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CDNetworks versus Fastly

Easily compare CDNetworks and Fastly for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.

CDNetworks logo Fastly logo

Company

Company CDNetworks Fastly
Short profile As a leading network with over 2,800 global Points of Presence and more than 20 years of technology experience, CDNetworks has made huge leaps forward in edge computing, from basic CDN services to elastic, stable, and secure content delivery services and all-in-one WAAP Protection Solution. Recognized in Gartner Competitive Landscape: CDN and Edge Services in 2022. Founded in 2011, Fastly has grown into a mature CDN provider. Fastly offers a range of services including streaming media delivery and private CDN but Fastly is best known for being a 'real-time CDN', meaning changes happen instantly and the platform can deliver 'uncacheable' content well.

Products

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Product CDNetworks Fastly
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... Dynamic Web Acceleration
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) Content Acceleration
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) Content Acceleration
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? Media Acceleration Live Broadcast
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video Media Acceleration VoD Video on Demand
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization Image Processing Image Optimizer
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain Cloud DNS+
WAFWeb Application Firewall Application Firewall Web application firewall
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. Flood Shield DDoS Mitigation
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs Fastly Managed CDN
Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers Edge Computing Platform Compute@Edge

Network

How many POP locations do CDNetworks and Fastly have in different parts of the world?

Region CDNetworks Fastly
North America 13 25
Latin America 6 8
Europe 14 20
Russia & CIS 27 0
Asia excl. China 35 13
China 66 0
Oceania 3 8
Middle East 10 2
Africa 7 3

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration CDNetworks Fastly
Minimum contract term 12 months None
Minimum monthly costs Unknown $50
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests Unknown $0.0075 - $0.016 per 10k requests
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred Unknown None
NA/EU traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.12 per GB
APAC traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.19 per GB
LATAM traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.28 per GB

Features

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration CDNetworks Fastly
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. CDN Pro has self signup and getting started. For other products you must talk to sales
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? ~ 15 minutes Instant!
Apex/root domain OK Blog: Root domain on CDN and performanceNo performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com Global anycast IPs are available
HTTP/2 Docs
HTTP/3 Enabling HTTP/3
WebSockets Docs Limited availability
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? Docs IPv6 at Fastly
Compression CDN Guide: CompressionReduce file size for faster delivery Resend from origin, or compress on edge Resend from origin, or compress on edge. Brotli!
Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? HTTP and HTTPS HTTP and HTTPS
Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? Configure specific other Host header
tooltip CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
Can be different from origin host
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP Multiple POPs can act as shield Also available as separate product (Media Shield)
Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room Stateful waiting room with Compute@Edge
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin
Cache control - CDN caching Full and granular control Full and granular control
Cache control - client caching Full and granular control Full and granular control
Serve Stale CDN Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble Cache-Control extensions support
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate or delete cached objects on CDN Completion time is 5 - 10 minutes Instant!
Purge - capabilities Purge all, by directory, by cache tag Purge all and by key
Analytics Real-time!
Log files Real-time streaming of logs to your server
API Purge, analytics, configuration Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection CDNetworks Fastly
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net Free for first 5 domains, $20 per additional domain
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate $100/m per FQDN, $275/m for wildcard domain
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN EV cert possible.
Token authentication Enabling URL token validation
Geo blocking
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content Creating and using Edge Dictionaries
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content Authenticating before returning a request
IP white/blacklisting About Edge ACLs

Support

Customer support CDNetworks Fastly
Documentation Yes, public Yes, public
Humans All customers get 24/7 email and phone support Email support during business hours is free. Pay extra if you need more/better. Two paid plans available