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Fastly versus StackPath

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

Fastly logo StackPath logo

Company

Company Fastly StackPath
Short profile 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. StackPath launched in 2016 and promises global, high performance content delivery + top notch security (integrated web application firewall and DDoS mitigation) while keeping things simple, transparent and affordable. StackPath is developer-friendly with 24/7/365 support and a fully-documented API.

Products

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

Network

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

Region Fastly StackPath
North America 25 15
Latin America 8 6
Europe 20 12
Russia & CIS 0 0
Asia excl. China 13 6
China 0 0
Oceania 8 2
Middle East 2 0
Africa 3 1

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration Fastly StackPath
Minimum contract term None One month
Minimum monthly costs $50 $25
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests $0.0075 - $0.016 per 10k requests None
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred None Unknown
NA/EU traffic (low volume) $0.12 per GB $0.04 per GB
APAC traffic (low volume) $0.19 per GB $0.04 per GB
LATAM traffic (low volume) $0.28 per GB $0.04 per GB

Features

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration Fastly StackPath
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing.
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? Instant! 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
HTTP/3 Enabling HTTP/3
WebSockets Limited availability WebSockets docs
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? IPv6 at Fastly
Compression CDN Guide: CompressionReduce file size for faster delivery Resend from origin, or compress on edge. Brotli! Resend from origin, or compress on edge
Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? HTTP and HTTPS HTTP and HTTPS
Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? Can be different from origin host
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP 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 with EdgeRules
Cache control - client caching Full and granular control Full and granular control with EdgeRules
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 Instant! Instant!
Purge - capabilities Purge all and by key Purge all, purge by directory/header,
Analytics Real-time! Real-time!
Log files Real-time streaming of logs to your server Only for larger volume plans
API Purge, analytics, configuration Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection Fastly StackPath
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net Free for first 5 domains, $20 per additional domain Free. SNI
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. Free. SNI
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 Fastly StackPath
Documentation Yes, public Yes, public
Humans Email support during business hours is free. Pay extra if you need more/better. Two paid plans available 24/7 phone and email support included in all plans. Higher volume plans get a dedicated technical account manager