Best CDN in 2026: Cloudflare, CloudFront, Fastly, Bunny

Here's the high-level comparison based on our 2026 global benchmarks across 25+ locations:

Sources: PageSpeed Matters CDN benchmarks (25+ global locations, January–February 2026), vendor documentation, CDNPerf aggregate data.

Key insight: Bunny.net delivers the lowest raw latency at the lowest price. Cloudflare provides the most complete platform (CDN + security + edge compute + analytics) with an unbeatable free tier. Fastly excels where content freshness is measured in milliseconds. CloudFront makes sense primarily when you're already invested in AWS infrastructure.

Bunny.net is the fastest CDN on raw cached latency in our tests, with Cloudflare a close second. Below is how each CDN performs across 25+ global locations in aggregate benchmarks and public monitoring data.

Global TTFB Results (Cached Static Asset, 10KB HTML):

Key Observations:

Bunny.net consistently delivers the lowest TTFB across all regions. Their 123 PoPs are strategically placed in high-traffic areas, and their lightweight edge infrastructure minimizes processing overhead. The 22ms global median is remarkable for a CDN at $0.01/GB.

Cloudflare is a close second at 28ms globally, with the advantage of 330+ PoPs providing excellent coverage in underserved regions (Africa, Middle East, Central Asia). Their Anycast network ensures traffic always hits the nearest PoP.

Fastly trades raw speed for content freshness. The 32ms median is competitive, but Fastly's real advantage is its 150ms global purge, when content changes, every edge server reflects it nearly instantly. For static content that rarely changes, Fastly isn't the fastest; for dynamic content that changes constantly, it's unbeatable.

CloudFront has the most PoPs (600+) but doesn't always deliver the lowest latency. AWS's complex routing and origin shield processing add overhead. However, CloudFront excels when your origin is already on AWS, the internal network connection to S3/EC2/Lambda eliminates public internet hops.

TTFB Consistency (P99, Worst-Case Latency):

Bunny.net is the most consistent, its P99 (worst 1% of requests) is still under 100ms. CloudFront has the widest variance, with tail latencies reaching 180ms due to routing complexity across its massive PoP network.

A CDN's impact on Core Web Vitals goes far beyond TTFB. Here's how each CDN affects your actual CWV scores.

LCP Impact: LCP is the metric most directly improved by CDN selection. A faster TTFB means the browser starts receiving HTML sooner, which accelerates everything downstream. Cloudflare APO tends to deliver the biggest LCP improvement of the group because it caches the entire HTML page at the edge, eliminating PHP processing and database queries for cached pages. Bunny.net and Fastly follow with static-asset and image-optimization gains; CloudFront without image optimization typically shows the smallest LCP delta.

INP Impact: CDNs don't directly affect INP (which measures JavaScript responsiveness), but they influence it indirectly:

• Faster asset delivery → browser starts parsing JavaScript sooner → interactive sooner
• Edge compute (Cloudflare Workers, Fastly Compute@Edge) can move processing off the client
• Cloudflare Zaraz runs third-party scripts at the edge, removing them from the main thread entirely, directly improving INP by eliminating script execution

CLS Impact: CDN image optimization features can improve CLS:

• Cloudflare Polish/Images: Auto-serves correctly sized images (reduces layout shift from oversized images loading)
• Bunny Optimizer: Automatic WebP conversion + responsive resizing
• Fastly Image Optimizer: Real-time image transformation at the edge
• CloudFront: No native image optimization, requires Lambda@Edge custom implementation

All CDNs that serve optimized images help prevent CLS from images loading at unexpected dimensions.

The CWV Verdict: Biggest overall CWV impact: Cloudflare APO (full-page edge caching + Zaraz + image optimization). Best image optimization: Bunny.net Optimizer (simplest setup, automatic). Best for dynamic CWV improvement: Fastly (instant purge means fresh content without stale cache penalties).

CDN choice is one input into CWV, for the full optimization across all three metrics, see our Core Web Vitals optimization service.

Modern CDNs offer built-in image optimization that can replace dedicated image optimization tools. Here's how they compare.

Cloudflare Images & Polish:

• Polish: Lossless/lossy compression + WebP conversion for Pro+ plans ($20/month)
• Cloudflare Images: Full image pipeline, resize, crop, format conversion, responsive variants
• Pricing: Polish included in Pro ($20/mo). Images: $5/100K images stored + $1/100K transformations
• Quality: Good automatic optimization, solid WebP conversion
• Limitation: AVIF support is available but not default; Polish doesn't resize, only compresses

Bunny.net Optimizer:

• Automatic WebP/AVIF conversion based on browser support
• On-the-fly resizing via URL parameters (width, height, quality)
• Lazy loading injection
• Pricing: $9.50/month for Optimizer add-on + $0.01/GB bandwidth
• Quality: Excellent, comparable to dedicated services like Imgix at a fraction of the cost
• Standout: Simplest setup of any CDN image optimizer

