Tencent Cloud EdgeOne was officially launched globally on July 29, 2022, marking a new era of “Integrated Security and Acceleration” in the domestic CDN space. It was designed to solve the pain points of performance and security for modern enterprises, based on Tencent’s years of expertise in both fields. EdgeOne’s acceleration capabilities are built on Tencent Cloud’s global infrastructure, which operates across five continents, spanning over 70 countries and regions, with more than 2,800 edge nodes. This expansive network ensures that users can connect to the edge node closest to their location, drastically reducing network latency. In key areas like Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South America, and the Middle East, EdgeOne delivers an average latency of under 50ms. Recently, Tencent EdgeOne launched a free plan and announced support for access within China (activation code required during the testing phase).
⚡️ Key Highlights
- Third-Generation CDN Architecture: Perfectly blends security and acceleration.
- Global Reach: Covers five continents and 70+ countries and regions with over 2,800 edge nodes.
- “Clean Traffic” Billing Model: Charges only for secure, protected traffic, ignoring attack traffic.
- Proven in Practice: Trusted by over 120 global gaming firms, and used by 80% of entertainment and media apps going global.
🛠️ EdgeOne’s Core Features
🌐 Global Acceleration
- Covers five continents and over 70 countries and regions.
- Features 8 global core terabit-scale nodes, with dozens of 400G/800G backbone links.
- Enables average latency of <50ms in Southeast Asia, East Asia, South America, and the Middle East.
- Reduces user login latency to 660ms and service response times to 410ms.
🔥 Multi-layered Security
- Integrates Anti-DDoS, WAF, bot management, and CC attack protection.
- “Near-Source Detection + Near-Source Offloading + Near-Source Protection” design, achieving global protection capacity of 10Tbps and single node protection of 200–800G.
- Enables detection and cleaning of DDoS attacks within 3 seconds, achieving 99.995% attack mitigation success.
- Provides free HTTPS certificate management, significantly reducing operational and security overhead.
⚡️ Edge Computing and Serverless
- Supports Lua, JS, and WASM runtimes for low-latency edge execution.
- Enables A/B testing, request rewrites, header edits, and edge authentication.
- Features KV storage and Pages Functions for seamless, one-stop edge computing.
🖥️ Integrated Operations Management
- Single console for centralized management of security and acceleration settings.
- Supports NS, CNAME, and DNSPod access modes.
- Provides comprehensive logging, monitoring, and alerting for simpler operational oversight.
⚔️ EdgeOne vs Cloudflare: Key Comparison
| Comparison Point | Tencent EdgeOne | Cloudflare |
|---|---|---|
| Node Coverage | 70+ Countries, 2,800+ nodes, strong in Asia-Pacific | 200+ Countries and Cities, strong in Europe and North America |
| Latency in Mainland China | <100ms, optimized IP as low as 30ms | 200–500ms, higher within Mainland China |
| DDoS Protection | 10Tbps global capacity, 3s detection | Very strong, focused in Europe and North America |
| Web Application Firewall | Strong, optimized for domestic market | Strong, extensive threat database |
| Edge Computing | <100ms startup, supports local CLI | 200–500ms startup, rich ecosystem |
| Static Hosting | Pages optimized for Mainland China, supports KV | Pages optimized globally, robust build experience |
| Free Plan | 50GB traffic + 3M requests per month | Request limits apply, higher cost after threshold |
| Access Methods | NS, CNAME, DNSPod available | Primarily NS, CNAME restrictions |
| Cost Model | “Clean traffic” billing, no unexpected charges | Charges by total traffic, susceptible to attack costs |
🎁 EdgeOne Free Plan Features
- Provides 50GB traffic and 3 million requests per month.
- Enables access to global acceleration and security protection.
- Supports edge computing and Pages for static websites.
- Includes automatic HTTPS certificate management.
- Charges only for clean traffic, avoiding costs from attack traffic.
- Ideal for small websites and SaaS platforms with its robust WAF, CC, and bot protection.
🚀 Suggested Use Cases
| Scenario | EdgeOne Advantage | Cloudflare Advantage |
|---|---|---|
| Users within Mainland China | ✅ Dense node network for low latency | ⚠️ Higher latency within Mainland |
| Mixed Domestic and International | ✅ Optimized for Southeast/East Asia & cross-border | ⚡️ Strong global ecosystem |
| Strict Compliance Needs | ✅ Native support for domestic regulations | ❌ More restrictions |
| Small Businesses & Cost Sensitivity | ✅ Low cost, clean traffic billing | ⚡️ Rich feature set but higher cost |
| Large International Operations | ⚡️ Strong option | ✅ More mature global plugin ecosystem |
| High-performance & High-security Needs | ✅ Simple access and optimized for the domestic market | ⚡️ Strong security and performance, ideal for US/EU markets |
🌅 EdgeOne’s Future Outlook
Tencent Cloud EdgeOne, as a new generation of security-acceleration integrated products, delivers highly localized performance and cost benefits. It has become the go-to choice for Chinese enterprises and developers tackling traditional CDN limitations and cross-border connectivity challenges.
- Dominant in the domestic and Southeast Asian markets for performance and security.
- A strong choice for cross-border connections and global expansion.
- Will continue to evolve its developer experience and ecosystem, positioning itself to match or even surpass international giants in the future.
🌍 Conclusion
For both domestic and cross-border scenarios, EdgeOne is redefining the balance between security and acceleration, providing developers and enterprises with a cost-effective, feature-rich solution tailored for modern application demands.
