Prologue: Where MaxCDN Went
In 2016, StackPath acquired MaxCDN, and for years everything hummed along. MaxCDN users kept paying $9/month per zone. But in 2023, StackPath announced the end of legacy MaxCDN plans. Forced migration to Edge Compute began.
Official website: stackpath.com
I went through this migration with three projects. Here’s what happened.
The Migration: Pain, Sweat, and Documentation
Migration steps: log into the panel, click “Migrate to Edge Compute,” confirm. Your old MaxCDN zone gets copied to Edge Compute. DNS needs manual updates — new CNAME, new edge node IPs.
First zone migrated in 20 minutes. Second zone — error: some origin pools didn’t copy, had to recreate manually. Third zone — didn’t migrate at all; support ticket, 4-hour response, resolved within 24 hours.
Documentation for migration is… brief. Three pages and an FAQ. If you have CDN experience — you’ll figure it out. If not — it’ll be rough.
What Edge Compute Delivers
Post-migration, you get more than just a CDN — an edge platform: containerized environment, up to 15 edge nodes, WebSocket support, gRPC, custom edge logic via Serverless.
Platform strengths:
- Flexible traffic routing rules (geo, headers, URL)
- Edge logic: your code runs at the edge before requests reach origin. Bot filtering, A/B testing, custom redirects
- WAF included from $50/month: OWASP Top 10 protection, rate limiting, custom rules
- API and Terraform: full configuration via API and Terraform provider
Weaknesses:
- Complexity. MaxCDN took 5 minutes; Edge Compute requires understanding edge architecture
- Pricing. Minimum CDN plan is $10/month (1 TB). Higher than KeyCDN ($0.04/GB, no minimum). WAF minimum $50/month
- Data centers mostly in US and Europe. Asian edge nodes only arrived in 2024
Affiliate Program
StackPath offers a referral program via Impact. Commission — up to $150 per qualified signup. One-time CPA model, not recurring. Good payout, but no lifetime revenue share.
Verdict
StackPath evolved from “just a CDN” into a full edge platform. Good. But it lost the simplicity people loved about MaxCDN. Bad. The affiliate program is decent but the one-time model is disappointing.
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