AWS Shield vs Fastly comparison

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AWS Shield

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Fastly and AWS Shield compete in the web security market, with Fastly having an advantage in CDN capabilities and AWS Shield excelling in DDoS protection, making the choice dependent on security needs versus content delivery efficiency.

Features: Fastly offers real-time logging, customizable edge computing, and a robust network with numerous Points of Presence. AWS Shield provides integrated DDoS protection, seamless integration with other AWS services, and high availability.

Room for Improvement: Fastly could enhance its zero-trust security features, improve tools for hybrid reseller environments, and explore additional integrations beyond its current offerings. AWS Shield might lower the technical knowledge required for full utilization, expand beyond AWS ecosystem restrictions, and offer better cost transparency for advanced features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fastly ensures straightforward deployment with a well-documented setup process and responsive customer support, making it ideal for quick implementation. AWS Shield's integration within the AWS ecosystem makes it convenient for existing AWS users but may require advanced technical knowledge.

Pricing and ROI: Fastly's pay-as-you-go pricing model offers flexibility and potentially lower upfront costs, with users noting efficient content delivery. AWS Shield, while potentially incurring higher initial costs due to comprehensive security offerings, offers significant ROI for security-focused businesses.

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

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AWS Shield vs. Fastly

September 2026

Helped 920,769 peers since 2012

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

AWS Shield

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

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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 (6th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (25th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of AWS Shield is 3.0%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fastly is 3.6%, 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 (%)
AWS Shield	3.0%
Fastly	3.6%
Other	93.4%

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

Pranav Telang

DGM at Airtel Digital

Has enabled multi-layered threat mitigation but still lacks deeper visibility for advanced application attacks

AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods. It does not provide inherent protection against more sophisticated layer 7 attacks such as HTTP floods. In such cases, integration with WAF is necessary, which results in additional costs for customers. To protect layer 7, layer 4, and layer 3, customers must implement both solutions. The service also has difficulties with static detection thresholds, which may not be sensitive enough to detect smaller application-specific attacks. While AWS Shield is a key security service, AWS should enhance their expert support with 24/7 response for complex attacks, which is currently limited.

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

"We have integrated the tool with Active Directory. The most important feature is that it's transparent and doesn't degrade the performance of our solution. Additionally, it's easy to configure, which is crucial for us. It's easy to use and set up and stops attacks on our servers. We haven't encountered any attack problems because the solution stops them in real-time. AWS Shield specifically focuses on defending against denial-of-service attacks, making it a great solution for that type of threat."

"AWS Shield is aligned with the web application firewall (WAF), and they work seamlessly together, primarily working with Elastic Load Balancer, CloudFront, and Route 53 for CDN and DNS services protection."

"If most of your internet presence from your application side is in AWS, AWS Shield is a great option."

"The product is easy to use."

"It is quite scalable, and we have not faced any issues with its scalability."

"I am impressed with the product's multiple features like security."

"The automatic detection and mitigation of DDoS attacks in the product operates in real-time and provides satisfactory results."

"The product has a good mechanism to analyze trends and trigger events."

More AWS Shield pros

"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."

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

"The product helps our organization to access sites located in different regions quickly."

"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."

"Initially, we faced load time issues, but after deploying Fastly and optimizing our queries, we achieved a response time cut to less than 1 millisecond from an initial 3 to 4 seconds."

"The product's initial setup phase 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."

More Fastly pros

Cons

"The product should give users more flexibility to customize their security policies according to their requirements."

"Perhaps the time required to detect anomalies can be reduced. Presently, it takes some time to determine whether a situation is normal or abnormal."

"The product needs to improve its logs and reports to make it read better."

"There is an area for improvement regarding health checks. AWS Shield does not come with its own health check functionality."

"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it. It could be improved in terms of architecture requirements and then ongoing support requirements as a secondary component to it. People tend to set up things like this, and they just expect it to work without the care and feeding that needs to go back into it either from an application team or a network environment team."

