Last updated - September 1, 2023
Speed is one of the primary aspects of user experience on the web. Your website needs to be super fast to keep the users interested in what you are offering on your site. There are several strategies you can try out to optimize the speed and performance of your site, if it is built on WordPress. Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is one of the common strategies to increase page load speed. In this article, we will discuss some of the top free CDN services you can use to improve site performance.
What is CDN?
A Content Delivery Network is a series of network servers that are located in different geographical locations spread across the world. They serve static resources on your web page based on the geographical location of the user.
A WordPress page is dynamically loaded based on what a user clicks on your website. However, a dynamic WordPress page will have some static components on it such as javascript, images, etc. A content delivery network helps in storing and serving copies of these static resources, to reduce the load of the hosting server when a user makes a request on your site.
Generally, your hosting server will be located in a single location. When there is a surge in traffic, serving all user requests from a single location can affect page loading speeds. As the content delivery network is spread across different locations, it can selectively serve static files from a server located closer to the user. If you’re using a CMS software, most providers will have a built-in CDN service to manage your web content. But for WordPress, you may need to use a dedicated CDN service.
Free CDN Services
There are several free CDN services that you can make use of if you are concerned of any additional expenses in maintaining your WordPress site.
Jetpack
Jetpack offers a free CDN service to help you reduce the usage of your hosting service’s bandwidth and enhance site performance. This helps you in delivering localized static content from high speed data centers. As a result, browsers will be able to download more files simultaneously. This will help in improving our site performance as static resources are served based on the location of the customer. In addition, this will help in reducing the possibility of extra charges from your hosting service due to the additional consumption of bandwidth.
Feature Highlights
Here are some of the features of this free CDN service offered by Jetpack:
- Easy configuration process – You can set this up by a single click on the settings and doesn’t require any coding skills or complicated configuration process.
- Automatic process – Once set up, it will start to deliver static content like JavaScript, CSS and images automatically from the server network located across the world.
- Optimization for mobile – Improves site speed on mobile devices by automatically optimizing images.
- Free service – The service is totally free, and there are no upsell options with more features.
- No restrictions – There are no restrictions in the number of files.
- Ad-free video hosting service – Works seamlessly with Jetpack’s own video hosting service that does not have ads.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare CDN is one of the most popular free CDN services you can get for your WordPress site. It offers superior delivery of both static and dynamic content. Moreover, it provides great control to site owners in the way the content is cached. Cloudflare CDN is powered by a global network of data centers that ensures localized delivery of static content. Based on the specific requirement of your website, you will be able to automate the workflow and customize the caching process using Cloudflare Cache API. Along with improving your site performance, Cloudflare CDN helps in reducing costs by minimizing bandwidth consumption as well.
Moreover, it offers great features to ensure superior live video streaming. And it supports HTTP/3 protocol that ensures reliable connections to other websites and APIs. The basic service for personal websites and blogs is free. You can also get professional options that includes firewall, live support, etc., at rates starting from $20 per month.
jsDelivr
jsDelivr is one of the popular free CDN services that you can use to speed up your site performance. It is open source and has over 750 points of presence. It is superior than many other CDNs and offers failover on every layer. This CDN service is built for production and offers 4 CDN and 2 DNS providers. It uses Real User Metrics to balance traffic between multiple CDN providers. Moreover, it is developer friendly, and offers options to minify files and combine multiple files. Other important features of this service are source map support, version aliasing, usage statistics, etc.
BootstrapCDN
BootstrapCDN is a free service provided by StackPath. You can use this for Bootstrap’s CSS and JS. It is a reliable and secure service that you can make use of for the optimized delivery of CSS and JS files.
N7- The Nitrogen Platform
Overview
N7- Nitrogen Platform is a new age Content Delivery Network (CDN) platform that delivers better digital experiences, increases website speed, drives conversions, improves SEO and increases engagement. It accelerates performance by using predictive caching, 3rd party Java Script Manager and instantaneous rendering of catalog and product pages.
With its ultra-fast network and edge computing, the Nitrogen (N7) is used by globally located customers to provide accelerated content delivery, supreme quality video, optimized images, advanced security & hyper-personalized experiences.
