Feature · Priorities & Data Limits
Every link. By your rules.
Set priority, data caps, and rate limits per connection. Bond a metered cellular line for resilience without risking overage charges. Speedify handles bandwidth allocation, failover behavior, and quota enforcement across every link in your bonded session automatically.
Benefits
COST CONTROL
Metered links, finally safe to bond.
Set a data cap, a rate limit, or both on any link. Speedify enforces them at the packet level. When a cap is hit, traffic redirects to other links or the link continues at a throttled speed, depending on what you've configured. No overage charges, no manual intervention.
PRIORITY POLICY
Four tiers. Per link, per device.
Mark each link Primary, Secondary, Backup, or Never. Primary links carry traffic by default. Secondary links activate when Primary saturates. Backup links wait for total failure. The hierarchy applies to every bonded session, on every device or router in the fleet.
SUB-SECOND FAILOVER
Sessions that hold the line.
When a link fails, traffic redistributes to surviving links in milliseconds. When a quota's hit, the link demotes automatically and traffic shifts to remaining capacity. No application-layer reconnect, no manual intervention, no operator awareness required.
01 · The Basics
Per-link policy, in the bonding engine.
Conventional multi-WAN routers handle policy with static rules: this app on this WAN, fail over to that one when ping breaks. Enterprise SD-WAN adds quality monitoring but still treats failover as a whole-session event. Speedify works one layer down. Priority, data caps, and rate limits are properties of each link inside the bonded session. Traffic distribution adjusts continuously based on those policies, and sessions don't break when a link is demoted, hits its cap, or fails outright.
| Per-link priority tiers | Per-link data caps | Auto-demote on quota hit | Session survives failover | Fleet-wide policy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SPEEDIFY
Connection Priorities
Priority, data caps, and rate limits are per-link properties of the bonded session. Traffic distribution adjusts continuously, and sessions hold through demotion, quota exhaustion, or link failure. |
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Static Multi-WAN
Policies are defined per-router via static rules and DSCP marks. Failover is a whole-session event: when the active WAN drops, live sessions break during the handover and apps reconnect. |
Deep Dive · Watch
How Speedify's channel bonding technology actually works.
Walk through the protocol, the per-packet distribution model, the failover logic, and the encryption layer in one detailed explainer. The architecture and the engineering tradeoffs that make Speedify different from a load-balancer or a regular VPN.
02 · Under the Hood
Policy that adjusts itself.
Speedify monitors every link continuously: throughput, latency, packet loss, accumulated data consumption against its quota. When Primary throughput falls short of the target speed for the traffic in flight, Secondary links activate to fill the gap. When a link hits its quota, the configured overlimit behavior kicks in. When a link fails outright, surviving links pick up the load in milliseconds. When a degraded link recovers, traffic gradually reallocates according to the configured priority. The operator sets the policy once. The engine enforces it every packet.
BONDED SESSION · POLICY ACTIVE
Active link · carrying traffic now
Standby link · promotes on overflow
Reserved link · activates on full failure
How it works
Policy that adjusts itself.
01
Secondary Threshold
Speedify watches the combined throughput of your Primary links. When it can't meet the target speed for the traffic in flight, Secondary links activate to make up the difference. The threshold is configurable per traffic type, so streaming gets a higher target than bulk transfers, and Secondary stays off until it's actually needed.
02
Quota exhaustion
When a link reaches its configured data cap, Speedify either stops using it until the cap period resets or continues at a configurable rate limit (200 Kbps default), depending on the overlimit behavior you've set. No overage charges, no manual intervention.
03
Interface failure & recovery
Link failure is detected within 1-3 seconds. Traffic redistributes to surviving links on the next packet, with no application-layer reconnect required. When a failed link returns, traffic gradually reallocates by priority.
04
Quality degradation
When a link shows elevated packet loss or latency beyond acceptable thresholds, traffic allocation reduces proportionally. The link stays in the bond but carries less load until it recovers.
How it works
03 · Policy Controls
Four tiers, plus per-link limits.
Different traffic needs different treatment. A 50GB camera dump wants raw throughput. A live broadcast wants every packet to land. A two-way call wants the network to keep working when conditions change underneath it. Speedify exposes three modes, and the default combines the other two automatically.
TIER 01
Primary
Carries traffic under normal operating conditions. Typically the most reliable and unlimited connections: Wi-Fi, fiber, cable, unlimited 5G, low-cost satellite. Multiple Primary links share load by capacity and quality.
Usage pattern
Always
Active whenAlways
Load shareBy capacity
On failureTraffic redistributes
TIER 02
Secondary
Activates when Primary throughput falls short of the target speed for the traffic in flight, governed by a configurable Secondary Threshold. Promotes to active status if Primary fails entirely. Useful for metered cellular you want available for performance boosts and failover, without using it by default.
Usage pattern
On overflow
Active whenPrimary < target
Load shareOverflow only
On Primary failPromotes to active
TIER 03
Backup
Remains inactive unless every Primary and Secondary link has failed. Reserved for last-resort connectivity. Automatically deactivates when higher-priority links recover. Prevents accidental consumption of expensive capacity.
Usage pattern
On failure
Active whenAll others down
Load shareCarries all
On recoveryAuto-deactivates
TIER 04
Never
Detected by the system but excluded from all traffic routing. Functionally equivalent to disabling the interface for Speedify usage. Stays visible in configuration, can be re-enabled by changing priority at any time.
