--- title: "Akamai vs Fastly: CDN Performance and Media Delivery Compared" description: "Akamai vs Fastly compared for high-traffic sites and media: origin offload, shielding, edge compute, performance and pricing model." image: https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Gemini-Blog/image-Oct-31-2026-08-00-37-7324-AM.jpeg --- [![BlazingCDN](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Logo/blog-logo-w.png)](https://blog.blazingcdn.com?hsLang=en-us) [📘 Learn ▾](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-learn?hsLang=en-us) [CDN Fundamentals](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-fundamentals?hsLang=en-us) [By Content Type](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/by-content-type?hsLang=en-us) [Advanced Concepts](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/advanced-concepts?hsLang=en-us) [📖 Glossary](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/glossary?hsLang=en-us) [🎬 Video & Streaming ▾](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/video-streaming-cdn?hsLang=en-us) [🔴 Live Streaming](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/live-streaming?hsLang=en-us) [📺 VOD & OTT](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/vod-ott?hsLang=en-us) [🎞️ Encoding & Players](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/encoding-players?hsLang=en-us) [🎧 Audio & Podcasts](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/audio-podcasts?hsLang=en-us) [💰 Bandwidth & Costs](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/bandwidth-costs?hsLang=en-us) [🏗️ Infrastructure ▾](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-infrastructure?hsLang=en-us) [🗄️ Storage & Origin](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/storage-origin?hsLang=en-us) [📦 Large File Delivery](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/large-file-delivery?hsLang=en-us) [💸 Cloud Costs & Egress](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cloud-costs-egress?hsLang=en-us) [🌐 Networking & ISP](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/networking-isp?hsLang=en-us) [⚙️ DevOps & Cloud Infra](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/devops-cloud-infra?hsLang=en-us) [⚡ Web Performance](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/web-performance?hsLang=en-us) [🏭 Industries ▾](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-industry-insights?hsLang=en-us) [📺 Media & Broadcasting](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/media-broadcasting?hsLang=en-us) [💾 Software & SaaS](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/software-saas?hsLang=en-us) [📣 AdTech & Advertising](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/adtech-advertising?hsLang=en-us) [🎮 Gaming & Esports](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/gaming-esports?hsLang=en-us) [📱 Mobile Apps & Developers](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/mobile-apps-developers?hsLang=en-us) [🤖 AI & Machine Learning](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/ai-machine-learning?hsLang=en-us) [🏛️ Enterprise & Corporate](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/enterprise-corporate?hsLang=en-us) [📚 E-Learning & EdTech](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/e-learning-edtech?hsLang=en-us) [🏟️ Sports & Live Events](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/sports-live-events?hsLang=en-us) [💰 Pricing & Compare ▾](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-pricing-and-cdn-costs?hsLang=en-us) [Provider Pricing](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/provider-pricing?hsLang=en-us) [Cost Optimization](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cost-optimization?hsLang=en-us) [Decision Support](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/decision-support?hsLang=en-us) [⚡ Compare](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-comparison?hsLang=en-us) [Provider Comparisons](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/provider-comparisons?hsLang=en-us) [Strategy Comparisons](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/strategy-comparisons?hsLang=en-us) [📊 Benchmarks](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-ratings-and-benchmarks?hsLang=en-us) [🔒 Security ▾](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-security?hsLang=en-us) [Attack Protection](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/attack-protection?hsLang=en-us) [Encryption & Access](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/encryption-access?hsLang=en-us) [Video & DRM Security](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/video-drm-security?hsLang=en-us) [🛠️ Tools](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-tools?hsLang=en-us) [Get Started](https://blazingcdn.com/sign-up-contact-form/) [Compare](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/tag/compare) [Industries](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/tag/industries) [Media & Broadcasting](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/tag/media-broadcasting) [Compare - Provider Comparisons](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/tag/compare-provider-comparisons) # Akamai vs Fastly: CDN Performance and Media Delivery Compared Vadym Borovskyi Oct 31, 2026, 9:03:13 AM ![\Akamai vs Fastly: CDN Performance and Media Delivery Compared\](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Gemini-Blog/image-Oct-31-2026-08-00-37-7324-AM.jpeg) **How we compare, and who is writing.