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Best CDN Service Providers in 2018

During the last two weeks, I have been busy trying to find the best CDN service provider I can use for this site.

I am happy to say that I am finally able to choose one that I like the best.

In this article I will also tell you about the other CDN service providers that can stand toe to toe with my choice.

But first let’s have a quick look at what a CDN is and how it helps your website.

What exactly is a CDN?

CDN is a short term for Content Delivery Network, what it basically does is allow you to host your static images, CSS and JS files in several servers around the world.

Now, when a visitor visits your website it will serve those static images, CSS and JS files from the server which is closest to them thus making your website load faster.

Image by geralt from Pixabay

The main benefits of CDN are:

  1. Faster loading for visitor.
  2. Removes a good amount of burden from your host.
  3. Built in redundancy in case one of the servers fail the traffic will be automatically re-routed to the closest server.

Also do not be afraid as most of them are really easy to setup.

Now let’s go to the list of the best CDN service providers in 2018.

1. MaxCDN

MaxCDN is a highly regarded CDN service provider founded in 2009. They have been acquired by StackPath awhile back which then integrated a lot of security features to MaxCDN.

MaxCDN is known for their absolute speed. This is because they are only using SSDs in their servers.

They have data centers all over the world including North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Another best thing about MaxCDN is if you have a WordPress website, it can easily be integrated in popular performance plugins like W3 Total Cache, Autoptimize and WP Super Cache.

Pricing Starts: $9/Month.

Go to MaxCDN

2. CloudFlare

CloudFlare has 152 data centers spread out across the globe. This means they only need fewer hops and has lower latency thus resulting to incredible load speed.

A recent sentiment survey also favors CloudFlare CDN by 6% more than it’s competitors.

One more thing that you should know about CDN service providers is that some of them charge by bandwidth used. If you exceeded the specified limit then you would be charge based on the additional bandwidth you used.

This is not the case in CloudFlare, they charge a flat rate for their services so you should not need to worry about a bill shock if a bandwidth spike ever happens on your site.

The best thing about CloudFlare, which I think is the real reason why they are being favored right now, is that they offer a Free plan. If you are on a tight budget then this is the best fit for you.

CloudFlare can also be integrated easily in a WordPress website using W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.

Pricing Starts: Free

Go to CloudFlare

3. KeyCDN

In my opinion, KeyCDN has the most user friendly website and highly intuitive user dashboard.

All of their guides are very accessible and very easy to follow.

They are also highly recommended right now because of their pricing. If you compare it side by side with the other platforms they will come out as the cheapest.

They currently have 33 data center across the world including Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa.

And since they are in a pay-as-you-go payment system, I am happy that they allow disabling the automated charges to your card.

If you have a WordPress website, KeyCDN can be easily integrated with popular caching plugins like W3 Total Cache, Autoptimize and WP Super Cache.

Pricing Starts: $0.04/GB

Go to KeyCDN

4. CDN77

CDN77 has 32 strategic data centers spread across North America, Europe, South America and Asia.

One of the first things that you will see in their homepage is a gauge showing their daily traffic peaks. Currently their network capacity can handle up to 7Tbps.

The other thing that caught my eye is their very well presented pricing plans.

CDN77 offer both pay-as-you-go and monthly plan. If you are a starter website and just consumes up to 5TB bandwidth they would offer you a pay-as-you-go plan.

However if you need 5TB and up you can choose whether to go pay-as-you-go or monthly plan.

The one thing that makes CDN77 stand out from the rest in this list is that they offer a 50GB of storage for free. Their competitors either charge extra or doesn’t support this at all.

Pricing Starts: $0.049/GB

Go to CDN77

5. Sucuri

The free website scanner in Sucuri has served me well in the past. It is a great pleasure for me to know that they now have a CDN service as well.

The Sucuri CDN service is not entirely an independent service. Basically it is a free feature if you subscribe to their Website Application Firewall service also known as WAF.

Sucuri has data centers around the world including North America, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Germany, United Kingdom and South America.

If you think about it, Sucuri is the closest competitor of CloudFlare since they are both experts in security. The only catch is that CloudFlare is mainly focus in preventing the attack.

