Amazon CloudFront vs Windows Azure CDN comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the CDN category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2, while Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 10.0% mindshare in CDN, compared to Microsoft’s 2.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon CloudFront

Read 32 Amazon CloudFront reviews

4,573 Views
4,121 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Windows Azure CDN

Read 12 Windows Azure CDN reviews

1,043 Views
909 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Amazon CloudFront

Windows Azure CDN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon CloudFront and Windows Azure CDN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two CDN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon CloudFront vs. Windows Azure CDN Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudFront vs. Windows Azure CDN

October 2024

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Helped 816,406 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Amazon CloudFront

Ranking in CDN

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Windows Azure CDN

Ranking in CDN

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Amazon CloudFront is 10.0%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows Azure CDN is 2.7%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CDN

Featured Reviews

XYX ABC

Product manager at Infozion

Top-notch in terms of customer service and offers pay-as-you-go model with a free tier

With a mixed stack, things become a problem. With GCP and Azure, the DNS setup gets tricky when using CloudFront. With AWS, it's smooth and streamlined. Their GUI provides all the details and is very easy to navigate. The challenge starts to occur because AWS gives you only one DNS endpoint for the entire service. This single endpoint covers your CDN, AWS server, and domain migration needs. If you use any other solution like GCP or Azure, you face additional configuration changes and account management. You need separate accounts for AWS CloudFront and your chosen platform, like GCP. This means securing and managing two separate accounts – an extra responsibility. With Cloudflare, you just need one account and pay for it. Managing the complex DNS details isn't your burden. However, on the flip side, CloudFront might require more hands-on management on your part.

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Nikola Svabic

Support lead at P3 Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH

Improves security and has geolocation feature

Windows Azure CDN's deployment is very easy. However, if you are setting everything up at a company level, you need to adapt to many things, so it would take considerable time to make everything functional again. Similarly, transferring from on-premise to the cloud will take some time. It depends on the case, but you cannot set it up in just a few days.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution improves performance by reducing latency and cost."

"The speed and usability of the solution are valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the number of servers they can put your content in while being reliable."

"The product provides reduced latency and quicker site refreshes."

"Feature-wise, I like the solution's signed URL because it provides security for me."

"If you're using AWS entirely, it's smooth sailing."

"We can personalize a lot of things inside CDN."

"Amazon CloudFront is a stable solution."

More Amazon CloudFront pros

"I like that CDN offers a routing feature."

"The fact that it just delivers what it is supposed to do is its most valuable feature...The initial setup is very straightforward."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that one can access Windows Azure CDN from anywhere."

"The most valuable feature of Windows Azure CDN is its effectiveness."

"The geolocation feature is very important because many colleagues travel worldwide and need to access information from anywhere. The product has improved security."

"One of the most valuable aspects is the capability to store extensive datasets and objects in the cloud, enabling their download through shared access signatures."

"One of the tool's best features is its ability to handle edge cases. For instance, we encountered a situation where we needed to remove certain files from public access. The solution offered a purge feature that allowed us to remove these files. This feature ensured that the files were deleted from all edge servers. Subsequently, we were able to upload new versions of the files."

"We use the product for faster content delivery with low latency."

More Windows Azure CDN pros

Cons

"A lot of caching features must be added to the solution."

"The product could support any network load balancer. At present, we can use only Amazon’s load balancer application."

"The only issues we've faced were when AWS itself had problems, and that's very rare. I can only recall one instance when they had issues, but they managed to resolve it quickly."

"The product should be more intuitive."

"I have utilized certain characteristics and invested effort in reading the documentation, which proved to be challenging."

"With a mixed stack, things become a problem. With GCP and Azure, the DNS setup gets tricky when using CloudFront."

"The UI could be more user-friendly."

"Amazon CloudFront could improve by making it easier to integrate with components from different cloud providers."

More Amazon CloudFront cons

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"I aim to enhance the reporting."

"We have experienced issues with switch connectivity."

"The high price of Windows Azure CDN is an area of concern where improvements can be made."

"Windows Azure CDN should lower its prices."

"Exploring shared access solutions with cloud accounts would be a beneficial choice."

