shouldiuse.io

Report

Should I Use jsDelivr?

jsdelivr.com·Analyzed 6 hours ago··Based on 14 sources

Optimized for JS and ESM delivery from npm and GitHub. Works with all web formats. Serving more than 150 billion requests per month.

Worth it

Worth it

Free and well-regarded for serving open-source files from npm and GitHub — pin exact versions.

Free, fast CDN for npm/GitHub files. Great for open source; no SLA, so keep it off critical paths.

Confidence: High

$0

Price

Free, open-source CDN

150B+

Monthly requests

Per official tagline

$8.8M

Infra spend (projected)

This year, per Crunchbase

Since Oct 2020

Bootstrap's official CDN

Per Wikipedia

Value for money5

Free, no usage tiers found

Ease of use4

Drop-in URLs, easy cache-purge API

Feature depth3

File delivery and multi-CDN, no enterprise CDN controls

Security posture3

Bug bounty exists; 2023 malicious-package incident

Pros

  • Completely free, open-source CDN for npm and GitHub files¹
  • Serves 150B+ requests monthly at global scale²
  • Multi-CDN network routes around single-vendor problems³
  • Bootstrap chose it as official CDN in 2020
  • Easy-to-use API to purge files from cache¹

Cons

  • Outage reports: users' sites broke when it went down
  • Previously available files returned 404s unexpectedly12
  • Served npm packages already removed as malicious (2023)
  • Vulnerability scanners flag any jsDelivr usage as a finding11

Gotchas

  • highFree means no SLA: its outages and 404s become your site's incidents. Pin exact versions.12
  • highRemoved malicious npm packages stayed servable through its cache in a 2023 phishing campaign.
  • lowSecurity scanners flag jsDelivr on corporate sites; expect questions in security reviews.11
  • lowSponsor/donation-funded ($8.8M projected infra spend); longevity depends on continued funding.13

Best for

  • Open-source library authors
  • Front-end devs loading npm/GitHub files
  • Demos, docs, and prototypes
  • Offloading static JS from small servers

Not for

  • Commercial apps needing SLAs or support contracts
  • First-party production assets with uptime guarantees
  • Teams that can't accept third-party dependency on critical paths
  • Enterprises wanting vendor accountability and contracts

Companies that use it

Pricing

Free

$0

  • npm, GitHub, and ESM file delivery
  • Multi-CDN network
  • No SLA or paid support found in sources

Security

No CVEs against the service itself in sources; a 2023 incident served already-removed malicious npm packages used in phishing.

  • Removed malicious npm packages remained downloadable (2023)Check Point reported packages previously removed from npm were still accessible through the CDN, invisible to security tools, and used in phishing attacks.

What users say

Users on Reddit and G2 call it one of the best free JS CDNs for offloading scripts, but complain when outages and 404s break their sites.

I've tried 3-4 different CDN's now. I think what sets jsDelivr apar...
Reddit, r/opensource
jsDelivr enables me to offload almost all my Javascrip...
G2 review
I had many users telling me they couldn't load my...
Reddit, r/webdev

Alternatives

Compare jsDelivr with each alternative.

Google Hosted Libraries

Google-hosted copies of the top libraries

Amazon CloudFront

Paid CDN with SLAs for production-grade delivery

Full analysis

Based on 25+ public sources including GitHub, Wikipedia, G2, Reddit, TrustRadius, Check Point, and Crunchbase.

Sources

  1. official
  2. jsDelivr homepagejsdelivr.com
    official
  3. official
  4. JSDelivr — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
    news
  5. review
  6. review
  7. review
  8. review
  9. security
  10. security
  11. security
  12. news
  13. news
  14. news

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Ask a follow-up

Ask if a use case fits. Answers stay inside this report and its sources.

    Comments

    One queue. No replies. Give a display name first. Limit: 7 comments per day.

    Save a name to write a comment.

    No comments yet.