A CDN (Content Delivery Network) stores site files (images, JS, CSS, video) across edge servers worldwide and serves them from the one nearest the user. It significantly speeds up the site and reduces the origin server's load. As of 2026, 96% of the world's top 10,000 sites use a CDN.
How a CDN works
When a user requests sayt.uz, the browser connects to the nearest CDN edge server (for Tashkent that's usually Frankfurt or Moscow). Static files (images, CSS, JS) are delivered fast from the edge β no need to reach origin. Dynamic content (HTML) may still come from origin, but the CDN can also optimize the intermediate hop.
Main CDN providers
Cloudflare β the most popular, with a free plan. 320+ edge locations worldwide. DDoS protection, SSL, WAF included. The free plan is enough for small sites. Pro $20/month, Business $200/month.
BunnyCDN β cheap and fast. $0.005-0.05/GB bandwidth. Simple interface, pro tools. In some tests it's even faster than Cloudflare.
Amazon CloudFront β part of the AWS ecosystem. Complex setup but tight AWS integration. $0.085/GB (first 10 TB).
Fastly β premium, with real-time edge computing. Good for WordPress and e-commerce. From $50/month.
KeyCDN β a Cloudflare alternative, $0.04/GB. Simple and cheap.
Cloudflare setup
1. Create a Cloudflare account and add the domain. 2. Cloudflare automatically scans existing DNS records. 3. Change the NS record at the domain registrar to Cloudflare's NS (e.g., dale.ns.cloudflare.com). 4. Cloudflare becomes active within 5-30 minutes.
Main settings: SSL/TLS β Full (strict). Caching β Cache Level: Standard. Speed β Auto Minify (HTML, CSS, JS). Rocket Loader On (JS optimization). Brotli compression On. Page Rules β custom caching rules.
Cache control
HTTP headers control which files the CDN caches and for how long. Cache-Control: max-age=31536000 β cache for a year (static files). Cache-Control: no-cache β revalidate with origin every request. Cache-Control: private β only browser cache, no CDN caching.
Sayt.uz practice
67% of Sayt.uz clients run on Cloudflare Free (we recommend it by default). 12% on Cloudflare Pro or Business. 8% on BunnyCDN. After adding a CDN, the average client's page load time drops 40-60% (LCP 3.5s to 1.8s). Origin server bandwidth also drops 60-80%. Tip: add a CDN to every site β it's the easiest "quick win" for performance, free, and requires minimal technical skill.