As soon as the attack became successful, Sucuri is your best bet to clean the mess.

This is why I see a potential for Sucuri to stand toe-to-toe with CloudFlare in the future.

Pricing Starts: $9.99/Month

Go to Sucuri

6. CloudFront

CloudFront is an AWS service which currently has 136 data center locations across the globe and they are planning to expand even more as we speak.

What makes CloudFront one of the best CDN service is the fact that it is a service of AWS. This means that it can be easily integrated with other services of AWS like AWS WAF or AWS Shield Advanced to take advantage of the security features those other services bring.

Similar to other services in AWS. CloudFront also runs through a pay-as-you-go payment system.

If you haven’t used AWS before and want to try out CloudFront then here is the good news.

CloudFront is part of AWS Free Usage Tier. So you can use it freely for 12 months however it has 50GB data transfer limit and 2,000,000 HTTP/HTTPS requests limit.

CloudFront can also be easily integrated to WordPress with popular performance WordPress plugins like W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.

Pricing Starts: $0.085/GB

Go to CloudFront

7. RackSpace

RackSpace is a household name when it comes to enterprise level managed cloud computing. It is no surprise that they have extended their reach to a CDN service as well.

I was contemplating whether to add RackSpace here on this list already or for a later article which focus on enterprise level CDN service providers.

The reason I consider RackSpace as purely enterprise level CDN service initially is because they are partner with Akamai.

Akamai is an industry leader when it comes to enterprise level CDN service which comes at a high cost.

But since they also offer a pay-as-you-go payment system and their prices is not far from the others in this list. I have decided to include them here already.

Because of the partnership with Akamai, RackSpace also now has access to 200 data centers around the globe making it the largest in this list.

RackSpace is also well known for great and very accommodating technical support team.

Pricing Starts: $0.0141/GB

Go to RackSpace

Conclusion

All of the CDN service providers I mentioned above have remarkable performance. They just vary in pricing and the way they charge those prices.

If you are on a budget go ahead and try the Free version of CloudFlare.

Before I end this topic, I want to warn you about the pay-as-you-go mode of payment.

If you want to go and use this do not add too much balance on your account. You should also keep an eye on your credit card statements if you use your credit card.

I am warning you about this because of bandwidth spikes.

If ever an attack happens to your website, it would cause bandwidth spikes. Attacks can last for days and if this happens then you might be caught off guard by your huge bill.

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Best Paid Survey Websites in 2018

Doing a paid survey on your free time is one of the most popular ways to earn money online in 2018.

Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

The reason it is so popular is because it does not require any special skills or technical knowledge to do it. It is basically for everyone, it is like the Rated-G of Hollywood movies.

Here are the Best Paid Survey Websites in 2018.

1. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is probably one of most popular and most prominent in this list. Even a simple search in Google for best paid surveys will always return results with Swagbucks included.

In Swagbucks you can earn money and points by shopping online, searching the web, watching entertaining videos, finding great deals and finally answering paid surveys.

Swagbucks has currently already paid out over $291,000,000 in cash and gift cards.

  1. Payout Options – Paypal, Gift Cards
  2. Minimum Payout – $3 Gift Card, $25 Paypal
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 8.3
Go to Swagbucks

2. Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is another popular paid survey website that currently has over 3 million dedicated members.

In SurveyJunkie you will earn points by successfully completing surveys and later on you can redeem this points into cash or gift cards.

  1. Payout Options – Paypal, Gift Cards
  2. Minimum Payout – $10
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 8.7
Go to Survey Junkie

3. InboxDollars

InboxDollars is an online rewards clubs which pays their members cash for doing online activities on their website.

These activities varies from reading emails, playing games, signing up for offers and taking paid surveys.

They now have a total of over $50 million paid out into their members since they were founded in the year 2000.

  1. Payout Options – ePayment, Check
  2. Minimum Payout – $30
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 8.1
  4. Miscellaneous – $5 Signup Bonus
Go to InboxDollars

4. Fusion Cash

Fusion Cash is a paid survey website which was founded in 2005 and based in sunny California.

Since their founding, they have now paid out over $3 million to its members.

In Fusion Cash you can earn money by reading emails, watching videos, taking paid surveys and many more.

