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Switching CDNs Without a Mainland China ICP Filing? Six Providers to Compare

Considering a new CDN because renewal costs have risen, access is unreliable, or support is slow? Compare six providers by pricing, workload fit, and service limits, using your bills, incident records, and exit terms to guide the decision.

Tatyana Hammes
Tatyana Hammes

Oct 15, 2026

15 mins to read
Switching CDNs Without a Mainland China ICP Filing? Six Providers to Compare

When you first buy a CDN, price and setup time often lead the decision. The second time, the questions are more specific: renewal costs exceeded expectations, customers report slow access in the evening, legitimate API requests are blocked, support is limited to a ticket queue, or growth has exposed restrictions in the original plan.

For sites without a Mainland China ICP filing, KeyCDN, CDN07, CDNsun, CDN77, 5centsCDN, and Leaseweb offer different options worth considering. The best replacement depends on why you are leaving your current provider. A change of vendor alone may carry over the same configuration problems, origin bottlenecks, and billing misunderstandings.

Start with your current bills and incident records, then decide which providers belong on your shortlist.

Turn past problems into requirements for the next provider

“We need a more reliable CDN” is a common request, but it is not specific enough to guide a purchase.

If image delivery costs are the issue, compare traffic rates by region and cache performance. If the site faces repeated attacks, examine the scope of protection and what happens when limits are exceeded. If incidents go unresolved, make support coverage part of the buying criteria.

What is not working todayWhat the next provider needs to deliverEvidence to use in the comparison
Renewal costs keep risingClear usage charges, add-on fees, and renewal termsRecent bills and traffic distribution
Recurring access problems in certain regionsA demonstrable improvement on the affected networksIncident times, locations, carriers, and request logs
Legitimate users are blockedAdjustable rules and troubleshooting supportBlocked requests, related logs, and affected user actions
The site goes down during attacksDefined protection scope and handling of traffic beyond plan limitsAttack records, origin status, and current protection settings
File or API restrictions cause problemsCapabilities that match the workloadFile sizes, upload methods, API behavior, and connection needs
Support tickets stallClear support scope and escalation pathsThe incident timeline and the help your team needed

You do not need an elaborate dossier. The exact time of one incident, a specific endpoint, and the networks affected often tell a provider more than dozens of speed test screenshots.

The options here concern delivery through edge locations outside Mainland China. When requesting a quote, disclose that the domain lacks an ICP filing, where the origin is hosted, and what the site does. Ask the provider to confirm the onboarding requirements for the specific product. Do not assume every location and product it offers is available without an ICP filing.

What should you compare across these six providers?

1. KeyCDN: Calculate the cost of usage-based billing

If you regularly leave part of a prepaid traffic allowance unused but still pay the same amount each month, KeyCDN is a useful point of comparison for usage-based pricing.

Its official pricing page lists rates by region and traffic tier. It also distinguishes between a minimum monthly spend and a minimum top-up: the page lists $4 per month and $49 per top-up, respectively. KeyCDN These figures affect different things: the first sets a floor on monthly spending; the second determines how much you must put into the account up front.

That distinction matters for smaller sites with variable traffic. Usage-based billing does not necessarily eliminate minimum spending, and it does not mean you can withdraw unused credit each month.

KeyCDN also lists separate charges for certain add-ons, including log forwarding, image processing, and Push storage. Match each feature you use today against the new offer instead of comparing only the price per GB.

It is most useful to evaluate KeyCDN with your actual usage data. If your main concern is availability during sustained attacks, assess its relevant protection capabilities and response limits separately.

2. CDN07: Address attacks and unreliable access together

Some sites switch CDNs because performance and availability remain a problem, not because of the traffic rate. Their origins are outside Mainland China, access for users there is inconsistent, requests time out under attack, and stricter security rules disrupt legitimate logins.

In this case, compare network paths, origin connectivity, and protection as part of the same proposal.

