Fastly
6.7/10Fastly is an edge cloud platform that combines a programmable CDN, WebAssembly serverless compute, edge storage, and web security for engineering-led businesses.
Data last updated November 2026 · Our methodology
Overview
Fastly runs a global edge network. Its core is a CDN built on a modified version of Varnish, and engineers can control caching per request with VCL. Its best-known feature is Instant Purge, which clears cached content worldwide in about 150 milliseconds. Fastly Compute is a serverless platform built on WebAssembly, backed by a Key Value Store, Object Storage, and a Secret Store. Security products include the Next-Gen WAF, which came from the 2020 Signal Sciences acquisition, plus DDoS protection, bot management, and API security. Observability covers real-time log streaming to more than 30 endpoints, including Datadog, Splunk, and BigQuery. Fastly also sells through the AWS and Google Cloud marketplaces. It suits developers, SaaS companies, media publishers, and e-commerce teams that want fine control over edge logic. Pricing changed for accounts created on or after November 4, 2025. Self-serve usage pricing now comes with free monthly allowances, such as 100 GB of delivery bandwidth, 1M requests, and 10M Compute requests. After that, bandwidth costs $0.08 to $0.28 per GB depending on region. Monthly packages start at $500 for Compute Starter and $1,500 for Network Services Basic. Higher tiers and the security packages are quoted by sales. The main drawbacks are a steep VCL learning curve and costs that are hard to predict across regions. Fastly also has a smaller footprint of about 76 POPs, with no presence in mainland China.
Our Rating
Who Fastly is best for
Good fit
The platform is API-first, with VCL and WebAssembly compute that give engineers deep control.
Enterprise packages, Gold and Enterprise support, and full security bundles target large customers.
Edge compute, API security, and real-time logging suit SaaS delivery.
Instant purge and image optimization help retail sites that change content often.
Less suited
There is a free allowance, but reviewers say costs are hard to predict and the platform is complex for small teams.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Instant Purge clears cached content worldwide in about 150 ms, which suits news and e-commerce sites that change content often.
- VCL and WebAssembly-based Compute give engineers fine control over edge logic per request.
- Real-time log streaming to more than 30 endpoints, including Datadog, Splunk, and BigQuery, is included.
- The Next-Gen WAF, from the Signal Sciences acquisition, is known for low false-positive rates (a vendor claim reported by Technologymatch).
- Self-serve sign-up includes free monthly allowances for delivery, compute, storage, and TLS.
Cons
- Reviewers describe VCL as hard to learn and say the dashboard is complex for beginners.
- Region-based bandwidth rates make monthly bills hard to predict, especially for smaller companies.
- About 76 POPs, far fewer than Cloudflare or Akamai, with no presence in mainland China, Russia, or the CIS region.
- Some PeerSpot reviewers report slow support responses.
- Bot management and the full security suites are sold by sales quote only.
Key Features
Not included
- Managed WordPress
- Managed Kubernetes
- Dedicated Servers
- VPS Hosting
- Shared Hosting
Fastly Pricing
Usage-based (free allowance)
- 5 TLS domains free
- 5 GB Object Storage free
- 500K DDoS protection requests free
- Pay as you go above the allowances
- 10M Compute requests and 100M vCPU ms free
- 100 GB delivery bandwidth and 1M requests free per month
Network Services Basic
- 100M requests
- 20 TLS domains
- Standard support
- 30M image requests
- 2 mutual TLS domains
Observability Starter
- 500M requests
- Edge Observer, Origin Inspector, Domain Inspector, Alerts, and Log Explorer & Insights listed (per-tier split not stated)
Network Services Starter
- Gold support
- 500M requests
- 40 TLS domains
- 150M image requests
- Unlimited mutual TLS
Network Services Advantage / Ultimate
- Contact sales
- 2B or 5B requests
- 80 or 150 TLS domains
- Gold or Enterprise support
Security Core / Core Plus / Total
- Contact sales
- Total adds API, DDoS, and bot protection
- Next-Gen WAF, starting with OWASP Top 10 protection
- Core Plus and Total include 20 workspaces, with 25 and 100 custom rules respectively
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Accounts created on or after November 4, 2025 get free monthly allowances, such as 100 GB of bandwidth, 1M delivery requests, and 10M Compute requests. Charges start only above those allowances.
Compute Starter is $500 a month. Network Services Basic and Observability Starter are $1,500 a month each, and Network Services Starter is $6,000 a month. Higher tiers and the security packages require a sales quote.
No. Fastly is an edge platform for CDN delivery, serverless compute, edge storage, and security. Your origin servers need to run with another provider.
Fastly has no POP presence in mainland China, and reviewers report poor performance there.
On usage-based pricing, the first 5 TLS domains are included. Each additional domain costs $20, and commercial CA certificates cost $275 per domain.
Yes. On June 8, 2021, a software bug briefly took down sites including Reddit, Amazon, and the BBC. Fastly said 95% of its network was back to normal within 49 minutes.
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