Earlier this year, I wrote a column for Huffington Post – discussing the importance of using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to better serve your users. In there, I talked about some of the more popular CDN platforms, but I also mentioned cdnjs, which is basically a content delivery network for libraries and frameworks.
I have tried using a CDN before, but it caused me to lose some revenue and traffic in parts of the site, and I didn’t see it as a fair return of investment. If anything, modifying WordPress for better speeds has never been easier. In this post I will go over five most popular CDN services for JavaScript libraries, and CSS frameworks.
How to use?
It’s easier than you think. Just like you’d add Bootstrap to your templates, you can add all other libraries and frameworks; the only difference is that the content would get served from a remote location (closer to your readers), and probably guarantee a somewhat permanent uptime.
Open Source Software CDN
We’re starting this with some open-source love! This is an official free CDN by MaxCDN that you can use to replace your current libraries and frameworks with a CDN link. There isn’t an exact number of libraries specified anywhere, but you can use the search function to quickly discover what’s available. (like, if the library you need is available)
jsDelivr
This is a more advanced CDN, at the time of writing this there are 1,200 projects listed; which means that there is a very likely chance that your favorite library is listed on this platform. It is sponsored by some of the biggest CDN (if not all) names in the industry, so you’re guaranteed both uptime and quality of service. (as far as free goes)
CDNJS
They said it right, it’s not about competition or being the most sought after; it’s about giving designers and developers access to libraries that they can use from a CDN service. For many, the speed difference is so small that they don’t even bother with it. Remember, if you can’t find your favorite library or plugin in the list; just make a suggestion and one of the team members will consider adding it. That easy.
Cached Commons
Caching and Compressing Javascripts and Stylesheets since 2009. 148 libraries and counting. Github uses Nginx and gzips their content automatically. Github Pages can be used as a CDN! The main goal is to aggregate the best-of javascript and css libraries for rapid prototyping. It won’t have every javascript library because there’s 1000’s of jQuery Tooltip plugins out there, but only say 3 of them are really good.
Google Hosted Libraries
Well, apart from not having a lot of variety – we can hope that it gets leveraged in terms of speed. Google offers to host a couple of popular JavaScript libraries for you. Angular.js is in the list, as is Three.js and MooTools.
Free CDNs for JavaScript Libraries and CSS Frameworks
I couldn’t find any more of these type of sites, but if you know of some; please leave a comment. I hope that this list will either expand your current collection, or give you an idea of what is out there, and how you can use these types of services for the betterment of your apps and websites.
