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Programmable CDN and edge platform

Fastly

Usage-billed programmable CDN known for instant purge, real-time logs and Wasm edge compute, with a free monthly allowance of 100 GB and 1M requests.

Visit fastly.com ↗ Alternatives Free tier
Fastly homepage
§1

Overview

Fastly is a content delivery network aimed at teams that want to control caching in code. Configuration is versioned, can be tested and rolled back, and is exposed through an API; Instant Purge clears content globally in about 150 ms, which is why news and commerce sites use it to cache content that changes often.

Pricing is usage-based with a free monthly allowance: 100 GB of bandwidth, 1 million requests and TLS for five domains. After that, bandwidth costs $0.12/GB in North America and Europe and more in other regions, with requests at $0.01 per 10,000. Compute (Wasm edge functions), Object Storage, KV Store, image optimisation and Fanout are separate line items with their own free amounts.

Fastly does not host authoritative DNS, so you need a separate DNS provider. Its Next-Gen WAF (formerly Signal Sciences) is sold separately without a published price.

Fastly states it runs fewer, larger POPs with 622 Tbps of capacity rather than publishing a PoP count. The compliance page lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS Level 1 and HIPAA audits, with reports available under NDA.

§2

Pricing and plans

Free tier · card required

Each month: 100 GB bandwidth, 1M CDN requests, TLS for 5 domains, 10M Compute requests and 100M Compute vCPU-ms free.

At the limit Bills overage Bandwidth past the free 100 GB a month is billed per GB to your card.

Plan Price What you get
Free allowance $0 100 GB bandwidth, 1M requests, 5 TLS domains per month
Usage-based $0.12/GB NA/EU 100 GB-10 TB tier; next 10 TB $0.08/GB; requests $0.01 per 10,000 beyond 1M
Enterprise Custom Custom pricing, expert guidance and enterprise support

Bandwidth is billed per GB per region: $0.12 in North America and Europe, $0.16 Mexico, $0.19 Asia, Australia, South America, Saudi Arabia, $0.28 Africa, India, South Korea (100 GB-10 TB tier). TLS beyond 5 domains is $20 per domain per month; Mutual TLS beyond 2 domains is $500/mo. The Next-Gen WAF price is not published. Fastly's blog notes the free tier requires a valid credit card. Online paid accounts created before November 4, 2025 keep legacy pricing of $50/month plus usage fees.

Source: www.fastly.com/pricing · prices as published, excluding tax.

§3

What it does

Instant Purge
Global cache invalidation in about 150 ms, by URL or surrogate key.
Real-time logging
Stream request logs to your own logging provider as traffic happens.
Compute
WebAssembly edge compute; 10M requests and 100M vCPU-ms free monthly, then $0.50 per million requests.
Next-Gen WAF
Contextual WAF for apps and APIs (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets) with bot and account-takeover protection.
TLS
Certainly certificates free for 5 domains, then $20 per domain per month; mutual TLS available.
Configuration control
Test changes in staging, activate or roll back versions instantly through the UI or API.
§4

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Very fast purging makes it practical to cache frequently changing content.
  • Published per-region bandwidth prices with a permanent free allowance.
  • Real-time log streaming and versioned configuration suit DevOps workflows.
  • States SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS Level 1 and HIPAA audits.

Limitations

  • No authoritative DNS product; DNS must be hosted elsewhere.
  • Bandwidth outside North America and Europe costs $0.16 to $0.28 per GB in the first tier.
  • TLS beyond five domains costs $20 per domain per month.
  • Next-Gen WAF pricing is not published.
§5

Who it suits

Good for

  • Publishers and commerce sites caching fast-changing content
  • Teams that manage CDN config as code
  • Companies needing edge compute in Rust, Go or JavaScript via Wasm

Look elsewhere if

  • Low-budget sites with many custom domains
  • Anyone wanting DNS, CDN and WAF bundled in one flat plan
§6

Pricing history

  • Fastly moves self-serve accounts to a new free tier and usage pricing

    Effective 2025-11-04 for new sign-ups: new pricing with a free tier (card required) and usage-based rates; online paid accounts created earlier keep legacy pricing of $50/month plus usage. Source ↗

§7

Alternatives to Fastly

Tool From Free option Stages
Gcore CDN Pay-as-you-go CDN with DNS and WAF
Usage-based Free tier
Cloudflare CDN, DNS, WAF and DDoS protection
$20/mo Free tier
DNSimple DNS hosting and domain management
$0.5/mo Paid
Amazon CloudFront CDN with bundled WAF and DNS plans
$15/mo Free tier
CacheFly Throughput-focused CDN
$300/mo Free tier
DigiCert DNS (DNS Made Easy) Managed DNS with SLA
$300/yr Paid

All CDN, DNS and edge security →

§8

Questions

Does Fastly have a free tier?

Yes. Each month 100 GB of bandwidth, 1 million requests and TLS for five domains are free, plus free Compute allowances.

How much does Fastly bandwidth cost?

After the free 100 GB, $0.12/GB in North America and Europe up to 10 TB, dropping to $0.08/GB for the next 10 TB; other regions cost more.

Does Fastly offer DNS hosting?

No. Fastly does not sell authoritative DNS, so pair it with a DNS provider.

How fast is Fastly's cache purge?

Fastly states its Instant Purge works in about 150 ms globally.

Sources read for this page