"I believe Windows Azure CDN can improve monitoring and measuring overall end-user performance. Providing monitoring tools or agents that can be integrated into our pages would be highly beneficial. Setting up a custom domain with Windows Azure CDN involves proving domain ownership, which can take some time. The process is relatively straightforward if your DNS or domain registrar is already integrated with Microsoft. However, the verification process may be more time-consuming if you use a different service provider."

"They should include configuration for cache rules."

More Windows Azure CDN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is affordable."

"The solution’s price is reasonable."

"Amazon's pricing varies depending on the data transfer."

"Amazon CloudFront is an expensive solution."

"The product could improve its price."

"I used to work with AWS and Azure, and we provided cost comparisons for customers to help them choose the right services. Azure tends to be more user-friendly and easier to understand, while AWS may take more time."

"Its price is really on the high side. It should be cheaper in general."

"The product has a mid-range pricing."

More Amazon CloudFront pricing and cost advice

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

"It comes at a relatively affordable cost."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"The pricing of the solution depends on usage and varies based on the company's needs. If you want additional features like advanced logging, it will be pricier. However, it could be cheaper if you don't need those features. It all depends on the resources and requirements."

"The solution's price is above the medium range."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"The solution's price depends on how much traffic you have. So, it was okay for us. Payments are to be made on a monthly basis since one has to pay for what they used."

"The pricing is extremely high, almost 9 out of 10."

More Windows Azure CDN pricing and cost advice

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which CDN solutions are best for your needs.

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816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

24%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

36%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How do I choose between AWS Global Accelerator and Amazon CloudFront?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Global Accelerator or Amazon CloudFront global content delivery network was the better fit for us. We decided to go w...

See all answers

What do you like most about Amazon CloudFront?

The solution has good security features.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudFront?

CloudFront is relatively cheap and worth the money.

See all answers

What do you like most about Windows Azure CDN?

One of the tool's best features is its ability to handle edge cases. For instance, we encountered a situation where we needed to remove certain files from public access. The solution offered a purg...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows Azure CDN?

The pricing of the solution depends on usage and varies based on the company's needs. If you want additional features like advanced logging, it will be pricier. However, it could be cheaper if you ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Windows Azure CDN?

Windows Azure CDN should lower its prices.

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Front Door vs Amazon CloudFront

Compared 62% of the time

Akamai vs Amazon CloudFront

Compared 11% of the time

Cloudflare vs Amazon CloudFront

Compared 8% of the time

AWS Global Accelerator vs Amazon CloudFront

Compared 3% of the time

Fastly vs Amazon CloudFront

Compared 3% of the time

More Amazon CloudFront Competitors

Akamai vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 19% of the time

Edgio vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 19% of the time

Cloudflare vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 14% of the time

StackPath CDN vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 9% of the time

More Windows Azure CDN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudFront

November 2024

Download Amazon CloudFront product report

Buyer's Guide

CDN

November 2024

Download Windows Azure CDN product report

Learn More

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Microsoft

Overview

Amazon CloudFront is a global content delivery network (CDN) service that accelerates delivery of your websites, APIs, video content or other web assets. It integrates with other Amazon Web Services products to give developers and businesses an easy way to accelerate content to end users with no minimum usage commitments. Amazon CloudFront can be used to deliver your entire website, including dynamic, static, streaming, and interactive content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for your content are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance. Amazon CloudFront is optimized to work with other Amazon Web Services, like Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Elastic Load Balancing, and Amazon Route 53. Amazon CloudFront also works seamlessly with any non-AWS origin server, which stores the original, definitive versions of your files. Like other Amazon Web Services products, there are no long-term contracts or minimum monthly usage commitments for using Amazon CloudFront – you pay only for as much or as little content as you actually deliver through the content delivery service.

Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) caches static web content at strategically placed locations to provide maximum throughput for delivering content to users. The CDN offers developers a global solution for delivering high-bandwidth content by caching the content at physical nodes across the world.

Sample Customers

Unilever, Spotify, Pinterest, MLB Advanced Media, Foursquare, PBS, Airbnb, Netflix, WIX, Comcast, Automobili Lamborghini, Rovio, Discovery Communications

NORAD, Agreeya Mobility

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudFront vs. Windows Azure CDN

October 2024

Free Report: Amazon CloudFront vs. Windows Azure CDN

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon CloudFront vs. Windows Azure CDN and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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We monitor all CDN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.