Pricing CDNs

Since we’ve been talking about content delivery networks (CDNs), I did a little research to determine typical CDN services fees. We’re starting to see hybrid models, such as the GridNetworks solution (CDN and P2P), but for strict CDN services – where content is hosted on regional servers for faster delivery – here’s what I discovered from Dan Rayburn’s recent article in Streaming Media magazine:

• 1TB streamed: $1.50-$2.00/GB monthly
• 5TB streamed: $.95-$1.60/GB monthly
• 10TB streamed: $.89-$1.20/GB monthly
• 25TB streamed: $.75-$.95/GB monthly
• 50TB streamed: $.40-$.50/GB monthly
• 100TB streamed: $.15-$.24/GB monthly
• Above 100TB streamed: As low as $.12/GB monthly

These prices are nothing to sneeze at for small companies or worse, individuals. Fortunately, as MegaZone pointed out, there are other options like CoralCDN. But one has to wonder about the future of P2P given the broadband provider and customer concerns regarding bandwidth usage. Is there just not enough bandwidth to go around?