If you are looking for a free CDN for WordPress blog, then there is a good chance that you are facing slow website performance. Well, as I have already mentioned some of the best ways to speed up your WordPress performance, one of them is “Using a CDN Network.” As a WordPress admin, your responsibility is to keep the website performance to the optimal level. A CDN network simply takes off all the load from your origin server/hosting and serves files faster and securely. CDN also helps WordPress to keep the performance consistent even in the periodic traffic hikes.
Here are the top 5 free WordPress CDN providers.
Table of Contents
1. Jetpack (Plugin)
Jetpack by WordPress.com is a plug and play WordPress plugin developed by Automattic to keep the WordPress performance backed by a CDN Network. Using the free Jetpack plugin, you can host all of the images from official WordPress servers and can reduce the load from your main host.
Files Types Served By Jetpack CDN
- CSS (Stylesheet)
- JS (Javascript)
- .JPG, .JPEG, .PNG, .GIF, .ICO
Jetpack has recently introduced serving of static CSS and JavaScript files that will improve the load time and save your valuable bandwidth. Currently, Jetpack is powering more than five million websites for free using it’s CDN. Besides CDN, Jetpack is also useful to see traffic analytics, social sharing, site stats, etc.
2. Cloudflare (Cache CDN + Plugin)
Believe it or not, Cloudflare is currently powering more than 71% of the entire website on the internet. With 165 data centers across the globe, Cloudflare not only serves CSS, JS, and Images but also provides many security benefits for free. When you add your website on the Cloudflare CDN network, Cloudflare simply makes a cached copy of all the files of your site and serves them directly to your visitors from the closest possible region.
Benefits of Cloudflare
The significant advantage of using Cloudflare is that you can use it with the Jetpack plugin without any problem. If not as a CDN, Cloudflare will always be safeguarding your website from potential web threats and attacks. Here are a few more benefits of Cloudflare CDN.
- Keeps DNS records organized
- Minifies CSS, JS and HTML
- Provides free shared SSL certificate
If you want to setup Cloudflare manually, here is how you can use Cloudflare with the best settings for WordPress. Alternatively, you can go with the official Cloudflare plugin to set everything automatically from your WordPress admin dashboard.
3. Netlify as CDN
Here is Netlify, a freemium CDN network that allows you to host files through its network for free. Currently, you can store up to 100GB of file and server 100GB of bandwidth/month on Notify free plan. I think it is an excellent choice for personal WordPress blogs. If you are going to use this service for a medium traffic website, then try to use it to serve only CSS and JS files. This way you can save a lot of bandwidth on Netlify.
You can use Netlify with these W3 Total Cache settings to make your website supercharged withing a few months. It is easy to set up and requires no credit card currently. Netlify does require a mediocre level developer to set the CDN service up. It is not very easy to get started with this CDN service.
4. CloudFront CDN (1 Year Free)
CloudFront aka AWS CDN is a widely known global CDN network with over 61 Data servers across worldwide. Cloudfront is known for best in class security, high performance, lower latency, and scalability. With the free offer, you can enjoy Cloudfront CDN benefits for straight one year.
With one year free tier, you can serve up to 50 GB of data transfer out and 2 million requests. After that, you can pay as little as 2.99$
(10GB/1M Requests) Per month. When it comes to WordPress integration, the W3 Total Cache plugin has a unique integration option with Cloudfront. I would highly recommend this CDN for personal blogs, portfolios, and low traffic websites.
Benefits of CloudFront
Cloudfront free tier has so many features however here are some of the most important features.
- Capability to apply to gzip compression to files
- Serves HTTP as well as HTTPS version of data (security)
- Second largest CDN edge locations in the globe
- No hidden charges and sets up in a few minutes
5. Google Cloud (Fastest CDN)
Okay, So currently Google Cloud is offering the world’s fastest (36.70 ms average speed) for free. When you signup for the Google Cloud, you will be eligible to get $300 credits free in your account which is valid for 12 months. All you need is a credit card to get this trial offer. Not only the free CDN for WordPress, but you can also use Google Cloud Compute.
Advantages of Google Cloud
- Fastest CDN and comes free for one year
- Easy to set up with WordPress
- Comes with Storage and Analytic options
- Use it on multiple WordPress sites
6. Cloud Storage Services
You may use cloud storage services to upload specific files like Docs, PDF, Videos and Images, just like a CDN service. There are many free cloud storage services out there with high capacity storage options. You can use any of these cloud storage platforms as per your preference.
- Google Drive (15GB of storage)
- Onedrive (5GB free)
- Box (10GB of Free Online Storage)
- Dropbox (2GB free space)
Please note that these storage services do not allow direct file links. That is the reason, and I would not recommend you to host your CSS or JS files on these cloud storage platforms.
More CDN Services
Here are few more CDN networks for WordPress which gives free trial before you opted for their paid services.
- KeyCDN (Free $1 credit for three months/no credit card required)
- Microsoft Azure (12 months free trial)
- Stackpath (30 days free trial)
Here are some free image hosting services.
Recommended: Best Image CDN for WordPress
So, you can use these free CDN services to enhance the page load experience of your visitors. Always remember that page load time matters a lot for your site visitors.