{"id":701,"date":"2024-05-07T11:41:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T11:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/docs\/can-i-use-a-different-cdn-with-shortpixel-adaptive-images\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T08:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T08:46:43","password":"","slug":"can-i-use-a-different-cdn-with-shortpixel-adaptive-images","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/kb.shortpixel.com\/knowledge-base\/article\/can-i-use-a-different-cdn-with-shortpixel-adaptive-images\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I use a different CDN with ShortPixel?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\nIf all you want to do is a custom subdomain<\/strong> to deliver the images, and you don’t care about what CDN is used, we recommend you using the default ShortPixel’s CDN and follow this tutorial<\/a> instead.\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nFor increased security, if you want to specify which domains can serve images from your CDN, you should follow this tutorial<\/a> instead.\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Requirements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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‘Vary’ header<\/h3>\n

If you have enabled WebP and\/or AVIF in the plugin settings, there may be issues serving the correct format for browsers. This is because your CDN must support the Vary<\/code> header (which, for example, is not available on Cloudflare’s free plan) and be configured to deliver the original format, the WebP version, and\/or the AVIF version from the same URL, depending on the browser’s capabilities. This ensures the CDN knows (and caches and delivers accordingly) that there are two or three different files for the same URL, based on the Accept<\/code> header sent by the browser.<\/p>\n

Therefore, if you are not able to set up the Vary<\/code> header, you have two options:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Either disable both<\/b> formats, WebP and\/or AVIF,<\/li>\n
  2. or simply use ShortPixel’s default CDN, which is among the fastest in the market<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    SSL certificate<\/h3>Please note that if you’re not<\/strong> using Cloudflare as CDN, then you must make sure that your CDN is able to handle the SSL certificate for the custom subdomain you’ll use, so you can have the API URL with https<\/code>. If they cannot handle this, a certificate error will occur. Please contact your CDN provider if you need help with this<\/strong>.<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Steps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    If you want to use your own CDN when using ShortPixel Adaptive Images<\/a> (SPAI) or ShortPixel Image Optimizer<\/a> (SPIO), instead of ShortPixel’s CDN, follow these steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Think of a suitable subdomain name for the delivery of your images, such as cdn<\/code>, img<\/code>, images<\/code>, media<\/code>, and so on. For example, if your website is example.com<\/code> and you choose img<\/code> subdomain, your images will be served from img.example.com<\/code>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Edit your <\/strong>DNS records<\/strong><\/a> to add a CNAME<\/a> from cdn.example.com<\/code> to no-cdn.shortpixel.ai<\/code>. This step might be slightly different depending on what CDN you use. Remember that <\/span>example.com<\/code>  should be changed to your actual domain, and that <\/span>cdn<\/code> should be changed to something else if it’s already used by another CNAME, like <\/span>images<\/code>.example.com or <\/span>media<\/code>.example.com<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Enable the CDN for your subdomain.<\/strong> After adding the CNAME record, you need to activate the CDN service for your custom subdomain. Many CDN providers require this step to properly handle requests and issue SSL certificates.\n