Azure Front Door vs Fastly comparison

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Azure Front Door

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Fastly and Azure Front Door compete in the content delivery network space. Azure Front Door appears to have the upper hand due to its extensive features, making it desirable despite having a higher cost.

Features: Fastly offers real-time logging, instant purge, and edge computing capabilities. Azure Front Door provides global load balancing, application layer security, and integrated WAF options.

Room for Improvement: Fastly could improve its zero-trust solutions and enhance its CDN configurations. Its UI could also be refined for better user interaction. Azure Front Door may benefit from extending its pricing options to accommodate smaller enterprises and improving the user interface for less tech-savvy users. Enhancing integration capabilities with non-Microsoft services could also be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fastly emphasizes a simpler deployment process with developer-friendly approaches. Azure Front Door integrates seamlessly with Microsoft's Azure platform, offering reliable deployment experiences due to its extensive documentation and support network.

Pricing and ROI: Fastly is acknowledged for competitive pricing and favorable ROI due to performance efficiency. Azure Front Door, while involving higher setup costs, justifies its pricing through a comprehensive feature set that supports long-term value, especially for security-focused applications.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Front Door vs. Fastly Report (Updated: January 2026).

Azure Front Door vs. Fastly

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Helped 881,565 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

Azure Front Door

Ranking in CDN

4th

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

13th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (18th)

Fastly

Ranking in CDN

8th

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

20th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Azure Front Door is 10.3%, down from 19.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fastly is 5.5%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CDN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Azure Front Door	10.3%
Fastly	5.5%
Other	84.2%

CDN

Featured Reviews

reviewer2226693

Architect at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

Optimizing global application performance with robust security measures and advanced traffic management

DDoS capabilities in Azure Front Door could certainly be improved. Although Microsoft states it comes with basic DDoS protections out of the box, I find it often ineffectual in mitigating thousands of requests from a single source in a short span of time. User then have to rely on the WAF module where users must configure rate-limiting rules, as it does not automatically sense malicious spikes in traffic. I believe Front Door should have an out-of-the-box premium DDoS protection that can automatically detect and block malicious traffic. I would appreciate improvements in the turnaround time for support, especially since issues with Azure Front Door are usually critical for businesses. If there is an issue, it often results in downtime for line of business applications. I have faced this situation multiple times as one of the largest financial institutions in India is hosted there, adhering to strict SLAs that require prompt responses.

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Patel Parth

Technical support engineer at Adobe

Optimized ecommerce performance and improved access control through image handling and IP filtering

I believe that Fastly should provide guidelines for their WAF blocking rules. It should be public what the rules are that are blocking their contents. I believe Fastly should provide regional IP addresses instead of POP IPs. Fastly should provide features similar to Cloudflare regarding a block list. Additionally, a POP address should be there with a wide range of IP addresses provided, public static IP addresses, so customers can integrate egress IPs. Fastly should provide WebP image processing on the backend instead of on the fly. It would be a very useful feature to avoid unnecessary time for browser to browser and local cookies. I believe that Fastly service has a few gaps. We are not getting quick responses from Fastly technical support engineers. Sometimes they depend on their D3 developers. There should be transparency.

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

"Has a great application firewall and we like the security."

"The tool is easy to use for beginners."

"The most valuable feature is that you can implement resources globally. It does not depend on location and ability or something like that. This is to connect clients around the world."

"It inspects the traffic at the network level before it comes into Azure. We can do SSL offloading, and it can detect abnormalities before the traffic comes into the application. It can be used globally and is easy to set up. It is also quite stable and scalable."

"Rules Engine is a valuable feature."

"I particularly appreciate its load-balancing capabilities as it allows us to manage multiple instances and support a global presence effectively."

"The most valuable feature is that I can have CDN and load-balancing capabilities in a single service instead of managing two separate tools."

"Azure Front Door's advanced routing rules for traffic management are highly effective, allowing you to configure HTTP tags, change different header or header response values, configure origin domains, and add security to your Layer 7 using these routing rules."

More Azure Front Door 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."

