CloudFront

AWS provides secure cloud based services for applications and data storage. These can be compute resources, databases, static assets like images, videos or audio files that you want your users to access.

CloudFront is a content delivery service that replicates data stored in AWS to other edge locations around the world so it can be served faster when requested by users nearer to that location.

Amazon CloudFront is a web service that speeds up distribution of your static and dynamic web content, such as .html, .css, .js, and image files, to your users. CloudFront delivers your content through a worldwide network of data centres called edge locations. When a user requests content that you're serving with CloudFront, the request is routed to the edge location that provides the lowest latency (time delay), so that content is delivered with the best possible performance.

- If the content is already in the edge location with the lowest latency, CloudFront delivers it immediately.

- If the content is not in that edge location, CloudFront retrieves it from an origin that you've defined—such as an Amazon S3 bucket, a Media Package channel, or an HTTP server (for example, a web server) that you have identified as the source for the definitive version of your content.

CloudFlare

Cloudflare is a free CDN type product that protects against threats such as SQL injection and identity theft. Cloudflare also improves site performance and speeds up loading times by using their multiple data centres that are located around the world. The Cloudflare network acts like a giant VPN. This means that a site visitor will access your website by being physically redirected to the closest server. What this means is simple: the closer the data centre, the faster your website will load for the user. This is unique to Cloudflare.

Another benefit is the reduction of bot crawls, which can be both helpful and harmful depending on their source. A bot crawl is typically used to go to websites and “crawl” for information on your web page. While these can be helpful when catching content thieves using your website design without permission, they can also generate false ad impressions, inject spam and malware through file backdoors, and steal website content and information. A good way to think about Cloudflare is to think of it as a web proxy. Because a cache of your website is available to the visitor, Cloudflare is able to block suspicious content and keep you safe from malicious viruses, spambots and harmful traffic flow.

Cloudflare is a tool that is free to use as long as you are managing a single site. There are multiple paid options that provide more adaptability as well as plugin options so that you can provide the best experience to the visitors of your site.

Overall, this service offers many options for web management and precludes the chances of vulnerabilities in your server. For the money, it also offers the benefits of a web hosting service provider without the costly (and not always effective) CDN services that are sometimes available through low-end web hosting providers.