CDN07’s DDoS-protected CDN service offers Hong Kong network routes intended for access from Mainland China, DDoS and HTTP flood protection, configuration of edge distribution, bandwidth, and security policies, and Chinese-language technical support. cdn07.com For teams that regularly investigate endpoint-specific failures and access issues, configuration help and troubleshooting can matter more than a longer feature list.

Consider a membership site with public pages, a login API, and individual account pages. Public assets can be cached, private content must not be shared through the cache, and login requests need protection from abusive traffic. Test whether a replacement can handle each part appropriately rather than measuring only the home page.

Our DDoS-protected CDN option for sites without an ICP filing can be evaluated against those concrete needs. When you get in touch, share the problems that have been hardest to solve: which region is slow, which endpoint is blocked, what happened during an attack, and what your current provider has tried.

If your current service otherwise meets your needs and only image delivery costs a little more than expected, a higher tier of DDoS protection may not justify the extra spend. Pay for protection where your workload needs it.

3. CDNsun: Consider a plan with no monthly minimum when usage fluctuates

Seasonal campaign sites, content sites with uneven traffic, and teams managing many small projects often care most about what they pay during quiet periods.

CDNsun’s pricing page lists its Business plan as usage-based with no monthly minimum, while its Custom plan has different spending terms. CDN pricing The “no monthly minimum” claim therefore applies to a specific plan; it does not mean every product and add-on has no fixed charges.

Compare this model with your current monthly plan. Would you pay less in quiet months? How would costs change during peak season? Do the allowed domain count and add-on services meet your needs?

Check how long account credit remains valid, along with top-up and refund terms. For projects used intermittently, those conditions may affect total cost more than the traffic rate.

If several sites will share one account, review how they will be managed. Confirm whether different clients or workloads need separate usage reports, permissions, and invoices before migrating.

4. CDN77: Revisit the delivery plan as traffic grows

Once a site grows, a small starter plan may no longer fit. Repeatedly buying traffic add-ons, raising limits manually, and worrying about overage fees each month all create operational work.

CDN77’s service and pricing information covers content delivery, video delivery, storage, security, and technical support. Teams with well-defined usage can use it as a starting point for a tailored quote. CDN77.com Video platforms, download services, and large content sites should bring real traffic data to the conversation, not just ask for the lowest starting price.

Monthly traffic is only one input. Peak hours, popular file sizes, update frequency, and user locations also determine whether a plan fits.

If a service is quiet most of the time but surges on launch day, specify how long the peak lasts. Two projects with the same annual traffic may need different capacity arrangements and commercial terms.

The question is whether delivery and costs will remain predictable as you grow. A plan full of resources you rarely use may still cost more than your current one.

5. 5centsCDN: Compare delivery and media processing for live and on-demand video

For media workloads, switching CDNs often involves more than changing the delivery endpoint.

How a live source is ingested, and whether you need transcoding, recording, replay, or distribution to multiple platforms, can all affect the choice. If these tasks currently sit with different vendors, evaluate them together while pricing each component separately.

5centsCDN offers live streaming, transcoding, and distribution to multiple platforms. Its network overview distinguishes between network options, and some entry-level options on its pricing page specify limited service regions. 5centscdn.net If most viewers are in Asia, choose the appropriate network before comparing prices. Do not treat an entry-level price for Europe or North America as a global rate.

Test the entire playback workflow: whether ingest works, viewers can start playback, quality switching is smooth, streams recover after an interruption, and recordings and replays meet your needs.

Also distinguish between a feature being available and its usage being included. Transcoding, storage, and delivery are separate services; a low traffic rate does not necessarily mean a low total cost for media delivery.

6. Leaseweb Multi-CDN: Avoid relying on a single delivery network

If you have changed providers several times but still see good results in some regions and poor results in others, consider a service that combines multiple delivery networks.

