Content delivery networks for small business buyers
Asked as “CDN”, and as “content delivery network”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
CloudflareBy buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
01The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
One product takes 90% of first choices here, so the chart would put five markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Three products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing
02What they warned about
Nine of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Mistral Small and Llama 4 Maverick changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Akamai70%
16 of 23 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“the main CDNs to **avoid or be cautious about** are: - **Enterprise‑tier providers** (Akamai, Google Cloud CDN, Azure CDN, Fastly)” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Fastly54%
20 of 37 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Powerful but highly programmable; steep learning curve and complex configuration ... Can be overkill and risky if misconfigured” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Amazon CloudFront27%
13 of 48 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Pay-as-you-go model leads to "bill shock" from overages... Complex for non-AWS users” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Azure CDN71%
5 of 7 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“notoriously risky for small businesses due to "bill shock."” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
03What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.
Sites the answers cite
58 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 4 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 710 links across 184 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.
vendor site · BlazingCDN39 answers · 82 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Fastly30 answers · 38 citations · 11 models
25 answers · 25 citations · 9 models
21 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
20 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
16 answers · 23 citations · 7 models
14 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
13 answers · 18 citations · 7 models
13 answers · 13 citations · 6 models
11 answers · 11 citations · 8 models
10 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
10 answers · 13 citations · 5 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
25 answers · 9 models
20 answers · 10 models
20 answers · 9 models
12 answers · 7 models
12 answers · 6 models
12 answers · 6 models
11 answers · 8 models
10 answers · 7 models
10 answers · 6 models
9 answers · 6 models
04How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best CDN for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which content delivery network would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top CDNs for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best CDN for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a CDN. What should we look at?”Negative“Which CDNs should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Bunny.net, Cloudflareagainst: FastlyCloudflareChangedCloudflareagainst: CDN77, FastlyCloudflareagainst: Fastlyno first choiceagainst: Akamai, CDN77
Two alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, DigitalOcean CDNTwo alternatives
Bunny.net, GcoreTwo alternatives
Bunny.net, KeyCDNOne alternative
Bunny.netGPT-5.4 miniCloudflareCloudflareHeldagainst: FastlyCloudflareagainst: FastlyCloudflareagainst: Akamai, Fastlyno first choicenothing named
Two alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Google Cloud CDNOne alternative
Amazon CloudFrontTwo alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netGemini 3.5 FlashCloudflareCloudflareHeldCloudflareagainst: FastlyCloudflareagainst: KeyCDN, StackPathCloudflareagainst: Amazon CloudFrontagainst: Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Azure CDN, EdgeCast, Edgio, Fastly, Google Cloud CDN
Three alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, KeyCDNTwo alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netTwo alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netTwo alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netTwo alternatives
Bunny.net, FastlyPerplexity SonarCloudflareagainst: Akamai, FastlyCloudflareHeldCloudflareCloudflareno first choiceagainst: Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Google Cloud CDN
Two alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netThree alternatives
Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netFour alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, Fastly, KeyCDNTwo alternatives
Bunny.net, KeyCDNGrok 4.1 FastCloudflareagainst: Amazon CloudFrontCloudflareHeldCloudflareagainst: Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, StackPathCloudflareagainst: KeyCDNCloudflareagainst: Fastlyagainst: Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, StackPath
Two alternatives
Bunny.net, KeyCDNTwo alternatives
Bunny.net, KeyCDNTwo alternatives
Bunny.net, KeyCDNOne alternative
