Knowing your website’s specific needs is key to choosing the best CDN (Content Delivery Network). As you’re planning to hire a CDN plan, I hope you will be aware of how CDN works and how it helps speed up your website loading speed.
Truly, a CDN is a system of distributed servers across the world that cache the static content from the origin server (where your website is hosted) and copy it to its servers around the world so that when users open your website, the static content is delivered from the CDN Server closest to them.
Here’s the graph that describes very well, how CDN works:
So, if you’re really serious about speeding up your website loading and also the bandwidth usage of your site is high, then it’s time to sign up for a CDN program.
But, be careful while choosing a perfect CDN for your site, and as I told you knowing your website’s important needs is key for choosing a good CDN but there are a few more important factors for the same.
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So, here I’m going to tell you the 6 most important tips for choosing a perfect CDN provider to accelerate your website loading. And I’m sure these tips will help you a lot in selecting the best content distribution network (CDN) provider for your site.
Must Consider Tips for Choosing a Perfect CDN Provider
#1: Knowing Your Website Bandwidth Needs
Knowing your website bandwidth needs is the first step in choosing a suitable CDN provider. Your website bandwidth consumption will also tell you whether you should go for a CDN or not.
In fact, if you’re consuming bandwidth less than 100 GB, then you shouldn’t for a premium CDN, truly but if consuming over 100 GB or 500 GB, you can use CDN and according to me the MaxCDN will be a great fit for you because it is cheapest and feature-rich.
A CDN provider offers different plans based on the bandwidth your website consumes. Knowing your website’s bandwidth needs is necessary for choosing the perfect CDN.
#2: Where are Your Visitors Located?
It’s also very important to consider before signing up for a CDN. As I told you, a CDN is a network of distributed servers across different geographic locations. So, make sure that your CDN has servers near where your visitors are located.
For example, if the majority of visitors to your site are from the US, it will be good for you to go for a CDN with the servers spread across that region. So, my motive is to check the network or number of data centers of a CDN provider before signing up and according to your visitor’s location, select the perfect CDN for you.
#3: How Many Servers Your CDN Have?
However, the 2nd tip is very essential while choosing a CDN but it will also be a clever-minded idea to see the number of servers the CDN has. If your CDN provider has a very small number of servers spread across the world, you should ignore that.
A CDN provider that has a high amount of servers distributed across the world will be a great fit for those websites that get traffic from different regions across the world.
#4: You Should Know the Concept of Pull or Push Server
It’s also important to note whether your CDN offers a Pull or Push service. In a pull CDN, a site owner leaves the content on their origin server and rewrites their URLs to point to the CDN. Most CDNs create a pull zone for this purpose.
But, in the case of push CDN, the user uploads content directly to the CDN and links to it. So, you should take care of that which CDN you want. However, there are different CDN providers that offer both Push and Pull services such as MaxCDN.
#5: Technology and Support
Both of these are very essential factors to consider before choosing the best CDN. What kind of technology and support a CDN can offer? It’s worth asking questions about the sales of that CDN company.
If you have a website that provides video downloading or streaming, you should make sure that the CDN you’re looking for provides the streaming service or not.
And support, what kind of support do you desire from a CDN provider? However, believing in a trusted and popular company reduces the concern of support but still, there are different support options the companies offer such as email support, live chat, and phone support. I strongly recommend you go for a CDN that offers at least one of the Live chat or Phone support.
#6: Pricing is Also a Great Factor When Choosing a CDN
I know it may be the first thing to consider for many people while selecting the CDN, web hosting company, or anything else. It should be! But, be careful that don’t compromise the features due to cost.
Nonetheless, you should go for different CDN providers to compare prices and features as there may be a huge difference in pricing between different CDN providers.
Read Also: Important Tips for Choosing a Best Web Host
So..What Are You Going For?
Have you decided which CDN provider will be perfect for your website? Did these tips help you in choosing the best CDN?
I will be happy to hear your feedback! So, let me know what CDN you selected to accelerate your website.
For further helpful tips or any query in this regard, you can anytime ask me via comments, I will be happy to answer your questions!
Nice considerations. Very helpful for those who don’t have more knowledge of CDNs.