Stack playbook · Snapshot 23 October 2026
Next.js on Azure Front Door/CDN: readiness playbook
What 240 measured sites on this stack get right, where they fall short, and the Next.js on Azure Front Door/CDN-specific steps that close each gap.
- Sites measured
- 240
- Median readiness index
- 72/100
- Profiles on this stack
- 29
detected from homepage HTML and headers
all sites: 64
top-50K sites
Readiness by lane
Enable
87/100
All sites 77
Harden
66/100
All sites 55
Accelerate
66/100
All sites 63
Recover
18/100
All sites 11
The Next.js on Azure Front Door/CDN playbook
Gaps ordered by impact, with the platform-specific step where one exists.
HTTP/3 advertised
2.5% observed · all sites 36%
Turn on HTTP/3 at your CDN. Browsers fall back to HTTP/2 automatically, so the risk is low.
CAA records limit who can issue certificates
15% observed · all sites 11%
Publish CAA records naming every CA you actually use, including the CAs your CDN uses for managed certificates. Add an iodef contact if you want reports.
security.txt published
17% observed · all sites 5.5%
Publish /.well-known/security.txt with at least Contact and Expires fields, as RFC 9116 requires, and review it before it expires.
Modern image formats in use
49% observed · all sites 40%
Serve WebP or AVIF with a JPEG or PNG fallback, either through an image CDN or by generating both formats at build time.
On Next.js: The next/image component serves optimized formats automatically.
Guide: AVIF, WebP, JPEG, and PNG: Choose the Right Image Format
No render-blocking scripts in <head>
40% observed · all sites 44%
Add defer to scripts that need the DOM, async to independent ones such as analytics, or move them to the end of the body.
On Next.js: Use the next/script component with an appropriate loading strategy.
Guide: Control Third-Party Scripts Before They Control Your Page
HSTS kept for at least a year
61% observed · all sites 31%
Send Strict-Transport-Security on HTTPS responses. Start with a short max-age (for example 300 seconds), confirm every subdomain works over HTTPS, then raise it in steps to 31536000. Add includeSubDomains only when all subdomains are HTTPS. HSTS preload is optional and hard to undo; hstspreload.org itself does not recommend it by default.
On Next.js: Add the header in the headers() option of next.config.js for all routes.
On Azure Front Door/CDN: Add a response header action in a Front Door rule set.
Certificate lifetime of 100 days or less
11% observed · all sites 75%
Move to automated issuance and renewal now, while you still have time to test it.
DNSSEC signed
13% observed · all sites 8.1%
Enable DNSSEC at your DNS provider, then add the DS record at your registrar. Plan provider moves carefully: a stale DS record can make the domain fail to resolve.
Guide: Website Uptime Readiness: Prepare Before Traffic Arrives
Where Next.js on Azure Front Door/CDN sites lead
- Reachable over IPv681% observedall sites 44%
- DMARC policy enforces quarantine or reject66% observedall sites 31%
- Content Security Policy present62% observedall sites 31%
- HSTS kept for at least a year61% observedall sites 31%