Push CDN

Push CDN vs Pull CDN

There are many content delivery networks on the market. However, most of them work in the same way.

Using strategically placed servers all over the world, content is delivered quickly to your website visitors.

These servers make it possible to respond faster to web page requests and they don’t get overloaded by traffic.

However, while generally, that is the way how content delivery networks or CDNs work, there are actually two types of CDN based on how they pull files and other elements of a page and present it to the visitor.

There are also cases when Pull CDN is superior to , or vice versa.

What is Push CDN?

Push CDN is a type of content delivery network in which the CDN servers behave similarly to the origin server.

This scenario sees the origin server sending the content to the CDN servers automatically or manually and linking to it. These contents are stored in the server until they are deleted or purged when a new page is sent.

This principle states that the CDN will deliver the content to your visitors only if you are the website owner. This content will be served to visitors when the CDN server receives a request.

What are the advantages of Push CDN

Push CDNs allow you to be flexible with your content. You, the owner and creator of your website’s content, can direct specify what content will be pushed and when.

This is a more efficient and straightforward way to use traffic, especially when you are moving from an origin server to the CDN servers. Traffic is kept low by only uploading the content to the CDN server if there are any changes.

What is Pull CDN?

Push CDN is, however, Pull CDN. Not just by name. Push CDNs require that the website owner uploads the content to be uploaded to CDN servers. Pull CDNs are different. The CDN pulls the content that is to be delivered to the visitors.

The website owner leaves the content on the original server and redirects it to the CDN.

The CDN will pull web page elements from the origin server when a request is made for a specific web page. It then serves it to the visitor.

The CDN server will then cache this version of the page until it expires.

What are the benefits of Pull CDN?

Because the CDN does most of the work, the main benefit of pull CDNs are very easy to set-up. It also reduces storage consumption because it only pulls web pages elements and files after an initial request has been made.

Pull CDN can cause problems, however, as it is not as flexible and reliable as Push CDN. Duplicate traffic is quite common because web pages elements and files can be re-queried before they are modified.

The page loading speed of Pull CDN may be slower than Push CDN due to visitors who access the page for the first or second time, or trying to open a page after the CDN files and elements have expired.

Push CDN or Pull CDN? Which one is best for your website?

You are mistaken if you think choosing one is the best option for your website. Each method will work fine for any website. In some cases, one is better than the other. Both methods will work fine.

To give you an idea, pull CDN is the best method for websites with a lot traffic. The content is stable and traffic is spread out.

Push CDN might be more suitable for you if you have little traffic. This is because the content is only pushed once to the server and then stored until you need it.