Using cURL to Test the NOC CDN Performance against Fastly, Sucuri and Cloudflare

In our previous article we showed how to use cURL to measure key timings (DNS, connect, TTFB, total). Here, we used the same method to spot-check the NOC CDN across multiple datacenters and compare results with Fastly, Sucuri, and Cloudflare.

Method: Measure Time to First Byte (TTFB)

To compare providers fairly, we focused on TTFB (time to establish TCP, complete TLS, send the GET, and receive the first byte). Total transfer time varies with payload size, so TTFB is a better cross-site proxy for edge proximity and connection handling.

Command used:

for i in https://noc.org/ https://fastly.com https://sucuri.net https://cloudflare.com; do \
  printf "%-30s" "$i"; \
  curl -o /dev/null -w "Time first byte: %{time_starttransfer}\n" -s $i; \
done

These are spot checks (not statistically significant). For rigorous testing, repeat over time and from more vantage points.

Sample Results

Below are example outputs from several regions. Ordering within each block is by fastest TTFB first.

/northamerica/usa/east/atlanta/linode
1 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.020971
2 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.022434
3 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.056231
4 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.090837

/northamerica/usa/east/newyork/linode
1 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.013944
2 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.021746
3 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.071011
4 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.072307

/northamerica/usa/central/dallas/linode
1 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.012236
2 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.014088
3 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.014594
4 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.021801

/northamerica/usa/west/losangeles/linode
1 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.017072
2 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.018182
3 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.025590
4 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.035017

/europe/london/linode
1 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.013625
2 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.017678
3 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.019420
4 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.028067

/europe/frankfurt/linode
1 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.025391
2 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.026569
3 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.058988
4 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.212045

/asia/tokyo/linode
1 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.014528
2 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.016359
3 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.025283
4 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.036701

/asia/singapore/linode
1 https://fastly.com      Time first byte: 0.016341
2 https://cloudflare.com  Time first byte: 0.036163
3 https://noc.org/        Time first byte: 0.041421
4 https://sucuri.net      Time first byte: 0.504105

Takeaways

• NOC’s TTFB was < 50ms across all sampled regions, and competitive or faster in many locations.
• Even where not #1 (e.g., LA), differences were small (e.g., ~0.035s vs ~0.026s).
• True CDN benchmarking needs more runs, more locations, and the time dimension.

The practical takeaway: trying NOC won’t cost you performance—and depending on your audience locations, you may gain some. More importantly, prioritize regions that matter to your users; NOC lets you tune where it counts.