Azure Front Door vs Windows Azure CDN comparison

Azure Front Door and Windows Azure CDN are both solutions in the CDN category. Azure Front Door is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.8, while Windows Azure CDN is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.0. Azure Front Door holds a 10.3% mindshare in CDN, compared to Windows Azure CDN’s 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Azure Front Door users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Windows Azure CDN users who would recommend it.

Azure Front Door

Read 16 Azure Front Door reviews

6,782 Views
4,340 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Windows Azure CDN

Read 13 Windows Azure CDN reviews

1,042 Views
1,042 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Azure Front Door

Windows Azure CDN

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Windows Azure CDN and Azure Front Door are competing in the Azure cloud services sector, each with its strengths. Azure Front Door appears to have the upper hand due to its superior features that justify a higher cost.

Features: Windows Azure CDN is efficient in content caching and boosting speeds through its global reach. It supports extensive datasets and offers fast data caching and website loading, providing an intuitive UI. Azure Front Door excels with global load balancing, application acceleration, and a web application firewall. It integrates well with cloud services, offers bot protection, and combines CDN with load-balancing capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Windows Azure CDN could enhance its security features, caching mechanisms, and user interface simplicity. Better integration with other platforms and enhanced user feedback systems would also be valuable. Azure Front Door would benefit from simplifying its setup process, improving cost-effectiveness, and expanding feature documentation to make configuration more user-friendly. Enhancing customer support and reducing technical complexities would also be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Windows Azure CDN offers straightforward deployment with reliable support, simplifying integration. Azure Front Door's feature-rich architecture results in a more complex deployment process. However, its customer service aids users in navigating the setup and troubleshooting, ensuring a smooth experience once configured.

Pricing and ROI: Windows Azure CDN is known for lower setup costs and favorable ROI, ideal for businesses with basic needs. Azure Front Door may demand higher initial investment but offers greater returns in demanding settings, justifying its costs for those needing enhanced performance and security.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Front Door vs. Windows Azure CDN Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Front Door vs. Windows Azure CDN

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Azure Front Door

Ranking in CDN

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (13th), Microsoft Security Suite (18th)

Windows Azure CDN

Ranking in CDN

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Azure Front Door is 10.3%, down from 19.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows Azure CDN is 3.2%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CDN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Azure Front Door	10.3%
Windows Azure CDN	3.2%
Other	86.5%

CDN

Featured Reviews

reviewer2226693

Architect at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

Optimizing global application performance with robust security measures and advanced traffic management

DDoS capabilities in Azure Front Door could certainly be improved. Although Microsoft states it comes with basic DDoS protections out of the box, I find it often ineffectual in mitigating thousands of requests from a single source in a short span of time. User then have to rely on the WAF module where users must configure rate-limiting rules, as it does not automatically sense malicious spikes in traffic. I believe Front Door should have an out-of-the-box premium DDoS protection that can automatically detect and block malicious traffic. I would appreciate improvements in the turnaround time for support, especially since issues with Azure Front Door are usually critical for businesses. If there is an issue, it often results in downtime for line of business applications. I have faced this situation multiple times as one of the largest financial institutions in India is hosted there, adhering to strict SLAs that require prompt responses.

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AlaaMadkhana

Pre Sales at eSense Software

Has provided exceptional performance for handling high web traffic

In my opinion, Windows Azure CDN is one of the best CDNs. We tried to replace it and made a business case to check other options such as Cloudflare, and we are using Cloudflare and tried Akamai, wanting to explore alternatives from OCI. One of the best features of Windows Azure CDN is that it has integrated WAF; it is not only CDN alone and it is a very smart and capable WAF. Windows Azure CDN is easily integrated with Azure services such as Azure Storage and Azure Web Apps, and sometimes we are using just Azure Front Door while the back end and database will be on OCI. The impact of Windows Azure CDN's dynamic content acceleration on our application performance is very significant. For one of our clients, we could not use anything other than Azure Front Door.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Rules Engine is a valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature is that I can have CDN and load-balancing capabilities in a single service instead of managing two separate tools."

"The tool is easy to use for beginners."

"The solution is good."

"Azure Front Door provides DDoS protection and features related to WAF."

"It inspects the traffic at the network level before it comes into Azure. We can do SSL offloading, and it can detect abnormalities before the traffic comes into the application. It can be used globally and is easy to set up. It is also quite stable and scalable."

"The price is one of the most important aspects of the product. It's quite affordable."

"The web application firewall is a great feature."

More Azure Front Door pros

"One of the best features of Windows Azure CDN is that it has integrated WAF; it is not only CDN alone and it is a very smart and capable WAF."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that one can access Windows Azure CDN from anywhere."

"The fact that it just delivers what it is supposed to do is its most valuable feature...The initial setup is very straightforward."

"One of the most valuable aspects is the capability to store extensive datasets and objects in the cloud, enabling their download through shared access signatures."

"The most valuable feature of Windows Azure CDN is its effectiveness."

"I like that CDN offers a routing feature."

"The geolocation feature is very important because many colleagues travel worldwide and need to access information from anywhere. The product has improved security."

"We use the product for faster content delivery with low latency."

More Windows Azure CDN pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement and they're working on it."

"The tool should improve its cost."

"We should be able to use Front Door defenders with multiple cloud vendors. Currently, they can be used only with the Azure cloud. Azure Front Door should also be able to do global load balancing and provide internal front door services. Microsoft should clearly define what Traffic Manager, Application Gateway, and Azure Front Door products do. These are similar products, and people get confused between these products."

"This is a relatively expensive solution."

"I'm responsible for the governance and cost control of Azure. I'm not a specialist in any products and therefore I couldn't really speak effectively to features that are lacking or missing."

