Company snapshot
| Category | BelugaCDN | IORiver |
|---|---|---|
| Status | active | active |
| Founded | — | — |
| Headquarters | — | — |
| Website | — | — |
| Docs | — | — |
Overview
BelugaCDN is a content delivery network (CDN) provider founded in 2014, designed to accelerate website content delivery globally at a low cost. It operates a dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 network, focusing on delivering static content like images and videos to users across various devices. The service is utilized by small to medium-sized businesses, e-commerce platforms, and media sites seeking affordable CDN solutions. BelugaCDN emphasizes straightforward caching, real-time analytics, and easy integration with existing web infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and operates as a subsidiary of Xcitium following its acquisition in 2018.
IORiver is a MultiCDN platform that enables businesses to manage multiple CDN局
System: Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) simultaneously, ensuring high availability and performance without the complexity of managing each CDN separately. Founded in 2024 by former Akamai engineers Edward Tsinovoi and Michael Hakimi, IORiver is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and serves industries like SaaS, online retail, streaming media, and finance. The platform handles over 100 petabytes of traffic monthly, offering a unified interface for configuring edge services like WAF, rate limiting, and edge computing across multiple providers. It integrates with major CDNs such as Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly, Edgio, and Amazon CloudFront. IORiver focuses on simplifying MultiCDN adoption for businesses needing global content delivery with minimal operational overhead.
Network & Architecture
BelugaCDN maintains 28 points of presence (POPs) across five continents, with 9 high-capacity “SuperPOPs” in key locations such as New York, Miami, Dallas, San Jose, Seattle, Chicago, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. Its network is optimized for North America and Europe, with smaller-capacity POPs in Asia, Latin America, and Oceania, including São Paulo, Bangalore, Singapore, and Sydney. The provider uses proxy-based authorization and a private high-speed global network to ensure low-latency content delivery. Plans to upgrade Bangalore and Singapore POPs to SuperPOPs were noted in 2017, but no recent updates confirm completion. Limitations include limited presence in China and the Middle East, which may impact performance for users in those regions.
IORiver does not operate its own CDN infrastructure but orchestrates traffic across multiple third-party CDNs, including Akamai, Cloudflare, Fastly, Edgio, Amazon CloudFront, G-Core, and Microsoft Azure. Its Virtual Edge solution routes traffic to optimal CDN providers based on geolocation, traffic type, or cost, achieving 99.999% availability. The platform supports global content delivery with no specific POP count disclosed, relying on the combined footprints of integrated CDNs. It uses a Multi-DNS approach for resilient routing, avoiding single points of failure. Regional strengths depend on the chosen CDN providers, with flexibility to include local CDNs for markets like India or China.
Feature comparison
| Feature | BelugaCDN | IORiver |
|---|---|---|
waf | ✗ | ✓ |
bot_mitigation | ✗ | ✓ |
ddos | ✓ | ✓ |
rate_limit | ✓ | ✓ |
http3_quic | ✓ | ✗ |
tls13 | ✓ | ✗ |
tiered_cache | ✗ | ✗ |
origin_shield | ✓ | ✗ |
instant_purge | ✓ | ✗ |
stale_while_revalidate | ✓ | ✗ |
stale_if_error | ✓ | ✗ |
image_optimization | ✗ | ✗ |
video_vod | ✓ | ✓ |
video_live | ✓ | ✗ |
drm | ✗ | ✗ |
hls_dash_packaging | ✗ | ✗ |
websockets | ✓ | ✗ |
signed_urls | ✓ | ✗ |
edge_compute | ✗ | ✓ |
functions | ✗ | ✗ |
kv_storage | ✗ | ✗ |
api_first | ✓ | ✓ |
realtime_logs | ✓ | ✓ |
log_push | ✓ | ✗ |
terraform | ✗ | ✓ |
Legend: ✓ = Supported, ✗ = Not supported, — = Not listed
Pricing
BelugaCDN operates on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model with no long-term contracts, starting at $5 per month for 500 GB of traffic at $0.01 per GB for North America and Europe. Higher-volume plans reduce costs to $0.005 per GB, with special pricing for enterprise users exceeding 10 TB monthly. A free trial of the Pro Plan is available. Request overages cost $0.0035 per 10,000 requests, and ingress costs are not charged. Full pricing details are available at https://www.belugacdn.com/pricing/.
IORiver operates on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model, with pricing based on traffic volume and bundled services like WAF and analytics. No public per-GB pricing is available, and costs vary depending on the mix of CDN providers used. IORiver negotiates wholesale agreements with CDNs to reduce costs, but specific pricing details are not disclosed on their website. Potential users should contact IORiver directly for quotes. No free tier or trial details are publicly listed.
Integrations & DevEx
BelugaCDN offers a RESTful API for managing properties, purging content, and accessing analytics, making it developer-friendly. Real-time logs can be exported to Elastic Search or Redis, with 10 million requests per month included free. The Grafana App provides usage metrics visualization. No public documentation confirms Terraform or CI/CD integrations, nor specific migration tools from other CDNs. The intuitive UI simplifies setup and management for non-technical users.
IORiver supports Terraform for infrastructure-as-code, enabling automated configuration of multi-CDN setups. It offers REST, Python, and Go APIs for programmatic control, integrating seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines. Real-time logs and analytics via GlobalView provide insights into traffic patterns and performance. Migration tools simplify switching CDNs by importing configurations and testing providers with minimal traffic initially. The platform supports integration with major CDNs like Akamai, Cloudflare, and Amazon CloudFront, reducing setup complexity.
When it fits
- Small to medium-sized businesses needing an affordable CDN with PAYG pricing and no long-term commitments.
- Websites with traffic primarily in North America and Europe, leveraging BelugaCDN’s SuperPOPs for low-latency delivery.
- Developers seeking API-first access and real-time analytics for straightforward content delivery.
When it fits
- Businesses using multiple CDNs to optimize global performance, reliability, or cost, especially in SaaS, retail, or streaming.
- Teams seeking a unified interface to manage complex multi-CDN setups without in-house tools.
- Organizations needing advanced edge services like WAF, DDoS protection, or edge computing across vendors.
When it doesn’t
- Small businesses or startups needing a single, simple CDN with minimal configuration overhead.
- Companies locked into a single CDN provider due to long-term contracts or specific feature dependencies.
- Users requiring transparent per-GB pricing without custom quotes or negotiations.
When it doesn’t
- Organizations requiring extensive presence in China or the Middle East, where BelugaCDN lacks POPs.
- Users needing advanced video features like HLS/DASH packaging or DRM, which are not supported.
- Enterprises needing robust edge compute or managed WAF solutions, as BelugaCDN focuses on basic caching and delivery.
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History & Notes
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