Content Delivery Networks for WordPress
I am initiating a discussion on CDNs for WordPress.
Main types I have tried/ used so far include:
- Scripts (js and css)
- Images
- Videos
- Audio
What are the typical CDNs you use/ have used? Please classify under Free/ Freemium/ Freemium, also the primaty use case. Would be great to create a list as a resource to the community. The info can be in the following format:
Name of CDN --> Type (Free/Freemium...) ---> Primary use case ---> Your experience /short review.
For example, I use Shortpixel for image compression. optimization and Shortpixel Adaptive Image for image delivery. Both offer a freemium model.
Shortpixel --> Freemium --> Image compression or optimization --> My review: This wordpress plugin is my facvourite for reducing size of images. If you look around for a deal, you may get upto 25,000 credits for around 10 or 12 US dollars, enough for most sites. Do you need this at all? For image compression - not really, There are Cli tools available for Mac and Windows (jpegoptim, optipng...) that to the job. But for the beginner/ eeryday used, much recommended. Linky link: https://wordpress.org/plugins/shortpixel-image-optimiser/)
p.s: using the wrong settings for CDN OR tinkering around too much with the settings can result in a broken site. My blog is a classic example of it!
Comments
Short Pixel does a great job and it is my go-to solution for image compression.
As for CDN: Due to GDPR and the end of US Privacy shield and lots of uncertainty regarding this topic (e.g. Cloudflare saying they are GDPR compliant, local lawyers saying not to use CDN), I don't use any CDN these days. Maybe in the future, I will again. I definitely remember the days, when being a web designer was about trying new fun stuff, not becoming a lawyer yourself lol.
Ympker's VPN LTD Comparison, Uptime.is, Ympker's GitHub.
You can always use a subdomain hosted on a shared hosting located in Eu as a 'faux cdn' for low traffic site. I use a web folder on a couple of shared hosting sites just for this purpose. For production sites of course, there's a list (Gumlet, Backblaze, Shortpixel,,,)
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Keeping it simple for now and sticking with Cloudflare free tier.
I've tested a plugin that enables real CDN function for free:
WP Cloudflare Super Page Cache
Detailed info about providers whose services I've used:
BikeGremlin web-hosting reviews
I don't believe this plugin will remain free for long.
It's all configured to take money - like everything else.
Right from the start.
Everything is free... until you need a WooCommerce webshop or a multilingual website - then 99% of the plugins and themes require you to pay, or code it all yourself.
Detailed info about providers whose services I've used:
BikeGremlin web-hosting reviews
I used shortpixel, fine of very small projects.
then I started using tinypng online version it can compress up to 80% on png, and jpeg, etc. and its free.
For busy blog of my client which uploads 10-15 new posts and around 20 images daily tinypng works like charm.
Regarding CDN, i've used Bunny and Cloudflare.
But no plugins. Plugins add overhead to WP. And they tend to load for each new page generated. Ofcourse there are plugins that can shut-down certain plugin on specific page-load. But i like to keep it minimum wherever possible, like using CDN dashboard directly by going to their site instead of loading their plugin.
One plugin i installed, can't remember its name, but it just installed "cache purge" button of cloudflare giving the API credentials, and it was very light-weight... may be few KBs.
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We use StackPath: stackpath.com
It works, and it works well, so that's all I can really ask. Frankly, there's not a while lot of CDNs that tick all the boxes. Fastly still charged $5/domain for SSL.
I've tried shortpixel for a while but I've quite easily "maxed out" their free tier during the evaluation
Not the same for CF's free tiers: considering the different usage cases, I find that the plugin originally wrote by Fresta (now sold to Optimole) does an excellent job
Tried Cloudflare workers too but with mixed results honestly
BunnyCDN works very nice if you're willing to spend at least 1 buck a month
For content optimization, since we're talking about Wordpress, autoptimize does a nice job on CSS/html and has enough knobs to unbreak stuff in corner cases
For images I've either been using nginx w/ pagespeed (something like Centmin, except it's not on CentOS); if pagespeed cannot be considered, a cron job is triggered upon uploading new images and in the background it (slowly) crafts guetzli versions for every jpeg uploaded (and for every served size, as usually automatically crafted by the CMS and/or theme); nginx then performs an inexpensive
try_filesand serve the "most optimized" image(s)A "guetzli jpeg" seemingly outperforms cwebp for similar final sizes when comparing with butteraugli; in that case, a webp is not served at all
For png, optimizegraphics is fine too when lossy is not an option
What are some sources (in German too) about your local lawyers' views on this?
