Fastly vs Vercel Comparison
Compare Fastly vs Vercel features, pricing, and more.
Last updated: November 2026
Fastly
6.7/10
Fastly is an edge cloud platform that combines a programmable CDN, WebAssembly serverless compute, edge storage, and web security for engineering-led businesses.
Vercel
6.9/10
Frontend cloud platform from the makers of Next.js that builds and deploys web apps from Git to a global CDN with serverless functions.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 6.7/10 | 6.9/10 |
| Analytics | 7/10 | 7/10 |
| Cost | 4/10 | 4/10 |
| Customization | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Ease of Use | 4/10 | 9/10 |
| Integration | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Reliability | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Scalability | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 5/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $500/mo Compute Starter | $20/user/mo Pro |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Usage-based (free allowance) | $200/mo Pro |
| Features | ||
| API and CLI | ||
| Content Delivery Network | ||
| DDoS Protection | ||
| Free SSL Certificates | ||
| Multiple Regions | ||
| Object Storage | ||
| Serverless Functions | ||
| Dedicated Servers | ||
| Git Deployments | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | ||
| Shared Hosting | ||
| VPS Hosting | ||
Fastly vs Vercel cost by team size
Fastly and Vercel cost the same at 1 user; Fastly costs less from 5 users.
| Team size | Fastly | Vercel |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeUsage-based (free allowance) | FreeHobby |
| 5 users | FreeUsage-based (free allowance) | $100/moPro |
| 10 users | FreeUsage-based (free allowance) | $200/moPro |
| 25 users | FreeUsage-based (free allowance) | $500/moPro |
| 50 users | FreeUsage-based (free allowance) | $1,000/moPro |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Fastly
- Lower estimated cost for 10 users: Free vs $200/mo
- Higher Customization score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Support score (6/10 vs 5/10)
Why choose Vercel
- Higher Ease of Use score (9/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Reliability score (8/10 vs 7/10)
Pros & Cons
Fastly
Pros
- Instant Purge clears cached content worldwide in about 150 ms, which suits news and e-commerce sites that change content often.
- VCL and WebAssembly-based Compute give engineers fine control over edge logic per request.
- Real-time log streaming to more than 30 endpoints, including Datadog, Splunk, and BigQuery, is included.
- The Next-Gen WAF, from the Signal Sciences acquisition, is known for low false-positive rates (a vendor claim reported by Technologymatch).
- Self-serve sign-up includes free monthly allowances for delivery, compute, storage, and TLS.
Cons
- Reviewers describe VCL as hard to learn and say the dashboard is complex for beginners.
- Region-based bandwidth rates make monthly bills hard to predict, especially for smaller companies.
- About 76 POPs, far fewer than Cloudflare or Akamai, with no presence in mainland China, Russia, or the CIS region.
- Some PeerSpot reviewers report slow support responses.
- Bot management and the full security suites are sold by sales quote only.
Vercel
Pros
- Every pull request automatically gets its own preview URL, which reviewers rate as the most polished preview workflow available.
- New Next.js features work on Vercel from launch day, because Vercel maintains the framework.
- Automatic DDoS mitigation and a basic firewall are included on every plan, including the free one.
- The compliance list is strong: ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS, TISAX Level 2, and HIPAA on Enterprise.
- Pro includes unlimited viewer seats, so non-developers can review work without paying for a seat.
Cons
- There is no hard spending cap, only alerts, so traffic spikes or bot crawls can produce large overage bills.
- Each developer costs $20 per month on Pro, which makes larger teams expensive.
- Next.js features such as ISR, image optimization and middleware create lock-in that makes migrating away costly.
- It is not a full backend: databases come from marketplace partners rather than Vercel itself.
- The jump from Pro to Enterprise is steep, and user reports complain of slow support on billing issues.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Vercel scores higher on our Hosting & Infrastructure criteria: 6.9/10 against 6.7/10 for Fastly. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 4/10 for Fastly and 9/10 for Vercel.
Fastly costs less for 10 users: free on its Usage-based (free allowance) plan, against about $200/mo on its Pro plan for Vercel, billed monthly.
Yes, both Fastly and Vercel have a free plan.
