Fastly vs Cloudflare
Fastly bills by the meter: bandwidth per region, requests per ten thousand, image requests and TLS per domain, after a starter allowance. Cloudflare sells plans at fixed monthly prices, and the CDN, DNS and DDoS protection come with each one. Fastly is a programmable edge platform for teams that want to steer caching in code, while Cloudflare is the simpler purchase if you accept its DNS and terms.
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Choose Fastly ifyou have engineers who want to control caching and routing in code and you can model a bill made of several meters.
Choose Cloudflare ifyou want a fixed monthly plan with DNS and DDoS protection included, and you can move nameservers or pay for Business.
Fastly and Cloudflare side by side
| Fastly | Cloudflare | |
|---|---|---|
| Our CDN providers rank | #7 of 12 | #8 of 12 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| List price, 2 November 2026 | Enterprise custom; Growth usage-based, Europe and North America at $0.12 per GB for the first 10 TB, $0.01 per 10,000 requests; free tier of 100 GB and 1M requests | Annual billing: Pro $20 and Business $200 per month; monthly billing: Pro $25 and Business $250; Free $0; Contract custom |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | Engineering teams wanting to control caching and routing in code | Sites wanting DNS, CDN and DDoS protection from one dashboard |
| Not for | Small static sites watching a per-gigabyte budget | Video or download distributors on the standard plans |
Both are reviewed in full in our CDN providers ranking: Fastly and Cloudflare.
Where they differ
Fastly 2 · Cloudflare 3 · open 0- 01
How the invoice is built
Fastly's Full Site Delivery gives 100 GB and 1 million requests free, then charges $0.01 per 10,000 requests and, for the first 10 TB in Europe and North America, $0.12 per GB. Cloudflare charges $0 on Free, $20 on Pro (billed annually) and $200 on Business (billed annually), with Cache Reserve the one usage-based item on its plans page. Cloudflare's bill is easier to predict.
Edge: Cloudflare
- 02
Cost outside Europe and North America
Fastly lists $0.19 per GB for Asia and Australia and $0.28 for Africa, India and South Korea at the first tier. Cloudflare publishes no regional rate on its plans page. If a large share of your audience is in those regions, a flat plan avoids the regional meter, though Cloudflare's terms restrict video, and large files in disproportionate amounts, without paid services.
Edge: Cloudflare
- 03
Control over caching
Fastly's site describes a programmable edge platform, which suits engineers who steer caching and routing from code. Cloudflare's documentation we read covers DNS setup and plans, not a comparable programmable layer. On the evidence in hand, Fastly is the one built around code-level control.
Edge: Fastly
- 04
Extra line items
Fastly includes managed TLS for 5 domains at no charge, then $20 per domain, with commercial CA certificates at $275 per domain, and its Image Optimizer includes 100,000 image requests free. Cloudflare lists Universal SSL on every plan, including Free. For a site with many domains, the certificate lines alone can favour Cloudflare.
Edge: Cloudflare
- 05
Getting your traffic onto it
Free and Pro on Cloudflare require it to act as the authoritative DNS provider; keeping your own DNS means CNAME setup, offered on Business and Enterprise only. Fastly's pricing page does not state a DNS requirement. A team that must keep its DNS where it is on a low budget may find that Cloudflare's constraint decides it.
Edge: Fastly
When neither fits
Bunny CDN offers one published per-gigabyte rate with no request fees. Amazon CloudFront has flat plans that waive transfer from AWS origins, which helps if your origin is on AWS.
Fastly or Cloudflare: questions
3 answersHow much does Fastly cost per gigabyte in Europe?
$0.12 per GB for the first 10 TB in Europe and North America, then $0.08, after 100 GB free each month.
Does Cloudflare charge per gigabyte?
Its plans page lists fixed monthly prices for Free, Pro and Business, and shows Cache Reserve as usage-based. It does not list a per-gigabyte rate.
Which one needs a DNS change?
Cloudflare does on Free and Pro, where it takes over as your authoritative DNS provider. Fastly's pricing page states no such requirement in what we read.
Sources
Checked 2 November 2026- Fastly pricing page: tiers, regional bandwidth rates, request rates, TLS and Image Optimizer pricing, programmable edge description.
- Cloudflare plan prices: monthly prices, Universal SSL and DDoS included, Cache Reserve metered.
- Cloudflare full DNS setup docs: Free and Pro: Cloudflare must be the authoritative DNS.
- Cloudflare partial DNS setup docs: CNAME setup reserved for Business or Enterprise.
- Cloudflare terms for application services: restrictions on video and big files absent paid services.