Cloudflare vs Fastly
The ultimate side-by-side head-to-head analysis for 2026.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Cloudflare is free tier available, Fastly is usage-based pricing.
- How to start: Cloudflare is free tier available, Fastly is usage-based pricing.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. We do not publish a quality score, because we do not have one we can stand behind. They cannot tell you which tool fits your workflow — the sections below are there for that. How we score tools.
Cloudflare
Fastly
Category
Hosting
Hosting
Base Price
Free tier
Usage-based
Public API
Yes
Yes
Mobile app
Yes
No
Open source / self-hostable
No
No
SSO (SAML)
Yes
Yes
Choose Cloudflare if:
Website Owners, Developers, and Security Engineers.
Choose Fastly if:
Teams that need control over caching behaviour at the edge.
Cloudflare: pros & cons
- Global Speed: Massive edge network ensures your site loads fast anywhere on earth.
- Best DDoS Protection: Industry-leading security that stops even the largest attacks.
- Free Tier: Extremely generous free plan that covers most small site needs.
- Serverless Power: Run code at the edge with 'Workers' for near-zero latency.
- Complex Pro Features: Advanced settings like Page Rules can be tricky to configure.
- Support: Free users mostly rely on community forums for technical help.
- DNS Dependence: Requires you to move your DNS management to their platform.
Fastly: pros & cons
- Instant global cache purge
- Programmable edge with VCL and Compute
- Strong performance and observability
- Configuration is developer-oriented
- Pricing suits larger traffic volumes
- Steeper learning curve than simple CDNs
Our verdict on Cloudflare
The essential first line of defense and performance for any modern website.
Our verdict on Fastly
Powerful for teams who will use the programmability. Simple static sites do not need it.