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The Ultimate Guide to the Best Web Hosting for Webcomics

The Ultimate Guide to the Best Web Hosting for Webcomics

The Ultimate Guide to the Best Web Hosting for Webcomics

The Ultimate Guide to the Best Web Hosting for Webcomics

Introduction: Why Your Webcomic Deserves Top-Tier Hosting

Alright, let's get real for a moment. You pour your heart, soul, and countless hours into drawing, writing, inking, coloring, and lettering your webcomic. It’s your baby, your passion project, maybe even your full-time gig. You’ve painstakingly crafted every panel, every dialogue bubble, every character expression. You’ve built a world, a narrative, and hopefully, a growing audience who eagerly awaits your next update. So, why, oh why, would you ever skimp on the very foundation that delivers your art to the world? That’s right, I’m talking about web hosting.

Think of your webcomic as a magnificent, sprawling art gallery, constantly expanding with new exhibits. Your web host isn't just the building it resides in; it's the entire infrastructure: the sturdy walls, the climate control, the security system, the lighting, the efficient staff, and the wide, welcoming doors that allow visitors to flow in seamlessly, admiring every piece without delay or disruption. If that infrastructure is shoddy, crumbling, or perpetually understaffed, what happens? Visitors get frustrated. They encounter locked doors, dimly lit rooms, or worse, the whole building collapses on itself. They leave, and they probably won't come back.

This isn't just about keeping the lights on; it's about the experience. A slow-loading page, a comic that refuses to display, a server error when someone tries to comment – these aren't just minor annoyances. For a webcomic, they are roadblocks to engagement, barriers to immersion, and ultimately, killers of momentum. Every second counts. In today’s fast-paced digital world, attention spans are notoriously short. If your comic takes more than a couple of seconds to load, especially on mobile, you’ve already lost a significant chunk of your potential audience. They're off to the next shiny thing, and your meticulously crafted panel goes unseen.

Beyond the immediate user experience, robust web hosting plays a critical role in your webcomic's long-term sustainability and growth. Imagine finally hitting that viral moment – a popular streamer shares your comic, a major publication features your work, or a particularly resonant strip explodes on social media. Suddenly, thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of new eyes are trying to access your site simultaneously. This is the dream, right? But if your hosting can’t handle that surge, that dream can quickly turn into a nightmare. Your site crashes, new readers are greeted with an error page, and that incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity evaporates into thin air. It’s not just frustrating; it’s a tangible loss of potential audience, patrons, and future income.

Good hosting is an investment, not an expense. It’s an investment in your audience’s satisfaction, in your comic’s reliability, in your peace of mind, and ultimately, in your creative career. It allows you to focus on what you do best – creating amazing art and stories – rather than constantly battling technical glitches or worrying if your site will survive the next traffic spike. This guide is here to cut through the jargon, explain the unique challenges webcomics face, and empower you to choose a hosting solution that truly supports your artistic vision and helps your webcomic thrive. Let’s make sure your gallery is not just beautiful, but also rock-solid.

Understanding the Unique Demands of Webcomic Hosting

When you think about web hosting, most people picture a simple blog, a small business website with a few product pages, or maybe an online portfolio. And while those sites have their own requirements, a webcomic, my friend, is a beast of a different color. It’s got a unique set of needs that, if ignored, can lead to a sluggish, frustrating, and ultimately abandoned online presence. You can't just throw a webcomic onto the cheapest shared hosting plan and expect it to sing; you need a stage built for a grand opera, not a garage band. The very nature of visual storytelling, combined with an episodic release schedule, creates demands that typical hosting solutions often struggle to meet without specific optimization. It’s like trying to run a marathon in flip-flops – technically possible, but definitely not optimal, and you’re going to suffer for it.

The difference lies in the type and volume of content. A standard blog post is mostly text, maybe a few small images. A business site might have a gallery, but it’s usually static. A webcomic, however, is a constantly growing archive of high-fidelity visual assets, each one a significant data payload. This isn't just a minor distinction; it fundamentally alters the kind of server resources, database management, and network infrastructure you'll need to keep things running smoothly. We’re talking about a continuous, incremental build-up of resource-intensive content, coupled with the unpredictable nature of audience engagement. It’s a dynamic environment that requires a robust and flexible foundation. Ignoring these unique demands is a recipe for disaster, or at the very least, a constant headache that pulls you away from your creative work.