Leaseweb’s Multi-CDN offering combines several CDN networks and distinguishes between tiers such as Volume and Premium. Its published pricing also includes a minimum monthly commitment and annual contract terms. Leaseweb It suits teams prepared to evaluate a longer-term delivery arrangement, not those looking for a simple top-up service they can stop at any time.

Multi-CDN increases the available delivery options, but adding networks does not guarantee faster access everywhere. Ask how traffic is routed, what triggers a failover, and which settings you can control.

Feature compatibility matters too. Leaseweb’s distribution documentation explains that Multi-CDN capabilities are limited by what the participating networks support in common. Leaseweb If you depend on a particular authentication, caching, or request-processing feature, verify that it will still work before counting on the benefits of switching networks.

How do you narrow the list to two providers?

There is no need to assign every brand an overall score. Start by eliminating options that fail your nonnegotiable requirements.

Your main reason for switchingWhat to compare firstProviders to contact first
A small site pays a high fixed monthly fee and rarely uses its full allowanceMinimum spend, regional rates, and add-on feesKeyCDN, CDNsun
Users in Mainland China face both access problems and attacksNetwork routes, dynamic origin requests, protection, and Chinese-language troubleshootingCDN07
Video or download traffic is growing and the current plan often exceeds its limitsUsage plans, delivery capacity, and supportCDN77
Live streaming services are spread across vendors and take too much work to manageThe full delivery, transcoding, and recording workflow5centsCDN
Users are spread across regions and one network cannot serve them all wellMulti-network routing and feature compatibilityLeaseweb Multi-CDN

This is a way to prioritize quote requests, not a claim that other providers cannot serve these workloads.

The strongest finalists are those that answer your specific questions, define the configuration they will provide, and offer a way to validate the setup. A price alone is not enough if the provider has not confirmed your workload and service regions.

Give each shortlisted provider the same usage data to make quotes comparable

Two providers may both say they are “better value” while pricing entirely different things.

One quote may include normal traffic while another covers only the base service fee. One may include the security features you need while another charges extra. A low unit rate may also depend on a long contract or minimum usage commitment.

Prepare a redacted usage summary and ask each provider to estimate costs on the same basis:

  • Traffic and request volumes in typical and peak months;
  • Where your users are located;
  • The number of websites, asset domains, and workloads requiring separate configuration;
  • Security, logging, storage, and media-processing features you currently use;
  • Tasks for which you need technical support;
  • Expected growth and planned campaigns.

Ask each provider to mark items as “included,” “charged separately,” “handled as overage,” or “unsupported.” That reveals more than comparing plan totals alone.

When estimating your budget after the move, separate recurring costs from the one-time cost of switching:

Monthly cost after migration
= New CDN base fee
+ Usage-based charges
+ Fees for features and services not included
+ Related origin or storage costs
One-time cost of switching
= Cost of running old and new services in parallel
+ Data migration costs (if any)
+ Staff time for configuration, development, and validation

Do not treat every item as an extra charge; do not count included capabilities twice. Our guide to DDoS-protected CDN plans and additional costs can help you check each line of a quote.

If switching saves little each month but requires extensive changes to application logic, consider adjusting your current plan or moving only the assets with the highest delivery costs.

Can technical support actually resolve problems? Check before you buy

“Available around the clock” tells you whether you can reach someone. It does not promise that complex problems will be resolved.

During a trial, give the provider a real, redacted issue to investigate. Look at whether the conversation moves the investigation forward, not just how quickly the first reply arrives.

Useful troubleshooting usually establishes when the issue occurred, who was affected, the request path, the origin’s status, and what further evidence is needed. If several exchanges produce only “it works in our local test,” with no test conditions or next action, it is hard to know whether the issue has been diagnosed.

Before buying, clarify three things:

What does support cover? Does the team handle only platform incidents, or will it also help examine origin connections, caching, and security rules? Who handles application code and database issues?

