Modern WordPress hosting services offer CDN as a standard feature. If you still use a traditional web hosting service and plan to move to a managed WordPress hosting service, I have compiled the list of best ones that come with built-in CDN.
CDN itself is an expensive technology. It takes a huge amount of capital to build a CDN service as you need to own physical servers in different locations around the globe.
The fact is that the majority of WordPress hosting service don’t use their own CDN. Instead, they use a third-party CDN provider such as Cloudflare, StackPath, and Fastly.
Why Using CDN? 4 Key Benefits
CDN is a must-have hosting feature in order to have a blazing fast WordPress website. The distributed content delivery concept allows the content of your website to be served from the nearest location from your readers’ location. This can significantly reduce network latency and the round-trip times.
Using a CDN can also ease the burden of server since it doesn’t need to always make a new query to process user request. Instead, users can be served with the static files that have been saved to the CDN services which spread in different locations. In this context, static files can CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.
Here 4 key benefits of using a CDN:
- Faster page load: CDNs can reduce network latency and well as the round-trip times.
- Better user experience (UX): Users will love it if your site is fast to load
- Reduce your WordPress hosting’s bandwidth usage
- Better up uptime: CDNs use load balancing to backup other servers
WordPress Hosting Services with Built-in CDN
Here is the list of WordPress hosting services that come with a built-in CDN. I only include hosting services I have tested.
On the list:
1. Kinsta
If you have a WordPress agency, Kinsta is one of the options when you look for a hosting service that has a built-in CDN. Kinsta is a top-rated agency hosting service. Many notable agencies — including 10 Up, use the Kinsta service. You can use Kinsta no matter the page builder or theme you use. Kinsta has a great PHP configuration to make sure every theme and plugin you use run smoothly without any issue. The hosting service of Kinsta is powered by Google Cloud.
Kinsta adopts container technology on its platform. Every account has a dedicated container consisting of required apps such as web server, database server, and so on.
The CDN feature of Kinsta is powered by Cloudflare. You have a full control over the CDN. While the feature is enabled by default, you can manually disable it in case you need to. You are also provided with useful analytics feature to monitor the CDN usage. Kinsta itself is well-known for its great documentation and intuitive control panel. The best part about Kinsta is that it doesn’t apply fixed contract term. Instead, it applies the pay-as-you-go payment approach.
I have written a review about Kinsta in case you want learn more abouts its features and performance.
Key Features of Kinsta:
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Super clean and intuitive control panel
- Servel-level firewall
- Team collaboration
- Image optimizer
- Free migration
- Comprehensive analytics
Pros and Cons of Kinsta
Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Second to none documentation
- Intuituive control panel
- No fixed term contracts
Cons:
- A bit pricier
- No file manager feature
Kinsta Pricing
- From $35/month
2. Rocket.net
Rocket.net is another WordPress hosting service that uses Cloudflare to power its CDN feature. On Rocket.net, CDN is a required feature and cannot be disabled. Same as Kinsta, Rocket.net also offers built-in analytics feature to allow you to monitor the CDN usage on your website. In addition to CDN, Rocket.net also offers extra security feature in the form of WAF. Rocket.net offers WAF on both the server where your website is hosted and the CDN servers. WAF on CDN is powered by Imunify360. You can also monitor the use of WAF via the built-in analytics, just like the CDN.
If you are looking for a web hosting to handle high traffic at a lower price, Rocket.net is worth considering. The lowest plan offered by Rocket.net is capable of serving 250,000 visitors per month, with the bandwidth capacity of 50GB. Rocket.net offers unlimited PHP workers on all plans.
I have also written a review about Rocket.net in case you want to learn more about the service.
Key Features of Rocket.net:
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- WAF
- Free migration
- Built-in file manager
- Team collaboration
Pros and Cons of Rocket.net
Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Excellent technical support
- $1 price for the first month
- Built-in file manager
Cons:
- No email hosting
- Lack of documentation
Rocket.net Pricing
- From $30/month
FYI. Rocket.net is the hosting I use for this website.
3. WP Engine
WP Engine is one the most popular managed WordPress hosting services. So, it would be a little bit unfair to not mention it. As a popular web hosting service — with a great reputation — WP Engine also comes with necessary features to run modern websites. Including CDN which is required in terms of performance. As mentioned above, the CDN feature of WP Engine is powered by Cloudflare. WP Engine itself doesn’t explicitly mention the CDN feature as “CDN”. Instead, it uses the term “network caching” which technically refers to the same thing.