It also includes a real digital experience monitor that provides an unprecedented level of insight into user interactions and server-side application transactions along with modern security mechanisms. Global brands like Shoppers Stop, Aza Fashions, Kalyan Jewellers, Hopscotch, Bajaj Allianz, Tata Capital, and many more, rely on Nitrogen platform for their website’s performance, security, and scalability needs.
Feature Highlights
- Small companies to enterprise – they have plans available for all the customers irrespective of their business sizes. Most companies try out their free starter plan to start with.
- Their Java Script Acceleration capabilities analyze, control, and sequence 3rd parties, thereby increasing site speed and with this approach, even XSS injection attacks are reduced.
- Its methodology targets and prioritizes user journey optimization rather than page optimization. Their unique predictive caching capabilities include creating an AI/ML-based environment that notices traffic patterns and user behavior, thus, enhancing user journeys.
- To help online users find their desired product, Nitrogen (N7) CDN offers immediate filtering, comparison, and searching on catalog pages. As a result, subsequent pages load in a few seconds!
- This feature works wonders for e-commerce businesses! N7 provides customers with products and results based upon the quick analysis of user patterns.
- With AI Driven Image Optimization, N7 produces dynamic image optimizations and transformations in real-time, empowering developers and marketers to enhance web-based visual experiences.
cdnjs
cdnjs is one of the most popular option for free CDN services that is used by a lot of websites. According to statistical data, more than 9% of all websites use this service. It is sponsored by Cloudflare, Digital Ocean and Algolia.
Amazon Cloudfront
Amazon Cloudront is a popular CDN service that offers optimized delivery of data, along with video, applications and APIs to users across the world. If you are already using Amazon Web Services, you can easily manage to get started with the content delivery network. With over 190 points of presence, this globally distributed CDN will make sure that your site manages a superior performance at all times. Moreover, you will find built-in security options such as AWS Certificate Manager and custom SSL certificates. Also, it is easy to customize for your specific requirements.
You can use this for free for 12 months with 50 GB of data transfer out.
CoralCDN
Coral CDN is another option among free CDN services to improve your site performance and decrease bandwidth consumption. You can start with this one quite easily. Just append a short string to the hostname of any url, and CoralCDN will handle the request for that url. It uses modern peer-to-peer technologies to effectively find cached objects available anywhere in the network. CoralCDN has quite a large number of clients and receives 25-50 requests on an everyday basis.
Anyone CDN
This is another popular Content Delivery Netowrk that is quite easy to use. You can simply enter your domain name and click a CDN by clicking a button. It will cache your files in the global network of servers for a period of 30 days. As it delivers files through a secure url, you don’t need to worry about the reliability. It is compatible with WordPress and makes sure your site is consistently performing good. You can install CDN enabler plugin to manage this without much hassles.
Imperva
Imperva offers superior options to deliver content in an optimized manner. With the help of global data centers, it delivers static content from a server closer to the user’s location thereby decreasing page load time. It offers an optimized content delivery by enhancing the CDN with file minification, automated compression, session reuse, etc. The service will help you in improving response time and at the same time decrease bandwidth costs. There are several packages available for this CDN and you need to contact them to get a quote.
Swarmify
Swarmify offers unlimited video CDN to ensure that videos on your site load without buffering. With the help of a global network, it offers your users the best video streaming experience irrespective of their location. It also ensures an optimized experience on all devices including desktop, mobile and tablet. You can avoid the distractions and ads present on video hosting services with the help of a clear, distraction free player.
Firstly, you can easily start with Swarmify, even if you don’t have coding knowledge. You will be able to make use of SmartVideo and manage videos on your site even if you don’t have any programming knowledge. By simply copying the snippet of a video from its current location, you will be able to automatically import it to SmartVideo. Even if you don’t have in-depth knowledge in technical aspects, you can easily manage to optimize video experience on your site using Swarmify.
Ensure better site performance with free CDN services
If you own a website, it is important to make sure that it is loading content to users in quick time. In case of surges in traffic, you can reduce the load to your hosting servers by employing a content delivery network. Hope this article has provided you with some great options of free CDN services. Leave us a comment if you have a query.