** BlazingCDN publishes this blog and sells a CDN, so it is one of the providers in any comparison here. Competitor prices in our articles are each provider's own published list price at the stated volume, before negotiated discounts. Price tables are ordered by that list price and are not a measurement of delivery quality. Treat the BlazingCDN figure like every other figure: a published number to verify on your own traffic. Official price lists, last re-read in November 2026: [bunny.net](https://bunny.net/pricing/), [CDN77](https://www.cdn77.com/pricing), [Amazon CloudFront](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/pricing/), [KeyCDN](https://www.keycdn.com/pricing), [Cloudflare](https://www.cloudflare.com/plans/), [Fastly](https://www.fastly.com/pricing), [Gcore](https://gcore.com/cdn), [BlazingCDN](https://blazingcdn.com/pricing/). A figure in the article that carries an older date was not re-checked since that date. Akamai vs Fastly is a choice between two delivery models. Akamai sells a deeply distributed, contract-priced platform with dedicated media products and managed governance. Fastly sells fewer, high-capacity POPs (points of presence) that engineers program directly through VCL (Varnish Configuration Language) and WebAssembly. This comparison was evaluated in October 2026, with list prices as checked in August 2026. It covers origin offload, shielding, adaptive media delivery, edge compute, pricing models, a worked origin-cost model and a best-fit-by-workload matrix. As of August 2026, Akamai publishes no CDN price list and sells delivery on negotiated contracts. Fastly's published rate card reaches about 20 TB a month, where the bill is $2,087. Above that volume both vendors are quote-based, so any Akamai and Fastly cost comparison at media scale has to be built from quotes on your own traffic profile. The verdict by workload: choose Akamai for large live events, broadcast-scale video and regulated enterprises that want vendor-managed security and professional services. Choose Fastly for API-heavy, personalized and developer-led platforms where configuration velocity and purge latency matter more than footprint depth. For high-volume static delivery on a cost-per-TB budget, neither is the cheapest place to put the bytes. ## **Where Akamai and Fastly Differ for High-Traffic Sites** Akamai's architecture places caches deep inside ISP and last-mile networks, so a large share of requests terminate one or two network hops from the viewer. That depth pays off when demand spikes in fragmented access markets and during live events, where peering links at a few large exchanges become the bottleneck. Fastly runs fewer, larger POPs with high-density SSD storage and strong peering. Larger POPs aggregate more requests per cache, which raises hit ratios for long-tail and semi-dynamic objects that would be spread thin across many small sites. The trade is more network distance to users in regions with weak interconnection. Neither is universally faster. Measure p95 and p99 time to first byte by country and ASN (autonomous system number), not global averages. A 10 ms median win in North America can hide a 150 ms p99 penalty on a single mobile carrier in Southeast Asia. ## **Akamai vs Fastly Feature Comparison: Origin Offload, Shielding and Media** | Capability | Akamai | Fastly | | --- | --- | --- | | Pricing and billing model | No public list; negotiated commits, typically per GB or 95th-percentile Mbps, multi-year terms common | Published rate card to about 20 TB ($2,087, checked August 2026), bandwidth plus request fees; contracts above that | | Origin shielding | Tiered Distribution parent tiers; Cloud Wrapper adds a dedicated cache layer per customer | Shield POP chosen per backend; clustering inside each POP | | Request collapsing | Supported at edge and parent tiers | On by default, plus streaming miss for large objects | | Adaptive media delivery | Dedicated Adaptive Media Delivery product for HLS, DASH and CMAF, plus live ingest services | General delivery tuned for segments; Media Shield for multi-CDN video; on-the-fly packaging | | Edge compute | EdgeWorkers (JavaScript), EdgeKV | Compute (WebAssembly: Rust, JavaScript, Go), KV Store, VCL | | Config and purge | Property Manager rules, activations in minutes; Fast Purge documented at about 5 seconds | Versioned services, activation in seconds; Instant Purge documented at about 150 ms | | Security add-ons | App and API Protector, Prolexic DDoS, bot management | Next-Gen WAF, DDoS protection, bot management | Both vendors cover shielding and collapsing; the real differences are Akamai's dedicated media products and Fastly's seconds-scale change and purge cycle. ### Origin offload and shielding Akamai's multi-tier hierarchy means a cold object may be fetched from