When businesses are considering CDNs, Fastly is often a top choice for improving global website performance.

However, delivering content to China presents unique challenges that Fastly, like many global CDNs, struggles to address.

TL;DR Fastly is a top global CDN but struggles in China due to no local PoPs and blocked third-party resources, leading to slow load times and broken content. Alternative ways to address web performance for visitors in China include hosting a manually modified website in China, or opting for a bolt-on solution like Chinafy.

In this blog we'll explore how Fastly performs in China, why it encounters issues, and what alternatives are available for businesses that need fast and reliable website performance in China.

What is Fastly?

Fastly describes itself as an edge cloud platform designed to accelerate content delivery by caching data at Points of Presence (PoPs) worldwide. By bringing data closer to end-users, Fastly helps businesses improve website speed, reduce latency, and enhance security.

Fastly’s global network of PoPs includes major regions across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. However, despite its extensive network, Fastly does not operate PoPs inside mainland China. As a result, websites relying solely on Fastly’s CDN face some performance issues when accessed from within China.

Does Fastly work in China?

Businesses with a global digital presence shouldn’t have to compromise their user experience for visitors accessing their website from China.

Unfortunately, websites that use Fastly often face performance issues in China including:

High latency

Slow load times

Inaccessible content

Fastly does perform well in certain aspects of website performance in China. A 2024 study by Fastly showed that their CDN’s Time to First Byte (TTFB) in China was fastest compared to popular global CDNs like Cloudflare and Akamai.

Image source: Fastly

However, when we only look at this individual page speed metric, we don’t get the complete picture for the end user’s experience.

Even when response time is fast, other metrics like first contentful paint (FCP) or DOMContentLoaded (DCL) may reveal that the website is not performing as the end user would expect (and users in China expect a website to load in just two seconds).

There are elements that CDNs and hosting providers don’t touch that can still cause issues with how your website performs in China. Dynamic content, third-party resources, and other elements still need attention to achieve optimal performance in China.

Why Fastly faces performance issues in China

Fastly’s performance issues in China primarily stem from two factors:

1. No PoPs inside China

Fastly doesn’t operate points of presence (POPs) within China.

Instead, it uses nearby locations like Hong Kong or Singapore to deliver content (Fastly has thirteen PoPs in Asia as of 2024).

Image source: Fastly

While this helps reduce latency to some extent, it doesn’t provide the same speed and reliability as having servers directly within China’s mainland, resulting in slower load times for users.

2. Blocked or slow third-party resources

Fastly, like other global CDNs, often relies on third-party resources, such as Google APIs, YouTube, Vimeo, and other platforms that are blocked or restricted in China.

Fastly does not offer China compatibility solutions to replace or remove resources that are blocked or inaccessible from China.

So, when a website relies on these services and is hosted on Fastly, users in China may encounter broken elements or resources that simply don’t load, thereby impacting the user experience.

Alternatives to Fastly in China

When you’re considering alternatives to Fastly for users of your website in China, it’s good to understand that simply switching to a China-specific CDN might not fully solve performance issues. While local CDNs with PoPs inside China can reduce latency, they only address part of the problem.

Chinese CDNs, such as ChinaCache or Alibaba Cloud CDN, can help improve the delivery of static content found on your primary domain. However, like with global CDNs, if your site relies on dynamic content and third-party resources, your site may still face performance issues in China.

It’s also worth noting that most businesses prefer to maintain their global CDN setup to serve users outside China, which makes the transition to a China-specific CDN costly and impractical for many enterprises.

The Chinafy solution: optimizing your website performance

For businesses already using Fastly or other global CDNs, switching entirely to a China-specific CDN may not be feasible or cost-effective.

That’s where Chinafy comes in.

Chinafy offers a unique solution that optimizes websites for performance in China, without requiring a complete infrastructure overhaul. Businesses can continue using Fastly for their global users while ensuring their website performs optimally for users in China through Chinafy’s bolt-on solution.

Here’s how Chinafy can help:

Optimizing third-party resources

Chinafy identifies third-party resources that are blocked or slow in China, such as Google Fonts, YouTube videos, or Vimeo embeds. These elements are either replaced with China-compatible alternatives or removed, ensuring they don’t prevent the rest of the site from loading smoothly for Chinese users. (Any replacement or removal of third party resources does not impact your existing global site.)

Improving infrastructure for China users

Chinafy can work alongside your existing CDN provider, adding a layer of China-specific optimization. This approach allows businesses to maintain their global infrastructure while improving website speed and reliability for users in China.

Continual synchronization

Chinafy ensures that your China-optimized site stays in sync with your global website, without touching or changing your existing site. Any changes you make to your primary website will automatically reflect in the Chinafy version, minimizing the need for additional management.

With Chinafy, businesses typically see a 6-8x improvement in load times for users in China, all without sacrificing their existing setup or global performance.

Complementary to your stack of choice, including CDNs

Chinafy is designed to complement your existing tech stack, including the majority of CMS or CDN platforms you currently use. Our technology sits as a layer above your website, making it compatible with most platforms, from Wordpress to Shopify, Cloudflare to Fastly.

CDNs alone do not address third-party resource issues, but Chinafy can work alongside your current CDN to resolve these without disrupting how your site functions in other regions.

Image source: Chinafy

And if you don’t have a regulated Chinese entity or ICP license, Chinafy can help you achieve near-native performance offshore.

Or, if you’re already hosting in China, Chinafy for Enterprise can be combined with a China CDN, such as Akamai China CDN, to further improve performance by layering our intelligent web resource compatibility suite on top of your existing infrastructure.

Fastly is an effective CDN for delivering content globally, but its lack of China compatibility solutions can result in poor user experience for website visitors in China. Instead of overhauling your entire CDN strategy, Chinafy offers a cost-effective, bolt-on solution that enhances Fastly’s performance in China.

By optimizing third-party resources and adding China-friendly infrastructure, Chinafy allows you to offer a digital experience for your users in China that’s consistent with your global site.

Get started with Chinafy to make your site work faster and fully in China.