When one maintains a full-fledged website, there’s a good probability of obtaining visitors from all over the world, and products like Cloudflare or CloudFront are utilized to deliver better services to them.
To summarize, both of these solutions enable a website to improve its performance for international users by storing the host’s content on separate servers. As a result, it has its own term: Content Delivery Network, or CDN.
Cloudflare and CloudFront, on the other hand, have a similar goal, but they opt to achieve it in different ways. They also have distinct characteristics.
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Cloudflare vs CloudFront
Cloudflare is different from CloudFront in that it is a reverse proxy, which means you must link your domain’s nameservers to it. CloudFront is a typical CDN that automatically downloads data from the host’s origin server and stores it on its server network.
Comparison Table Between Cloudflare vs CloudFront
| Parameters of Comparison | Cloudflare | CloudFront |
| Setup | Its setup is quite easy to navigate. | Its setup has two ways – Push & Pull. |
| Live Video | It does not support the live streaming videos feature. | It supports the feature of live streaming videos. |
| Image Optimization | Cloudflare can be used for image optimisation. | CloudFront does not support image optimization. |
| Integrated Tools | Tools integrated with it are Buddy, Cloudcraft, Mixmax. | Tools integrated with it are Google Analytics, Terraform. |
| Best Used For | Cloudflare is best at managing server loads and site speeds. | CloudFront is best used when a site seeks speed in static and dynamic web contents. |
| SPDY Protocol | It supports the SPDY protocol. | It does not support SPDY Protocol. |
| Origin Push | It does not support Origin Push. The number of Points of presence is 71. | It partially supports Origin Push. The number of points of presence is 41. |
What is Cloudflare?
It is a web infrastructure and security company established in the United States that provides content delivery network services, domain name server services, Internet security, DDoS mitigation, and other services.
Cloudflare is dedicated to improving the dependability, performance, and security of all internet-connected devices. The company’s services act as a reverse proxy for websites, sitting between a website’s visitor and its user’s hosting provider.
Customers are protected from distributed denial of service assaults with its DDoS mitigation services. In addition, Cloudflare offers a Content Distribution Network service. The company now claims to be able to support over 25 million websites.
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SSL/TLS, Firewall, Page Rules, Analytics, Registrar, Workers, CDN, DNS Hosting, and other basic services are available for free, although with some restrictions.
What is CloudFront?
CloudFront, sometimes known as Amazon CloudFront because it is offered by Amazon Web Services, is a content delivery network that helps websites distribute web content such as HTML, CSS, and picture files more quickly.
Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Japan, South America, and Africa are all home to its servers. Other larger CDNs, such as Akamai and Limelight Networks, compete with CloudFront.
It integrates with DDoS mitigation services such as Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon EC2, and AWS Shield Standard. CloudFront’s live streaming video functionality is one of its most appealing features.
With tools like the AWS Management Console, APIs, SDKs, and Command Line Interface, CloudFront can quickly get started with the Content Delivery Network.
Main Differences Between Cloudflare and CloudFront
- Cloudflare’s technology is simple to set up and use, with a user-friendly interface. CloudFront, on the other hand, uses a two-way architecture — Push and Pull.
- The capability of live streaming or live video is not supported by Cloudflare. CloudFront, on the other hand, can successfully support the capability of live streaming videos.
- Picture optimisation, such as image resizing, mirage, and polish, can be done with Cloudflare. CloudFront, on the other hand, does not offer image optimization.
- Buddy, Cloudcraft, and Mixmax are three tools that are linked with Cloudflare. Google Analytics and Terraform, on the other hand, are technologies that are linked with CloudFront.
- Cloudflare is best for reducing server load and increasing site speed. CloudFront, on the other hand, is best employed when a site needs to speed up both static and dynamic web content.
- The SPDY protocol is supported by Cloudflare. The SPDY protocol is not supported by Amazon CloudFront.
- Cloudflare’s Number of Points of Presence is 71, and it does not support Origin Push. CloudFront, on the other hand, only partially supports Origin Push and has 41 points of presence.
Conclusion
Let’s summarize before moving on to the conclusion. As a result, both Cloudflare and CloudFront offer a Content Delivery Network function that can aid in the speeding up of a website when it is accessed by a global visitor. They also lower the time it takes for a page to load and the amount of work the server has to do.
They both have a larger set of features and functionalities, making it more difficult to pick a winner. But, because there’s always a way out, analysing a website’s needs might make it simple to figure out which one is best for them.
Comparing their offers, features, stability, and security, for example, might help choose which one is appropriate for one’s website. Cloudflare can be recommended for entry-level sites because it offers an unlimited free edition that is suitable for a website with average traffic or standard content. Cloudflare is also a good fit for integration.
When it comes to mainstream businesses, Amazon CloudFront may be the ideal option because it is well-known among organisations with a strong internet presence. CloudFront’s CDN services are used by brands such as NASA, IMBD, PBS, and others.
If you’re new to the industry and want to try Content Delivery Network services, Cloudflare is a good option because it’s simple to set up and comes with a lot of security features. However, if your goal is to give your audience high-quality live video streaming, CloudFront is the way to go.