origin by more than one parent region, though Cloud Wrapper narrows that to a customer-dedicated layer. Fastly's shield model is explicit: one shield POP per backend, so origin sees roughly one fetch per object per TTL (time to live) when the shield is placed near the origin region. ### Adaptive media delivery at scale For live HLS and DASH, the deciding behaviors are manifest TTL handling, collapsing on the live edge segment and how misses stream. Akamai packages these as a media product with tuned defaults. On Fastly you configure them yourself in VCL or Compute, which gives finer control and more room to get it wrong. ## **Worked Model: What Hit Ratio and Shielding Cost at the Origin** Origin egress equals delivered traffic multiplied by the miss ratio. At 200 TB a month, a 95 percent byte hit ratio sends 10 TB back to origin; at 98 percent it sends 4 TB. With cloud internet egress at roughly $0.05 to $0.09 per GB (our 2026 estimate across the major clouds' volume tiers), that is $500 to $900 versus $200 to $360 a month, a $300 to $540 difference before origin compute. Shielding matters more for live video than for VOD. Take a 6-rendition ladder with 4-second segments watched from 40 POPs. Without a shield, each new segment can trigger up to 40 origin fetches per rendition: 240 requests every 4 seconds, or 60 per second. With one shield and request collapsing, origin sees 6 requests every 4 seconds, or 1.5 per second, a 40x reduction. A two-tier hierarchy typically lands between those values, at a handful of fetches per segment. The practical rule: compare vendors on origin requests per second during a live peak, not on edge hit ratio alone. ## **Pricing Model Notes: Contracts vs a Rate Card That Stops at 20 TB** Akamai deals are usually annual or multi-year commits, priced per GB delivered or on 95th-percentile bandwidth, with separate line items for media, security and compute products. Overage rates and true-up terms matter as much as the headline rate. Ask for both in writing. Fastly's usage-based pricing combines bandwidth with per-request charges, which penalizes small-object workloads such as HLS segments of 2 seconds or less and image-heavy pages. Above about 20 TB a month, Fastly also moves to negotiated contracts with minimums. For either vendor, model the request count, not only terabytes. ## **Caching, Security and Reliability** Both platforms support TLS 1.3, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, granular cache keys, token authentication, real-time logging and enterprise compliance programs. Akamai leans on guided governance and professional services, which reduces misconfiguration risk but slows iteration. Fastly hands engineers the full request lifecycle, which improves hit ratios on semi-dynamic content when done well and causes cache poisoning or key explosions when done badly. Both have had global incidents: Fastly in June 2021 and Akamai's edge DNS in July 2021, each recovering in roughly an hour. For high-traffic properties, that history argues for health-checked DNS or traffic steering, documented failover runbooks and, where revenue justifies it, a multi-CDN design. ## **Best Fit by Workload: Akamai, Fastly or a Delivery-Only CDN** | Workload | Best fit | Runner-up | Why | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Live sports and tentpole events | Akamai | Fastly | ISP-embedded capacity, live ingest and media product in one contract | | APIs, personalization, dynamic HTML | Fastly | Akamai | Compute, VCL and 150 ms purge support event-driven invalidation | | Regulated enterprise needing a managed security stack | Akamai | Fastly | Broad security portfolio plus professional services | | High-volume VOD, installers, game patches at 100 to 200 TB a month | BlazingCDN | Fastly | $415 at 100 TB, $765 at 200 TB, no request fees; Fastly is quote-based at this volume | | Multi-CDN video with a shared shield | Fastly | Akamai | Media Shield fronts origin for several CDNs at once | Akamai and Fastly each win the workloads that depend on platform breadth, while heavy static bytes are where a delivery-only CDN changes the bill most. BlazingCDN publishes this blog, so verify that row on your own traffic; the 14-day testing period exists for exactly that. BlazingCDN is not a peer of Akamai or Fastly in platform breadth. It has no edge compute, does not sell a WAF, DDoS mitigation or bot management, and does not support HTTP/3 or WebSockets. It is a delivery layer for video on demand, HLS and DASH, software updates, game builds and large archives, typically run beside an existing security stack or as a second CDN behind DNS with a weighted split. The [**BlazingCDN vs Akamai comparison**](https://blazingcdn.com/vs/akamai/) covers where that split makes sense. As of October 2026, BlazingCDN charges from $5 per TB down to $2.50 per TB at volume on progressive tiers, one rate for the US, Europe and Asia, with no request fees: 100 TB a month costs $415 and 200 TB costs $765. Current rates are on the [**BlazingCDN pricing page**](https://blazingcdn.com/pricing/). Origin shield and request coalescing are included on every plan, and measured June 2026 on a 100 