Content Delivery Network, alternatively preferred to be called CDN, is a fast-moving service in this competitive world. More companies seek the service of CDNs in order to branch out, expand and keep concerning the changing circumstances.
Picking the right CDN is vital as it holds power to make or break. Fastly and Cloudflare are public companies that offer the same to companies looking for their right partners.
Key Takeaways
- Fastly and Cloudflare are both content delivery networks that help websites load faster.
- Fastly has a larger network of servers than Cloudflare.
- Cloudflare offers more security features than Fastly.
Fastly vs Cloudflare
Fastly is a cloud computing service provider that is used by developers to extend their core cloud infrastructure to the edge of the network, closer to users. Cloudflare is a global network that uses an API-first approach and allows developers to control the content caching and purging.
Predominantly termed as a cloud computing service, Fastly is one of the major cutting-edge companies that push internet boundaries while creating content for its users.
Fastly is an American public company famed for helping developers extend their infrastructure on the core cloud frontier. Artur Bergman founded the company in 2011.
A renowned company, Cloudflare is used extensively for the cybersecurity offered to its clients. This company offers its user an air-tight content delivery system and highly sought-after development.
Cloudflare has an unshakeable global presence that international clients prefer. Brought to life by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, and Lee Holloway, the company had its official entry in 2009.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Fastly | Cloudflare |
|---|---|---|
| Founded By | Fastly was founded by Artur Bergman, Wikia’s CTO (Chief Technical Officer). | Cloudflare was begun by a trio of people, namely, Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, and Lee Holloway. |
| Industry | Fastly comes under the Internet Industry. | Cloudflare is listed under the Internet Cloud Computing Industry. |
| Services Offered | Content delivery network, serverless computing, security services, and website performance. | A reverse proxy, media streaming, management of access and identity, edge computing, and VPN. |
| Year of Establishment | Fastly was established in March 2011. | By comparison, Cloudflare was founded earlier in July 2009. |
| Clients | Twitter, Google, and 9GAG. | Udemy, DigitalOcean, and MarketBeat. |
What is Fastly?
A daring, high-tech company, Fastly made its debut in the March of 2011. Invented by the Chief Technical Officer of Wikia, Artur Bergan Fastly provides services in lieu of cloud computing to its customers or clients.
It is an American public company that is famous for its modern design and daring take on the cloud platform. It supports the developers and helps extend their infrastructure, bringing them closer to the users by providing for a core cloud infrastructure.
The company has a scalable TLS, the abbreviation for Transport Layer Security and WAF (Web Application Firewall). It offers a surmountable amount of flexibility and promise well-protected data storage and transfer.
Further, the company owns the TLS solutions portfolio that helps the clients determine the security level and complexity they wish to own. It also lets them decide the service needed for a single domain or multiple domains.
Fastly allows for compatibility with common CI/CD toolchains, features configuration management tools, and includes code repository systems.
The company provides a plethora of services such as content delivery networks, serverless computing, security services, and website performance.
The Fastly company platform supports all major HTTP video streaming formats and allows the users to stream video with low latency and minimal re-buffering.
If the company is young and prefers creative freedom and room for innovation, Fastly is the preferred choice.
What is Cloudflare?
An American company that focuses on designing web infrastructure, it is headquartered in San Francisco.
This acclaimed company was founded in July 2009 by the golden trio. Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, and Lee Holloway were the founding fathers of Cloudflare, Inc.
The company offers its clients an unbreakable security facility, with the services provided between the Cloudflare customer’s hosting provider and website visitor. This helps the service act as a reverse proxy for websites, making it airtight.
Termed as an Internet Cloud Computing Industry, Cloudflare offers several distinctive and distinguished services to the users.
With a stellar reverse proxy, streaming content on media, managing the accessing capacities, identity creation, edge computing, and VPN, it is globally present with an impressive credibility rate.
Cloudflare has an undoubtedly better security forum than its counterpart. However, the flexibility ratio is low.
Customers are allowed to exert fine-grained control over caching content and purging. They can determine the cache settings for individual URLs.
This company also supports MPEG-DASH, HLS, and CMAF files, making rich content available to its users by providing brief video startup times and less buffering.
Proclaimed to be extremely user-friendly, Cloudflare allows for easy viewing by providing a dashboard with all the major CDN aspects.
Main Differences Between Fastly and Cloudflare
- Fastly was initially established in March of 2011, whereas Cloudflare was started in July 2009. This makes Cloudflare the first company to launch into CDN.
- Fastly is listed under the industry of Internet platform. Cloudflare has a broader spectrum and is listed under the Internet Cloud Computing Industry.
- Both the companies offer various services. Fastly is acclaimed in providing content delivery network, security services, serverless computing, and website performance. Cloudflare has an excellent reverse proxy system, media content streaming, edge compution techniques, identity and access management, and VPN.
- Fastly is preferred for its versatility and flexibility. Cloudflare is acclaimed for its security services and global presence.
- The major clients of Fastly are Twitter, Google, and 9GAG, and Cloudflare tends to Udemy, DigitalOcean, and MarketBeat.
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2095050.2095073
- https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity15/technical-sessions/presentation/zheng
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Sandeep Bhandari holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computers from Thapar University (2006). He has 20 years of experience in the technology field. He has a keen interest in various technical fields, including database systems, computer networks, and programming. You can read more about him on his bio page.