High-Resolution Imagery: The Core Challenge

This, hands down, is the biggest differentiator for webcomics. Your art is the product. And art, especially digital art meant for display on screens ranging from tiny phones to massive retina monitors, needs to be high-resolution. We're talking about large image files – PNGs, JPGs, and increasingly WebP formats – that can easily be several megabytes each. Now, imagine a typical webcomic page with 4-8 panels. That’s already a handful of large images. Now imagine an archive of hundreds, even thousands, of such pages. Every time a reader visits a comic page, their browser has to download all of those images.

The impact of these large image files on page load times and server resources is profound. When a server receives a request for a comic page, it has to locate each image, retrieve it from storage, and then send it across the network to the user’s device. If those images are massive, or if the server’s storage is slow (like traditional HDDs instead of SSDs), or if the server's connection to the internet is congested, that process takes time. For a single user, it might be a noticeable delay. For dozens, hundreds, or thousands of users simultaneously trying to load a new comic update, it can bring a less-than-optimized server to its knees. I’ve seen it happen countless times: an artist posts a new strip, traffic spikes, and suddenly the site is unresponsive because the server is choked trying to push out all those beautiful, but hefty, image files. It's a classic case of demand outstripping supply.

Furthermore, it's not just the size of the individual files, but the number of them, and how they’re served. Are you optimizing your images for the web? Are you using lazy loading? Are you serving different image sizes for different devices (responsive images)? Even with all these best practices in place, the sheer volume of high-resolution visual data in a webcomic archive means your hosting needs to be exceptionally efficient at retrieving and transmitting these files. This requires fast storage (SSD is non-negotiable here), ample RAM for caching, and robust CPU power to handle the concurrent requests. Without these, your gorgeous artwork becomes a bottleneck, frustrating your readers and slowing down their journey through your story.

Archival Growth & Database Management

Here’s another aspect where webcomics deviate significantly from a standard website: continuous, perpetual growth. A typical blog might publish a few posts a week. A webcomic, on the other hand, is an ever-growing archive. Every single update – whether it's daily, weekly, or bi-weekly – adds new image files, new metadata (titles, descriptions, tags, dates), and new entries into your website’s database. Over months and years, this accumulation of content becomes substantial. You’re not just adding a new page; you’re adding to a rapidly expanding digital library.

This continuous accumulation has a direct effect on your database size and performance. Most webcomics built on platforms like WordPress use a MySQL or MariaDB database to store all the textual content, post metadata, user comments, and links to your image files. Each new comic strip adds rows to your posts table, comment table, term relationships, and so on. As this database grows larger and larger, queries become slower. When a reader navigates to an older comic, or when your "random comic" button is pressed, or when the site fetches related comics, the database has to work harder and longer to retrieve the relevant information. It’s like trying to find a specific book in a library that keeps growing but never gets re-organized – eventually, it takes a lot longer to find anything.

A slow database doesn't just affect loading individual comic pages; it impacts everything. Your site's backend administration becomes sluggish, making it a chore to upload new comics or manage comments. Your search functionality can grind to a halt. Even your RSS feed generation can take longer. This is why hosting with optimized database servers and sufficient RAM for database caching is crucial. Some hosts are simply better equipped to handle the I/O (input/output) operations that a large, active database demands. Without proper database management and server resources dedicated to it, your once-nimble webcomic site can turn into a sluggish behemoth, making both your and your readers' lives miserable as your archive expands.

Spikes in Traffic: The "Viral" Effect

Ah, the dream scenario for any creator: your content goes viral. Someone famous shares it, it hits the front page of Reddit, or a particular strip just resonates with the internet and explodes across social media. Suddenly, thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people are all trying to access your webcomic at the exact same time. This is the "hug of death," and it’s a beautiful, terrifying thing. Beautiful because it means your work is being seen; terrifying because if your hosting isn't ready for it, your site will crash harder than a poorly drawn spaceship.

