Easily compare Fastly and CDNetworks for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
| Company | Fastly | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | 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. |
Products
| Product | Fastly | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Video on Demand | Media Acceleration VoD |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image Optimizer | Image Processing |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | Cloud DNS+ | |
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web application firewall | Application Firewall |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | DDoS Mitigation | Flood Shield |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | Fastly Managed CDN | |
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Compute@Edge | Edge Computing Platform |
Network
How many POP locations do Fastly and CDNetworks have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Fastly | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 25 | 13 |
| Latin America | 8 | 6 |
| Europe | 20 | 14 |
| Russia & CIS | 0 | 28 |
| Asia excl. China | 13 | 35 |
| China | 0 | 66 |
| Oceania | 8 | 3 |
| Middle East | 2 | 10 |
| Africa | 3 | 7 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Fastly | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | None | 12 months |
| Minimum monthly costs | $50 | Unknown |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | $0.0075 - $0.016 per 10k requests | Unknown |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | None | Unknown |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | $0.12 per GB | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | $0.19 per GB | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | $0.28 per GB | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | Fastly | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| 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? | Instant! | ~ 15 minutes |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Global anycast IPs are available | |
| HTTP/2 | Docs | |
| HTTP/3 | Enabling HTTP/3 | |
| WebSockets | Limited availability | Docs |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | IPv6 at Fastly | Docs |
| Compression Reduce 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 |
Configure specific other Host header
CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
|
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Also available as separate product (Media Shield) | Multiple POPs can act as 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 serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
Cache-Control extensions support | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Instant! | Completion time is 5 - 10 minutes |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all and by key | Purge all, by directory, by cache tag |
| Analytics | Real-time! | |
| Log files | Real-time streaming of logs to your server | |
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Fastly | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Fastly | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Yes, public | Yes, public |
| Humans | Email support during business hours is free. Pay extra if you need more/better. Two paid plans available | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support |