Cloudflare vs Fastly(2026)
Cloudflare is better for teams that need extremely generous free tier. Fastly is the stronger choice if excellent performance. Cloudflare is freemium (from $20/month) and Fastly is paid (from $0.12/GB).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
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Cloudflare
Cloudflare provides CDN, DDoS protection, DNS, Workers edge computing, and security services.
Starting at $20/month
Visit Cloudflare
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 Cloudflare and Fastly Compare on Features?
| Feature | Cloudflare | Fastly |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | freemium | paid |
| Starting price | $20/month | $0.12/GB |
| Global CDN (300+ PoPs) | ✓ | — |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | — |
| Workers (edge functions) | ✓ | — |
| R2 storage | ✓ | — |
| Zero Trust security | ✓ | — |
| DNS (fastest) | ✓ | — |
| CDN | — | ✓ |
| Compute@Edge (WebAssembly) | — | ✓ |
| Image optimization | — | ✓ |
| Streaming | — | ✓ |
| Security (WAF) | — | ✓ |
| Real-time analytics | — | ✓ |
Cloudflare Pros and Cons vs Fastly
C
Cloudflare
+Extremely generous free tier
+Workers for edge computing
+Best DNS performance
+DDoS protection included
−Can be complex to configure
−Support is slow on free tier
−Some features enterprise-only
F
Fastly
+Excellent performance
+Compute@Edge is powerful
+Real-time config changes
+Used by major companies
−No real free tier
−Complex VCL configuration
−Expensive compared to Cloudflare
Should You Use Cloudflare or Fastly?
Choose Cloudflare if…
- •Extremely generous free tier
- •Workers for edge computing
- •Best DNS performance
Choose Fastly if…
- •Excellent performance
- •Compute@Edge is powerful
- •Real-time config changes