This need for hosting that can handle sudden, unpredictable surges in viewership without crashing is paramount for webcomics. Unlike a predictable e-commerce sale or a scheduled product launch, viral traffic spikes are often entirely out of your control and can happen at any moment. A shared hosting plan, where your website shares server resources with hundreds or even thousands of other websites, is almost guaranteed to buckle under this kind of pressure. When one site on a shared server experiences a massive traffic spike, it can consume all available resources, slowing down or crashing all the other sites on that server – including yours. It's an unfair situation, but it's the reality of shared hosting.

What happens when your site crashes during a viral moment? Lost opportunity. Those potential new readers, patrons, and fans are met with an error page ("500 Internal Server Error," "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded," "Connection Timed Out"). They don't stick around. They don't try again later. They move on. And that incredible wave of attention, which could have propelled your comic to new heights, simply washes over a broken server and disappears. This is why scalability and robust infrastructure are non-negotiable. You need a host that can either automatically scale up resources during a spike (cloud hosting), or one that provides dedicated resources that are significantly over-provisioned for your typical traffic, allowing for those sudden bursts. Planning for success, even if it feels like a long shot, means choosing hosting that won’t let you down when your comic finally gets its moment in the spotlight.

Pro-Tip: The "Hug of Death" Mitigation Strategy
Don't wait for your site to crash to figure out your host can't handle traffic spikes. Regularly monitor your site's performance and consider services like Cloudflare in front of your site. Cloudflare (a CDN and security service) can absorb a massive amount of traffic before it even hits your server, caching your static assets (like comic images!) and protecting you from DDoS attacks that often accompany viral moments. It’s not a hosting replacement, but a vital layer of protection.

Essential Hosting Features for Webcomic Artists

Okay, so we've established that webcomics have unique needs. Now, let's break down the actual technical specifications and support elements you absolutely must look for in any hosting provider if you want your webcomic to not just survive, but thrive. Think of this as your checklist, your non-negotiable list of demands for your digital landlord. Skimping on any of these is like building a house without a proper foundation – it might stand for a bit, but it’s destined for trouble. These aren't just buzzwords; they are the bedrock upon which a successful, enjoyable, and sustainable webcomic presence is built.

Choosing a host isn't just about finding the cheapest option; it's about finding the right partner who understands the demands of content-heavy, visually rich websites. Many hosts cater to general websites, but the best ones for webcomics will implicitly, or explicitly, offer features that directly address the challenges we just discussed: massive image files, growing archives, and unpredictable traffic. It’s about ensuring your creative output is delivered with the speed, reliability, and security it deserves, allowing you to focus on the art itself rather than wrestling with server configurations or agonizing over slow load times.

Blazing Fast Speed & Unwavering Uptime: User Experience is Key

In the digital world, speed isn't just a luxury; it's a necessity. For a webcomic, where every page involves downloading multiple high-resolution images, blazing fast speed is paramount to a good user experience. We're talking about optimal server response times – the milliseconds it takes for your server to even start sending data after a request. This isn't just about how fast your internet connection is; it's about the server's hardware, its software configuration, and its network infrastructure. Look for hosts that explicitly use NVMe SSD storage (even faster than regular SSDs), have plenty of RAM, and powerful CPUs. These components directly impact how quickly your server can retrieve those large comic files and send them out. A fast server means less waiting for your readers, and less waiting means more reading.

The impact of speed extends far beyond mere patience. Slow websites are penalized by search engines like Google, meaning your webcomic might rank lower in search results, making it harder for new readers to discover you. More importantly, slow sites lead to high bounce rates. If a page takes more than 2-3 seconds to load, a significant percentage of users will simply give up and go elsewhere. Think about it: how many times have you clicked away from a slow site? Your readers are no different. They want instant gratification, and if your site can’t provide it, they’ll find another webcomic that can. A truly fast webcomic site feels snappy, responsive, and professional, encouraging readers to delve deeper into your archive and spend more time immersed in your world.

Coupled with speed is unwavering uptime. Uptime is the percentage of time your website is online and accessible. A 99.9% uptime guarantee sounds great, right? But let’s do the math: 0.1% downtime over a year is nearly 9 hours. Nine hours where your comic is completely inaccessible. Now, imagine if those 9 hours happen during your peak traffic times, or worse, during a viral moment. That’s a disaster. You want a host that consistently delivers 99.99% or even 99.999% uptime, which translates to minutes, not hours, of annual downtime. This isn't just a number on a service level agreement; it's a measure of reliability and trust. If your readers can't rely on your comic being there when they want to read it, they'll eventually stop checking. Your webcomic needs to be a constant, dependable presence, and that requires a host committed to keeping your site online, all the time.

