CDN (Content Delivery Network) is used to distribute the content of a website across the internet so that visitors can view the website from their nearest node. When someone tries to visit a website, their browser has to connect to the server that hosts the website, wherever that server may be located.
The further away the location of the server from the visitor, the longer it takes for the content to download due to distance between the visitor location and the server.
CDN attempts to reduce this time and delay, by having copies of the content distributed across multiple geographical locations in order to reduce the distance, hence the delay.
What is the benefit of CDN?
There are many benefits of CDN:
- Faster Pageload – Pages load faster on the visitor’s browsers as the website content is being delivered to the visitor from the nearest node.
- Reliability – As nodes are independent, they can continue to operate even if the main server has failed.
- Bandwidth – Every visitor is being served from their nearest node, so the bandwidth used at the main server is reduced. If the hosting company is charging by metering the website traffic, this can reduce hosting costs.
- Security – Most CDN services have protection against malicious attacks such as DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) where attackers try to overwhelm the hosting server.
How does CDN works?
CDN services, including hosting companies that offer CDN service, have points of presence (nodes) across multiple regions, so that they can get as close as possible to the visitors.
CDN services mirror the content of the website to these nodes, hence reducing the response time to visitors requesting to view a web page.
Typically a CDN service will have at least one node in every continent, and more expensive services will have these in every country, in order to reduce the response time further.
How up-to-date is the content at each node?
There are 2 techniques that CDN services use to keep the content at each node up-to-date.
- Auto-renew – Nodes request the latest version of the website from the main server on preset times, usually every midnight.
- Forced Renewal – The website hosting server can request “Delete/Purge” of content and send new versions. Typically this is done when the website content has been updated. The request can be automated within the server whenever an update is detected, or the website administrator can force “Delete/Purge” request.
How does the Website Administrator request Purge?
This depends on the hosting and CDN service the website is using.
Hosting companies that offer CDN as part of their service have a CDN section within their Control Panel (CP). This enables the website administrator to manage the CDN service including requesting “Purge”. Once the content is purged, a new version is sent to each Node.
Independent CDN services have their own Control Panels, that allows the administrator to carry out the same function via the CDN supplier.
If the website is WordPress based, the hosting company may offer an integrated WordPress management, which will display a “Purge” button on the Admin page.
How much does CDN costs?
Charges vary enormously so website owners need to look carefully at their website traffic volumes and read the small prints!
Here are some examples:
- Cloudflare – They offer a free version for small websites, but prices rise to $200 per month and for higher volume websites the prices increase substantially (prices correct in 2026)
- Amazon CloudFront – Amazon offers a free service for small websites. For larger users the price is based on traffic starting from $15/month (Pro), $200/month (Business), and $1000/month or higher depending on traffic (Premium). (prices correct in 2026)
- Akamai – Pricing is more complex and is based on location of the nodes (Europe, North America, etc.) plus your usage per hour, so you really need to work out what you need. (prices correct in 2026)
- Hosting Company – Some quality hosting companies include CDN in their hosting services, which is why you should not just look at headline pricing for annual hosting fees. There is more to hosting than people realise.
Summary
CDN is a very smart way of reducing visitor’s frustration with slow pageload, avoid Google penalties for slow website loading, protect your website from DDoS attacks, and increase the reliability of your website.
When choosing a cheap hosting service, you need to consider these services that can make hosting your website more expensive than you realise. Contact us to find out about our hosting services, and what we include in our prices.