CDN comparisons: How to get better performance from your website
Performing a CDN (content delivery network) comparison can be tough. Today’s CDNs appear to be largely focused on building features and enhancements. Though unfortunate, it’s common for vendors to get caught up in this rather than focusing on a CDN’s true purpose, which is to accelerate your website’s performance by reducing latency while improving page load speeds and rendering times. Although many enterprises assume they have this “performance” box checked, that’s just not the case. The internet is in constant flux, and what worked years ago just won’t cut it today.
Here’s where CDN service comparisons can show you if your current provider has your website performing at its best. When unbiased, third-party CDN speed comparisons measure our CDN against leading legacy CDNs, the performance data proves, test after test, that ours outperforms the competition in key markets in the U.S. and around the world.
It’s simple. Our CDN has better performance, where it matters, when it matters.
The Alexa 500 site (Figure 1), a long-time customer of a leading legacy CDN, is a good example of the importance of performing a CDN speed comparison. As demonstrated by Catchpoint’s independent performance testing tool, you can see that our overall performance in total page load times is faster by 30 percent in North America.
VDMS (in red) outperforms a leading legacy CDN (in grey) by reducing the average latency for page load from 703 ms to 493 ms. More importantly, you can see the test results also show that we load the index file 50 percent faster and improve time to render by 33 percent (Figure 2).
Having unbiased CDN comparison results is significant to improve the experience you are trying to deliver. A CDN reduces the amount of time your users are left waiting for content to load, which improves engagement. Studies have highlighted the importance of rendering your critical content faster for improved digital engagement. Wouldn’t you like to reduce the time your users stare a blank screen waiting for something to happen — and reduce user bounce rate — by 33 percent?
And what about your users outside the U.S.? Performing an expanded CDN network comparison can help determine which CDN can consistently provide you with the best website acceleration around the world. Scalability and consistency are key.
The CDN performance comparison results in major cities in Europe (Figure 3) shows you that our CDN continues to outpace the competition — in Europe, in the U.S. and around the world.
The stakeholders from this Alexa 500 site were surprised to learn how much faster their content could perform. Like many long-time customers of a legacy CDN, they thought they had performance covered, so they never reevaluated their CDN strategy.
When they came to us, they were looking for a more agile way of managing their caching behavior through our web-based portal and APIs. At best, they thought our performance was simply at par. With their legacy CDN, they bought into the idea that they were paying a premium for the best possible performance. They were shocked to discover that third-party data told a very different story.
What story would a performance analysis tell you about your website’s performance?
Many organizations that fear change and favor the status quo are seeing a growing gap in user expectations when it comes to digital performance; this does not surprise us. Time and again, when independent CDN comparison tests measure us against legacy CDNs, we outperform them by 30 percent or more. That’s why we can assure you that we’ve engineered a CDN built on a better network with better architecture and better technology.
In our upcoming blogs, we’ll dive deeper and discuss in detail what makes our CDN better. Our network, architecture and technology all play a big role, and we’re going to break each down to show you how our CDN stands out among the competition. Check back soon to learn more about our network.
Curious to see how fast your website loads? Find out and take a free performance analysis test, provided by trusted, independent test provider Catchpoint.
