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CDN SECURITY CompARISON №3
Cloudflare CDN VS Azure CDN
The speed of your website is important to both your website and your users. If your pages take more than three seconds to make, they are likely to lose the majority of users and rank lower in the search results. A content delivery network is a great solution to the problem that requires minimum effort on your side and boosts the website speed in the most productive way.
CDN also does a great job reducing network latency which is of ultimate importance for any high-load website, especially in the gaming, gambling, or streaming niches.
In this article, we are going to compare two major solutions - Azure CDN and Cloudflare. We will discuss their security in great detail and highlight the differences in the ease of use, scalability, and pricing.
CDN also does a great job reducing network latency which is of ultimate importance for any high-load website, especially in the gaming, gambling, or streaming niches.
In this article, we are going to compare two major solutions - Azure CDN and Cloudflare. We will discuss their security in great detail and highlight the differences in the ease of use, scalability, and pricing.
Which solution is better?
Deployment and setup
Cloudflare is the winner when it comes to the ease of setup and usability. You just have to complete one step to start using the solution: change nameservers. If you have a Cloudflare-compatible server, you are free even of this step. This CDN does a lot of things automatically and has a clear interface so that even people who know nothing about the service will get hang of it quickly. In case of any questions, you can always turn to the support team that is very responsive.
Azure CDN has more steps in the setup process. If you have not worked with other Azure services, you are likely to be a little confused. Users claim that you will need time to understand the interface of Azure CDN.
Azure CDN has more steps in the setup process. If you have not worked with other Azure services, you are likely to be a little confused. Users claim that you will need time to understand the interface of Azure CDN.
Scalability and flexibility
Both solutions offer massive scalability and it takes a couple of clicks to upgrade the CDNs. However, you have to make sure you have enough budget to pay for the infinite scalability.
Features
Cloudflare offers more than just CDN functionality. It also takes care of security and image optimization, the part of the security solution being offered for free. It is a great option for those who do not want to pay for numerous services and just manage a big chunk of the website within a single platform.
Azure CDN was designed to reduce load times, save bandwidth and speed responsiveness. They offer minimal security functionality as well but that's pretty much it.
Azure CDN was designed to reduce load times, save bandwidth and speed responsiveness. They offer minimal security functionality as well but that's pretty much it.
Cloudflare and Akamai CDN: Key Differences
Pricing
The pricing works very differently in Cloudflare and Azure CDN.
With Cloudflare, you have a free plan which offers great functionality: you will have better performance, protection from DDoS attacks (basic one though), simple bot mitigation, and a universal SSL certificate. The support will come from the community only. It is a great option for small businesses that have a very limited budget. If you want to get more advanced features (like firewall, image optimization, accelerated mobile pages, network prioritization, and better protection, you can buy pro ($20 per month), business ($200 per month), and enterprise (custom price) plans.
Azure CDN does not have monthly plans and free tiers or trials. Its pricing is calculated based on how much traffic you actually have and how many page rules you want to apply. Even though Azure offers a calculator to estimate your budget, it will still be hard to manage your spendings, especially if there are any peak activities.
With Cloudflare, you have a free plan which offers great functionality: you will have better performance, protection from DDoS attacks (basic one though), simple bot mitigation, and a universal SSL certificate. The support will come from the community only. It is a great option for small businesses that have a very limited budget. If you want to get more advanced features (like firewall, image optimization, accelerated mobile pages, network prioritization, and better protection, you can buy pro ($20 per month), business ($200 per month), and enterprise (custom price) plans.
Azure CDN does not have monthly plans and free tiers or trials. Its pricing is calculated based on how much traffic you actually have and how many page rules you want to apply. Even though Azure offers a calculator to estimate your budget, it will still be hard to manage your spendings, especially if there are any peak activities.
Summary
Both solutions are quite good. However, Azure CDN makes more sense to the businesses who already use other Azure services and to enterprises since it can get quite costly.
Cloudflare works for pretty much everyone and its free plan will definitely attract small businesses with limited budgets. Their security and image optimization features are a nice bonus as well.
Cloudflare works for pretty much everyone and its free plan will definitely attract small businesses with limited budgets. Their security and image optimization features are a nice bonus as well.
Cyberlands.io Team