We have pulled out of the UK as well despite the adequacy decision for some sensitive stuff requiring login and user input; the whole infra is that case is completely duplicated for non-EU accesses (databases are kept separated)
For static stuff to be delivered in a non-interactive way CDNs are used without hesitation; the future for serverless deployment should keep in mind different regional regulations anyway
Cloudflare is probably compliant but probably... not per default. This stuff alone would probably seppuku our DPO if we were talking about using this in production w/ sensitive data
Mostly stuff like this, for example: https://dr-dsgvo.de/cloudflare-datentransfers-und-die-dsgvo/
Thing is: As a Web Designer GDPR can be frustrating. Not being able to leverage all possibilities and trying to stay compliant when 1) the competition outside EU can use CDN and other tools without these problems 2) the competition in Germany/EU also doesn't always care 3) the visitor likely doesn't care either aside from performance 4) the avg visitor doesn't even read the privacy policy nor the cookie notice and is actually annoyed by cookie compliance tools.
Ympker's VPN LTD Comparison, Uptime.is, Ympker's GitHub.
Thanks. Uninstalled WP Super Cache and installed this one.
For caching, I prefer LiteSpeed.
This is my article on WordPress caching options.
In other words: CDN sort of comes "on top," or "alongside" caching, but it doesn't replace it.
Even with Cloudflare set up like that, I think it's a good idea to have a nicely configured website caching (and serve cached version to Cloudflare when it does any double-checking).
A good thing with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is that it plays rather nicely with Cloudflare, so when LiteSpeed invalidates a page, Cloudflare respects that and pulls a fresh copy (new user comment, new post in the "Latest posts" list etc.).
I haven't given it a thorough test, but I let the Cloudflare Cache plugin run alongside the properly configured LiteSpeed Cache plugin.
Detailed info about providers whose services I've used:
BikeGremlin web-hosting reviews
From what I'm reading, it sounds like he considers Cloudflare in its capacity of acting as a reverse proxy and essentially in its role of MITM; he then laments the absence of a DPA
Cloudflare mentions DPA but they mean "Data Processing Addendum" rather than "Data Processing Agreement", and it's an addendum intended to include a pejorative clause on data export to all countries without an adequacy decision; it essentially excludes liability for Cloudflare. At the same time there's no mention of a responsible CF DPO within the EU, it seems to me.
However, there are CDNs with headquarters in the EU like bunnyCDN; delivering static resources to users shouldn't be a legal issue. If I open faz.net I can see that static elements are delivered through akamai whilst the main site has been offered from a Microsoft range in NL for at least three years y no love for IPv6; of course it's probably necessary to differentiate the "subdomain" that is fed to the CDN from the rest of the site, at least if there is an interaction.
Different CDN but the some goes for Der Spiegel
From the article you propose, the author seems to complain about the fact that Cloudflare tends to "hide" the data of the "real server", exonerating (in theory) a "German webmaster in disguise" from his German responsibilities (Imprint, unlawful content, etc) ; at the same time Cloudflare won't seemingly take any responsibility for the traffic eventually entirely carried on from their servers. This arguably could be improved
Anyway, consider this: the official site of the Italian Presidency is literally a CNAME for Cloudflare (the non-www site isn't proxied and "exposes" the real IPv4)
If a user has to interact with the site, he's directed to a different subdomain and any user-provided data doesn't take the "Cloudflare route"
Sure, setting up a different subdomain for images and static sources isn't something that works straight off the bat like turning on the "Orange cloud" on the whole domain like Cloudflare would suggest you as soon as you put some domains on their dashboard
I see anyway many major yet local EU sites that won't care at all if e.g. logins, credentials, user-provided data go through Cloudflare in their entirety, so....
Oh, I am sure many EU businesses (also big ones) are using CDNs/CF and/or otherwhise do not fully comply with GDPR. Thing is, as a small business, I don't want to take my chances with all the Abmahnlawyers and chance of being sued.. I don't blame anyone that trys their luck, though. Believe me, I would very much love to be "free" again.
Ympker's VPN LTD Comparison, Uptime.is, Ympker's GitHub.
My shared hosting is apache server. Do you recommend use any cache plugin beside the Cloudflare Cache plugin?
We did a benchmark of all the popular free caching plugins: https://blog.cynderhost.com/we-tested-9-wordpress-caching-plugins-heres-what-we-found/ - tl:dr; Any plugin using .htaccess to serve cached files will come out very close.
So, Swift/WP Super/Total/W3 Total, and presumably WP Rocket, because that's .htaccess based too. '
I'd go that route if you don't use Litespeed, plus CF Super Page Cache
Thanks! Does Wp Super Cahe working fine together CF Super Page Cache (default congifuration)
Frankly, never done any in-depth testing there. IIRC, CF SPC has a server-cache function, so actually, I'd just use that.
For caching - LiteSpeed is where it's at.
The way things are now - if the hosting server isn't LiteSpeed, I'd seriously consider switching providers (it's not be all end all, but it is very, very good - as long as the provider doesn't mess something else up).
