If you already use Cloudflare, why consider another CDN? If your users are outside Mainland China, pages load reliably, and the existing protection meets your needs, there is no reason to rush into a change.

The situation is different when your servers are overseas but most customers are in Mainland China. Access may be acceptable during the day, yet images load slowly in the evening and login requests occasionally time out, with no lasting resolution.

CDN07's DDoS-protected CDN is primarily intended for websites that need to address access from Mainland China, website security, and Chinese-language technical support at the same time.

Our services focus on Hong Kong connectivity optimized for Mainland China, along with configurable edge locations, bandwidth, and security policies. Whether switching makes sense depends on whether these capabilities resolve the specific problems you are experiencing.

Which websites are a better fit for CDN07?

Website type is only a starting point. Two corporate websites may look similar, but one primarily serves customers in Europe while the other relies on search engines in Mainland China to generate inquiries. Their connectivity requirements can be very different.

Overseas-hosted websites serving customers in Mainland China

A common problem for these websites is that the server remains online and monitoring outside Mainland China reports no issue, yet users in Mainland China say the site is unavailable or slow. Adding more server memory may do little to reduce delays caused by cross-border network connectivity.

CDN07's connectivity optimized for access from Mainland China can be an acceleration option for these workloads. However, not every request from the same website follows exactly the same path.

For example, if product images are already cached at an edge node, users do not need to download them from the overseas server on every visit. Login, inventory lookup, and order submission requests, however, usually still need to reach the server that runs the website application—the origin server.

Static asset delivery and dynamic API performance therefore need to be evaluated together. If images become noticeably faster but login remains slow, the remaining bottleneck may be the connection to the origin or application processing. To understand how these two network segments affect performance, see our guide to selecting and troubleshooting a CDN for overseas servers serving users in Mainland China.

Ecommerce, membership, and online service websites

For transaction-driven websites, the purpose of protection is specific: block malicious requests while allowing legitimate customers to continue using the service.

If customers can browse products but cannot sign in, or can submit orders but do not see an updated status after payment, the website is still losing transactions. This is why ecommerce and membership systems require more precise configuration than informational websites.

Product images and public information pages can be cached. Shopping carts, orders, addresses, and account data are user-specific and must not inherit the caching rules used for public pages. Login pages, APIs called by mobile applications, and server-to-server notifications from payment providers should not all be forced through browser-based challenges.

Websites of this type can use CDN07 to coordinate acceleration and protection around specific application flows instead of applying one uniform rule set to the entire domain. The deployment plan should clearly define which paths may be cached, which requests must reach the origin in real time, and which entry points require special handling.

SaaS, API, and real-time interactive websites

Performance problems on SaaS platforms often appear behind the visible page. The interface shell may load while the customer list does not, or the page may be interactive while the Save button continues spinning. Testing only the home page provides little useful information for these applications.

CDN07's DDoS-protected CDN supports WebSocket connections for websites that require persistent bidirectional communication. Features such as live chat and message notifications should also be tested for connection persistence and reconnection over realistic session lengths. Multi-tenant SaaS platforms must pay particular attention to isolation between customer domains, login sessions, and cached content.

For APIs—interfaces through which software systems call one another—returning the correct data successfully matters more than whether a URL opens in a browser. Testing should reproduce the actual client's request method, required headers, and authentication flow. Otherwise, a browser test may pass while the production mobile application is blocked.

What advantages does CDN07 offer compared with Cloudflare?

Both provide website acceleration and security. The practical differences lie in network connectivity, configuration options, and the service included in the plan you purchase.

The key characteristics of CDN07's DDoS-protected CDN are Hong Kong connectivity optimized for access from Mainland China, edge location and bandwidth configurations that can be adjusted to requirements, and Chinese-language technical support. These capabilities are particularly relevant to websites with overseas origins serving customers in Mainland China and no dedicated network operations team.

When most users are in Mainland China, spend the budget on the connectivity they actually need

If most customers are in Mainland China, the most useful CDN data comes from the regions where those customers access the site. Fast results from a test node in the United States do not explain why users on a mobile carrier network cannot load the page during evening peak hours.

CDN07 provides connectivity options designed for access from Mainland China, making it suitable for websites that want to prioritize this market. When selecting a plan, start with the regions where users are concentrated and the origin location, then choose the corresponding edge locations, bandwidth, and origin connectivity. A broad global average latency figure should not be the only basis for the decision.

