Your site loads fine for you. It’s slow for the guy in another country, though, and you might not even know it. That’s what a CDN fixes: it stores copies of your site’s files on servers around the world, so a visitor loads from somewhere close to them instead of pinging a server on the other side of the planet every time.

Not every CDN is built the same, priced the same, or aimed at the same kind of site. Here’s how seven of the more relevant ones actually stack up for a small business or DIY WordPress site.

The Quick Answer

Starting out, or not sure yet how much traffic you’ll get? Go with Cloudflare’s free plan. It costs nothing, and you’re not sacrificing real protection to get it.

Already have security handled and just want the fastest raw delivery for a few cents a month? BunnyCDN wins on price-to-performance. Want your CDN and your site’s security bundled into one plan instead of stitching two things together? Sucuri does that. Already running on AWS? Amazon CloudFront is the obvious fit. And if you want a second pay-as-you-go quote to compare against Bunny, KeyCDN is worth a look, though it’s rarely anyone’s first pick.

Cloudflare: the free plan is the real deal

Best for: small sites that want security and speed without spending anything.

Cloudflare is the default most people land on, and for good reason, its free plan isn’t a watered-down trial. Setup takes a bit more than a plugin install, since you’re pointing your domain’s nameservers to Cloudflare, but it’s a one-time task and well documented.

What we liked:

• Genuinely usable free tier, not a stripped-down teaser
• Basic DDoS protection and a web application firewall included at no cost
• Huge user base, so troubleshooting help is one search away
• Official WordPress plugin handles most of the cache setup for you

One thing to watch: aggressive caching can serve stale content after you update a page. If you run WooCommerce or anything dynamic, pay attention to your cache rules.

How much does Cloudflare cost? Free for the basics: CDN, DDoS protection, and a shared SSL certificate. The Pro plan runs around $20/month if you want extra performance and security features on top.

BunnyCDN: no free tier, but cheap and fast

Best for: sites that already have security covered and just want the fastest delivery for the least money.

BunnyCDN skips the free plan entirely and charges you per use, though most small sites end up paying just a few dollars a month. It’s built purely for speed, and pairs easily with any WordPress caching plugin you’re already running.

What we liked:

• Consistently strong real-world performance for the price
• Setup genuinely takes minutes, not hours
• Dedicated WordPress plugin available

What it doesn’t have is Cloudflare’s built-in security layer. If your site’s protection is already handled elsewhere, that’s not really a loss, you’re just not paying for something you don’t need.

How much does BunnyCDN cost? Pay-as-you-go, starting around $0.01 per GB in North America and Europe, with a small monthly minimum. For a typical small business site, that usually lands somewhere between $1 and $9 a month.

KeyCDN: the quiet option for comparison shopping

Best for: comparison shopping against BunnyCDN before you commit.

KeyCDN plays the same game as BunnyCDN, pay-as-you-go, performance-first, quick setup. Coverage is solid and it’s been reliable for years, but the dashboard feels a step behind the other two, like it hasn’t been actively refreshed in a while.

What we liked:

• Works with free WordPress plugins (Cache Enabler, CDN Enabler) for easy setup
• Real-time image optimization built in
• Free SSL certificates included

How much does KeyCDN cost? Around $0.04 per GB for the first 10TB, with a $4/month minimum. A 25GB free trial is available if you want to test it before paying anything.

Amazon CloudFront: the natural pick if you’re already on AWS

Best for: sites or apps already living inside the AWS ecosystem.

CloudFront isn’t really something you’d go out and choose on its own merits, it makes sense the moment your hosting, storage, or backend already runs on AWS, since everything ties together without extra glue.

What we liked:

• Deep integration with other AWS services
• Handles dynamic, static, and streaming content without breaking a sweat
• 1TB of free data transfer for the first year, useful while you’re testing things out

The catch: if you’re not already on AWS, the setup and pricing model feel like more overhead than a simpler CDN would.

How much does CloudFront cost? Around $0.085 per GB in the US, pay-as-you-go, with a free tier covering 1TB of transfer and 10 million requests a month for your first year.

Fastly: built for sites with a lot of dynamic content

Best for: sites with frequently changing content that need instant cache purging.

Fastly leans developer-first. If your site is mostly static pages, you probably won’t notice the difference between Fastly and a simpler CDN, but if you’re running something with content that updates constantly, its edge computing and instant purge features earn their keep.

What we liked:

• Real-time cache purging, useful for anything that updates often
• Strong track record with high-traffic, dynamic sites
• Detailed real-time analytics

How much does Fastly cost? Around $0.12 per GB for the first 10TB, with a $50 trial credit to test it out before committing.

CDN77: solid, unglamorous, and strong in Europe

Best for: a mid-market option with particularly strong European coverage.

CDN77 doesn’t try to be flashy. It’s a straightforward, performance-focused CDN that happens to have a especially strong footprint in Europe, which matters if that’s where most of your traffic comes from.

What we liked:

• Competitive pricing for the performance you get
• User-friendly control panel and API access
• Solid HTTP/2 and compression support out of the box

How much does CDN77 cost? Around $0.033 per GB in North America and Europe, on a pay-as-you-go model.

Sucuri: when you want your CDN and your security in one place

Best for: site owners who’d rather manage one bill and one dashboard for both CDN and security.

Sucuri isn’t a CDN-first product the way the others on this list are, it’s a security platform that happens to include CDN delivery as part of the package. If you’ve been separately paying for a security plugin and a CDN, bundling both into one service is worth considering.

What we liked:

• Combines malware scanning, a firewall, and CDN delivery in one plan
• WordPress plugin available for monitoring and scanning
• Global Anycast network for content delivery

The tradeoff: it’s a paid-only product, no free tier, so it’s a bigger jump for a brand-new site with no budget yet.

How much does Sucuri cost? Basic plans start around $10/month, with higher tiers adding SSL support and more active monitoring.

So which one should you actually pick?

If security matters as much as speed and you don’t want to spend anything to start, Cloudflare’s free plan is the obvious call. If you’ve already got security sorted and just want the fastest delivery for pennies a month, BunnyCDN is worth the small bill. Already on AWS? CloudFront just makes sense. Dealing with content that updates constantly? Fastly earns its higher price. Want one bill covering both security and CDN? Sucuri. KeyCDN and CDN77 are both solid, but mostly worth checking as comparison quotes rather than a first choice.

Here’s the thing though: the biggest jump in performance comes just from having a CDN at all. Which of these seven you pick matters far less than the decision to use one in the first place.

A couple of quick questions people ask

Does a CDN actually help my SEO? Not directly, but faster load times reduce bounce rates and search engines do favor that, so indirectly, yes.

Is a free CDN good enough for a small site? For most small business sites, yes. You may hit limits on bandwidth or advanced features eventually, but by then you’ll know exactly what you’re upgrading for.

Do I still need a security plugin if I use a CDN? In most cases, yes, unless you’re using a bundled option like Sucuri. A CDN like Cloudflare or BunnyCDN speeds up delivery and adds some baseline protection, but it isn’t a full replacement for a dedicated WordPress security plugin.