MB HTTPS download it delivered 24 ms and 1.11 Gb/s in North America, 27 ms and 1.12 Gb/s in Europe, and 47 ms and 761 Mb/s in Asia. ## **How to Run an Akamai Fastly Comparison on Your Own Traffic** A fair Akamai Fastly comparison sends a weighted share of real production traffic, 5 to 10 percent, through each vendor for at least two weeks, including one traffic peak. Compare p95 and p99 time to first byte by ASN, byte hit ratio, origin requests per second and the invoice each vendor projects for that traffic. Check cache status per vendor. On Fastly, read the X-Cache, X-Cache-Hits and X-Served-By response headers. On Akamai, send the documented Pragma debug values to get X-Cache and X-Cache-Key back, then confirm both vendors build identical cache keys for the same URL. ## **FAQ: Akamai vs Fastly for Media and High-Traffic Delivery** ### Fastly vs Akamai: which is better for live streaming? Akamai is usually the stronger fit for large live events because it pairs ISP-embedded capacity with dedicated live ingest and media delivery products. Fastly handles live HLS and DASH well when engineers configure manifest TTLs, request collapsing and shielding themselves, and its Media Shield suits multi-CDN live architectures that share one origin-facing cache layer. ### Does Fastly or Akamai offer better origin offload? Both reach high offload, but through different designs. Fastly uses an explicit shield POP per backend plus default request collapsing, which keeps origin fetches close to one per object. Akamai uses multi-tier Tiered Distribution and an optional Cloud Wrapper layer. Measure origin requests per second during peaks, because edge hit ratio alone hides parent-tier misses. ### How long does a migration between Akamai and Fastly take? Our estimate is several weeks to one quarter for a high-traffic property. Translating Akamai Property Manager rules into Fastly VCL or Compute code, or the reverse, is the longest task, followed by certificate, token-authentication and logging work. Running both vendors behind weighted DNS during cutover lets you shift traffic gradually and roll back quickly. ### How much do Akamai and Fastly cost at 100 TB a month? Both are quote-based at 100 TB a month. Akamai publishes no CDN price list, and Fastly's published rate card stops near 20 TB, where a month costs $2,087 per lists checked August 2026. As a delivery-only reference point, BlazingCDN charges $415 for 100 TB as of October 2026, with no request fees. ### How should you test Akamai and Fastly before signing a contract? Route a weighted slice of production traffic through each vendor for at least two weeks covering a real peak. Compare p95 and p99 time to first byte per ASN, byte hit ratio, origin requests per second and projected invoices including request fees. Synthetic tests from cloud regions overstate performance because they skip last-mile networks. ## **Run a Two-Week Akamai and Fastly Bake-Off** This week, export one month of logs and compute three numbers: bytes delivered, request count and object-size distribution. Use them to request quotes from Akamai and Fastly that price both bandwidth and requests, then split 5 to 10 percent of traffic to each vendor through weighted DNS for two weeks. Track p99 time to first byte by ASN and origin requests per second at peak; those two metrics decide most of these evaluations. If your heaviest bytes are VOD, installers or game patches, add a third arm: BlazingCDN offers a [**14-day testing period on real production traffic**](https://blazingcdn.com/sign-up-contact-form/) at $5 per TB with the monthly minimum waived, enough to run the same bake-off on your own files. Share: [f](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites) [in](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites) [𝕏](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites&text=) [✉](mailto:?subject=%3Cspan%20id="hs_cos_wrapper_name"%20class="hs_cos_wrapper%20hs_cos_wrapper_meta_field%20hs_cos_wrapper_type_text"%20style=""%20data-hs-cos-general-type="meta_field"%20data-hs-cos-type="text"%20%3EAkamai%20vs%20Fastly:%20CDN%20Performance%20and%20Media%20Delivery%20Compared%3C/span%3E&body=https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites) ![BlazingCDN](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Logo/blog-logo-w.png?height=24&name=blog-logo-w.png) *Heavy traffic.* Light bill. The CDN for video and large traffic 100 TB a month at list price - BlazingCDN**$415** - [bunny.net](https://bunny.net/pricing/) Volume**$500** - [CDN77](https://www.cdn77.com/pricing), plan to 250 TB**$990** - [KeyCDN](https://www.keycdn.com/pricing), NA and Europe**$2,600** - [CloudFront](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/pricing/pay-as-you-go/) pay as you go**$6,965** Each provider's published list price for transfer, lowest first, checked November 2026. BlazingCDN publishes this blog. Up to 50 TB a month a flat plan such as CloudFront Pro ($15) can cost less. [Calculate your cost](https://blazingcdn.com/cdn-cost-calculator/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=sidebar&utm_campaign=blog_sidebar&utm_content=compare_calc) ## Related posts [![11 Best CDN Providers in 2026, Tested for Speed, Price and Reach](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Gemini-Blog/image-Nov-02-2026-04-25-12-9280-AM.jpeg)](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/top-cdn-providers-2025-an-expert-guide-to-types-technologies-and-performance-0?hsLang=en-us) Compare ### [11 Best CDN Providers in 2026, Tested for Speed, Price and Reach](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/top-cdn-providers-2025-an-expert-guide-to-types-technologies-and-performance-0?hsLang=en-us) The best CDN providers in 2026 split into two leagues. Platform CDNs (Cloudflare, Akamai, Fastly, Amazon CloudFront) ... Nov 2, 2026, 5:27:36 AM [Read more](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/top-cdn-providers-2025-an-expert-guide-to-types-technologies-and-performance-0?hsLang=en-us) [![Bunny.net CDN Review 2026: Speed, Pricing and Limits Tested](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Gemini-Blog/image-Nov-02-2026-03-55-15-0137-AM.jpeg)](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/bunny-cdn-review-2025-performance-startup-budget?hsLang=en-us) Compare ### [Bunny.net CDN Review 2026: Speed, Pricing and Limits Tested](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/bunny-cdn-review-2025-performance-startup-budget?hsLang=en-us) Evaluated November 2026, with list prices as checked August 2026: Bunny.net remains one of the cheapest metered CDNs ... Nov 2, 2026, 4:58:28 AM [Read more](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/bunny-cdn-review-2025-performance-startup-budget?hsLang=en-us) [![Bunny.net vs BlazingCDN in 2026: Which CDN Saves You More](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Gemini-Blog/image-Nov-02-2026-03-25-13-8673-AM.jpeg)](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/bunny-net-vs-blazingcdn-cost-efficient-cdn-face-off?hsLang=en-us) Compare ### [Bunny.net vs BlazingCDN in 2026: Which CDN Saves You More](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/bunny-net-vs-blazingcdn-cost-efficient-cdn-face-off?hsLang=en-us) At 100 TB a month, BlazingCDN costs $415 while bunny.net costs $500 on its Volume network or $1,000 on its Standard ... Nov 2, 2026, 4:28:02 AM [Read more](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/bunny-net-vs-blazingcdn-cost-efficient-cdn-face-off?hsLang=en-us) [![Cloudimage vs BlazingCDN in 2026: Image CDN Cost and Features](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Gemini-Blog/image-Nov-02-2026-01-25-13-6615-AM.jpeg)](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/cloudimage-cdn-vs-blazingcdn-image-optimization?hsLang=en-us) Compare ### [Cloudimage vs BlazingCDN in 2026: Image CDN Cost and Features](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/cloudimage-cdn-vs-blazingcdn-image-optimization?hsLang=en-us) Evaluated November 2026: if you need on-the-fly AVIF and WebP conversion, smart cropping and responsive helpers from a ... Nov 2, 2026, 2:27:55 AM [Read more](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/cloudimage-cdn-vs-blazingcdn-image-optimization?hsLang=en-us) [![BlazingCDN](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/hubfs/Logo/blog-logo-w.png)](https://blog.blazingcdn.com?hsLang=en-us) [📘 Learn](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-learn?hsLang=en-us) [📊 Benchmarks](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-ratings-and-benchmarks?hsLang=en-us) [🎬 Video & Streaming](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/video-streaming-cdn?hsLang=en-us) [🏭 Industries](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-industry-insights?hsLang=en-us) [💰 Pricing & Costs](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-pricing-and-cdn-costs?hsLang=en-us) [⚡ Compare](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-comparison?hsLang=en-us) [🔒 Security](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-security?hsLang=en-us) [🛠️ Tools](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/cdn-tools?hsLang=en-us) [✍️ Publish with us](https://blog.blazingcdn.com/publish-with-us?hsLang=en-us) in f 𝕏 ✉ Copyright © BlazingCDN |. All rights reserved. ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://blazingcdn.com/#organization", "@type" : "Organization", "description" : "High-volume CDN for video, live streaming, OTT/IPTV, software, games, SaaS and large-file delivery.", "logo" : { "@id" : "https://blazingcdn.com/#logo", "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 560, "url" : "https://blazingcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/logo-560-560.png", "width" : 560 }, "name" : "BlazingCDN", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/blazingcdn", "https://x.com/BlazingCdn", "https://www.reddit.com/r/BlazingCDN/", "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q141711074" ], "url" : "https://blazingcdn.com/" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/#website", "@type" : "WebSite", "inLanguage" : "en-US", "name" : "BlazingCDN Blog", "publisher" : { "@id" : "https://blazingcdn.com/#organization" }, "url" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites#article", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@id" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/author/blazingcdn#person", "@type" : "Person", "description" : "Vadym Borovskyi is Chief Product and Marketing Officer at BlazingCDN, where he has led product strategy and growth since 2021. He has more than 11 years of experience in IT product management and B2B marketing. On this blog he writes about CDN pricing and egress costs, video and software delivery, cache configuration, and how teams evaluate and switch CDN providers. He is based in Warsaw, Poland.", "image" : "https://143144902.