Overview
Free cdn is a great helper—you can boost your website speed without spending money. Below are several domestic free CDN options in China that I've personally tested and found useful. Even beginners can figure them out gradually.First, I have to mention Alibaba Cloud's "OSS + CDN" free quota.
Alibaba Cloud is a giant with many CDN nodes, so whether visitors are in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or a small county, they can basically load content from a nearby node. Its free policy is quite practical: after new users register, they can get 6 months of free CDN quota, with 100GB of traffic per month, plus 10GB of OSS storage space (OSS is where you store images, videos, and other content, and it must be used together with CDN).
Tencent Cloud's free CDN is also very suitable for beginners.
After new users register, they can get a 1-year free package with 50GB of traffic per month. Although it's a bit less than Alibaba Cloud, it's completely sufficient for text-focused blogs or personal resume websites. Its advantage is that the backend interface is very intuitive, and there's even a "one-click acceleration" option, so you don't have to figure out complex parameters. A friend of mine who shares book reviews uses Tencent Cloud's free CDN. She said, "At first I knew nothing. After clicking the acceleration button, the website opened noticeably faster. Later, when traffic exceeded the limit, the backend would remind me, and then I could decide whether to buy a paid package. It's very thoughtful." In addition, if you use Tencent's official accounts or mini-programs, binding CDN with these products can save you a lot of configuration steps—it's like tools from the same family, convenient to use.
Qiniu Cloud's free CDN has a strong advantage in image processing.
Its free quota is permanent: 10GB of storage space per month, 10GB of CDN traffic per month, and 1 million image processing operations per month. For example, you can compress large images or add watermarks without installing extra tools—it can be done directly within the CDN. I once helped a friend build a small pet supplies site. We needed to add watermarks to product images to prevent theft. Qiniu Cloud's free features were just right. After uploading an image and choosing a watermark style, the CDN would process it automatically, and loading speed was not affected. However, note that Qiniu Cloud's free package requires binding a filed domain name (domestic CDNs basically all require filing, which I'll mention later), and after traffic is used up, it won't automatically stop—it will be billed by traffic. So you need to log in to the backend from time to time to check remaining traffic to avoid unexpected charges.
Baidu Smart Cloud's free CDN is suitable for users who need stable speed.
Its free policy is: for new users within 3 months, 50GB of traffic per month. Node coverage is also relatively complete, especially in northern regions, where loading speed is much faster than some niche CDNs. I once made a regional food recommendation site with most visitors in Northeast China. After using Baidu Smart Cloud's CDN, feedback said "pages opened twice as fast as before." In addition, Baidu Cloud's "cache refresh" function is very timely. Sometimes after changing website content, I worried visitors would see the old version. Clicking refresh would sync to all nodes within a few minutes. This is much better than some free CDNs that "take hours to update."
There's also a lesser-known but useful one: Upyun's "Developer Free Plan." It targets individual developers and small teams. As long as you pass verification (just submit your ID card or student ID), you can get 10GB of storage space and 10GB of CDN traffic per month, also permanently free. Its advantage is that the documentation is extremely detailed. Even if you're using a CDN for the first time, following the "beginner tutorial" in the docs—from binding a domain name to testing speed—every step is clearly written, and there are even video tutorials. I know a student who just started building websites and used Upyun. He said, "The docs even mark where to click next. I figured it out myself without asking anyone, and the speed is sufficient."