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

"Its initial setup process is straightforward."

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

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

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

"Compute@Edge features are valuable to me."

"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

"There could be improvements regarding its pricing for large-scale projects."

"This is a relatively expensive solution."

"In the tool, there needs to be a good amount of monitoring in the area of health probes to capture in front of what is happening."

"There could be improvements regarding its pricing for large-scale projects."

"Although Microsoft states it comes with basic DDoS protections out of the box, I find it often ineffectual in mitigating thousands of requests from a single source in a short time."

"The product's features are limited compared to Cloudflare. The tool also doesn't work well in a hybrid environment. I would like to see a way to add personalized APIs in the system."

"The user interface needs improvement as it is difficult to create the mapping to link the problem with your private address sources."

"There is room for improvement and they're working on it."

More Azure Front Door cons

"The solution's pricing could be better."

"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."

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

"Fastly's customer service area needs improvement."

"Support is not that great."

"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."

"What I don't like about Fastly is that they charge a heavy price."

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

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is on a pay-as-you-go basis."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"The product is expensive."

"The transition to the premium tier has led to increased costs, making it more expensive than the classic tier."

"The pricing of the solution is good."

"Considering the standard licensing of the tool, even though we have not checked the billing as of now, it might not be very costly."

"The pricing has been very competitive."

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

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

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

"In my opinion, Fastly is priced competitively."

"It is an expensive solution."

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Comms Service Provider

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Front Door?

I am not sure about the pricing but believe Azure Front Door might require a higher cost due to its entry point nature.

What needs improvement with Azure Front Door?

What do you like most about Fastly?

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.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fastly?

You need to pay a premium price for the tool.

What needs improvement with Fastly?

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Comparisons

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Compared 22% of the time

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Product Reports

Azure Front Door

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Also Known As

Azure Front-Door

No data available

Overview

Azure Front Door enhances web application performance and security by leveraging traffic inspection, SSL offloading, and a web application firewall. It enables intelligent routing, load balancing, and global resource deployment while providing essential features for online application security.

Azure Front Door integrates GitOps for seamless deployment, offering significant capabilities in giant networks like CDN functionalities and DDoS protection. Its advanced configurations include traffic analytics and transit layer security. Despite its affordability and scalability, users see room for improvement in global load balancing and private IP address support, citing integration challenges with other cloud vendors. The interface may appear complex, and some users desire more transparent pricing, better DDoS defenses, and enhanced monitoring. This platform is especially beneficial for securing external traffic and optimizing content delivery, providing DNS integration and disaster recovery mechanisms.

What are the key features of Azure Front Door?

Traffic Inspection: Enhances security with comprehensive traffic analysis at the network level.
SSL Offloading: Streamlines SSL certificate management and encryption processes.
Web Application Firewall: Offers protection against web vulnerabilities and threats.
Global Resource Implementation: Facilitates deployment across multiple regions.
Intelligent Routing and Load Balancing: Optimizes traffic distribution for efficient performance.
Bot and DDoS Protection: Shields applications from malicious traffic and attacks.
CDN Capabilities: Accelerates content delivery with local caching and optimized routing.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Affordability: Provides robust features at competitive pricing.
Scalability: Adapts easily to growing traffic demands and business needs.
Security: Delivers comprehensive defenses against cyber threats.
Performance Optimization: Enhances application responsiveness and delivery speed.
Global Reach: Supports globally distributed applications with ease.

In industries focusing on online presence and global user engagement, Azure Front Door is invaluable for optimizing web application performance. E-commerce platforms deploy it to secure transactions and enhance load times. Media companies leverage its CDN and security features to ensure seamless content delivery. Enterprises with international operations find it crucial for reliable and secure data access across regions.

Microsoft

Fastly helps the world’s most popular digital businesses keep pace with their customer expectations by delivering fast, secure, and scalable online experiences. Businesses trust Fastly’s edge cloud platform to accelerate the pace of technical innovation, mitigate evolving threats, and scale on demand.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Azure Front Door vs. Fastly