Bunny.netThree alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, KeyCDNMistral SmallCloudflare, Fastlyagainst: Akamai, Amazon CloudFrontCloudflareChangedagainst: Akamai, FastlyCloudflare, KeyCDNagainst: AkamaiCloudflareagainst: Amazon CloudFront, FastlyCloudflareagainst: Google Hosted Libraries, cdnjs
One alternative
Amazon CloudFrontOne alternative
FastlyOne alternative
Bunny.netFour alternatives
Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, FastlyDeepSeek V4 FlashCloudflareagainst: FastlyCloudflareHeldBunny.net, CloudflareCloudflareCloudflareagainst: Akamaiagainst: Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Azure CDN, CDN77, Fastly
Two alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netOne alternative
Bunny.netThree alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, KeyCDNThree alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, KeyCDNTwo alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, FastlyLlama 4 Maverickno first choiceCloudflareChangedBunny.netCloudflare, jsDelivrno first choicenothing named
Two alternatives
CDN77, KeyCDNOne alternative
KeyCDNQwen 3.7 FlashCloudflareCloudflareHeldagainst: Amazon CloudFrontCloudflareagainst: FastlyCloudflareCloudflare, StackPathagainst: Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Azure CDN, Fastly, Limelight Networks / Verizon EdgeCast
Four alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, Netlify, VercelOne alternative
Bunny.netTwo alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.netThree alternatives
Bunny.net, Netlify, VercelTwo alternatives
Mux, StreamlyKimi K2CloudflareCloudflareHeldBunny.net, CloudflareCloudflareCloudflareagainst: Amazon CloudFrontagainst: Amazon CloudFront, Azure CDN, CDNify, Cloudflare, Edgio, Google Cloud CDN, MaxCDN, Netlify, StackPath, Vercel
Two alternatives
Bunny.net, KeyCDNFour alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, Fastly, KeyCDNTwo alternatives
Gcore, KeyCDNTwo alternatives
Bunny.net, KeyCDNOne alternative
Bunny.netGLM 4.7 FlashXCloudflareCloudflareHeldagainst: AkamaiCloudflareCloudflareagainst: FastlyCloudflareagainst: Akamai, Azure CDN, Fastly, Google Cloud CDN
Four alternatives
Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, FastlyThree alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, FastlySix alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Azure CDN, Bunny.net, Fastly, KeyCDN, StackPathFive alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, Netlify, Vercel, jsDelivrThree alternatives
Akamai, Bunny.net, FastlyMiniMax M2.5Cloudflareagainst: AkamaiCloudflareHeldagainst: AkamaiCloudflareCloudflareBunny.net, Cloudflareagainst: CDN77, CDNify, StackPath
Two alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, FastlyTwo alternatives
Amazon CloudFront, Azure CDNThree alternatives
Bunny.net, CDN77, KeyCDNThree alternatives
Bunny.net, Gcore, jsDelivrOne alternative
Amazon CloudFrontBold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
05The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 10:32 | no | 0 | 6 s |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 11:30 | yes | 4 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 10:10 | yes | 12 | 23 s |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 13:39 | yes | 20 | 6 s |
| Direct recommendation | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 10:01 | yes | 18 | 10 s |
| Direct recommendation | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 10:34 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Direct recommendation | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra | 2026-09-17 12:58 | yes | 15 | 24 s |
| Direct recommendation | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 12:33 | yes | 6 | 4 s |
| Direct recommendation | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 11:20 | no | 0 | 33 s |
| Direct recommendation | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 12:18 | yes | 10 | 29 s |
| Direct recommendation | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 11:48 | yes | 19 | 113 s |
| Direct recommendation | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 13:37 | yes | 5 | 53 s |
| Paraphrase | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 10:36 | yes | 16 | 8 s |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 11:03 | yes | 4 | 5 s |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 13:41 | no | 0 | 13 s |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 09:42 | yes | 20 | 4 s |
| Paraphrase | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 12:21 | yes | 14 | 8 s |
| Paraphrase | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 09:52 | yes | 10 | 7 s |
| Paraphrase | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 11:21 | yes | 19 | 17 s |
| Paraphrase | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 13:26 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Paraphrase | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 13:51 | no | 0 | 30 s |
| Paraphrase | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 11:29 | no | 0 | 12 s |
| Paraphrase | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 10:10 | yes | 10 | 31 s |
| Paraphrase | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 11:04 | yes | 5 | 28 s |
