Cloudflare One vs Fastly comparison

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Cloudflare One

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 5, 2026

Fastly and Cloudflare One compete in the content delivery and security domain. Cloudflare One often has the advantage due to its inclusive features and a strong case for its pricing.

Features: Fastly offers real-time logging, modular VCL configuration, and advanced caching. Cloudflare One provides a comprehensive security suite, DDoS protection, and integrated network performance tools.

Room for Improvement: Fastly could enhance its ease of use and streamline the learning curve for new users. Documentation clarity and customer support availability also need attention. Cloudflare One might focus on reducing complexity in managing its wide array of features, simplifying pricing structures, and improving integration with third-party services.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fastly has quick setup with extensive technical documentation but may require a learning curve. Cloudflare One simplifies deployment with intuitive processes and robust customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Fastly offers competitive setup costs, with ROI visible through advanced caching benefits. Cloudflare One might have a higher initial cost but delivers strong ROI via enhanced security and performance efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloudflare One vs. Fastly Report (Updated: September 2026).

Cloudflare One vs. Fastly

September 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare One

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Security (20th), Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (11th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (22nd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (13th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (14th), Access Management (11th), Bot Management (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (7th), ZTNA (3rd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (10th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (2nd)

Fastly

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CDN (7th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 3.7%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fastly is 3.7%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare One	3.7%
Fastly	3.7%
Other	92.6%

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

Cobe Van Coller

Network Architect at IP Dimension

Cloud security has improved remote access and has reduced costs for smaller client sites

I have used Cloudflare One's Identity-Aware Proxy, and it is quite straightforward from what I have seen so far. The app registration on the Azure side integrates fully into Cloudflare, and I am very satisfied with that part because it is easy to set up. The integration of Cloudflare One's Secure Web Gateway and Zero Trust Network Access works without any issues. That part is pretty automatic, and if you complete the rest of the setup, it comes together by itself with no issues from my side. What makes it nice is that we can actually start replacing on-site firewalls at this stage for the smaller clients because it does not matter if they go to a coffee shop or work from home; they are still secured by the same connection. The hops get shorter and you get better latency. We have done testing to see if it is better. One thing that we did notice with our proof of concept with our current client is that they have people connecting from the UK. When they used their previous VPN solution, uploading CAD drawings and other files to the server took a long time. They mentioned that it is much quicker on Cloudflare One's solution. I definitely believe that is part of the improved performance, and I am satisfied with that as well. What is nice about Cloudflare One is that it makes the setup easier and also easier to train technicians to maintain it. Compared to legacy systems, we do not need to get fancy firewalls in place that are costly. That is definitely also a cost-saver with Cloudflare One.

Read full review

Pranay Jain

Senior software engineer at Simplify vms

Edge caching has transformed response times and delivers faster candidate data globally

Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal users. A more user-friendly, UI-based configuration could simplify the experience, alongside better templates for common use cases and dashboard improvements, as the current dashboard feels complex for beginners, and pricing can be hard to predict for smaller companies. I chose 8 out of 10 because it has excellent performance and low latency delivery, making it suitable for larger applications, with strong Edge Caching and instant purging capabilities. However, VCL complexity and pricing predictability, especially for smaller companies, along with a user-friendly dashboard are areas impacting my score.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Cloudflare One has assisted in securing my remote workforce through a SASE solution with Cloudflare One and the Workers part, although I am not currently using the Workers component."

"The best feature is rate limiting. If I'm expecting 500 visits per hour, Cloudflare will limit the requests if I suddenly get 50,000."

"Clover is the best product globally."

"Cloudflare is by far the most effective solution that I have come across."

"The tool also offers good scalability, and the dashboard, along with real-time analytics, is very good."

"It will take the blow rather than our applications should an attack occur."

"Using Cloudflare One makes my work quite easy because for DDoS protection, all I need to do is understand the OSI model and click; it makes it easier than trying to write a command line or use a Linux command."

"The capabilities of the software are strong enough for me to do what it's supposed to do. For me, we don't need to do a lot of configuration on our site. We just enable it and monitor it."

More Cloudflare One pros

"Compute@Edge features are valuable to me."

"Its initial setup process is straightforward."

"Support is good; the product works as advertised. We have a Slack connection with them. So we can basically ask for help, live, engage, and ring when they respond. Very quickly."

"In summary, this solution is easy to manage, quick to deploy, and all of my customers are happy."

"Fastly combines both the CDN side and the Signal Sciences next-generation WAF, which is closely integrated with the CDN, allowing us to use both products seamlessly."

"Fastly provides CDN, WAF, image optimization, and IP restriction."

"Rate limiting is a good feature that protects from volumetric attacks."

"Fastly uses configuration versioning, where you can deploy a new version in less than one minute."

More Fastly pros

Cons

"The initial onboarding was causing us some confusion."

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform needs to improve its documentation. It took time to do the implementation."

"The pricing is an area that can be improved. Pricing, as far as I recall, was the source of our problems."

"Our subscription plan for the solution has a limitation of bot signatures."

"The software has automated alerts, but the automated alerts are not available in the mobile app."

"When there are any dynamic changes in complex applications, the tool takes a lot of time, making its analytics-related area a major matter of concern where improvements are needed."

"Feedback could be enhanced."

"The free plan has limitations. For example, I can only set up three rules, and the application firewall is unavailable."

More Cloudflare One cons

"I think Fastly could improve by improving the documentation and having some code examples so that it is easier for developers, since at the beginning it becomes a bit complicated."

"Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal users."

"Another downside of Fastly is that when we wanted to migrate our API domains, it's lacking the WebSocket protocol."

