CDN cost compared: CloudFront vs Front Door vs Cloud CDN

Quick answer

CloudFront, Azure Front Door, and Google Cloud CDN all bill egress to users (tiered by region and volume, roughly $0.08 per GB in North America and Europe) plus request charges, with free transfer from same-cloud origins into the CDN. Rates are close; the cheapest depends on your traffic's geography and volume. In all cases, a CDN usually lowers total cost by cutting origin egress and load.

The three major clouds each offer a CDN, and they price content delivery on the same axes: bytes delivered to users and requests served, with origin-to-CDN transfer free when the origin is on the same cloud. Rates are close enough that the cheapest depends on where your users are and how much you serve, not the provider.

The shared model

CDN	Egress (NA/EU approx.)	Requests
CloudFront	~$0.085/GB, tiered	Per 10,000
Azure Front Door / CDN	~$0.08/GB, tiered	Per 10,000
Google Cloud CDN	~$0.08/GB, tiered	Per 10,000 lookups

All three charge egress to viewers, tiered by region (cheaper in North America and Europe, more in South America, India, and some of Asia-Pacific) and falling with volume, plus per-request charges. Origin-to-CDN transfer is free from a same-cloud origin. The models line up, so the comparison is about traffic geography and volume, detailed in CloudFront, Front Door versus CDN, and Cloud CDN.

Geography drives the difference

Because egress is tiered by region, the cheapest CDN for you depends on where your users are. A service serving mostly North American and European traffic sees similar rates across all three; a service heavy in a region where one provider prices egress lower may favor that provider. Compare against your actual traffic distribution, not a single headline rate.

A CDN lowers total cost

On all three, a CDN usually reduces total cost regardless of which you pick, because origin-to-CDN transfer is free, cached content is served at tiered CDN egress rates (often cheaper at volume than direct origin egress), and caching means the origin serves far fewer bytes and requests. The cache-hit ratio is the key lever on every CDN: higher hit ratio means less origin load and cost, the caching principle at the edge.

Choosing and optimizing

Use the CDN on the cloud where your origin lives (to get free origin-to-CDN transfer), compare rates against your traffic's geography if egress volume is large, and on any CDN maximize cache-hit ratio with good cache keys and TTLs. The optimization, high hit ratio, appropriate cache settings, cutting origin load, is identical across CloudFront, Front Door, and Cloud CDN, so the effort transfers.

FAQ

Is CloudFront, Front Door, or Cloud CDN cheapest?

They are close, since all three bill egress to users (tiered by region, roughly $0.08 per GB in North America and Europe) plus requests, with free origin-to-CDN transfer from a same-cloud origin. The cheapest depends on your traffic's geography and volume, not the provider, so it is usually the CDN on the cloud your origin lives on.

How do CDN pricing models compare across clouds?

Nearly identically: egress to viewers tiered by region and volume, per-request charges, and free transfer from a same-cloud origin into the CDN. CloudFront, Azure Front Door, and Google Cloud CDN all follow this model, so the comparison comes down to traffic geography and volume rather than the pricing structure.

Does a CDN lower my total cloud cost?

Usually, on any of the three. Origin-to-CDN transfer is free, cached content is served at tiered CDN egress rates that are often cheaper at volume than direct origin egress, and caching means the origin serves far fewer bytes and requests. A high cache-hit ratio is the key to realizing these savings.

How does traffic geography affect CDN cost?

Egress is tiered by region, so the cheapest CDN depends on where your users are. Traffic in North America and Europe sees similar low rates across all three, while traffic heavy in regions where one provider prices egress lower may favor that provider. Compare against your actual traffic distribution.

What is the main CDN cost optimization?

Maximizing cache-hit ratio with good cache keys and appropriate TTLs, which reduces origin load and cost by serving more from the edge. A low hit ratio sends more traffic to the origin, adding origin egress and compute. This lever is identical across CloudFront, Front Door, and Cloud CDN.

Does C3X estimate CDN cost across clouds?

CDN cost depends on egress, requests, and cache-hit ratio, which are usage inputs tied to traffic. C3X prices the surrounding infrastructure across clouds, and you model traffic volume, geography, and hit ratio to compare CDN cost for your workload.

What to do next

Compare CDN options for your traffic. C3X reads your Terraform and prices your resources against a live catalog. Start with the quickstart.