Are you looking for the best CDN for WordPress to make your website load faster? A CDN (short for Content Delivery Network) boosts your website’s performance and user experience by loading content at lightning speed.
In the article, we will take a look at a list of the best CDNs for WordPress and help you select the right solution to speed up your website.
But before we list our best CDNs, let’s look at how a CDN for WordPress works and why it’s important.
How Does a CDN Work?
In simple words, a CDN is a network of servers located in different parts of the world (also called points of presence or PoP). Its goal is to minimize the physical distance between your site visitor and your website’s origin server.
So, how does it make your website load faster?
A CDN caches static content of your website (like images and stylesheets) and stores them on its edge servers at multiple locations (PoPs). When the end-user requests those pages, a CDN redirects that request to its edge server which is nearest to the user’s location.
For instance, a visitor in Australia visits your US-hosted website. A CDN will bring up your website pages through its local Australian edge server. This way, your website loads quickly, and the end user’s request doesn’t have to travel halfway across the world to your website’s origin server.
That’s how a CDN works, but why is it important for your website?
Why Do You Need a CDN for WordPress?
There are many benefits of using a CDN. We’ve already shown you that it speeds up your website’s load time. But here are more benefits of using a CDN:
- Great User Experience: Studies show that a single-second delay in website load speed can decrease page views by 11% and conversions by 7%. That’s where a CDN comes in by making your website fast and providing an excellent user experience.
- Boost in Rankings: Do you know who else loves fast websites apart from visitors? Search engines. A fast website will rank higher in the search engine, and with a CDN, you can improve your SEO rankings.
- Improved Website Performance: A CDN not only speeds up your website, but it also makes it crash resistant by distributing the load to multiple servers.
- Increases Website Security: Through a CDN, you can add an extra layer of security by adding an SSL certificate (like https://example.com instead of http://example.com) and minimize the chances of DDoS (distributed denial-of-service)
Now that you know the amazing benefits of using a CDN, are you ready to look at the best CDN for WordPress?
1. Sucuri
Sucuri is the best WordPress CDN and offers unbeaten security features to keep your website safe.
It offers a web application firewall that protects your website from hackers and malware. The firewall prevents brute force attacks, in which hackers use automated tools to hack the website or crack passwords.
Sucuri also blocks different levels of DDoS attacks and stops anyone trying to prevent your visitors from reaching your website.
Its powerful firewall combines with a global anycast network that has multiple locations in the US, Asia, Australia, Brazil, and Europe.
Other key features of Sucuri include:
- High-performance servers
- Smart caching option
- HTTP/2 support
- Real-time website malware and SEO spam scanner
- SSL certificate monitoring
- 24/7 support
Pricing: Sucuri Firewall with CDN plans start at $9.99 per month.
2. StackPath
StackPath is a powerful CDN that offers amazing features. And with MaxCDN under its family of products, it’s one of the best WordPress CDNs you can get today.
It’s super easy to use and offers a beautiful control panel. StackPath also has a large network of servers, allowing faster website load time for users around the world.
And in terms of security, you don’t have to worry as StackPath offers DDoS protection with all its pricing plans. You can also get other security features like:
- Web application firewall to enhance your security
- Free private SSL certificates
- Worldwide network monitoring
- Origin shield to protect your origin server from request overload
- DDoS protection for network and application
Pricing: You’ll need to contact the StackPath sales team for pricing information.
Get started with StackPath now!
3. KeyCDN
KeyCDN is among the best CDNs for WordPress. It’s loaded with features that deliver fast content to visitors and make your website secure from hackers and DDoS attacks.
KeyCDN is easy to integrate with WordPress through its WordPress CDN Enabler plugin. It offers 34 edge servers in 25 countries, spread across 6 continents.
Other exciting features offered by KeyCDN are:
- DDoS protection
- Two-factor authentication
- Let’s Encrypt TLS
- HTTP/2
- 24/7 customer support
Pricing: KeyCDN pricing starts at $0.04 per GB and varies based on your location.
4. Cloudflare
Cloudflare is the best free CDN for WordPress and is highly popular among small business owners. Their free plan offers basic DDoS protection, shared SSL, and its global CDN network of 180 data centers.
But if you want more advanced features, then we suggest you get hold of their paid plans.
Cloudflare CDN offers fast static and dynamic content delivery. You can use its API to automate workflows and have more control over how your website’s content is cached and purged.
It allows you to specify page rules for individual URLs and improve website performance. Here are other features of Cloudflare you might want to check out:
- User-friendly interface
- Web application firewall (WAF)
- Programable API
- Built-in DDoS protection
- Customizable cache expiration periods
- Prevents traffic congestion through intelligent routing
- Fast cache purge
- Supports different video files like MPEG-DASH
Pricing: The paid plans of Cloudflare start from $20 per month and go up to $200 per month with the business plan. And there is also a free plan which you can use to get started.
Get started with Cloudflare now!
5. Amazon CloudFront
Finally,Amazon CloudFront is among the best CDN options for your WordPress website. It’s integrated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and helps fast content delivery to visitors. It caches videos, images, APIs, data, and website stylesheets so your website loads in a matter of seconds.
Deep integration with AWS makes Amazon CloudFront more attractive. You can benefit from services like Amazon S3, Elastic Load Balancing, and Amazon Route 53. All these features in the CDN are programmable through their APIs or AWS Management Console.
More features of Amazon CloudFront include:
- DDoS protecting through AWS Shield
- 17 PoPs in 30 countries
- SSL/TLS encryption along with HTTPS
- Network optimization for smooth performance
- Highly customizable
Pricing: It offers a pay-as-you-go pricing and starts from $0.085 for the first 10TB in the US and Canada region.
Get started with Amazon CloudFront now!
Our Recommendation: What is the Best CDN for WordPress?
After comparing these different CDNs, we recommend Sucuri. It’s fast, reliable, and easy-to-use.
Additionally, Sucuri offers quick content delivery, improved website performance, and the ability to boost your SEO rankings.
To enhance your website security, you can also use Sucuri alongside another CDN such as StackPath. It will keep your website safe from threats like DDoS attacks, hacks, malware, and spam.
That’s it for our WordPress CDN roundup!
We hope you liked our article on the best CDNs for WordPress. You might also want to check out the best WordPress security plugins.
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I checked out the Sucuri and the price is a lot higher than this post says.
Hey Catherine – the price in our blog post is for their Firewall with CDN plans. Toggle over to that tab on their pricing page to see those prices.