Ample Storage: For Your Ever-Growing Comic Library

As we’ve discussed, a webcomic is a constantly expanding visual archive. This means you’re going to need a lot of storage, and not just any storage – fast storage. When evaluating hosting plans, you’ll typically encounter two main types: SSD (Solid State Drives) and the older HDD (Hard Disk Drives). For a webcomic, SSD storage is not just preferred; it’s absolutely essential. HDDs are cheaper and offer larger capacities, but they are mechanical, slow, and prone to failure. SSDs, on the other hand, use flash memory, offering dramatically faster read/write speeds, which translates directly into faster page load times for your image-heavy comic pages. Every comic image, every thumbnail, every cached file benefits from SSD speed.

So, how much storage do you realistically need? This is where it gets interesting, and where "unlimited" claims can be misleading. While a single comic page might only be a few hundred kilobytes or a couple of megabytes (after optimization), multiply that by hundreds, then thousands of pages, and factor in thumbnails, banners, and other site assets. A mature webcomic with several years of daily updates could easily accumulate tens, even hundreds, of gigabytes of image data. And that’s just the images! You also have your database, theme files, plugin files, backups, and other miscellaneous assets.

My advice? Start with a generous amount, say 50-100GB of SSD storage, and ensure your host makes it easy to upgrade as your archive grows. Don't fall for "unlimited" storage on shared hosting plans; these often come with "fair use" policies that throttle your site or charge you extra if you actually use a significant amount. Instead, look for hosts that are transparent about their storage allocations and offer clear, scalable upgrade paths. Remember, your comic library isn't static; it's a living, breathing entity that will only get larger over time. Your hosting needs to accommodate that growth seamlessly, without forcing you into expensive, sudden migrations or bottlenecking your site's performance because you've hit an obscure storage limit. Plan for tomorrow's success, not just today's needs.

Generous Bandwidth: Handling Your Audience

Bandwidth is one of those terms that often gets thrown around, misunderstood, and then abused by hosting providers. Simply put, bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferred from your website to your visitors over a given period (usually a month). Every time someone loads a comic page, views an image, or downloads a file from your site, that data counts towards your bandwidth usage. For a webcomic, with its high-resolution images, bandwidth can be a significant concern. A single comic page, with all its images, could easily be 5-10MB. If 1,000 people view that page, that's 5-10GB of bandwidth. Now multiply that by hundreds or thousands of pages viewed across your entire archive, and you can see how quickly bandwidth can accumulate.

This is why "unlimited" bandwidth claims should be scrutinized with a healthy dose of skepticism. Just like "unlimited" storage, these often come with hidden clauses or "fair usage" policies. What they really mean is "unlimited, as long as you don't use too much," which is often vaguely defined. When you exceed their unspoken limit, you might experience throttling (your site slows down), or worse, get hit with unexpected overage charges that can skyrocket your monthly bill. For a webcomic, where traffic spikes are a real possibility, having a clear understanding of your bandwidth limits (or lack thereof) is crucial.

Instead of chasing the "unlimited" unicorn, look for hosts that offer generous, clearly defined bandwidth allocations or, even better, unmetered bandwidth that genuinely doesn't have hidden caps. If you have a sense of your current or projected audience size and average page views, you can do a rough calculation. For example, if you expect 10,000 unique visitors a month, each viewing 5 comic pages (averaging 5MB per page), that's 10,000 5 5MB = 250GB of bandwidth. This is a significant amount, and many entry-level shared plans might struggle with it. A good host for webcomics will either provide a truly generous default bandwidth allocation, or make it easy and affordable to scale up your bandwidth as your audience grows. Don't get caught off guard by bandwidth overages; understand the reality of your data transfer needs.

Scalability Options: Growing with Your Webcomic

One of the most exciting, yet potentially stressful, aspects of running a webcomic is growth. You start small, maybe with a handful of readers, but with consistent effort and a bit of luck, your audience can explode. When that happens, your hosting needs to be able to grow with you. This is what scalability is all about: the ability to seamlessly upgrade your hosting resources (CPU, RAM, storage, bandwidth) as your audience expands, without having to migrate your entire website to a new provider or suffer from crippling slowdowns. It's about having a clear, well-defined path from a small, entry-level plan to a robust, high-performance solution.

