Speed Up Netlify in China: Overcome Great Firewall Challenges

TL;DR: This comprehensive guide provides simple yet effective solutions to get your Netlify-powered websites working fast, stable, and compliant in China, overcoming the challenges posed by the Great Firewall.

The Great Firewall Challenge: Netlify’s Performance in China

If you’re using Netlify to host your website and targeting a Chinese audience, you’ve likely encountered a significant challenge: Netlify doesn’t perform well in China. In fact, Netlify-hosted sites can be 2-5 times slower in China compared to other parts of the world. But why is this the case, and more importantly, how can you overcome this hurdle?

Unraveling the Mystery: Why is Netlify Slow in China?

The core reasons for Netlify’s poor performance in China are twofold:

1. Hosting Location: Netlify doesn’t have servers or CDN nodes within mainland China. This means your website is being served from locations outside the country, leading to longer load times.

2. Resource Delivery: The resources your site depends on - such as CSS, JavaScript, images, and videos - are often hosted on CDNs or servers that face timeout issues, blocks, or slow connections in China. This is particularly problematic for sites using Content Management Systems (CMSs) that host assets on their own infrastructure.

These issues are compounded by China’s strict internet regulations, known as the Great Firewall, which can further slow down or block connections to servers outside the country.

When a user in China tries to access your Netlify-hosted site, not only does the main content have to travel a long distance, but each additional resource may also face similar challenges. This creates a cumulative effect, resulting in significantly slower load times or, in some cases, complete inaccessibility.

Even Netlify’s “High-Performance CDN” option, which unlocks additional CDN nodes, only provides access to servers in Incheon, South Korea, or Tokyo, Japan - still far from ideal for serving content to mainland China.

Two Powerful Solutions to Accelerate Your Netlify Site in China

Now that we understand the problem, let’s explore two effective solutions to make your Netlify-powered website perform optimally in China.

Approach 1: Build and Deployment Solution for China

This approach replicates the “Netlify deploy” experience for China, giving you full control at the source code level while addressing local compliance, connectivity, and loading issues caused by the Great Firewall.

Key benefits:

• Seamless CI/CD integration, mirroring your Netlify workflow
• Automatic compliance with Chinese regulations
• Optimized performance through local CDN

This solution is ideal for development teams who want to maintain their current Netlify-style workflow while ensuring their site performs well in China.

Approach 2: Website Performance Optimization Solution for China

This fully managed approach is ideal for Netlify sites using headless commerce or CMS integrations that want to minimize technical overhead and delegate China-specific optimizations to experts.

The process is streamlined into three steps:

1. Hosting Infrastructure Evaluation: We analyze your current Netlify setup for compatibility with China’s digital landscape.

2. Site Component Analysis: We scan for elements that may be slow or blocked in China, including Netlify-specific features and integrations.

1. Optimization Implementation: We optimize your Netlify site for China without affecting its performance elsewhere, ensuring seamless global operation.

This approach requires minimal technical involvement from your team, making it an excellent choice for businesses looking to expand their Netlify-powered sites into the Chinese market quickly and efficiently.

By choosing either of these approaches, you can overcome the challenges of running a Netlify site in China, ensuring fast load times, regulatory compliance, and an optimal user experience for your Chinese audience.

Overcoming CMS Challenges: Netlify with Popular CMSes in China

Content Management Systems (CMSes) are crucial for many websites, but they can present additional challenges when used with Netlify in China. Let’s explore how 21YunBox addresses these issues for popular CMSes:

Netlify and Prismic: Conquering CDN Timeouts in China

Prismic’s asset CDN often faces timeouts and blocks in China, preventing images from loading. This can significantly impact your website’s user experience and effectiveness.

21YunBox’s Web Performance Optimizer bridges this gap, enabling fast loading of your Prismic CMS assets in China without requiring code changes. This ensures your content remains accessible and loads quickly for your Chinese audience.

Netlify and Sanity: Ensuring Smooth Asset Delivery

Sanity, another popular headless CMS, can experience similar CDN issues in China. Our Web Performance Optimizer ensures your Sanity-powered Netlify site’s assets load quickly and reliably for Chinese users, maintaining your site’s performance and user experience.

Netlify and Drupal: Optimizing a Classic CMS for China

While Drupal is a robust and widely-used CMS, its asset CDN can face challenges in China. 21YunBox’s solution optimizes the delivery of your Drupal assets, ensuring they load swiftly for your Chinese audience, preserving the functionality and appeal of your Drupal-based site.

Netlify and Contentful: Accelerating Content Delivery

Contentful, a popular headless CMS, may encounter CDN timeouts and blocks in China. Our Web Performance Optimizer seamlessly accelerates the loading of Contentful assets, providing a smooth user experience for your Chinese visitors and ensuring your content strategy remains effective in this crucial market.

As you can see from the comparison above, 21YunBox significantly improves load times, with most content loading within 0.4 seconds (solid green).

Conclusion: Empowering Your Netlify Site to Thrive in China

While Netlify offers excellent hosting solutions globally, its performance in China is hindered by the lack of local CDN nodes and the Great Firewall. However, with the right approach, you can overcome these challenges and deliver a fast, reliable experience to your Chinese users.

Whether you choose the DIY route with AWS or Aliyun, or opt for the more streamlined solution with 21YunBox, the key is to prioritize local hosting and CDN coverage within China. By doing so, you’ll ensure your Netlify-powered website performs optimally, regardless of where your users are located.

Remember, in the fast-paced digital world, every second counts. Don’t let geographical barriers slow down your website. Take action today to optimize your Netlify site for the Chinese market and unlock the full potential of your online presence.