Easily compare Fastly and Imperva 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 | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Imperva's CDN (formerly Incapsula) makes your websites and applications faster, more reliable and safer. A global network of servers provides content caching, load balancing and failover, while an enterprise-grade cloud web application firewall and DDoS protection safeguard your site from the latest threats. |
Products
| Product | Fastly | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Content Delivery Network | |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Content Caching | |
| 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 Compression |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain |
Name Server (NS) Protection
Name Server (NS) Protection is a secure proxy in front of your authoritative DNS
|
|
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web application firewall | Web Application Firewall |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | DDoS Mitigation | DDoS Protection |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | Fastly Managed CDN | |
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | Compute@Edge |
Network
How many POP locations do Fastly and Imperva have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Fastly | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| North America | 25 | 12 |
| Latin America | 8 | 5 |
| Europe | 20 | 12 |
| Russia & CIS | 0 | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | 13 | 12 |
| China | 0 | 0 |
| Oceania | 8 | 3 |
| Middle East | 2 | 3 |
| Africa | 3 | 2 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Fastly | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | None | Unknown |
| 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 | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | ||
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | Instant! | Instant |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
Global anycast IPs are available | Anycasted network (regional) |
| HTTP/2 | FAQ | |
| HTTP/3 | Enabling HTTP/3 | |
| WebSockets | Limited availability | WebSockets docs |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | IPv6 at Fastly | IPv6 support |
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge. Brotli! | Compress on the edge |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS |
HTTP and HTTPS.
Can be IP address
|
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? | Can be different from origin host |
Can configure specific other Host header.
Forward client request Host header is possible
|
| 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 | Waiting Room |
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | ||
| Cache control - CDN caching | Full and granular control | Granular control/override rules possible |
| Cache control - client caching | Full and granular control | Granular control/override rules possible |
| 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! | Instant |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all and by key | Purge all, by directory, by file extension, by tag(s) |
| Analytics | Real-time! | Real time perf and security events dashboard |
| Log files | Real-time streaming of logs to your server |
Available via UI, API, or full SIEM integration
Logs are not delayed
|
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Fastly | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | Free for first 5 domains, $20 per additional domain | CDN and SSL/TLS |
| 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 | Via authentication header |
| 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 | Two Factor Authentication |
| IP white/blacklisting | About Edge ACLs | IP address/ranges/subnets, self-service in UI |
Support
| Customer support | Fastly | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Yes, public | Yes, public |
| Humans | Email support during business hours is free. Pay extra if you need more/better. Two paid plans available | Imperva’s team of support engineers deliver technical assistance 24x7x365 via phone, email, or online via the self service portal |