Choosing CacheFly for testing wasn't because it's “super popular”—quite the opposite. It's precisely because it has a very low profile in the domestic tech community, yet it consistently appears in certain...Streaming media, game downloads, enterprise distributionIn the scene.
The purpose of this test is straightforward: When mainstream CDNs (Cloudflare/CloudFront) exhibit unstable performance in certain regions, can CacheFly still serve as an engineering fallback option?
I. Actual Deployment Context and Test Environment
The onboarding process for CacheFly is straightforward, but it is clearlyEngineer-centric mindsetThe console design is relatively traditional, lacking any obvious product-oriented guidance.
| Project | Explanation |
|---|---|
| CDN Service Provider | CacheFly |
| Testing Party | This Site's Cybersecurity Testing Team |
| Access Method | DNS CNAME records pointing to the accelerated domain name provided by CacheFly |
| Origin server | Dedicated VPS (Nginx, Los Angeles) |
| Test Content | Static Resource Distribution + DDoS Stress Testing |
| Testing Cycle | Approximately 3 weeks |
II. CacheFly Billing Method (Very Important)
The key difference between CacheFly and AWS/Azure lies in:It is a “bundle + negotiated pricing” CDN.rather than a fully open pay-as-you-go billing model.
During the actual connection process, you must confirm the data plan tier with the official sales representative before assigning the corresponding monthly package.
| Project | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Billing Model | Monthly Data Plan (Starting at TB Level) |
| Excess traffic | Subject to separate negotiation or charged at the agreed unit price. |
| DDoS Protection | Included in the service, no separate toggle |
| Test Package | Official Test-Level Traffic Plan |
The advantages of this model are:Costs are predictableThe drawbacks are also quite obvious:Less flexible than cloud providers。
III. CDN Acceleration Testing (Real-World Access Data)
curl -o /dev/null -s -w \ "TTFB: %{time_starttransfer}s\nTotal: %{time_total}s\nHTTP: %{http_code}\n" \ https://cdn-test.example.com/static/large-file.bin
| Region | Time to First Byte (TTFB) | Total time (s) | Status Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western United States | 0.09 | 0.41 | 200 |
| Europe | 0.14 | 0.58 | 200 |
| Asia (SG) | 0.21 | 0.76 | 200 |
CacheFly's features are quite distinct:The first package wasn't particularly impressive, but the transmission process was extremely stable.When downloading large files, jitter is significantly lower than some mainstream CDNs.
IV. DDoS Stress Testing (Engineering Perspective)
This test focuses more on a real-world issue:When an attack occurs, will it redirect traffic back to the origin server?
| stage | HTTP 200 | Exception Return | Origin Server CPU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 99.91% TP3T | 0% | 12% |
| Under attack | 91.21 TP3T | 403 / 429 | 18% |
| After the attack | 99.81 TP3T | a small amount | 13% |
Under a medium-scale HTTP flood attack,CacheFly behavioral biasSpeed limit directly at the edgeBackend traffic control is relatively restrained.
V. Issues Encountered in Actual Use
- The console features are somewhat outdated, and the learning curve is steep.
- Caching rules require engineering background and are not suitable for beginners.
- Logging and analytics capabilities are not as robust as those offered by cloud providers.
- However, the quality of technical support responses is significantly above average.
VI. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Is CacheFly suitable for small websites or personal projects?
It's not quite suitable; it's more geared toward enterprise or stable traffic scenarios.
Can CacheFly's DDoS protection be configured independently?
No, protection strategies are primarily built-in and automated.
What are the core differences between CacheFly and Cloudflare?
CacheFly leans more toward “content delivery engineering,” while Cloudflare leans more toward “platform-based security products.”
VII. Conclusion
If you're expecting a CDN that's “just a few clicks away and has a pretty interface,” CacheFly might disappoint you.
But if your businessStability, large file distribution, predictable costsMore sensitive, CacheFly is actually an underrated engineering-focused CDN.
It's not about “selling products”—it's more about “delivering your content reliably.”
