Which is better? Fastly or Cloudflare?

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) have grown increasingly popular as an efficient means to enhance website speed and performance.

Fastly and Cloudflare are two popular CDN services; both are popular and effective; but which one should you choose?

In this article, we compare these two services so you can select the one best suited to your business.

Fastly

Fastly, which was founded in 2011, has grown into a mature content delivery network (CDN) company.

Fastly provides a variety of services, including streaming media delivery and private CDN, but the company is most recognised for being a ‘real-time CDN,’ which means that changes are reflected immediately and the platform is capable of delivering ‘uncacheable’ content.

A few of Fastly’s most notable features are content delivery and image optimisation for dynamic assets, the cache for unpredictably changing content, and images from the edge; video streaming across multiple devices and platforms; load balancing with application auto-scaling; and cloud security, including instant traffic reports and attach mitigation.

The pricing structure is straightforward and simple to grasp, with a monthly minimum payment of $50, while bandwidth is charged at a variable cost that varies according to location. Users can use the pricing estimator to figure out how much their monthly bill will be. Fastly’s servers come equipped with 24TB of solid-state storage, 768GB of RAM, and four 25-gigabit Ethernet ports on each side.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare is the world’s largest content delivery network (CDN) provider. A CDN is a system that provides a caching and acceleration layer for a website and its content.

Cloudflare provides a free service that delivers content to millions of websites and provides additional services that are either free or paid for. It’s important to note that cloudflare.com is not a CDN and does not provide caching and accelerating layers for websites, but it can provide other services for companies wanting to improve their performance and security.

Cloudflare provides several services that help to provide the best possible user experience, including protection from network attacks, improved SEO, enhanced reliability, and more. Cloudflare services are provided in a number of ways including through self-hosted solutions and SaaS solutions.

It is a successful mix of network security and performance solution that boosts the speed of websites or networks while also protecting websites, mobile applications (APIs), and SaaS services (Software as a Service). It is one of the most prominent Content Delivery Networks available today.

This content delivery network (CDN) solution accelerates and improves the performance of networks, websites, apps, and APIs. It functions as a network of proxy servers and data centres (there are more than 100 of them) placed all over the world, and it serves more than 10 trillion requests each month through this network. The service has the capability of managing 10Tbps of bandwidth for its subscribers.

Regarding website security, the most important thing to consider is protection against SQL injection, which is an attack on the website’s code. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) assaults, which are becoming increasingly common due to the exploitation of unsecured Internet-of-Things devices, are also protected. Because of these downtimes, the average hourly cost can reach as high as $100,000 per hour.

Fastly vs. Cloudflare: Which one is better?

When it comes to choosing between Fastly and Cloudflare, there are a few key factors to consider:

Speed

Both Fastly and Cloudflare are optimized for speed, but Fastly is generally considered to be faster. Fastly’s global network of servers and real-time analytics allow it to deliver content quickly and efficiently to users worldwide.

Ease of use

While both Fastly and Cloudflare have user-friendly interfaces, Cloudflare is generally considered to be easier to use, especially for users with limited technical expertise.

Features

Both Fastly and Cloudflare offer a range of features, including website acceleration, security, and analytics. However, Fastly is generally considered to be more focused on content delivery, while Cloudflare offers a wider range of tools and features, including image optimization, caching, and resource minification.

Security

Fastly and Cloudflare both provide robust security features, including DDoS protection, web application firewalling, SSL/TLS encryption, and DDoS mitigation services. However, Cloudflare generally stands out for being more dedicated to security with an impressive selection of tools and features designed to keep websites and online applications safe.

Cost

Cost is one of the major deciding factors for most users when choosing a perfect CDN service. Both Fastly and Cloudflare provide flexible pricing plans, tailored specifically to the size and needs of your business. However, Cloudflare tends to be more cost-effective for smaller and mid-sized enterprises. It has even a free-tier plan which is not available with Fastly. So, Cloudflare wins in this case.

Conclusion

Fastly and Cloudflare are both popular CDN services that enhance website speed and performance. Fastly is known for its real-time CDN capabilities and features such as content delivery and image optimization. Cloudflare, on the other hand, is the largest CDN provider and offers various services for improved performance and security. When comparing the two, Fastly is considered faster, while Cloudflare is easier to use for users with limited technical expertise. Features-wise, Fastly focuses more on content delivery, while Cloudflare offers a wider range of tools and features. Both providers offer robust security features, but Cloudflare is known for its dedication to security. In terms of cost, Cloudflare tends to be more cost-effective, especially for smaller and mid-sized enterprises, and even offers a free-tier plan.