Why GCore and BunnyCDN for High-Risk Industries

At Ditchflare, we specialize in helping high-risk businesses—such as casinos, betting platforms, cryptocurrency exchanges, and adult sites—escape restrictive and costly CDN providers. Through extensive experience and rigorous analysis, we confidently recommend GCore and BunnyCDN over traditional heavyweights like Fastly, Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, and Google CDN. Here’s exactly why:

Quick Comparison at a Glance

Cloudflare / Fastly / AWS / Google

US-based providers, subject to strict regulations
Complex pricing with hidden or enterprise-level costs (BYOIP)
Potential for sudden compliance-based service interruptions
High vendor lock-in risks

GCore / BunnyCDN

EU-based providers with clearer, predictable regulatory compliance
Transparent pricing with publicly listed, predictable charges
Strong global infrastructure (100+ PoPs, low latency)
Open standards and APIs reduce lock-in risks

Why Not Fastly, Cloudflare, AWS, or Google?

Regulatory Strictness and Compliance

US-based CDNs like Fastly, Cloudflare, AWS, and Google frequently encounter regulatory challenges, especially regarding gambling, crypto, and adult content. These providers retain broad discretion to suspend services, sometimes with minimal notice, due to compliance requirements or policy enforcement.

In contrast, the EU offers generally clearer and more predictable regulations. New frameworks like the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) provide transparent licensing and compliance standards, beneficial for businesses in crypto and online gambling sectors.

Cost Efficiency and Enterprise Fees

Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS, and Google often surprise businesses with enterprise-level fees, such as BYOIP costs and unpredictable DDoS mitigation charges. AWS CloudFront and Google CDN pricing models, particularly, can lead to unexpected “bill shock,” making them costly at scale unless fully integrated with their respective cloud platforms.

Why GCore and BunnyCDN?

Transparency and Predictable Pricing

GCore and BunnyCDN prioritize transparent pricing. GCore publicly lists detailed pricing and overage charges, while BunnyCDN openly compares its affordable rates with competitors. This transparency prevents unexpected costs and allows accurate budgeting.

Superior Technical Infrastructure

Both CDNs boast extensive global networks:

GCore: 200+ PoPs globally, 110 Tbps network capacity
BunnyCDN: 119 PoPs, 200+ Tbps network capacity, 25 ms median global latency

Though slightly smaller than giants like Cloudflare, these providers offer excellent global coverage, low latency, and robust performance, perfectly suited for high-risk industries.

Vendor Neutrality and Open Standards

GCore and BunnyCDN strongly support vendor-neutral, flexible integration:

BunnyCDN: Official Terraform provider and comprehensive open API
GCore: Extensive REST API enabling complete CDN management

These open standards significantly reduce vendor lock-in risks.

Real‑World Stories: What Happens in the Wild

Casino on Cloudflare Business – “Pay  US$120 k or Go Dark” A casino had run for years on Cloudflare’s Business plan (≈ US$250 / month). Without warning, Cloudflare demanded an up‑front US$120 000 Enterprise contract within 24 hours or threatened to disable every domain. While executives scrambled through three frantic sales calls and weighed a Fastly migration, Cloudflare abruptly purged all zones, knocking production offline, eroding customer trust, and triggering an all‑night emergency cut‑over. *Source: *robindev.substack.com
Long‑time Enterprise Customer + 150 % Surprise “Overage” Bill After five years on Cloudflare Enterprise, a high‑traffic platform entered renewal talks—only to be hit with an overage charge equal to 1.5 × the entire annual contract value. The amount had never been invoiced or even surfaced during the year, and was calculated using total rather than billable usage, contradicting Cloudflare’s own docs. When the team disputed the figure, Cloudflare issued soft threats of service suspension. The incident pushed engineers to architect a rapid fail‑over and begin shifting traffic to more transparent providers (GCore and BunnyCDN among the finalists). *Source: *Reddit /r/Cloudflare

These stories highlight two recurring risks with mega‑CDNs: unilateral price shocks and abrupt “compliance” takedowns. Building a fast escape route—and ideally avoiding the trap altogether—protects revenue, uptime, and sleep.

Honest Caveats: When You Might Still Want Cloudflare: When You Might Still Want Cloudflare: When You Might Still Want Cloudflare

Massive Global Scale: If you absolutely require the largest global PoP network (300+ locations), Cloudflare still leads.
Deeply Integrated AWS or Google Cloud Environments: If you’re heavily embedded within AWS or Google ecosystems, their CDNs might offer certain conveniences despite higher costs.

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