Fastly Image Optimizer (IO):

• Real-time image transformation: resize, crop, format conversion, quality adjustment
• URL-based API: /image.jpg?width=400&format=webp&quality=80
• AVIF support
• Pricing: Enterprise pricing (custom quotes)
• Quality: Professional-grade, used by major publishers and e-commerce sites
• Standout: Most powerful transformation engine, but enterprise pricing limits accessibility

AWS CloudFront:

• No native image optimization
• Requires Lambda@Edge or CloudFront Functions for image transformation
• Custom implementation: significant development effort for resize/format conversion
• Alternative: Use CloudFront with a dedicated image CDN (Imgix, Cloudinary) as origin
• Standout: Maximum flexibility if you build it, but nothing out of the box

Image Optimization Verdict: Best value: Bunny.net Optimizer ($9.50/month for full pipeline). Most integrated: Cloudflare (Polish + Images within the same platform). Most powerful: Fastly IO (enterprise-grade real-time transforms). Most effort: CloudFront (build it yourself).

What is the best free image CDN?

None of the four includes free image conversion or resizing. Cloudflare's free plan caches and serves your images from its edge, but WebP conversion (Polish) starts on Pro. For WordPress sites, Jetpack's free Site Accelerator is the most common free image CDN: it resizes and serves images from Automattic's network at no cost, with less control than a paid optimizer. If image weight is your main LCP problem, Bunny Optimizer at $9.50/month is usually the cheapest step up. Our WordPress image optimization guide covers the plugin side.

CDNs in 2026 are application platforms, beyond cache layers. Edge compute capabilities determine what you can offload from your origin server.

Cloudflare Workers:

• JavaScript + WebAssembly at 330+ edge locations
• 0ms cold start (no container spin-up)
• Workers KV for edge key-value storage, R2 for object storage, D1 for edge SQLite
• Zaraz: Run third-party scripts (analytics, marketing pixels) at the edge, zero client-side JavaScript
• Use cases: A/B testing, geo-personalization, authentication, API routing, full applications
• Pricing: Free tier (100K requests/day), then $5/month + $0.50/million requests
• Zaraz is a major improvement for performance: it moves Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and other tracking scripts off the client entirely, directly improving INP and LCP

Bunny.net Edge Scripting:

• JavaScript-based edge scripting (Deno runtime)
• Simpler API than Workers, designed for straightforward use cases
• Edge Storage for static assets and application data
• Use cases: Redirects, header manipulation, A/B testing, geo-routing
• Pricing: Included in CDN pricing, no separate compute charges
• Limitation: Less mature ecosystem than Cloudflare Workers, fewer integrations

Fastly Compute@Edge:

• WebAssembly-based (Rust, Go, JavaScript compiled to Wasm)
• Sub-millisecond cold starts
• Real-time logging and debugging
• Use cases: Authentication at the edge, real-time content assembly, personalization, API gateways
• Pricing: Enterprise pricing (custom quotes)
• Standout: The most performant edge compute runtime, Wasm execution is faster than JavaScript V8

AWS Lambda@Edge / CloudFront Functions:

• Lambda@Edge: Node.js/Python functions at regional edge caches (not all PoPs)
• CloudFront Functions: Lightweight JavaScript at all 600+ PoPs (sub-millisecond, limited functionality)
• Use cases: Header manipulation (CF Functions), authentication, image processing, A/B testing (Lambda@Edge)
• Pricing: Lambda@Edge: $0.60/million + duration. CF Functions: $0.10/million
• Limitation: Lambda@Edge has cold starts (100–500ms). CF Functions are fast but extremely limited (2MB memory, 10KB code limit)

Edge Compute Verdict: Most complete platform: Cloudflare (Workers + KV + R2 + D1 + Zaraz). Best raw performance: Fastly Compute@Edge (Wasm). Best value: Bunny.net (included in CDN pricing). Most complex: CloudFront (two separate runtimes with different limitations).

Cloudflare's free plan is the cheapest CDN overall, and Bunny.net at $0.01/GB is the cheapest paid CDN that still tops our latency benchmarks. CDN pricing is notoriously complex, so here's an apples-to-apples comparison for common scenarios.

Scenario 1: Small Business Website (50K monthly visitors, 500GB/month bandwidth)

Scenario 2: Medium E-Commerce (500K monthly visitors, 5TB/month bandwidth)

Scenario 3: High-Traffic Media/Enterprise (5M monthly visitors, 50TB/month)

The pricing revelation: Cloudflare's flat-rate pricing (Free/$20/$200 regardless of bandwidth) is uniquely advantageous for growing sites. Every other CDN charges per-GB, meaning costs scale linearly with traffic. A viral blog post that 10x your traffic costs $0 extra on Cloudflare but could cost hundreds on CloudFront or Fastly.

