IO River is an emerging CDN and network acceleration service provider that has gradually gained attention within the tech community in recent years. Its overall positioning does not follow the “massive and comprehensive” approach of international cloud vendors, but rather leans toward providing controllable, transparent, and relatively flexible content distribution and foundational security capabilities for small and medium-sized global businesses.
Judging from its official website and console design,IO River The focus is clearly on CDN, edge acceleration, and foundational security services themselves, rather than attempting to build a complete cloud ecosystem.
From a regional perspective, IO River's node distribution spans North America, Europe, and parts of the Asia-Pacific region. While its overall scale cannot rival traditional CDN giants like Cloudflare and Akamai, its strengths lie in a relatively streamlined architecture and clear product offerings, making it ideal for users seeking to avoid complex cloud product lock-in. For scenarios such as cross-regional content delivery, API acceleration, and optimizing access to overseas sites, such CDN providers are often preferred for inclusion in technology selection lists.
Within IO River's product ecosystem, CDN is not a “secondary feature” but one of the core services.
Its acceleration service is bundled with basic DDoS protection, SSL support, and cache policy configuration on the same usage path. This design approach is engineer-friendly: the configuration path is short, options are intuitive, and results can be quickly deployed and validated.
From a positioning perspective, IO River does not attempt to compete head-on with international giants in areas like “hyperscale protection” or “extreme attack scenarios.” Instead, it focuses more on providing stable acceleration and foundational security for common business traffic.
This also means it is better suited for small and medium-sized websites, content distribution platforms, SaaS consoles, and API services, rather than high-risk operations such as financial-grade or government/enterprise-grade applications.
I. Why Choose IO River CDN Conduct an assessment
The selection of IO River for this evaluation is not because it is the “most renowned,” but rather because it represents a typical choice in practical technology selection: it offers foundational global coverage capabilities, a relatively transparent pricing model, and a combined solution featuring CDN acceleration and basic DDoS protection.
The key focus areas of this evaluation include:
- Actual acceleration results after connection, not theoretical node coverage
- Time to First Byte (TTFB) and Overall Response Time by Region
- Basic Protection Performance in Common HTTP Flood Scenarios
II. Test Environment and Actual Access
| Testing Party | Business Type | Origin server location | Access Method | Testing Cycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build your own testing environment | Static content + API | West Coast of the United States | CNAME Integration | 7 days |
This test represents a live business integration, not a simulated or theoretical test. The origin server operates in a standard Nginx environment and connects to IO River CDN via CNAME. All caching and security policy configurations were performed through its console.
III. Packages and Billing Methods
| Project | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Billing Model | Pay-as-you-go |
| minimum charge | No minimum charge is explicitly required (subject to the actual package). |
| SSL Support | Supports custom certificates |
| Multi-domain support | Support |
IV. CDN Acceleration Testing Methods
Acceleration testing is primarily conducted using the curl tool, focusing on DNS resolution, Time to First Byte (TTFB), overall request duration, and HTTP response codes.
curl -o /dev/null -s -w " DNS: %{time_namelookup}s TTFB: %{time_starttransfer}s Total: %{time_total}s HTTP Code: %{http_code} \n " https://cdn-test-domain.example/test.jpg
Total: %{time_total}s HTTP Code: %{http_code} \n" https://cdn-test-domain.example/test.jpg
V. CDN Acceleration Test Results
| Region | Time to First Byte | Total Time | HTTP Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 120 milliseconds | 260 milliseconds | 200 |
| Europe | 180 milliseconds | 340 milliseconds | 200 |
| Asia-Pacific | 240 milliseconds | 420 milliseconds | 200 |
Based on test results, IO River delivers relatively stable acceleration performance in North America and Europe, with TTFB maintained within a reasonable range. Performance in the Asia-Pacific region is slightly slower, but overall remains significantly superior to direct access to the origin server.
VI. DDoS Attack Stress Testing Solution
| Project | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Attack Type | HTTP Flood |
| Request Size | Tens of thousands of requests per minute |
| Duration | 15 minutes |
| Key Performance Indicators | Return code, origin server load, service availability |
VII. DDoS Stress Test Results
| stage | HTTP 200 | 403 / 429 | Origin server load | Business Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before the attack | Normal | 无 | 低 | 100% |
| Under attack | Part | significantly increased | controllable | accessible |
| After the attack | Return to normal | Reduce | Restore | 100% |
VIII. HTTP Header / Cache Validation
curl -I https://cdn-test-domain.example/test.jpg
HTTP/2 200 server: ioriver x-cache: HIT via: ioriver-edge
The cache hit indicator is clearly visible in the response header, confirming that the CDN actively participated in request processing rather than performing transparent forwarding.
IX. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Does it support custom SSL certificates? Yes.
- Is trial data provided? This depends on the current official policy.
- Is it suitable for high-risk financial activities? Not recommended.
- Can it withstand an ultra-large-scale attack on its own? Testing did not cover such extreme scenarios.
X. Personal View
From an engineer's perspective, IO River CDN is a CDN product with a clear positioning and well-defined boundaries.
It is suitable for users who want stable global acceleration and basic DDoS protection without being locked into complex cloud ecosystems.
It is not suitable for scenarios requiring “extreme protection capabilities” or “financial-grade security,” but for practical use cases such as small-to-medium scale operations, content distribution, and API acceleration, IO River offers a relatively pragmatic and easy-to-manage option.
