A CDN (Content Delivery Network) copies your assets (images, CSS, JS) to servers located geographically close to your users. A user in Tokyo downloads your logo from a Tokyo server, not from your origin server in New York. This drastically reduces latency.
1. Cloudflare
The All-In-One Giant.
- Pros: The Free tier is unbeatable. It includes DDoS protection, managed DNS, and free SSL certificates. Cloudflare "Workers" allow you to run JavaScript code at the edge, essentially becoming a global serverless platform.
- Cons: The gap between Free and Enterprise is huge. If you need raw log access or advanced routing, it gets expensive fast.
2. AWS CloudFront
The AWS Native.
- Pros: Deep integration with the AWS ecosystem. If your files are in S3 and your servers are EC2, CloudFront is the natural choice. Extremely customizable via Lambda@Edge.
- Cons: Setup is complex (IAM roles, Policies). AWS billing is strictly pay-per-use, but bandwidth costs can be surprisingly high compared to flat-rate providers.
3. Fastly
The Developer's Choice.
- Pros: Instant cache purging (milliseconds) compared to seconds/minutes on others. Built on Varnish and allows you to write custom VCL (Varnish Configuration Language). This gives you granular control over caching logic.
- Cons: Expensive and complex. Geared towards high-traffic enterprise media sites (New York Times, GitHub, TikTok) where milliseconds translate to millions of dollars.
Recommendation: For 99% of startups and SMBs, Cloudflare is the easiest performance win you will ever implement.
PerformanceCDNInfrastructure
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