Akamai vs Fastly(2026)
Akamai is better for teams that need most reliable cdn for enterprise. Fastly is the stronger choice if excellent performance. Akamai is paid (from Custom enterprise pricing) and Fastly is paid (from $0.12/GB).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
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Akamai
Akamai is the world's largest and most reliable CDN and cloud security platform, serving enterprise customers globally.
Starting at Custom enterprise pricing
Visit Akamai
Fastly
Fastly is an edge cloud platform with CDN, streaming delivery, and compute@edge capabilities used by Shopify and GitHub.
Starting at $0.12/GB
Visit FastlyHow Do Akamai and Fastly Compare on Features?
| Feature | Akamai | Fastly |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | paid | paid |
| Starting price | Custom enterprise pricing | $0.12/GB |
| Largest edge network (350,000+ servers) | ✓ | — |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | — |
| Web application firewall | ✓ | — |
| Media delivery | ✓ | — |
| API security | ✓ | — |
| Bot mitigation | ✓ | — |
| CDN | — | ✓ |
| Compute@Edge (WebAssembly) | — | ✓ |
| Image optimization | — | ✓ |
| Streaming | — | ✓ |
| Security (WAF) | — | ✓ |
| Real-time analytics | — | ✓ |
Akamai Pros and Cons vs Fastly
Akamai
Fastly
Should You Use Akamai or Fastly?
Choose Akamai if…
- •Most reliable CDN for enterprise
- •Largest PoP network
- •Best DDoS protection
Choose Fastly if…
- •Excellent performance
- •Compute@Edge is powerful
- •Real-time config changes