDN with native integration to S3, EC2, Lambda@Edge, and other AWS services. The free tier includes 1TB data transfer and 10 million requests per month for 12 months. Standard pricing is $0.085 per GB for the first 10TB in North America. Lambda@Edge runs serverless functions at CloudFront edge locations. Origin Shield reduces load on your origin server. CloudFront Functions handle lightweight request/response manipulation at massive scale. For applications already running on AWS, CloudFront eliminates data transfer costs between AWS services and the CDN. The deep integration with AWS WAF, Shield (DDoS), and Certificate Manager simplifies security configuration.
5. KeyCDN — Best Simple Pay-As-You-Go
KeyCDN offers straightforward pay-as-you-go pricing at $0.04 per GB with no minimum commitment. Features include HTTP/2, free SSL, real-time analytics, instant purging, and image processing. The dashboard is clean and focused — configure your CDN zone, point your origin, and content starts caching within minutes. KeyCDN operates 60+ PoPs with strong coverage in North America, Europe, and Asia. For teams that want a reliable CDN without the complexity of Cloudflare’s expanding product suite or the enterprise pricing of Fastly and Akamai, KeyCDN provides solid performance with transparent, predictable billing.
6. Akamai — Best Enterprise CDN
Akamai operates the largest CDN network with 365,000+ servers across 135+ countries. Pricing is entirely custom and typically starts in the thousands per month for enterprise contracts. Akamai handles a significant portion of global internet traffic for clients including Apple, Microsoft, and major banks. Features include advanced DDoS mitigation, bot management, API security, edge computing (EdgeWorkers), and media delivery. Akamai’s network scale provides performance guarantees that smaller CDNs cannot match during traffic spikes, global events, or targeted attacks. For enterprises with strict performance SLAs, compliance requirements (PCI, HIPAA), and the budget to match, Akamai remains the gold standard.
How to Choose
| If You Need… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Free CDN with DDoS protection | Cloudflare |
| Instant cache purging for real-time content | Fastly |
| Lowest cost per GB | Bunny CDN |
| CDN integrated with AWS infrastructure | AWS CloudFront |
| Simple, transparent pay-as-you-go | KeyCDN |
| Enterprise scale with global SLA | Akamai |
Cloudflare wins by providing the best free CDN in the industry — unlimited bandwidth, DDoS protection, SSL, and DNS at zero cost. Most websites never need to upgrade from the free plan. Bunny CDN earns runner-up for the lowest per-GB pricing when you need raw bandwidth without the bundled security and edge computing features. For real-time content, Fastly’s instant purge is unmatched. For AWS-native applications, CloudFront’s service integration eliminates data transfer costs. For enterprise global delivery, Akamai sets the standard.
FAQ
Is Cloudflare’s free CDN really unlimited?
Yes. Cloudflare does not meter bandwidth on any plan, including free. Fair use policies apply, but typical websites — even high-traffic ones — operate without issues on the free plan.
When should I pay for a CDN instead of using Cloudflare free?
When you need instant cache purging (Fastly), the lowest possible per-GB cost for high bandwidth (Bunny CDN), native AWS integration (CloudFront), or enterprise SLAs and compliance (Akamai).
Do I need a CDN for a small website?
Cloudflare’s free plan improves performance and security for any website at zero cost — there’s no reason not to use it. Even small sites benefit from SSL, DDoS protection, and faster global load times.
Can I use multiple CDNs?
Yes. Multi-CDN setups route traffic to the best-performing provider based on geography or availability. This is typically an enterprise pattern — most websites perform well with a single CDN provider.