Cloudflare also offers network services in Mainland China. According to its official China Network overview, the service is available as a separate subscription for Enterprise customers and has specific domain onboarding requirements, including a valid ICP filing or license. If you currently use a standard global network plan, upgrading to China Network and switching to a Hong Kong connectivity solution are two different approaches with different costs and eligibility requirements.

CDN07 is therefore worth comparing for websites that want to retain overseas hosting while prioritizing better access from Mainland China. The degree of improvement depends on user networks, origin location, and the selected configuration; it cannot be inferred from the words “Hong Kong edge location” alone.

For specialized requirements, edge locations and security policies can be planned together

Some websites have modest traffic but face frequent abuse of login and search APIs. Others run at low load most of the time but receive sudden surges of legitimate users during campaigns. These situations require different protection configurations.

CDN07 supports custom configurations based on edge distribution, bandwidth, and security policies. This allows customers to start with the actual problem: which regions are slow, which API is frequently attacked, and how much legitimate bandwidth is required during peak periods. The service can then be configured accordingly.

For example, every request to a search API may trigger a database query. Even when each response is small, high request frequency can still overload the origin. Simply adding bandwidth for image delivery will generally not solve this problem. The relevant factors are request rate, traffic sources, and the application's own query overhead.

Network protection and application processing must work together in this scenario. Our article on coordinating WAF, bot management, and DDoS protection discusses how different request types should be handled. After a website adopts a DDoS-protected CDN, account permissions, API authentication, and database optimization remain the responsibility of the application.

Chinese-language technical support for teams that need to discuss specific issues

A small team without dedicated operations staff usually does not need another guide telling it which switch to enable. What it needs is a communication channel that can investigate an incident in the context of the actual website.

CDN07 provides support from a Chinese-speaking team. A customer can report, for example, “China Mobile users in Guangdong experience login timeouts in the evening, but images load normally,” or “payment notifications occasionally receive a 403 response.” The team can then investigate using timestamps, request records, and origin logs. This information is far more useful than simply saying that the website is slow.

Technical support is part of the purchase decision. Before onboarding, confirm what configuration assistance is included, how to report incidents, and what response commitments apply. Cloudflare's support services also differ by plan and should be compared based on what the current account actually includes.

Protection or performance: where should you spend more?

If you already use Cloudflare, switching should not be framed as moving from no protection to having protection. Cloudflare's DDoS protection documentation states that plans including Free already provide standard DDoS protection without usage-based attack charges, while advanced capabilities and rule permissions vary by plan.

Additional budget should go toward problems the current setup has not solved.

If the origin comes under heavy load during an attack, determine whether requests are passing through the protection layer and which requests still reach the origin. If the main problem is slow access during evening peak hours, greater mitigation capacity cannot replace suitable network connectivity. If legitimate customers are frequently blocked, the security rules and application compatibility need attention.

The Gbps figure shown in a DDoS-protected CDN plan measures traffic rate, while QPS measures requests per second. A protection specification is not bandwidth that legitimate applications can use without restriction, nor does it mean unlimited monthly data transfer.

A monthly cost comparison should therefore include at least the number of domains, legitimate traffic or bandwidth, scope of protection, and required features. You should also account for any separate charges for edge locations, logging, and custom services. Websites with existing invoices can use the method for calculating monthly DDoS-protected CDN costs and additional charges to compare both options using the same workload data.

For a small website with a limited budget and no current access problems, continuing to use Cloudflare may be more economical. If access failures are already affecting inquiries, orders, or customer renewals, the time spent troubleshooting and the resulting business impact should be included in the decision.

If you already use Cloudflare, how can you decide whether switching is worthwhile?

Start by identifying the single problem that affects users most. For example, if “China Telecom users in Jiangsu experience slow login during evening peak hours,” compare solutions using that user group, time period, and application flow. Do not rely on a random speed-test site's home-page score.

Use the same origin and content wherever possible, and record cache status during the comparison. If one option returns a cached page while the other fetches it from the origin on every request, the performance difference may not come from network connectivity.

If you are comfortable with the command line, the following command records the response for a page or read-only API endpoint. It works on Linux, macOS, and WSL. Replace the URL with your website's final HTTPS address.

curl --silent --show-error --output /dev/null \
  --connect-timeout 10 --max-time 30 \
  --write-out 'status=%{http_code} ttfb=%{time_starttransfer}s total=%{time_total}s\n' \
  'https://example.com/'

status is the HTTP status code, ttfb is the time from the start of the request until the first byte is received, and total is the total time for this resource request. The official curl manual defines these timing fields in detail. TTFB includes earlier stages such as establishing the connection and should not be treated as the execution time of the origin application alone.

