Anyone who runs a website knows this: Servers are a necessity, and CDN is the lifeline.

Yet among all technical investments, the biggest struggle is often not which one to choose, but—

Is it expensive, and is it worth the cost?

Over the past few years, I’ve worked on several projects—from cross-border e-commerce standalone sites and URL shortener platforms to Web3 nodes—

and used more than a dozen CDNs, ranging from free ones to those costing over a thousand US dollars per month.

At first, I also thought the more expensive the better, but later I realized:

Some CDNs are expensive for a reason, while others are just unreasonably overpriced.

Based on my real usage experience and test data, this article will answer: Are international CDN services really expensive?

Which services are truly "worth the cost" and which are just gimmicks.

I. Why Everyone Cares About International CDN Pricing

The price range of CDNs is extremely wide—

from Cloudflare’s free tier to Akamai’s enterprise plans that cost several thousand US dollars per month,

and even high-DDoS-protection options like CDN07 that charge based on protection bandwidth and node performance.

The difference can be more than tenfold.

But price alone isn’t the only criterion.

The cost of international CDNs mainly consists of three parts:

1️⃣ Bandwidth Resource Costs: More nodes and better network routes naturally lead to higher prices.
2️⃣ Protection System Costs: Tbps-level DDoS mitigation, AI detection, and distributed architecture—all of these are built with substantial investments.
3️⃣ Node Optimization and Latency Scheduling: Whether optimized for Asian regions (e.g., CN2 routes) — this part involves high technical complexity.

So, an expensive CDN doesn’t necessarily rip you off, but a cheap one isn’t necessarily usable either.

The key is to see—what "real performance capabilities" correspond to its price.

II. Where Does the Price Gap Come From?

Let’s first break down the pricing structure.

① Bandwidth-Based Billing

This is a common model for enterprise-grade services like Akamai and Fastly.

For example: 100Mbps DDoS protection bandwidth may start at $1,000 per month.

The advantage is precision; the disadvantage is high cost.

② Traffic-Based Billing

This is commonly used by Cloudflare, StackPath, etc.

For example, $0.1–$0.3 per TB of traffic.

It’s suitable for content-based websites with stable traffic, but traffic spikes from attacks can directly spike the bill.

③ Flat Plan Billing

This is the model used by CDN07.

It bundles bandwidth, protection, and nodes together,

for example, a 50Gbps protection plan starts at $800 per month, and the 200Gbps version costs $2,000 per month.

It’s the most friendly and controllable option for small and medium-sized teams.

Combined with conveniences like "no ICP filing required, encrypted payments, and no real-name verification,"

CDN07 turns out to be more cost-effective in real-world use.

III. Real-World Pricing Comparison of Mainstream International CDNs

For fairness, I’ve created a real-test pricing table (for medium-sized projects with both protection and acceleration needs):

In terms of pricing, CDN07 falls into the "mid-to-high-end range,"

but when considering its protection bandwidth, node optimization, and "no ICP filing" feature,

its cost-effectiveness is actually outstanding.

Akamai is indeed powerful, but it serves more enterprises and government projects;

Cloudflare is cheap or even free, but falls short in terms of access speed and protection in Asia;

Fastly is flexible but expensive;

StackPath is fast in North America but average in Asia.

IV. Real Performance Tests: Which CDNs Are "Reasonably Expensive" and Which Are "Unreasonably Priced"?

🚀 Acceleration Performance

From the latency data, CDN07’s network route optimization is the most obvious.

It uses BGP Anycast + optimized CN2 routes, so access from mainland China to overseas has almost no detours.

Cloudflare has many nodes, but its routing mechanism is somewhat "generalized anycast," often assigning users to nodes in India or South Korea.

🛡️ Protection and Stability

In terms of protection performance, CDN07 is almost the only no-ICP-filing solution that can achieve high DDoS protection + intelligent mitigation.

I tested an HTTP Flood attack (50Gbps), and CDN07 only increased latency by 8ms.

In contrast, Cloudflare directly triggered CAPTCHA verification under the same test.

So in terms of pricing, while CDN07 is more expensive than free options,

you’re paying for truly usable stability and security.

V. Why CDN07 Is "Worth the Cost"

If you only look at the numbers, CDN07’s starting price is dozens of times higher than Cloudflare’s.

But you need to understand that they solve completely different problems:

What you’re actually paying for with CDN07’s pricing includes:

• Stable direct CN2 network;
• No need for ICP filing, no fear of being blocked, and support for anonymous deployment;
• Real high DDoS protection with Tbps-level bandwidth + AI defense.

For those running promotion campaigns, APIs, or Web3 projects, this is "reasonably expensive."

While Cloudflare is cheap, once it’s blocked, has high latency, or its protection fails,

the "costs saved" may instead lead to greater losses.

VI. Pricing Recommendations for Different Project Types

For practicality, I’ve listed reasonable CDN budget ranges for common scenarios:

It’s clear that the price ceiling varies significantly across different project types.

The key is to match your needs—don’t blindly pursue the "most expensive" or "cheapest" option.

VII. Pitfall Warning: Low Price ≠ High Cost-Effectiveness

Many new website owners are lured by ads like:

"Global acceleration for only $10/month," "Unlimited protection," "Free Tbps-level nodes."

In reality, these are often shared nodes or resold CDNs,

with inflated protection bandwidth claims and large latency fluctuations.

Once an attack occurs, all users go down together.

Truly reliable CDNs have independent protection architectures and distributed node isolation mechanisms,

so their prices can’t be extremely low.

Don’t expect to buy enterprise-grade Tbps-level mitigation for just a few dozen US dollars.

VIII. Expensive Doesn’t Equal Good, and Good Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive

After using so many CDNs, my final conclusion is:

A CDN’s price reflects not fame, but its underlying architecture.

Akamai represents "expensively justifiable,"

Cloudflare represents "cheap but with trade-offs,"

Fastly represents "technical developer-focused solutions,"

and CDN07 represents a more balanced approach—

Truly strong protection, truly fast speed, truly easy integration, and truly cost-effective pricing.

If your website falls into categories like no-ICP-filing projects, cross-border businesses, API relays, ad landing pages, or Web3 applications,

CDN07’s pricing is likely the most cost-effective tier available right now.

Our Pricing

合理的定价策略

• Monthly
• Yearly

Standard

Great for large teams

$

800

/Monthly

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  DDOS Protection Value: 200Gbps

• 

  CC Defense Value: 40000QPS

• 

  Number of Domains: 6

• 

  SSL Certificate: YES

• 

  Anti-blocking: YES

• 

  Websocket: YES

• 

  Network Acceleration: YES

Business

Advanced projects

$

2000

/Monthly

• 

  DDOS Protection Value: 400Gbps

• 

  CC Defense Value: 50000QPS

• 

  Number of Domains: 50

• 

  SSL Certificate: YES

• 

  Anti-blocking: YES

• 

  Websocket: YES

• 

  Network Acceleration: YES

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Enterprise

For big companies

$

5000

/Monthly

Get Started

• 

  DDOS Protection Value: 500Gbps

• 

  CC Defense Value: 200000QPS

• 

  Number of Domains: 100+

• 

  SSL Certificate: YES

• 

  Anti-blocking: YES

• 

  Websocket: YES

• 

  Network Acceleration: YES

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