# Content delivery networks for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "CDN" and as "content delivery network", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/network/content-delivery-networks/smb/

**Standing:** Cloudflare leads with 90% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 48 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloudflare | 90% | 2% | 65 |
| 2 | Bunny.net | 4% | 0% | 55 |
| 3 | Fastly | 2% | 54% | 37 |
| 4 | KeyCDN | 0% | 7% | 30 |
| 5 | Amazon CloudFront | 0% | 27% | 48 |
| 6 | Akamai | 0% | 70% | 23 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Bunny.net, Cloudflare; alternatives Amazon CloudFront, DigitalOcean CDN
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare; alternatives Amazon CloudFront, Google Cloud CDN
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, KeyCDN
- Perplexity Sonar: Cloudflare; alternatives Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Cloudflare; alternatives Bunny.net, KeyCDN
- Mistral Small: Cloudflare, Fastly
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cloudflare; alternatives Amazon CloudFront, Fastly, Netlify, Vercel
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare; alternatives Bunny.net, KeyCDN
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare; alternatives Akamai, Amazon CloudFront, Bunny.net, Fastly
- MiniMax M2.5: Cloudflare; alternatives Amazon CloudFront, Fastly

## Sources the answers cite

58 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- blog.blazingcdn.com: 39 answers, 82 citations
- fastly.com: 30 answers, 38 citations
- broadbandnow.com: 25 answers, 25 citations
- yewsafe.com: 21 answers, 24 citations
- wpforms.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- g2.com: 16 answers, 23 citations
- techradar.com: 14 answers, 15 citations
- ioriver.io: 13 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://broadbandnow.com/guides/CDN-Providers (25 answers)
- https://fastly.com/blog/best-cdn-providers (20 answers)
- https://wpforms.com/best-cdn-providers (20 answers)
- https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/top-cdn-providers-2025-an-expert-guide-to-types-technologies-and-performance-0 (12 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/content-delivery-network-cdn/small-business (12 answers)
- https://redswitches.com/blog/top-9-cdn-providers-in-2026 (12 answers)
- https://best4beginners.com/best-cdn-providers-for-small-business-beginners (11 answers)
- https://techradar.com/news/best-cdn-providers (10 answers)
- https://topchoicefor.com/business/business-services/cdn/best-cdn-providers-2026 (10 answers)
- https://smallbizgenius.net/best-cdn (9 answers)

## Warned against

- Akamai: 16 of 23 labels 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)
- Fastly: 20 of 37 labels 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 CloudFront: 13 of 48 labels negative. "Pay-as-you-go model leads to "bill shock" from overages... Complex for non-AWS users" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)
- Azure CDN: 5 of 7 labels negative. "notoriously risky for small businesses due to "bill shock."" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.