CDN (content delivery network)

A CDN stores copies of images, scripts and sometimes whole pages in many locations, so visitors download them from somewhere nearby. It makes sites faster for faraway visitors and can absorb traffic spikes.

It doesn't replace your hosting. Your site still lives on your host's server; the CDN sits in front of it and answers many requests itself.

Example: yourbusiness.com is hosted in a UK data centre but takes orders from Australia. Without a CDN, every image travels from the UK. With one, most images come from a server much closer to the visitor, so pages load faster there.

Some hosting plans include a CDN; otherwise you can add one separately, often by changing your nameservers or a DNS record.

What it means for your price: basic CDN plans are often free or low-cost, and a CDN can cut the bandwidth your host has to serve. Paid tiers add features such as image optimisation. If most of your visitors are near your data centre, you may not need one at all.