| Comparative | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 11:30 | yes | 17 | 12 s |
| Comparative | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 10:08 | yes | 4 | 7 s |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 12:04 | yes | 15 | 25 s |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 12:21 | yes | 20 | 9 s |
| Comparative | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 13:49 | yes | 38 | 18 s |
| Comparative | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 13:34 | yes | 25 | 14 s |
| Comparative | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 10:24 | yes | 15 | 21 s |
| Comparative | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 11:08 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Comparative | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 13:02 | yes | 5 | 34 s |
| Comparative | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 14:13 | yes | 10 | 25 s |
| Comparative | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 10:07 | yes | 20 | 202 s |
| Comparative | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 13:14 | yes | 8 | 26 s |
| Budget constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 12:52 | no | 0 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 10:43 | yes | 3 | 5 s |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 13:16 | yes | 17 | 20 s |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 12:21 | yes | 20 | 5 s |
| Budget constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 13:04 | yes | 14 | 9 s |
| Budget constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 12:31 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Budget constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 12:29 | yes | 10 | 11 s |
| Budget constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 10:58 | yes | 5 | 2 s |
| Budget constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 09:29 | no | 0 | 30 s |
| Budget constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 13:45 | yes | 10 | 19 s |
| Budget constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 10:31 | yes | 15 | 50 s |
| Budget constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 09:36 | yes | 5 | 18 s |
| Scale constrained | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 12:27 | no | 0 | 6 s |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 12:46 | no | 0 | 7 s |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 10:23 | no | 0 | 14 s |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 10:14 | yes | 20 | 8 s |
| Scale constrained | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 10:53 | yes | 16 | 11 s |
| Scale constrained | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 13:41 | no | 0 | 8 s |
| Scale constrained | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 09:34 | yes | 8 | 18 s |
| Scale constrained | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 11:00 | yes | 5 | 3 s |
| Scale constrained | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 13:43 | yes | 5 | 47 s |
| Scale constrained | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 10:27 | yes | 10 | 23 s |
| Scale constrained | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 11:20 | no | 0 | 39 s |
| Scale constrained | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 13:17 | yes | 5 | 29 s |
| Negative framing | Claude Haiku 4.5 | claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | 2026-09-17 12:41 | yes | 23 | 11 s |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.4 mini | gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17 | 2026-09-17 11:52 | no | 0 | 4 s |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.5 Flash | gemini-3.5-flash | 2026-09-17 10:34 | yes | 16 | 28 s |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar | sonar | 2026-09-17 10:30 | yes | 20 | 7 s |
| Negative framing | Grok 4.1 Fast | spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex | 2026-09-17 12:24 | yes | 41 | 22 s |
| Negative framing | Mistral Small | mistral/mistral-small via mistral | 2026-09-17 10:17 | yes | 5 | 6 s |
| Negative framing | DeepSeek V4 Flash | deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks | 2026-09-17 13:28 | yes | 19 | 20 s |
| Negative framing | Llama 4 Maverick | meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock | 2026-09-17 13:08 | yes | 5 | 4 s |
| Negative framing | Qwen 3.7 Flash | alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba | 2026-09-17 11:12 | no | 0 | 43 s |
| Negative framing | Kimi K2 | moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita | 2026-09-17 10:15 | yes | 25 | 36 s |
| Negative framing | GLM 4.7 FlashX | zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai | 2026-09-17 11:44 | yes | 29 | 162 s |
| Negative framing | MiniMax M2.5 | minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax | 2026-09-17 11:24 | yes | 15 | 26 s |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
None. Every name in this category resolved on its own.
Unresolved, counted raw
Cloudflare Application Services (CDN)
DigitalOcean CDN
Limelight Networks / Verizon EdgeCast
MaxCDN
Medianova CDN
Mux
Netlify / Vercel Edge
Streamly
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.