Hidden Costs to Watch:

• CloudFront: WAF ($5/month + $1/rule + $0.60/million requests), Shield Advanced ($3,000/month for advanced DDoS), request pricing on top of bandwidth
• Fastly: Enterprise minimums, Signal Sciences WAF pricing
• Bunny.net: Optimizer is a separate $9.50/month add-on; Stream (video) has separate pricing
• Cloudflare: Workers beyond free tier, Images storage/transformation fees, advanced bot management on Enterprise only

Pricing Verdict: Best free tier: Cloudflare (nothing comes close). Best budget option: Bunny.net ($0.01/GB). Best flat-rate for growth: Cloudflare Pro/Business ($20/$200 unlimited bandwidth). Most expensive: Fastly and CloudFront (enterprise pricing at scale).

The best CDN for WordPress is Cloudflare with APO for most sites, and Bunny.net when budget is tight; for everything else, the best CDN depends on your technical stack, traffic patterns, and budget.

Choose Cloudflare If:

• You want the most complete platform (CDN + security + compute + analytics) in one dashboard
• You're running WordPress, APO ($5/month) is transformative for performance
• You need DDoS protection and WAF included at no extra cost
• You want to move third-party scripts off the client with Zaraz
• Budget predictability matters, flat-rate pricing regardless of traffic spikes
• You need edge compute (Workers) for A/B testing, personalization, or API routing
• Best for: Most websites, WordPress, Shopify, growing businesses, anyone who wants the best free tier

Choose Bunny.net If:

• Raw speed at the lowest possible cost is your priority
• You need simple, no-nonsense CDN without platform complexity
• Image optimization is important and you want it cheap ($9.50/month)
• You're cost-sensitive but won't compromise on global latency
• You prefer straightforward per-GB pricing without hidden fees
• You need video delivery (Bunny Stream is excellent and affordable)
• Best for: Budget-conscious sites, media/video delivery, developers who want simplicity, agencies managing multiple client sites

Choose Fastly If:

• Content freshness is measured in seconds or less (news, stock data, live scores)
• You need instant global cache purge (150ms, 10x faster than competitors)
• You're building a custom edge application with Compute@Edge (Wasm)
• You're an enterprise with real-time content delivery requirements
• You need enterprise-grade image optimization (Fastly IO)
• Best for: News/media publishers, financial data, live events, enterprise custom edge applications

Choose AWS CloudFront If:

• Your origin infrastructure is already on AWS (S3, EC2, ECS, Lambda)
• You need the widest geographic PoP coverage (600+ locations)
• Your team already manages AWS infrastructure and billing
• You need deep integration with AWS services (WAF, Shield, Lambda@Edge)
• Enterprise compliance requirements dictate AWS ecosystem
• Best for: AWS-native architectures, enterprise compliance, teams already on AWS

Use Case Matrix:

WordPress + Cloudflare APO is the budget-best fast stack, and the foundation our WordPress speed optimization service builds on. Shopify-on-Cloudflare benchmarks well, but the platform-specific wins live in apps and themes, see our Shopify speed optimization service.

Most readers arrive with one specific pairing in mind. Here is how the main matchups play out, using the benchmark and pricing data above.

Cloudflare vs CloudFront

Cloudflare beats CloudFront on cached TTFB (28ms vs 35ms global median) and on tail latency (120ms vs 180ms at P99), and its flat-rate plans are far cheaper once bandwidth grows. On the Cloudflare vs CloudFront speed question, CloudFront only wins when your origin already lives on AWS, where its private backbone to S3, EC2 and Lambda removes public internet hops. Pick CloudFront for AWS-native apps, and Cloudflare for nearly everything else.

Fastly vs Cloudflare

In the Fastly vs Cloudflare comparison, Cloudflare is slightly faster on cached delivery (28ms vs 32ms) and much cheaper, while Fastly purges the whole network in about 150ms versus roughly 3 seconds. Seen as Cloudflare vs Fastly, the choice comes down to content freshness: if stale pages cost you money (news, prices, live scores), Fastly earns its premium; if not, Cloudflare gives you more for less.

Fastly vs CloudFront

Fastly vs CloudFront is close on raw performance: Fastly posts a 32ms median and 130ms P99, CloudFront 35ms and 180ms. Fastly vs AWS CloudFront is really a question of ecosystem. Fastly wins for instant purging and Wasm edge compute; CloudFront wins on PoP count (600+) and AWS integration. On Fastly vs CloudFront performance alone, Fastly has the more consistent tail latency.

