Easily compare Imperva and CloudFront for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
Company | Imperva | CloudFront |
---|---|---|
Short profile | Imperva's CDN (formerly Incapsula) makes your websites and applications faster, more reliable and safer. A global network of servers provides content caching, load balancing and failover, while an enterprise-grade cloud web application firewall and DDoS protection safeguard your site from the latest threats. | CloudFront is the CDN of AWS (Amazon Web Services), the world's largest cloud services provider. CloudFront offers a mature set of content delivery products and has a big network of POPs on many continents. Solid documentation and APIs make CloudFront a developer-friendly CDN. |
Products
Product | Imperva | CloudFront |
---|---|---|
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Content Delivery Network | Dynamic Content Delivery |
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Content Caching | |
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | ||
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Streaming Media | |
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | ||
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image Compression | |
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain |
Name Server (NS) Protection
Name Server (NS) Protection is a secure proxy in front of your authoritative DNS
|
AWS Route53 |
WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web Application Firewall | AWS WAF |
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | DDoS Protection | AWS Shield |
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Lambda@Edge |
Network
How many POP locations do Imperva and CloudFront have in different parts of the world?
Region | Imperva | CloudFront |
---|---|---|
North America | 12 | 19 |
Latin America | 5 | 7 |
Europe | 12 | 31 |
Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
Asia excl. China | 12 | 18 |
China | 0 | 4 |
Oceania | 3 | 5 |
Middle East | 3 | 5 |
Africa | 2 | 4 |
Pricing
Pricing & contract duration | Imperva | CloudFront |
---|---|---|
Minimum contract term | Unknown | None |
Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | None |
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | $0.0075 - $0.022 per 10k requests |
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | $0.02 - $0.16 per GB (free if origin is AWS) |
NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.085 per GB |
APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.12 per GB (India: $0.109) |
LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.11 per GB |
Features
Web acceleration | Imperva | CloudFront |
---|---|---|
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | ||
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | Instant | ~10 minutes |
Apex/root domain OK No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com | Anycasted network (regional) | Only if used together with AWS Route53 |
HTTP/2 | FAQ | HTTP/2 announcement (Sep 2016) |
HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | |
WebSockets | WebSockets docs | Using WebSockets with CloudFront distributions |
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | IPv6 support | IPv6 support announcement (Oct 2016) |
Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery | Compress on the edge |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge
CloudFront can compress many content types on the edge and supports Brotli
|
Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? |
HTTP and HTTPS.
Can be IP address
|
HTTP and HTTPS |
Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? |
Can configure specific other Host header.
Forward client request Host header is possible
|
Can't configure specific other Host header |
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Origin Shield docs | |
Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Waiting Room | Virtual Waiting Room on AWS |
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | ||
Cache control - CDN caching | Granular control/override rules possible | |
Cache control - client caching | Granular control/override rules possible | |
Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble | Supports Cache-Control extensions | |
Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN | Instant | Purge Speed |
Purge - capabilities | Purge all, by directory, by file extension, by tag(s) | Purge all and by directory/file type (wildcards) |
Analytics | Real time perf and security events dashboard | Amazon CloudFront Reports & Analytics |
Log files |
Available via UI, API, or full SIEM integration
Logs are not delayed
|
Only delivered to S3
CloudFront delivers access logs for a distribution up to several times an hour
|
API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, configuration |
HTTPS & Content Protection | Imperva | CloudFront |
---|---|---|
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | CDN and SSL/TLS | Free (not SNI) |
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | Free (SNI) or $600/m for non-SNI | |
Token authentication | Via authentication header | Serving Private Content through CloudFront |
Geo blocking | Restricting the Geographic Distribution of Your Content | |
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Use AWS WAF for Referer Checking | |
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | Two Factor Authentication | |
IP white/blacklisting | IP address/ranges/subnets, self-service in UI | Use AWS WAF to Block IP Addresses |
Support
Customer support | Imperva | CloudFront |
---|---|---|
Documentation | Yes, public | Yes, public. API docs |
Humans | Imperva’s team of support engineers deliver technical assistance 24x7x365 via phone, email, or online via the self service portal | Community support is free. Email and phone support (AWS Support) available at extra costs |