Downloaded fonts vs link?

Question

css

Hello. I asked myself: what is better, download fonts from the Internet or connect, for example, Google web fonts?
On the one hand, downloaded fonts, having gone through the conversion, may "not recognize themselves", and it can be difficult to find the desired font in the public domain. On the other hand, Google fonts still depend on the smooth operation of the Google site, which I can be sure of, but at the same time it is somehow unreliable and frivolous (maybe I'm wrong). In general, I can not decide which way is better. What are your thoughts on this?

Answer 1

There is always a choice here, which depends on the availability factor of Google servers.
For example, if you are making a public website, which will always be accessed only by people with unlimited access to the Internet, then there are no questions - you use Google servers. It is very likely that if the font is used frequently, it will already be in the browser cache and will not be reloaded. You can be sure of the speed and reliability of Google servers.
But there are situations when they work with the site from the local network and access to other resources is severely limited. Usually, in this case, they make a white list, in which the site is included. Usually in this case, other sites rarely get. In this case, all content, including scripts, fonts and pictures, must be hosted.
There is another, exclusively Russian moment, called Roskomnadzor. If this yellow water hits your head, they can block access to Google as well. And it will be done under a plausible pretext.

Answer 2

Nothing prevents prescribing several fonts in case of Google glitches.

Answer 3

Arguing about where to load the font, they often miss a few important nuances.
1) Loading from Google - parallelization of flows for the visitor, in most cases the site loads faster. (The load on your host is reduced, and Google often gives fonts quickly)
2) Google profiles your visitors by collecting statistics behind the scenes. (in the event that for some reason you abandoned GA)
3) Dependence on the availability of Google servers (already chewed up and down)