How are critical incidents escalated? Beyond ordinary tickets, is there an emergency contact and technical escalation process? Is that included in your plan?

How are temporary changes managed? If legitimate requests are blocked or something behaves unexpectedly, who changes the rules, how is the change validated, and when is the standard configuration restored?

These questions do not ask the provider to run all of your operations. They establish responsibility in advance. During an outage, revisiting who owns an issue can waste valuable time.

If your site faces sustained attacks, discuss the scope of protection, ways an attacker could bypass the CDN to reach the origin, and what happens beyond plan limits. This prevents a mismatch between expectations and the new service. Our guide to choosing a DDoS-protected CDN by workload can help you frame the questions the provider should answer.

When can you retire the old service?

A successful setup on the new service does not mean you can cancel the old one immediately.

Define exit criteria as results you can check, rather than setting an overly tight date:

  1. Core user journeys have been validated through the new entry point, including the login, payment callbacks, uploads, and downloads your site actually uses.
  2. The new configuration covers all required domains, certificates, access controls, and cache rules.
  3. The observation period includes a normal traffic peak, and you have results to compare against the main problems with the old service.
  4. Configurations and essential data are backed up, and the rollback method remains viable.
  5. You have confirmed the old contract’s cancellation deadline, automatic renewal terms, remaining credit, and data retention terms.

If the old provider stores original files, video recordings, or any other sole copies, migrate that data first. An ordinary CDN cache is different from separate storage. Do not assume that important content can be regenerated just because cached copies can.

If only a small part of the site has problems, a partial move may be enough. Migrate an image domain, a download endpoint, or one independent workload first. Expand after validation; this often makes the results easier to judge than moving every domain at once.

Frequently asked questions

Will switching fix an unreliable CDN service for a site without an ICP filing?

It depends on where the failure occurs. A change may help if the delivery network, platform restrictions, or protection settings are responsible. If the origin application, database, or a third-party API is failing, the problem may persist. Preserve incident evidence and ask candidate providers to test against the same issue.

Should I choose usage-based or monthly pricing when switching?

Usage-based pricing is worth comparing when traffic fluctuates. If usage is steady, ask about monthly plans or committed-use pricing as well. Consider regional rates, minimum spend, overage charges, and contract length rather than choosing by billing label alone.

Do I need to upload my website files again when changing CDNs?

If the CDN fetches content from the existing origin, you generally do not need to move website files. If the old provider also hosts object storage, video files, or other source data, migration may be necessary. First establish where the files actually live.

Does every CDN that accepts sites without an ICP filing include DDoS and HTTP flood protection?

No. Even when a product advertises protection, verify the protocols, entry points, plan coverage, and handling of traffic beyond plan limits. Static asset delivery alone does not provide DDoS protection for an entire site.

The new CDN is faster in a speed test. Is it safe to commit to an annual plan?

Validate the actual workload first. One speed test cannot capture logged-in sessions, content updates, peak traffic, or the effects of security rules. Judge any savings from a longer contract after confirming the configuration, service terms, and cost of leaving.

I have switched providers before, but some regions still perform poorly. What now?

Break down the problem by region and carrier to see whether the same network path is involved. Consider connectivity tailored to the affected regions or Multi-CDN delivery, but adding providers will not automatically fix origin or application-layer issues.

Make your second CDN decision with better evidence

Before changing providers, take these steps:

  • Turn the problems you had with the last provider into requirements for the next one.
  • Compare quotes against the same usage and feature requirements.
  • Use the trial to assess troubleshooting, not just speed tests.
  • Retire the old service only after validation and confirmation of the exit terms.

If your main concerns are access from Mainland China to an origin hosted elsewhere and recurring DDoS or HTTP flood attacks, contact CDN07 with your current configuration, incident records, and the parts of the workload you want to improve. Establish what the proposed setup can address before switching. That is more useful than buying a larger plan without knowing whether it solves the problem.

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