Imagine this scenario: your webcomic gets picked up by a major aggregator, or a popular influencer shares it. Suddenly, your site is getting ten times, a hundred times, or even a thousand times its usual traffic. If your host doesn't offer easy scalability, you're in trouble. Your site will likely crash, and you'll be scrambling to find a new host, migrate your entire site, and deal with hours, if not days, of downtime – all while your moment in the sun is rapidly fading. This is why it's so important to choose a host that offers clear upgrade paths within their own ecosystem. Can you easily upgrade from shared hosting to a VPS (Virtual Private Server)? From a VPS to a dedicated server or a cloud hosting solution? And how quickly can these upgrades be implemented?

The best hosts for webcomics will offer a spectrum of plans, from entry-level options for new comics to powerful solutions for established, high-traffic archives. They'll make the upgrade process as simple as possible, often with just a few clicks from your hosting control panel, and with minimal downtime. Look for hosts that clearly outline the resources (CPU cores, RAM, storage, bandwidth) associated with each tier, so you can make informed decisions. Scalability isn't just about handling traffic spikes; it's about future-proofing your webcomic. It ensures that as your creative endeavor grows and finds its audience, your technical infrastructure can keep pace, allowing you to seize every opportunity without being held back by insufficient resources.

Insider Note: The Perils of Under-Provisioning
Many new webcomic artists make the mistake of choosing the absolute cheapest hosting plan available. While understandable for budget reasons, this often leads to "under-provisioning" – your hosting simply doesn't have enough juice to run your site effectively. The result? Slow load times, frequent downtime, and a constant battle with your host. It's far better to start with a slightly more robust plan than you think you need, especially if it offers clear scalability, rather than constantly fighting against an inadequate server. It's an investment in your sanity and your readers' patience.

Robust Security: Protecting Your Art and Audience

In today's interconnected world, security is not an option; it's a fundamental requirement. For a webcomic artist, your website isn't just a platform; it's a repository of your valuable intellectual property and a direct connection to your audience. Protecting both is paramount. A robust hosting provider will offer a comprehensive suite of security features designed to safeguard your site from a myriad of threats, from simple spam to sophisticated cyberattacks. This isn’t just about protecting your data; it’s about protecting your reputation and ensuring your readers feel safe interacting with your content.

First and foremost, an SSL certificate (Secure Sockets Layer) is non-negotiable. This encrypts the data exchanged between your website and your visitors' browsers, indicated by the "https://" in your URL and a padlock icon. Not only does it protect sensitive information (like login credentials or payment details if you have a store), but it's also a significant SEO ranking factor. Google actively favors secure sites. Many reputable hosts now offer free SSL certificates (often via Let's Encrypt) as a standard feature, so there's no excuse not to have one. Beyond SSL, look for DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection. DDoS attacks overwhelm your server with a flood of traffic, trying to take your site offline. Good hosts have systems in place to detect and mitigate these attacks, ensuring your site remains accessible even under duress.

Further security measures include regular malware scanning, which actively searches for and removes malicious software that could compromise your site. Server-level firewalls act as the first line of defense, blocking suspicious traffic before it even reaches your web application. Intrusion detection systems monitor for unauthorized access attempts. While much of the day-to-day security is handled by your host, a good provider will also empower you with tools and guidance to maintain your own site's security, such as strong password policies and recommendations for secure plugin usage. The peace of mind that comes from knowing your artistic legacy and your audience are protected is invaluable. A security breach can lead to lost data, reputational damage, and a massive headache that pulls you away from your creative work. Choose a host that takes security as seriously as you take your art.

Reliable Backup & Restore: Your Digital Safety Net

Let me tell you, if there’s one feature that you absolutely cannot skimp on, it’s reliable backup and restore capabilities. Imagine this nightmare scenario: you accidentally delete a crucial file, a plugin update breaks your entire site, or (heaven forbid) your site gets hacked and all your hard work vanishes. Without a recent, reliable backup, you’re looking at potentially losing years of your webcomic archive, your reader comments, and all the effort you’ve poured into building your online presence. It’s a terrifying thought, and it’s why automated daily backups are not just a nice-to-have; they are an absolute necessity.

