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First decide what you want the CDN to deliver
A site-wide CDN sits between visitors and your website’s origin server. It can serve eligible cached responses from locations closer to visitors and, depending on the provider and plan, add security features. Cloudflare, CloudFront, QUIC.cloud, and Fastly fit this broad model, though their setup and controls differ.
An asset-library CDN serves files already hosted in a public catalogue or ecosystem. jsDelivr and cdnjs are useful for public front-end libraries and other supported assets, but they are not replacements for a reverse proxy in front of your whole website. They do not, by themselves, protect your site’s origin or cache its private pages.
- Choose a whole-site service if you want a CDN in front of your own website or need CDN-related security features.
- Choose an asset CDN if your specific need is delivering a public library, stylesheet, font, or other supported open-source file.
- Use the two models together only when each has a clear job. An asset CDN does not eliminate the need to configure caching and security for your own site.
Compare the six free CDN options
| Service | What its free offer is suited to | Security or control noted in the available product information | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare Free | Putting a whole website behind a reverse proxy, particularly when moving DNS or nameservers to Cloudflare is acceptable. | The Free plan includes CDN and DDoS protection. Cloudflare says its CDN caches static and dynamic content in data centers in more than 335 cities and serves it from the edge. | Check current free-plan cache, rules, analytics, security, and support boundaries before relying on a particular feature. |
| Amazon CloudFront Free plan | Sites already using AWS services, such as S3 origins, IAM, or CloudWatch. | AWS advertises a $0/month CloudFront Free plan and lists CDN delivery, WAF rules, DDoS protection, DNS, TLS certificates, logging, and serverless edge compute among its capabilities. | Confirm current free-tier quotas, data-transfer rules, and regional pricing. AWS setup and billing require more configuration than a simple reverse-proxy switch. |
| QUIC.cloud Free CDN | WordPress sites using LiteSpeed Cache or the LiteSpeed ecosystem. | The plan comparison lists static cache and basic DDoS protection on the Free plan; advanced and configurable DDoS protection is associated with higher tiers. | Check whether the specific dynamic acceleration, image optimization, or quota you want is included in the current free tier. |
| Fastly free developer account | Developers who want programmable edge behavior, APIs, real-time configuration, or precise cache control. | Fastly says free developer accounts provide CDN access, TLS certificates, and basic DDoS protection. Its pricing information describes free access for building, testing, and deploying on its edge platform with usage-based pricing. | Free access is developer-oriented. Verify account eligibility, current limits, and whether production traffic requires billing enrollment. |
| jsDelivr | Delivering supported public assets from npm, GitHub, WordPress plugin and theme ecosystems, and related sources. | Its documentation describes versioned URLs, on-demand minification, source maps, multi-CDN routing, cache/failover, and more than 540 points of presence. | It is an asset-delivery service, not a whole-site reverse proxy. Pin versions for production rather than using an unversioned “latest” URL. |
| cdnjs | Loading established JavaScript, CSS, and font resources available in its public library catalogue. | cdnjs describes itself as a free, open-source CDN for popular JavaScript, CSS, and font resources, and exposes a public API without authentication. | It is not a full-site security proxy or origin shield. Confirm library version availability, integrity metadata, and licensing. |
The provider statements above describe the offers and service information available on September 29, 2026; CDN plans, quotas, features, and geographic coverage can change. The city and point-of-presence counts are provider-reported coverage figures, not a guarantee of a particular response time in your visitors’ locations.
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Which one should you choose?
For a whole website and a simpler starting point: Cloudflare Free
Cloudflare is the most direct fit when you want one service in front of the whole site and are prepared to move DNS or nameservers. Its Free plan includes CDN and DDoS protection, making it a reasonable starting point for a site whose priorities are basic protection and TLS alongside content delivery. Do not assume that every cache rule, security control, analytics feature, or support option you may want is available for free; verify the current plan details before changing production DNS.
For an AWS-based site: CloudFront
If your origin and operations already live in AWS, CloudFront may fit naturally with the rest of that setup. The advertised $0/month plan lists several AWS-related capabilities, but a $0 plan label does not answer every billing question: check the current free-tier allowances, data-transfer terms, and regional prices for your expected use. Its configuration and billing surface are also more involved than a single-switch reverse proxy.
For a LiteSpeed WordPress site: QUIC.cloud
QUIC.cloud is worth evaluating when your WordPress site already uses LiteSpeed Cache or related LiteSpeed features. The free tier is documented as including static cache and basic DDoS protection, but the name of a feature alone is not enough to establish that your desired dynamic acceleration or image optimization is covered. Check the current comparison for the specific feature and quota you need.
For programmable edge behavior: Fastly
Fastly is a better fit for developers who need to control edge behavior through APIs and configuration rather than simply turn on a CDN. Its free developer account is described for building, testing, and deploying on the edge platform. Before treating it as a no-cost production solution, check the current eligibility and limits and whether your intended traffic requires billing enrollment.