Usage pattern
Excluded
Active whenNever
Load shareNone
VisibilityExcluded from operations
Per-link thresholds, caps & rate limits
Tune the policy. Tighten the budget.
Tiers govern when a link participates. Thresholds, caps, and rate limits govern how it participates. Each is set per-link and works alongside whatever tier you've assigned. Together, they let you bond a metered line for resilience without giving up control over when and how much it gets used.
01
Secondary Threshold
Sets the target speed Primary links should meet before Secondary links stay on standby. When combined Primary throughput falls below the threshold for the traffic in flight, Secondary activates to fill the gap. Higher thresholds mean Secondary helps more often, at the cost of more cellular data and battery.
02
Daily & monthly data caps
Set a daily cap, a monthly cap, or both on any link. Speedify warns at 75% of the limit, and when the cap is reached, traffic shifts to other links automatically. Recommended starting point: daily cap at about 10% of the monthly cap, to allow for variation between days.
03
Overlimit behavior
When a link hits its cap, you choose what happens next. Stop using the link entirely until the cap period resets, or keep it connected but rate-limited so it stays available without burning through your remaining budget at full speed.
04
Rate limits
Throttle any link to a maximum speed of your choosing, independent of data caps. Useful for keeping an expensive cellular line bonded for resilience while preventing it from carrying bulk transfers.
04 · Deployment
Where Speedify installs.
Per-link priorities and data caps are part of the core Speedify configuration. Set them per-device in the app, or fleet-wide via Speedify Teams admin. Wherever Speedify runs, the same four-tier model applies, the same quota enforcement engine runs, and the same failover behavior carries through.
A · Device Level
Run Speedify as an app.
Install the Speedify app on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, or Android. Set tier and data caps per-link in the connections panel. Policies are stored on the device and applied to every bonded session, including roaming sessions where the link mix changes.
Licensing
For businesses, this is provided through a Speedify Teams subscription, which centralizes billing, user provisioning, permissions, and usage analytics across your organization.
Best For
Traveling employees with mixed Wi-Fi and cellular, mobile workforces moving between known and unknown networks, individual workstations bonding a metered hotspot alongside the primary line.
B · Network Level
Run Speedify on a router.
Run Speedify on a supported router and the same per-link priority and quota policy applies to every device on the LAN. Configure once per site, every device behind the router inherits the policy automatically.
Licensing
Network-level deployment is licensed via Speedify for Routers, available two ways:
Speedify for Routers
Add Speedify to a supported OpenWrt router you already own.
Powered by Speedify routers
Hardware with Speedify preinstalled and licensed out of the box. Miri, GL.iNET, and other partners.
Best For
Branch offices with mixed broadband and cellular, remote sites where Starlink is primary and cellular is backup, vessels and vehicles with multiple SIMs and a metered fallback, retail locations balancing performance and cost.
Note
Many businesses run both at once. A router covers everyone in the building. The app travels with people who leave it. For OEMs and software vendors, Speedify's channel bonding can also be licensed as an SDK that embeds into your own iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, or Linux product. See Powered by Speedify.
04 · In production
Where Speedify earns its keep.
Per-link priorities and data caps matter most where the link mix is heterogeneous, the cost profile is uneven, and someone is responsible for the bill. Fleets with metered cellular alongside unlimited primary lines. Remote sites with satellite emergency backup. International deployments with roaming exposure. A short list of where Speedify's policy engine is already running today.
Spotlight
Speedify Self-Hosted Servers
For organizations with data residency, compliance, or sovereignty requirements, self-hosted Speedify servers let you terminate every bonded session inside your own infrastructure. Per-link priorities, data caps, and rate limits still apply, with all reassembly and policy enforcement happening on hardware in a location and jurisdiction of your choosing.
Learn more →
POLICY · ENFORCED
Server location
Your data center
Policy scope
Fleet-wide
Tier model
4 tiers per link
Logs retained
None
Data sovereignty
Yours
Maritime
Starlink primary, cellular metered backup
Set bonded Starlink dishes as Primary, cellular MiFi as Backup with a monthly cap. Speedify uses Starlink under normal conditions and only burns cellular data when Starlink drops (storms, satellite handoffs, port calls). Cellular overage charges become impossible.
Learn more →
Aviation
Tiered satellite plus ATG cost management
Starlink Aero as Primary, Ku/Ka as Secondary overflow, ATG as Backup with a strict quota. The expensive legacy satellite link stays available but doesn't consume capacity until Starlink saturates. Backup ATG only activates when truly needed.
Learn more →
Remote Operations
Mining, oil & gas, construction, defense
Terrestrial cellular as Primary at active sites. Satellite Backup with a hard data cap, reserved for connectivity loss events. Policy prevents accidental satellite consumption during normal operations, while keeping the link instantly available when conditions demand it.
Learn more →
Live Broadcast
Field crews with mixed carrier economics
Bonded crew SIMs as Primary (each with its own data cap based on the carrier plan). Bonded MiFi or production satellite as Backup. Speedify enforces caps at the link level, so a single crew member doesn't blow through the team's monthly quota during a hot story.
Learn more →
Get in touch with Speedify
Get in touch today to discuss your business’s needs and discover how Speedify can help deliver, faster, more reliable, and more secure online experiences.