The command sends only one standard GET request and does not test the complete web page. If the response is a 301 or 302 redirect, test the final URL instead. Preserve failed results when a timeout occurs. Even if the response is 200, verify separately that the response content is correct. Use a browser to evaluate the full page, and complete actual login, checkout, and other critical flows.

Interpret the results as follows:

• Static assets become faster but real-time APIs remain slow: continue investigating origin connectivity and application processing.
• Performance improves only for one region or carrier: determine whether it covers the users most affected by the current problem.
• Pages become faster, but login fails or persistent connections drop frequently: resolve the functional issues before switching.
• Key regions, evening peak periods, and critical user actions all show sustained improvement: then evaluate the deployment scope together with the cost.

A single low-latency result does not represent long-term performance. Multiple measurements during normal periods and evening peaks are usually more persuasive than two speed-test screenshots. Ordinary access testing also does not prove DDoS protection capability. Any security testing should be conducted only after the authorization scope and test plan have been agreed in advance.

What should you address before switching?

Changing CDNs does not necessarily require moving the server. The origin can remain in place; the main changes involve DNS records, CDN configuration, and the requests allowed to reach the origin.

The following situations, however, require advance preparation.

Origin certificate. If the origin uses a Cloudflare Origin CA certificate, the new CDN may not trust it by default. Cloudflare's Origin CA documentation explains that browsers may report an untrusted certificate when the proxy is paused or proxying is disabled for the relevant subdomain and the browser connects directly to such an origin. Validate the certificate with the new configuration before switching and replace it if necessary.

Existing platform features. If the application uses Cloudflare Workers for authentication or request rewriting, that logic will not migrate with the DNS change. Identify which functions will remain and which must be rebuilt before the transition, so the new edge can reach the origin without removing a critical processing step.

Direct origin access. If an attacker can connect directly to an exposed server IP address, routing the domain through a CDN does not automatically block that path. Origin access controls and any necessary server-side protection must be implemented at the same time.

Game protocols. A game's official website, account pages, and HTTP APIs can use a website CDN. TCP or UDP game connections used by the client require a different product. CDN07's game SDK protection provides another deployment option. Purchasing a DDoS-protected website CDN does not automatically include SDK integration or protection for game protocols.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, CDN07 or Cloudflare?

Websites whose users are primarily in Mainland China and that need targeted network configuration and Chinese-language support should consider CDN07. Websites whose performance, protection, and functionality requirements are already met by Cloudflare can continue using it. The decision should be based on how your website performs, not simply on the size of the brand.

If Cloudflare is slow in Mainland China, will switching to CDN07 fix it?

Problems caused by network connectivity may improve, while slow application or database processing requires separate work. First determine whether the delay affects page assets, connection establishment, or a specific API. Then compare results for the relevant requests to understand what the switch actually resolves.

Can CDN07 protect ecommerce login and payment APIs?

These HTTP or HTTPS endpoints can be included in the website deployment, but normal authentication, payment notifications, and status updates must continue to work. Configuration should distinguish browser traffic from server-to-server calls. Payment provider notifications must not be forced through a verification flow intended for browsers.

Does the origin still need protection after deploying a DDoS-protected CDN?

Yes. The CDN primarily handles traffic that passes through its entry point. Direct origin access, administrative ports, and other public services require separate controls. This is especially important when the origin IP address has already been exposed; changing DNS alone does not complete the protection setup.

Is CDN07 suitable for small websites?

Website size is not the only consideration. A low-traffic commercial website may still benefit if it is frequently attacked or important customers consistently have trouble accessing it. A personal portfolio site whose current setup works reliably can keep the existing service and increase its budget only when a specific need emerges.

To decide whether your website needs CDN07, answer these questions

• Are most of your users in Mainland China, and does the current network path prevent them from using the website reliably?
• Is the main problem slow connectivity, malicious requests, or insufficient capacity during legitimate traffic peaks?
• Do you need Chinese-language technical communication and the ability to adjust edge locations and security policies around your website's actual requirements?
• After switching, can customers browse, sign in, search, or complete transactions more reliably?

If these are the problems you need to solve, contact CDN07 for technical and onboarding assistance with the origin region, primary user distribution, and the most visible access problem. Starting with the affected page or API makes the results easier to evaluate than switching the entire website immediately, while preserving a clearer rollback path.