WP Rocket is paid, but it's the only one that comes close.
LiteSpeed also optimized the database, and has a very good image compression ability. So it (potentially) replaces a few other plugins.
Detailed info about providers whose services I've used:
BikeGremlin web-hosting reviews
Any good, not expensive shared hosting provider in mind?
I'm with GestionDBI currently, no Litespeed but overall is fine.
As far as caching goes, .htaccess vs Litespeed is usually ms's, so nothing that actually makes a difference for most sites.
Concurrency is another story, but you aren't going to put a site getting 3000 rps on a $5 shared hosting plan
Well, for me, HostMantis reseller is still "the best" - i.e. what I'm using in spite of all the price/resource fluctuation
)
(my HostMantis experience, documented
Of all the providers I've been with (and even more I've had the experience with while salvaging people's problematic websites), they've been the least bad, and still seem to offer the best bang for the buck (though I'm yet to thoroughly test their latest reseller hosting resource policy).
If you want something "less fluctuating"
- I'd say Veerotech. Expensive, but good. They seem to know what they're doing - they even have their own datacenter, so someone from your provider can physically enter the server room to sort out any potential problems (problems and malfunctions always happen, with every provider, no matter what anyone says - "rock-solid," "most reliable" etc...).
I use only reseller hosting - because it allows me to put every website (even staging) on a separate cPanel account, which prevents one problematic/infected site from crashing all the others. Just a few weeks ago I had one development/test site go 100% on the CPU. If it had been on a shared hosting account (not on a separate cPanel/DirectAdmin) account, all my "main" websites would have been down.
Detailed info about providers whose services I've used:
BikeGremlin web-hosting reviews
Shock Hosting is looking good - not ready to move over ther completely, but in my tests so far (SG) quite robust. HM is still good, yes, in spite of their pricing shenanigans.
Then there's Myw.pt. Stable as it gets.
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I agree with the others that Hostmantis is probably the best performing shared hosting/reseller hosting I have used so far. The fluctuating pricing policy and new reseller plan are quite the change to old clients, but I ticketed them to move my reseller entry to shared entry (as I only use 1 cPanel on my reseller these days; rest is at @MikePT MyW) and that will end up giving me the same cpu/ram/io limits like reseller entry, with 25GB NVMe instead of 50 (which is totall fine) and pricing being almost halved
Ympker's VPN LTD Comparison, Uptime.is, Ympker's GitHub.
Back to the topic:
What about hosting provider- provided CDN (that's a tongue twister)?
20i and their resellers offer it.
https://www.20i.com/cdn
I believe they use BunnyCDN.
@sonic Not knowing your location Pref the DA base plan is good provide the specs meet what you are looking for.
https://www.hostmantis.com/shared-hosting.php
@Ympker
My current reseller entry is paid off till Jun 2022. Was thinking of not renewing - but the reseller entry makes for a compelling proposition (particularly for DA) Did they apply the new pricing right away in your case (ir old pricing/plan got cancelled) ?
Otherwise, the single domain CPanel Shock Hosting plan (I think with their offer it comes to about 30 US Dollars/ year) is rather compelling.
Dipstick- Pricing Comparison
Shockhosting Shared CPanel
HMantis CPanel
Hmantis DA
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Shockhosting Shared CPanel
HMantis CPanel
Hmantis DA
I was told that the first invoice would be generated the day after the the day up to whicu I had already paid for. In my case some time in April 2022. I opted to stay with cPanel, although DA is much cheaper.
Ympker's VPN LTD Comparison, Uptime.is, Ympker's GitHub.
Cloudflare $5 a month solution for WordPress is an option I was considering once…
At similar price point, now they have…
Cloudflare Images
($5/month for upto 100,000 images stored, $1/month for 100,000 images served)
https://developers.cloudflare.com/images/faq
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Can we use this as a drop in replacement for Google Photos by any means?
Interesting …
So let me understand: if all images are at maximum size (10MB)… then one can get 1 TB “hot storage” plus approx 1 TB bandwidth at USD 7/month?
How does this compare to backblaze etc? Or is that a different thought?
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What if we optimize images, as Google does ... I am not sure if there are any algorithms / scripts out there the final images can be much lower I size...
Just got a thought what if we can use it, I am not that technical though as to what challenges it might bring along with it...
Different use cases primarily, with some overlap. CF is images only for now, B2 is object storage, and honestly, primarily archival storage, as bandwidth is typically lackluster.
I mean, you can if you want, though I'm not sure why you'd want to do that. If you want to archive your images, put then on Backblaze - much cheaper. If you need delivery, there are probably better options, ie, B2 + CF, and if it's for personal use, something like GDrive/OneDrive/Dropbox