On WP Engine, CDN is always enabled and you have no option to disable it. Also, there is no built-in tool to monitor the CDN usage.
WP Engine itself uses Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and AWS to power its hosting service. Standard features like scheduled backups, SSL, and FTP are available.
You can read my WP Engine review here to learn more about the hosting service.
Key Features of WP Engine:
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Team collaboration
- WAF
- Free migration via plugin
Pros and Cons of WP Engine
Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Built exclusively for WordPress
- Lower plan is available to get started
Cons:
- No file manager feature
- No email hosting
WP Engine Pricing
- From $13/month
4. Pressable
Pressable is an Automattic product. Automattic, as you know, is the company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack. While the hosting service of Pressable is powered by the same technology as WordPress.com, the CDN feature is not powered by Jetpack. Instead, Pressable offers its own in-house CDN. You have an option whether you want to enable or disable CDN on Pressable. Unfortunately, there is no option to monitor the usage.
Pressable itself is a hosting service that has a great PHP configuration. It has the default PHP memory limit of 512 MB and maximum file upload of 2 GB. With the specs, you can use it to run any WordPress plugin and theme. Pressable allows you to try its control panel for free in case you want to try the experience of managing WordPress websites on it.
Key Features of Pressable:
- Built-in CDN and caching
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Team collaboration
- Free migration
- WAF
- Hack recovery assistance
Pros and Cons of Pressable
Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Built exclusively for WordPress
- Great PHP configuration
Cons:
- No native email hosting (requires external service)
- No file manager
Pressable Pricing
- From $25/month
5. Cloudways
Unlike other hosting services on the list, Cloudways doesn’t offer CDN as a built-in feature. Instead, the feature is available as an add-on. I include Cloudways on the list since it has an excellent performance. Cloudways itself is a great hosting service if you are a Divi user, for one main reason. It is one of the Elegant Themes partners in the Divi Hosting program. Divi Hosting itself is a program that bundles Divi with a hosting plan. You can create a Divi-powered WordPress website without manually installing Divi yourself. Your hosting plan is already pre-installed with Divi.
Of course, you can also use Cloudways to run other page builder plugins as well, including Elementor and Beaver Builder. The specifications and PHP configuration of Cloudways are more than enough to run most page builder plugins — as well as other plugin types. Cloudways comes with a default PHP memory limit of 256 MB and maximum file upload of 100 MB. Cloudways itself offers dedicated cloud hosting server, much like VPS whereby you can control server apps like web server, database server, and so on. You can monitor resources like RAM, storage, CPU, and so on.
In Cloudways, you can select a cloud service to power your hosting. Whether DigitalOcean, Google Cloud, or AWS. Cloudways itself is owned by DigitalOcean (acquired in 2022). The CDN feature of Cloudways is powered by Cloudflare.
Key Features of Cloudways:
- Staging environment
- Scheduled backups
- Server-level firewall
- Isolated resources
- Team collaboration
Pros and Cons of Cloudways
Pros:
- Unlimited websites
- No plugin restrictions
- Dedicated cloud servers
- Offers trial without credit card
Cons:
- No file manager feature
- No email hosting
- Registration process is a bit complex
Cloudways Pricing
- From 14/month for server on DigitalOcean
FYI. You can use the following promotion code to get 10% discount for three months on Cloudways (first three invoices). Code: WPBDEAL
Summary
CDN is required if you want to have a website that is faster to load. Not only does CDN help reduce network latency and round-trip times, but it can also ease the server burden as the static content is delivered from various locations. Your server doesn’t need to run new query to serve the request to pages on your site to deliver the content.
Most modern WordPress hosting services already offer CDN as one of their built-in features — other than cache and SSL. If you are on the search of a WordPress hosting service with a built-in CDN, you can try one of my recommendations on the above list.
| Kinsta | Rocket.net | WP Engine | Pressable | Cloudways | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDN Provider | Cloudflare | Cloudflare | Cloudflare | In-house | Cloudflare |
| CDN Capacity | From 100GB | From 50GB | From 50GB | Unmetered | From 100GB |
| Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