A good hosting provider will offer automated daily backups of your entire website – not just your files, but your database too. These backups should be stored off-site, meaning they’re on a different server or location than your live website. Why off-site? Because if your main server goes down or is compromised, your backups remain safe and accessible elsewhere. Even better, look for hosts that retain multiple restore points (e.g., the last 7, 14, or even 30 days of backups), giving you flexibility in case a problem isn't immediately detected. This allows you to roll back to a point before the issue occurred, minimizing data loss.

Crucially, the host should also offer easy, one-click restoration options. When disaster strikes, you don't want to be fumbling with FTP clients, database imports, and complex server commands. You want to be able to log into your control panel, select a backup date, and click "restore," bringing your site back online quickly and efficiently. While you can certainly implement your own backup solutions (and I highly recommend doing so as a secondary measure!), having your host provide robust, automated, and easy-to-restore backups is your ultimate digital safety net. It’s the difference between a minor setback and a catastrophic loss of your entire webcomic. Don't leave your artistic legacy to chance; ensure your host has your back, literally.

WordPress & CMS Compatibility: The Foundation for Most Webcomics

For the vast majority of webcomic artists, WordPress is the platform of choice. Its flexibility, vast ecosystem of themes and plugins, and relatively user-friendly interface make it ideal for managing a growing comic archive. Themes like ComicPress, Webcomic, or plugins designed specifically for sequential art have made WordPress the de facto standard. Therefore, when choosing a host, robust WordPress and general CMS (Content Management System) compatibility isn't just important; it's foundational. You need a hosting environment that is specifically optimized to make WordPress sing, not stumble.

What does "optimal environment" for WordPress mean? It means several things. First, the host should offer easy one-click WordPress installation, making it simple to get your site up and running without complex manual setups. Second, and more importantly, the server architecture itself should be tuned for WordPress. This includes using fast PHP versions (like PHP 8.x), having sufficient memory limits (PHP memory_limit), and providing database optimization tools. WordPress, especially with a large archive and numerous plugins, can be database-intensive. A host that provides optimized MySQL/MariaDB servers, possibly with dedicated resources for database operations, will significantly improve your site's performance.

Furthermore, look for features like server-side caching (e.g., Varnish, LiteSpeed Cache) that can dramatically speed up WordPress sites by serving cached versions of your pages without hitting the database on every request. This is particularly beneficial for webcomics, as your comic pages, once published, are largely static and can be effectively cached. A host that understands and actively supports WordPress will often provide these caching mechanisms as part of their package or offer easy integration. While WordPress is incredibly powerful, it's also resource-hungry. Pairing it with a host that understands and caters to its specific needs, especially for a content-heavy application like a webcomic, is key to a smooth, fast, and enjoyable experience for both you and your readers.

Integrated CDN Support: Delivering Comics Globally

Let’s talk about speed again, but this time, specifically for your international audience. A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is a game-changer for any website with a global readership, and for a webcomic, it’s practically indispensable. Here’s how it works: when someone visits your website, they're typically pulling data (your comic images, CSS, JavaScript) from a single server location. If your server is in New York and your reader is in Tokyo, that data has to travel a long distance, which introduces latency and slows down load times. A CDN solves this problem by caching copies of your static content (like your high-resolution comic images) on servers located all around the world, known as "Points of Presence" (PoPs).

When a reader accesses your webcomic, the CDN automatically directs them to the closest PoP, delivering your comic images from a server much nearer to them. This drastically reduces the physical distance the data has to travel, resulting in significantly faster load times, especially for image-heavy pages, regardless of where your readers are located. For a webcomic with a potentially global audience, this is huge. It means a reader in Australia gets the same snappy experience as a reader in Canada, even if your main server is in the US. This isn't just about a few milliseconds; it can be the difference between a frustrated reader clicking away and an engaged fan devouring your entire archive.

Many reputable hosts offer integrated CDN support, either through their own proprietary network or by making it easy to integrate with popular third-party CDNs like Cloudflare, KeyCDN, or StackPath. Some hosts even include a basic CDN service as part of their standard package. When choosing a host, ask about their CDN options. Is it easy to set up? Is it included, or is there an additional cost? A CDN offloads a significant amount of traffic from your main server