"It is missing a "staging" platform to deploy a test configuration with all of the real settings, which would allow us to properly test before putting it into production."

"The solution's pricing could be better."

"Stronger analytics would be helpful, like showing configurations that haven't served a certain amount of traffic in a while. With many properties, things can get lost track of - duplicates or unused configurations not properly decommissioned."

"The product should provide improved bot detection and management."

"Support is not that great."

More Fastly cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company has to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no hidden charges apart from the licensing costs of the solution."

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."

"The solution is not that expensive."

"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."

"The pricing of the solution is cheap. The licensing cost is also very low. I rate the cost and pricing a three out of ten."

"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"The prices are slightly expensive."

"I've generally found Fastly to be very competitive in pricing, especially around Compute@Edge."

"The solution is cheaper than other products in the market."

"In my opinion, Fastly is priced competitively."

"Fastly is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"It is an expensive solution."

"You need to pay a premium price for the tool."

"The pricing has been very competitive."

See which vendors are best for you

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917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Large Enterprise	13

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

Pricing is competitive. Akamai is more expensive, in my view.

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

In my opinion, Cloudflare One can be improved mainly through compatibility, as the integration should be much simpler because it is currently too closed and too proprietary. Regarding additional fe...

What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

Cloudflare One's primary use case for my organization is to protect servers and to provide remote access with the VPN, strong authentication, and DDoS protection. The integration of Secure Web Gate...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fastly?

In terms of price, I find it good, and as I mentioned, the implementation cost had some difficulty at the beginning due to the learning curve.

What needs improvement with Fastly?

I think Fastly could improve by improving the documentation and having some code examples so that it is easier for developers, since at the beginning it becomes a bit complicated.

What is your primary use case for Fastly?

My primary use case for Fastly is using it as a CDN to speed up my customers' access to the applications. A specific example of how Fastly has helped improve my customers' access to the application...

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Fortinet FortiGate vs Cloudflare One

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Compared 18% of the time

Akamai vs Fastly

Compared 15% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Fastly

Compared 9% of the time

Uplynk vs Fastly

Compared 5% of the time

Akamai App and API Protector vs Fastly

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Download Cloudflare One product report

Cloudflare One

October 2026

Download Fastly product report

October 2026

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform

No data available

Overview

Cloudflare One is a comprehensive platform for security, performance, and connectivity. It provides features like rate limiting, DDoS protection, and application access, tailored to enhance user experience while securing internet access and accelerating communications.

Designed to integrate security measures with ease of use and scalability, Cloudflare One offers a secure web gateway and zero trust network access. These features ensure seamless setup and operation, making connectivity reliable and protected. Users appreciate its integrated console, intuitive interface, and the ability to manage risk effectively. It offers straightforward deployment, improves latency, and boasts cost-effectiveness. While its onboarding process and documentation need enhancement, its value in content delivery and application shielding is notable. Despite challenges in integrating Cloudflare Access with existing VPNs and the need for better automation and support, it remains vital for DNS and infrastructure protection.

What features make Cloudflare One stand out?

Rate Limiting: Controls the traffic rate to prevent abuse.
DDoS Protection: Shields applications from distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Secure Web Gateway: Provides secure internet access with seamless operation.
Zero Trust Network Access: Ensures secure, application-based connectivity without relying on traditional VPNs.
Access for Connectivity: Facilitates access to internal applications securely.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Security: Robust measures for DNS and browsing protection.
Performance: Enhanced site accessibility and communication speed.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing for its features.
Ease of Deployment: Straightforward and efficient setup process.

In industries like finance, retail, and technology, Cloudflare One is crucial for enabling secure remote access and protecting web applications against dynamic threats. It supports compliance access policies and enhances content delivery, playing a key role in safeguarding digital infrastructure.

Cloudflare

Fastly is a leading provider of content delivery network services that enhances website performance through efficient caching and real-time architecture capabilities.

Fastly integrates CDN technology with advanced web application firewall for comprehensive security. Its global infrastructure supports performance enhancement, rapid deployment, and rollback capabilities. Utilizing the VCL language allows custom caching solutions. Compute@Edge provides extensive architectural flexibility, aiding in HTML manipulation and script execution. Users benefit from its stability and reliability features for seamless network protection, log management, image optimization, and A/B testing. Challenges include limited support in mainland China, inadequate WebSocket protocol implementation, and complex pricing structures.

What are the key features of Fastly?

CDN Integration: Delivers content quickly across global Points of Presence.
Signal Sciences’ WAF: Manages security threats effectively.
VCL Language: Offers customizable caching solutions.
Compute@Edge: Enables flexible architecture for HTML manipulation.
Image Optimization: Enhances performance with dynamic image delivery.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Performance Enhancement: Boosts website speed and response time.
Rapid Deployment: Allows for swift implementation and rollback.
Real-Time Visibility: Provides insights into cached content management.
Security and Stability: Ensures reliability against DDoS attacks and other threats.
Flexibility: Offers diverse network protection and infrastructure capabilities.

Fastly is widely implemented in industries needing robust content delivery and security capabilities. Companies use it as a reverse proxy for media delivery, ensuring availability and optimized performance. Its rapid deployment and rollback features are particularly beneficial in technology sectors requiring agile responses to demand shifts.

Sample Customers

23andMe

Twitter, Airbnb, Alaska Airlines, Pinterest, Vimeo, The Guardian, The New York Times, Ticketmaster, The Drupal Association, Opera, about.com, imgur, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, New Relic, shopify, Shazam, Firebase