AWS Global Accelerator vs CloudFront

Common Features

• Both use the AWS global network and its worldwide edge locations.

• Both integrate with AWS Shield for DDoS protection.

CloudFront

• Optimized for cacheable content such as images, videos, and static assets.

• Also supports dynamic content for API acceleration and dynamic site delivery.

• Content is served directly from edge locations, reducing latency by keeping it close to users.

Global Accelerator

• Improves performance for any application over TCP or UDP, not just HTTP.

• Proxies traffic from edge locations to backend applications hosted in one or more AWS regions.

• Well-suited for non-HTTP workloads such as:
• Online gaming (UDP)
• IoT protocols (MQTT)
• Voice over IP (VoIP)

• Also ideal for HTTP applications that require:
• Static IP addresses
• Fast, deterministic regional failover