What Is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Do You Need One?

A content delivery network stores copies of your website's files across multiple servers in different geographic locations, so a visitor's request gets served from the server closest to them rather than always traveling to a single, distant origin server.

This reduces load time, particularly for visitors located far from wherever your site's main hosting is physically located.

A business primarily serving one local metro area sees a smaller benefit from a CDN, since most visitors are already geographically close to typical hosting locations.

Businesses with a broader regional, national, or online customer base see a more meaningful speed improvement, since visitors are more likely to be located far from a single hosting location.

Many modern hosting providers include basic CDN functionality as part of a standard plan, meaning you may already have some benefit without a separate purchase or setup.

A CDN also often provides some baseline protection against traffic spikes and certain types of attacks as a secondary benefit.

Appcly can assess whether your specific audience and traffic pattern would benefit from CDN implementation.

Book a free consultation to find out.