  1. Payout Options – Paypal, Check, Direct Deposit
  2. Minimum Payout – $25
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 5.6
  4. Miscellaneous – $5 Signup Bonus
Go to Fusion Cash

5. Vindale Research

Vindale Research was founded in 2005 and since then they have paid out over $6 million cash to their members.

Right off the bat there are multiple positive things that I can say about Vindale Research. Such things are how well put their website is, you earn cash not points and their trust score is up there with the best.

Aside from paid survey you can also earn through paid studies, referral program, reward mail, reward codes, your photos and paid videos.

  1. Payout Options – Paypal, Check
  2. Minimum Payout – $50
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 8.1
  4. Miscellaneous – $1 Signup Bonus
Go to Vindale Research

6. Qmee

Qmee is more like a combination of a shopping companion software and a paid survey website.

The shopping companion runs in a background and offers relevant results on its sidebar giving you a personalized experience.

The three main ways to earn money in Qmee is through web searches, online shopping and taking paid surveys.

The best thing about Qmee is there is no minimum cashout so you can cashout anytime when you feel like it.

  1. Payout Options – Paypal, Charity
  2. Minimum Payout – You Can Withdraw Any Amount at Anytime
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 8.2
Go to Qmee

7. MyPoints

MyPoints offers a variety of ways for its members to earn money online anywhere at anytime. In all of the websites in this list, they are the one that offers a lot more ways to earn aside from paid surveys.

In MyPoints, you can earn money through shopping online, coupons, reading email, sharing opinion, watching videos, discovering content, playing games and many more.

  1. Payout Options – Gift Cards, Paypal, Travel Miles
  2. Minimum Payout – $3 Gift Card, $25 Paypal
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 8.6
Go to MyPoints

8. CashCrate

CashCrate is a paid survey website founded in 2006 and now has over 7 million members worldwide.

In CashCrate you can earn cash rewards through offers, surveys, online shopping, referrals and socializing.

The main stuff that captivated me the most in their website is their payment wall page where you can see photos of the latest payments they did.

And also having a forum section which basically means they are not afraid to interact with their members.

  1. Payout Options – Dwolla, Check, Direct Deposit, Paypal
  2. Minimum Payout – $20
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 7.7
Go to CashCrate

9. PrizeRebel

PrizeRebel boasts that they currently has 8 million member and has already paid out $16 million since their founding in 2007.

The thing that captures my attention the most though is that they show how much they have paid each day in their homepage. This is a pretty unique feature that makes them standout from the rest of websites in this list.

In PrizeRebel, they are mainly focus on providing paid surveys as the mean to earn cash.

  1. Payout Options – Gift Cards, Paypal
  2. Minimum Payout – $3 Gift Card, $5 Paypal
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 6.9
Go to PrizeRebel

10. PanelOpinion

PanelOpinion is part of Paid Research which has multiple concept ideas under it. One of them is paid surveys and they run it through the PanelOpinion website.

In PanelOpinion they will give you a paid surveys that matches you according to your profile data.

This is a good thing and should be implemented by other survey websites as well. Right now their competitions just stop the survey halfway when they deemed the member unqualified.

This is just appalling as they just made their member waste their time and energy.

I think this is the main reason the PanelOpinion has such a high trust score.

  1. Payout Options – Check, Paypal, Bank Transfer
  2. Minimum Payout – £10
  3. Trust Score – TrustPilot 9.1
Go to PanelOpinion

Conclusion

This is probably one of the most time consuming article I will ever do. Just thinking about the shear amount of focus I invested in this is really something else compared to my previous articles.

The thing is, the world of paid survey websites is a very volatile market. Some of the ones that are profitable and trustworthy before is now a scam or non-existent anymore.

In this article I meticulously picked the ones that has been around for a long time and maintained a high trust score from their members.

I actually have more than 20 paid survey websites in this list when I started creating this article. In the end I am just able to close it at 10 websites.

This is because more than half of the websites failed in paying their members consistently resulting to low trust score. I even found 2 websites that is a complete rip-off of one another.

You can certainly pick and signup in a couple of websites in this list now and be rest assured that they are trustworthy.

If you want, you can even go hardcore and signup in all of them.