"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it."

"We end up having to pay extra for features that AWS adds that we don't need."

"The time taken to detect anomalies must be reduced."

More AWS Shield cons

"Fastly's customer service area needs improvement."

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

"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."

"It's not easy to start with Fastly if you don't have VCL knowledge, so it appears very complex at the beginning."

"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."

"We are not getting quick responses from Fastly technical support engineers. Sometimes they depend on their D3 developers."

"Support is not that great."

More Fastly cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is cheap."

"We pay $3000 per month for the solution."

"The tool's pricing is good."

"The cost depends on traffic each month, so on average, it costs us between US$200 and US$300 per month."

"It depends on your subscription level and the volume that you're spending with AWS. So, it is very relative to the consumption alignment in your subscription level. It is a well-constructed, scalable pricing option, but it is relative to how much you're spending on AWS. Because the more you spend, typically, the more you get off on services like this. I find it to be comparable to other solutions."

"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."

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

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

"It is an expensive solution."

"The pricing has been very competitive."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection solutions are best for your needs.

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920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Shield?

The pricing structure for AWS Shield is fair, yet it depends on the specific protections chosen. Enabling Shield Advanced on multiple services such as CloudFront, network load balancer, or Route 53...

What needs improvement with AWS Shield?

Services always benefit from improvements, including AWS Shield. With respect to the Web Application Firewall, current rule-based setups may not be adequately defined or classified. Enhancement of ...

What is your primary use case for AWS Shield?

What do you use it for? How do you use it?

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...

Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield

Comparisons

Compared 33% of the time

Cloudflare vs AWS Shield

Compared 9% of the time

Cloudflare One vs AWS Shield

Compared 8% of the time

Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield

Compared 8% of the time

More AWS Shield Competitors

Cloudflare vs Fastly

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

Amazon CloudFront vs Fastly

Compared 3% of the time

More Fastly Competitors

Product Reports

Download AWS Shield product report

AWS Shield

October 2026

Download Fastly product report

October 2026

Overview

AWS Shield offers robust DDoS protection with seamless integration into AWS services, providing users with enhanced security without impacting performance. Its intuitive dashboard and integration with tools like WAF and CloudWatch make it a go-to for many organizations seeking reliable protection.

AWS Shield provides real-time attack visibility and transparency, excelling in DDoS protection while maintaining application and network layer security. The Advanced tier offers automated threat detection, tailored defense strategies, and a responsive DDoS team. However, challenges include high costs, limited customization, and a need for better traffic insights. Organizations must often rely on additional AWS services for comprehensive network security. The solution is primarily used to protect against DDoS attacks and secure web applications, offering Layer 3 and 4 security. While the Standard tier offers basic security at no cost, the Advanced tier provides enhanced protection against severe attacks such as SYN floods, albeit with a monthly fee.

What are AWS Shield's most important features?

Ease of Use: Simple integration and intuitive monitoring dashboard.
Real-Time Attack Visibility: Immediate insights into attack metrics without performance impact.
Seamless AWS Integration: Works smoothly with WAF and CloudWatch for comprehensive protection.
Advanced Defense Strategies: Customizable strategies with automatic threat detection.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Enhanced Security: Robust DDoS mitigation for continuous protection.
Performance Maintenance: Protects services during high-traffic events without degradation.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Intuitive dashboard for easy attack tracking and management.
Cost-Effective Tiered Offerings: The choice between no-cost basic or feature-rich advanced options.

In industries like finance and e-commerce, AWS Shield's capabilities ensure continual uptime and protection against potential DDoS threats, vital during high-traffic periods. Its use in media and entertainment allows secure streaming and content delivery, while health sectors benefit from secure and reliable patient data access and protection.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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

netflix, dow jones, mapbox, pearson, rovio, youview, moviestar planet, asurion, payplug, hour of code

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