TrackIt customers often ask: “Akamai, Fastly, Cloudflare, or CloudFront – which CDN should we choose?”
Akamai, Fastly, Cloudflare, and Amazon CloudFront are the most popular Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) available on the marketplace, and each CDN comes with its own inherent advantages and constraints.
There are multiple factors to consider (rules for behavior matching, integration capabilities, ease of deployment, pricing, etc.) before making the right choice. This article will highlight the differences between these CDNs and CloudFront to assist users in selecting the CDN that matches their requirements.
| Akamai/Fastly/Cloudflare | Amazon CloudFront | |
| Integration | Application specific (CMS, Media, etc) | Content agnostic |
| Behavior Matching &Customization | Supports creation of complex dynamic rules | Only static rules supported |
| Ecosystem | Few adjacent services (DNS, TLS certificate, etc.) | Access to the complete suite of AWS services |
| Infrastructure | Bespoke infrastructure, few public details available | Leverages the AWS global networking backbone, performance metrics publicly available |
| Pricing | Available through sales. Tailored to the projected usage, contractual | Pay as you go based on usage |
| Ease of setup | Trial available for selected products | All features accessible with an AWS account, free trial available via usage quotas |
Contents
Integration
Integration capabilities are crucial for simplifying CDN deployment and management. Amazon CloudFront offers seamless integration with AWS services, leveraging its robust cloud ecosystem for easy deployment within existing AWS infrastructure. This integration is particularly advantageous for businesses heavily invested in AWS, providing streamlined workflows and operational efficiency.
Akamai supports versatile integration across various cloud environments and on-premises setups, offering tailored solutions that cater to diverse application architectures. Cloudflare provides pre-configured setups for popular applications like WordPress, facilitating rapid integration and deployment without extensive customization. Fastly also emphasizes ease of integration with intuitive controls and APIs, enabling businesses to quickly implement CDN solutions that align with their operational needs and application requirements.
Behavior Matching
Effective behavior matching enhances CDN performance by optimizing caching strategies based on specific file conditions. CloudFront only allows for static matching (i.e. only comparing strings). Dynamic logic matching can be implemented through CloudFront Functions, but this approach becomes more complex with the number of conditions that need to be evaluated.
Akamai excels in behavior matching with robust support for complex dynamic rules and conditional logic, enabling precise caching strategies that enhance performance and user experience. Cloudflare offers comprehensive tools for dynamic logic matching, including regex support and conditional branching, empowering businesses to fine-tune caching behaviors with flexibility and scalability. Fastly also provides advanced behavior matching capabilities with real-time configuration updates and detailed analytics, ensuring optimal CDN performance and responsiveness across global networks.
Ecosystem
Choosing a CDN aligned with existing ecosystem needs is essential for seamless integration and operational efficiency. Amazon CloudFront integrates seamlessly with AWS services, making it an ideal choice for businesses leveraging AWS cloud infrastructure. This integration supports unified management and scalable deployments across global regions, enhancing performance and reliability.
Akamai offers robust ecosystem integration across multi-cloud environments and on-premises deployments, accommodating diverse application architectures and operational requirements outside of AWS environments. Cloudflare’s CDN solutions integrate smoothly with various cloud platforms and on-premises setups, providing flexible deployment options and scalable performance enhancements. Fastly prioritizes ecosystem compatibility with extensive support for cloud-native applications and legacy systems, ensuring interoperability and efficient CDN deployments that align with business objectives and operational workflows.
Infrastructure
CDN infrastructure reliability and performance are critical factors for delivering consistent user experiences globally. Amazon CloudFront leverages AWS’s extensive global infrastructure, ensuring low-latency content delivery and high availability across diverse geographical regions. This robust infrastructure supports scalable CDN deployments and reliable performance for dynamic content delivery needs.
Akamai, Cloudflare, and Fastly also maintain robust CDN infrastructures optimized for global scalability and high availability, although specific details about their infrastructure are not publicly disclosed. These providers adhere to industry standards and best practices, ensuring reliable CDN operations and consistent performance across diverse use cases and customer requirements.
Pricing
Amazon CloudFront operates on a transparent pay-as-you-go model, allowing businesses to scale CDN usage based on actual traffic and data transfer needs. This flexibility ensures cost efficiency without long-term commitments, ideal for dynamic workloads and varying traffic patterns.
Akamai’s pricing is typically contract-based and customized to projected usage, requiring businesses to engage with sales teams for tailored pricing estimates. This approach suits enterprises needing predictability in costs and specific service-level agreements (SLAs). Cloudflare offers a straightforward pay-as-you-go pricing structure, providing clarity and scalability options aligned with business growth. This model includes transparent pricing tiers for additional features like advanced security and performance optimizations, catering to diverse business needs. Fastly also adopts a pay-as-you-go pricing approach, ensuring transparent billing aligned with actual usage, with options for customized pricing based on specific performance and support requirements. Both Cloudflare and Fastly prioritize flexible pricing models to accommodate varying traffic volumes and operational demands, enhancing cost management and scalability for businesses of all sizes.
Ease of Setup
The ease of setting up and testing a CDN significantly impacts adoption and evaluation. Amazon CloudFront requires only an AWS account for immediate access to its features, facilitating quick setup and evaluation through its Free Tier offering. This simplicity enables businesses to deploy and assess CloudFront without upfront costs, ideal for testing suitability before full deployment.
Akamai offers a comprehensive setup experience with robust support and documentation tailored to various deployment scenarios. While Akamai’s setup process may involve more initial configuration steps compared to CloudFront, it provides extensive guidance and customization options to meet specific performance and security requirements. Cloudflare excels in ease of setup with intuitive controls and user-friendly interfaces that streamline configuration across different applications, ensuring quick deployment and operational readiness. Fastly also provides a straightforward setup experience with accessible tools and documentation, enabling businesses to efficiently deploy and optimize CDN configurations to enhance performance and scalability.
Conclusion
CloudFront is an ideal solution for those seeking a flexible, pay-as-you-go service that integrates seamlessly with existing AWS infrastructure. Akamai is best suited for users looking to build a tailored solution with complex dynamic rules and easy integration with a wide range of non-AWS applications. Cloudflare is an excellent option for those prioritizing security and performance, offering extensive DDoS protection and robust web application firewall capabilities. Fastly is perfect for users needing low-latency, real-time content delivery with advanced edge computing features, making it highly suitable for applications requiring instant updates and fast response times.
About TrackIt
TrackIt is an international AWS cloud consulting, systems integration, and software development firm headquartered in Marina del Rey, CA.
We have built our reputation on helping media companies architect and implement cost-effective, reliable, and scalable Media & Entertainment workflows in the cloud. These include streaming and on-demand video solutions, media asset management, and archiving, incorporating the latest AI technology to build bespoke media solutions tailored to customer requirements.
Cloud-native software development is at the foundation of what we do. We specialize in Application Modernization, Containerization, Infrastructure as Code and event-driven serverless architectures by leveraging the latest AWS services. Along with our Managed Services offerings which provide 24/7 cloud infrastructure maintenance and support, we are able to provide complete solutions for the media industry.