"It lacks sufficient functionality."

"The product's features are limited compared to Cloudflare. The tool also doesn't work well in a hybrid environment. I would like to see a way to add personalized APIs in the system."

"Although Microsoft states it comes with basic DDoS protections out of the box, I find it often ineffectual in mitigating thousands of requests from a single source in a short time."

More Azure Front Door cons

"The high price of Windows Azure CDN is an area of concern where improvements can be made."

"I aim to enhance the reporting."

"I believe Windows Azure CDN can improve monitoring and measuring overall end-user performance. Providing monitoring tools or agents that can be integrated into our pages would be highly beneficial. Setting up a custom domain with Windows Azure CDN involves proving domain ownership, which can take some time. The process is relatively straightforward if your DNS or domain registrar is already integrated with Microsoft. However, the verification process may be more time-consuming if you use a different service provider."

"Windows Azure CDN should lower its prices."

"The response time of the support team must be improved."

"It is not a weakness of Windows Azure CDN; rather, it is the fact that it is outside Saudi Arabia, leading to some regulation issues."

"We have experienced issues with switch connectivity."

"Exploring shared access solutions with cloud accounts would be a beneficial choice."

More Windows Azure CDN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."

"Considering the standard licensing of the tool, even though we have not checked the billing as of now, it might not be very costly."

"The pricing of the solution is good."

"It is on a pay-as-you-go basis."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"The transition to the premium tier has led to increased costs, making it more expensive than the classic tier."

"The solution's price is above the medium range."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"The solution's price depends on how much traffic you have. So, it was okay for us. Payments are to be made on a monthly basis since one has to pay for what they used."

"I rate the price of Windows Azure CDN a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is high."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"The pricing of the solution depends on usage and varies based on the company's needs. If you want additional features like advanced logging, it will be pricier. However, it could be cheaper if you don't need those features. It all depends on the resources and requirements."

"It comes at a relatively affordable cost."

"The pricing is extremely high, almost 9 out of 10."

More Windows Azure CDN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Front Door?

I am not sure about the pricing but believe Azure Front Door might require a higher cost due to its entry point nature.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Front Door?

See all answers

What do you like most about Windows Azure CDN?

One of the tool's best features is its ability to handle edge cases. For instance, we encountered a situation where we needed to remove certain files from public access. The solution offered a purg...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows Azure CDN?

In terms of pricing for Windows Azure CDN and the whole Microsoft products, you cannot compare networking alone or compute alone; you need a full solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Windows Azure CDN?

It is not a weakness of Windows Azure CDN; rather, it is the fact that it is outside Saudi Arabia, leading to some regulation issues. For computing, they could make a flex engine similar to other p...

See all answers

Comparisons

Amazon CloudFront vs Azure Front Door

Compared 14% of the time

Cloudflare vs Azure Front Door

Compared 13% of the time

Akamai vs Azure Front Door

Compared 10% of the time

AWS Global Accelerator vs Azure Front Door

Compared 9% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Azure Front Door

Compared 4% of the time

More Azure Front Door Competitors

Cloudflare vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 27% of the time

Akamai vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 23% of the time

Amazon CloudFront vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 16% of the time

Hive Streaming vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 8% of the time

Fastly vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 4% of the time

More Windows Azure CDN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Front Door

February 2026

Download Azure Front Door product report

Buyer's Guide

Windows Azure CDN

January 2026

Download Windows Azure CDN product report

Also Known As

Azure Front-Door

No data available

Overview

Azure Front Door enhances web application performance and security by leveraging traffic inspection, SSL offloading, and a web application firewall. It enables intelligent routing, load balancing, and global resource deployment while providing essential features for online application security.

Azure Front Door integrates GitOps for seamless deployment, offering significant capabilities in giant networks like CDN functionalities and DDoS protection. Its advanced configurations include traffic analytics and transit layer security. Despite its affordability and scalability, users see room for improvement in global load balancing and private IP address support, citing integration challenges with other cloud vendors. The interface may appear complex, and some users desire more transparent pricing, better DDoS defenses, and enhanced monitoring. This platform is especially beneficial for securing external traffic and optimizing content delivery, providing DNS integration and disaster recovery mechanisms.

What are the key features of Azure Front Door?

Traffic Inspection: Enhances security with comprehensive traffic analysis at the network level.
SSL Offloading: Streamlines SSL certificate management and encryption processes.
Web Application Firewall: Offers protection against web vulnerabilities and threats.
Global Resource Implementation: Facilitates deployment across multiple regions.
Intelligent Routing and Load Balancing: Optimizes traffic distribution for efficient performance.
Bot and DDoS Protection: Shields applications from malicious traffic and attacks.
CDN Capabilities: Accelerates content delivery with local caching and optimized routing.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Affordability: Provides robust features at competitive pricing.
Scalability: Adapts easily to growing traffic demands and business needs.
Security: Delivers comprehensive defenses against cyber threats.
Performance Optimization: Enhances application responsiveness and delivery speed.
Global Reach: Supports globally distributed applications with ease.

In industries focusing on online presence and global user engagement, Azure Front Door is invaluable for optimizing web application performance. E-commerce platforms deploy it to secure transactions and enhance load times. Media companies leverage its CDN and security features to ensure seamless content delivery. Enterprises with international operations find it crucial for reliable and secure data access across regions.

Microsoft

Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) caches static web content at strategically placed locations to provide maximum throughput for delivering content to users. The CDN offers developers a global solution for delivering high-bandwidth content by caching the content at physical nodes across the world.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

NORAD, Agreeya Mobility

Buyer's Guide

Azure Front Door vs. Windows Azure CDN

February 2026

Free Report: Azure Front Door vs. Windows Azure CDN

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