CDN versus Global CDN

[lotuspay]

Does normal CDN include ANY datacenters in Asia and Oceania?

If not, then this page Reliable and lighting-fast website hosting service | Webflow is misleading because it illustrates 20 servers/datacenters in Asia and Oceania, and it doesn’t differentiate between normal CDN and Global CDN.

The hosting pricing on https://webflow.com/pricing/one-site is ambiguous. The difference in tool tip text on Global CDN versus CDN is “no matter where they are”. On a side note, this text is offensive as it implies Asia and Oceania are not part of the ‘normal’ world wide web.

This page Webflow site plans | Webflow University adds to the confusion with the wording “Business Hosting offers ten free collaborators, plus a Global CDN with extra datacenters in Asia and Oceania to provide faster page loads for global audiences.” This word “extra” could mean ‘in addition to the standard datacenters in Asia and Oceania’, or it could mean ‘datacenters in Asia and Oceania are only included in Global CDN’.

If the difference between the two is the existence of CDN datacenters in Asia and Oceania, then it means Webflow hosting is not really intended for users in Asia and Oceania.

Hope someone can clarify please? This is important for customers in Asia and Oceania, especially those (the majority?) whose websites are targeted mainly at local audiences - we don’t need Europe and US CDN, but we certainly do need CDN in Asia and Oceania. And it would be ridiculous to expect us to pay an extra $20-$25 per month for Business Hosting to have this essential feature. As an end user, static page load speed is the main reason why I would use Webflow instead of WordPress.

[brryant (Bryant Chou)]

Hi @lotuspay -

You are correct in that “extra” means additional datacenters in Asia and Oceania, and that statement specifically applies to Cloudfront.

If you host your custom domain on Webflow, your website’s HTML (and subsequently your TTFB) is actually being served by Fastly. They are constantly adding new POPs (points of presences) all over the world, which you can read about here: How Fastly Chooses POP Locations

Fastly (which is only global POPs) serves as the first CDN on all hosting plans (basic, cms, business) and will ensure that your site’s TTFB really will be the best no matter where your users are.

For sites hosted on the business tier, site assets (like CSS, images, BG videos, javascript) will be delivered on Amazon Cloudfront’s global distribution. This is much costlier bandwidth which is why it’s on a separate Webflow hosting tier.

Long story short:

1. Webflow site HTML is hosted by Fastly, ensuring the lowest TTFB you can buy as a consumer (only Google has faster TTFB) You can read about how Fastly can help your TTFB here.
2. For sites with users around the world, or for sites with heavy media assets, the Global CDN on the Business tier will provide a snappier experience.