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/143144902/vadym-borovskyi.jpg", "jobTitle" : "Chief Product and Marketing Officer", "knowsAbout" : [ "Content Delivery Networks (CDN)", "CDN pricing", "Video streaming delivery", "Software and game distribution", "Cache optimization", "Product Management", "B2B Marketing", "Digital Marketing", "Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC)", "Google Ads", "Search Engine Marketing (SEM)", "Marketing Strategy", "Artificial Intelligence (AI)", "Cloud Management", "SaaS Development", "IT Consulting", "Computer Networking", "Project Management", "Startups" ], "name" : "Vadym Borovskyi", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/axelt/" ], "url" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/author/blazingcdn", "worksFor" : { "@id" : "https://blazingcdn.com/#organization" } }, "dateModified" : "2026-11-09T14:54:35Z", "datePublished" : "2026-10-31T08:03:13Z", "description" : "Akamai vs Fastly compared for high-traffic sites and media: origin offload, shielding, edge compute, performance and pricing model.", "headline" : "Akamai vs Fastly: CDN Performance and Media Delivery Compared", "image" : "https://143144902.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/143144902/Gemini-Blog/image-Oct-31-2026-08-00-37-7324-AM.jpeg", "inLanguage" : "en-us", "isPartOf" : { "@id" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/#website" }, "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@id" : "https://blazingcdn.com/#organization" }, "wordCount" : 2056 } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites#breadcrumb", "@type" : "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement" : [ { "@type" : "ListItem", "item" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us", "name" : "Blog", "position" : 1 }, { "@type" : "ListItem", "item" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites", "name" : "Akamai vs Fastly: CDN Performance and Media Delivery Compared", "position" : 2 } ] } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://blog.blazingcdn.com/en-us/akamai-vs-fastly-cdn-performance-comparison-high-traffic-sites#faq", "@type" : "FAQPage", "mainEntity" : [ { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Akamai is usually the stronger fit for large live events because it pairs ISP-embedded capacity with dedicated live ingest and media delivery products. Fastly handles live HLS and DASH well when engineers configure manifest TTLs, request collapsing and shielding themselves, and its Media Shield suits multi-CDN live architectures that share one origin-facing cache layer." }, "name" : "Fastly vs Akamai: which is better for live streaming?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Both reach high offload, but through different designs. Fastly uses an explicit shield POP per backend plus default request collapsing, which keeps origin fetches close to one per object. Akamai uses multi-tier Tiered Distribution and an optional Cloud Wrapper layer. Measure origin requests per second during peaks, because edge hit ratio alone hides parent-tier misses." }, "name" : "Does Fastly or Akamai offer better origin offload?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Our estimate is several weeks to one quarter for a high-traffic property. Translating Akamai Property Manager rules into Fastly VCL or Compute code, or the reverse, is the longest task, followed by certificate, token-authentication and logging work. Running both vendors behind weighted DNS during cutover lets you shift traffic gradually and roll back quickly." }, "name" : "How long does a migration between Akamai and Fastly take?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Both are quote-based at 100 TB a month. Akamai publishes no CDN price list, and Fastly's published rate card stops near 20 TB, where a month costs $2,087 per lists checked August 2026. As a delivery-only reference point, BlazingCDN charges $415 for 100 TB as of October 2026, with no request fees." }, "name" : "How much do Akamai and Fastly cost at 100 TB a month?" }, { "@type" : "Question", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Route a weighted slice of production traffic through each vendor for at least two weeks covering a real peak. Compare p95 and p99 time to first byte per ASN, byte hit ratio, origin requests per second and projected invoices including request fees. Synthetic tests from cloud regions overstate performance because they skip last-mile networks." }, "name" : "How should you test Akamai and Fastly before signing a contract?" } ] } ```