Bunny CDN vs Cloudflare

Bunny CDN vs Cloudflare is the most common question from small sites. BunnyCDN vs Cloudflare on speed: Bunny.net is faster in every region we tested (22ms vs 28ms median). On features, Cloudflare wins with free DDoS protection, WAF, Workers and APO for WordPress. Bunny.net vs Cloudflare on price depends on traffic: Cloudflare's free and $20 plans beat per-GB billing as you grow, while Bunny is cheaper than any per-GB rival. If you are comparing Bunny DNS vs Cloudflare DNS specifically, both are fast authoritative DNS services; Cloudflare's is included free on every plan, and Bunny DNS makes most sense when the rest of your stack already runs on Bunny.

Fastly alternatives and competitors

If Fastly's usage pricing or enterprise minimums rule it out, the closest Fastly alternatives are Cloudflare (API cache purging, Workers for edge logic, flat pricing) and Bunny.net (lower latency and cost, simpler feature set). Fastly's other main competitors are CloudFront for AWS shops and Akamai at the enterprise end. For most sites, a Fastly alternative like Cloudflare delivers the same real-world speed at a fraction of the cost.

Even the best CDN won't help if it's misconfigured. These mistakes affect all four providers.

1. Low Cache Hit Ratio (All CDNs) The single most common CDN problem: your content isn't actually being served from cache.

• Symptom: TTFB doesn't improve after CDN setup. Cache-Status header shows MISS on most requests.
• Causes: Short TTLs, missing Cache-Control headers, cookies preventing caching, query strings creating unique cache keys
• Fix: Set Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000 for static assets. Use stale-while-revalidate for HTML. Strip unnecessary cookies and query parameters from cache keys.
• Target: 90%+ cache hit ratio for static assets, 70%+ for HTML pages

2. Not Caching HTML Pages (WordPress/CMS) Most CDN setups only cache static assets (images, CSS, JS), the HTML page itself still hits your origin server on every request.

• Cloudflare: Enable APO ($5/month) for automatic HTML caching, or create Page Rules
• Bunny.net: Enable Perma-Cache or set Edge Rules for HTML caching
• Fastly: Configure VCL or use Surrogate-Control headers for HTML caching
• CloudFront: Create behaviors for HTML with appropriate TTL + origin shield
• Impact: Caching HTML reduces TTFB from 500ms+ to sub-50ms

3. Missing Origin Shield (CloudFront & Fastly) Without origin shield, cache misses from 90+ PoPs all hit your origin simultaneously.

• Fix: Enable origin shield (Fastly) or origin shield region (CloudFront) to consolidate cache misses through a single edge location
• Impact: Reduces origin load by 60–80% during cache repopulation
• Cloudflare and Bunny.net handle this automatically (tiered caching)

4. No Image Optimization Pipeline Serving original images through the CDN is a missed opportunity.

• Cloudflare: Enable Polish (Pro+) or use Cloudflare Images
• Bunny.net: Enable Bunny Optimizer ($9.50/month)
• Fastly: Enable Image Optimizer (enterprise)
• CloudFront: Build with Lambda@Edge or use a dedicated image CDN as origin
• Impact: 30–60% bandwidth savings, improved LCP

5. Ignoring HTTP/3 and Brotli All four CDNs support HTTP/3 and Brotli compression, but they're not always enabled by default.

• Verify HTTP/3 is enabled (connection negotiation to QUIC)
• Verify Brotli compression is active (15–25% smaller than Gzip for text assets)
• Check via: curl -I --http3 or browser DevTools Network panel

6. Not Using Edge Compute for Third-Party Scripts The biggest untapped CDN performance feature in 2026:

• Cloudflare Zaraz moves analytics, pixels, and tracking scripts to the edge, zero client-side JavaScript
• This directly improves INP and LCP by removing main-thread competition
• No equivalent exists on other CDNs, this is Cloudflare's unique advantage
• See our third-party script guide for implementation details

The Bottom Line: A properly configured CDN with high cache hit ratios, HTML caching, image optimization, and HTTP/3 delivers 50–70% of the performance benefit. The remaining 30–50% comes from edge compute, advanced caching strategies, and platform-specific optimizations. Start with the basics, most sites leave significant performance on the table from misconfiguration alone.

Beyond synthetic tests, here is how sites behind each CDN actually perform for real Chrome users, aggregated across every origin the crawler detected on that provider.

Source: Chrome UX Report field data via HTTP Archive Technology Report, May 2026 crawl.

These are field results across all sites detected on each platform, so they reflect how each stack is typically deployed, not a lab test of the software itself.

Fastly leads the group on all three cuts, consistent with its enterprise customer base skewing toward well-optimized origins. Cloudflare shows the widest spread of sites (from carefully tuned SaaS down to unconfigured free-tier deployments), which pulls its mobile pass rate down. CloudFront's TTFB looks strong while its CWV pass rate lags, which usually points to render-blocking and JavaScript issues downstream of the edge rather than delivery.