For public libraries and files: jsDelivr or cdnjs
Use jsDelivr when the asset is supported by its package and repository ecosystem and you want capabilities such as versioned URLs or documented routing and failover. Use cdnjs when the library you need is available in its catalogue. Neither is the choice for putting your private pages, logged-in WordPress content, or entire origin behind a security proxy. With either service, select the exact library version you intend to use; an unpinned “latest” reference can change without a code deployment.
Set up a CDN without making your site less reliable
- List what should be cached. Separate public static assets from personalized pages, authenticated responses, and other private content. Decide whether the need is site-wide delivery or just public asset URLs.
- Check the origin and DNS change before switching traffic. Confirm the provider supports your origin arrangement and understand which DNS records or nameservers will change. For CloudFront, review its AWS configuration and billing implications; for a reverse proxy, confirm how the origin will be reached.
- Set cache behavior intentionally. Use explicit cache-control headers and define how you will purge stale content. Do not cache personalized or private responses as if they were public files.
- Protect public library references. Pin the version of each library used in production. Where supported, use Subresource Integrity and verify the library’s availability and license.
- Measure from the places that matter. Compare real-user or synthetic performance from the countries where your visitors are located, before and after the change. Provider-wide coverage counts do not prove that a particular route or asset will be faster for your audience.
- Review the free tier and billing terms again. Check quotas, data-transfer or request allowances, DDoS scope, support, and the conditions that can trigger paid usage. Repeat the review as your traffic or requirements change.
Limits, performance, and cost: what “free” does not settle
A free plan is useful only if its limits match your actual traffic and operating needs. The available product information does not establish one comparable request or bandwidth quota for all six services, and the services do not offer equivalent features. CloudFront’s $0/month plan is not enough on its own to infer that every deployment or level of traffic has no cost; AWS specifically directs users to current quotas, transfer rules, and regional pricing. Fastly’s developer access is described alongside usage-based pricing, and its production eligibility and limits should be checked. For the other providers, verify the current tier terms for the feature and volume you intend to use rather than assuming a feature or allowance is unlimited.
There is likewise no evidence here for a universal speed ranking. The result depends on your visitors’ geography, origin location, cacheability, configuration, and the particular assets or pages being requested. Cloudflare’s more-than-335-city and jsDelivr’s more-than-540-points-of-presence figures are provider-reported coverage statements retrieved on September 29, 2026; they are not apples-to-apples measurements of latency, cache-hit rates, or performance for your site. Use measurements from target geographies to make the decision.
Common selection and setup mistakes
- Expecting an asset CDN to secure the whole site: jsDelivr and cdnjs deliver supported public files; choose a whole-site service if the goal is a proxy in front of your origin.
- Caching private or personalized responses: distinguish public assets from user-specific pages and set explicit cache rules and headers accordingly.
- Switching DNS without checking the origin: confirm the origin configuration and TLS setup before moving nameservers or pointing traffic at a new CDN.
- Using a floating library version: pin the version to avoid an upstream change silently changing what production pages load.
- Choosing by footprint claims alone: provider-reported locations do not replace measurements from your target countries.
- Assuming the free label means unlimited or production-ready: check current quotas, support, account eligibility, billing enrollment, and paid-use triggers for the exact service and plan.
If you need screenshots, not a CDN
A screenshot API is not a CDN: it captures a page instead of distributing your site’s content to visitors. If your task is checking how a page renders or automating captures, ScreenshotNeo is the relevant alternative to try first—not a replacement for any CDN in this comparison. One GET request returns a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF. The request below saves a WebP capture; see the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for its request options.
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cURL
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webpPython
import requests
r = requests.get(
"https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot",
params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"},
timeout=90,
)
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)Node.js
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);Or skip the browser setup
ScreenshotNeo accepts cookie and consent banners before capture and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets; each of those steps can be turned off. Bot checks and CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed, and response headers identify the page verdict and billing status. Its MCP server offers take_screenshot, get_page_info, and capture_pdf tools for Claude, Cursor, and other MCP clients. The free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots. Sign up for ScreenshotNeo’s free plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Cloudflare and jsDelivr compete for the same job?
Not necessarily. Cloudflare can sit in front of a whole website, while jsDelivr serves supported public assets; a site may have a reason to use one model, the other, or both.
Does a CDN replace the need to keep an origin server?
For the whole-site services compared here, the CDN is positioned in front of an origin; the service descriptions do not establish that it replaces the website or its source hosting.
Can I pick the fastest service from the provider location counts?
No. The published counts describe provider-reported coverage, not measured performance for your pages and visitor routes. Compare results from the locations that matter to your audience.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
