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Fastly vs NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protection & Mitigation comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 12, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.0
Fastly boosts return on investment with improved performance, reduced latency, and cuts infrastructure costs by 40-60%.
Sentiment score
6.3
NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protection ensures uptime, prevents costly attacks, protects reputation, and provides financial gains through efficient operations.
Realizing a 30 to 50% reduction in latency and page load time, ensuring users experience a seamless workflow.
Senior software engineer at Simplify vms
I have seen a return on investment, particularly in time savings, especially regarding the changes.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Fastly's customer care is efficient with multi-channel support, but has inconsistencies in response times and transparency across time zones.
Sentiment score
7.6
NETSCOUT Arbor is praised for expertise and quick resolution, but regional delays and first-level support issues exist.
demonstrating the team's technical expertise in CDN and Edge architecture
Senior software engineer at Simplify vms
We have SLAs defined because we opted for enterprise support pricing.
Staff Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
We are not getting quick responses from Fastly technical support engineers.
Technical support engineer at Adobe
The technical support team is very effective in resolving issues.
Network Engineer at A1 Bulgaria
Although the team is good, they are not fast, and they lack the skills to manage dynamic attackers.
Gerente De Ventas at internet winds ag
Support for Arbor DDoS deserves a rating of 10 because when there is a problem with implementation, the people I work with are the best.
Team Lead Network Engineer at Artco Group d.o.o Sarajevo
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
Fastly is praised for scalability, ease of growth support, cloud flexibility, excellent support, and successful global integrations.
Sentiment score
7.3
NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protection is scalable and adaptable, effectively mitigating attacks with flexible deployment for various environments.
Seamlessly handling massive traffic without requiring backend changes due to its globally distributed Edge network and stateless API-driven design.
Senior software engineer at Simplify vms
This would enhance the knowledge about scalability options available for Arbor DDoS, making it more accessible and useful for users.
System Engineer at TIGER LOGIC
They need to purchase boxes monthly to expand their bandwidths, and these new boxes can be added to the installed base very easily.
System Engineer - Security Presales at Raya Integration
I find Arbor DDoS to be very scalable.
Network Engineer at A1 Bulgaria
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Fastly is stable and reliable with high uptime, no technical issues, and strong performance in enterprise applications.
Sentiment score
8.3
NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protection is highly stable and effective, with minimal issues and infrequent updates needed for optimal performance.
Highly reliable for enterprise-scale applications with high uptime guarantees.
Senior software engineer at Simplify vms
It is a very stable product.
Team Lead Network Engineer at Artco Group d.o.o Sarajevo
Arbor DDoS is very stable.
System Engineer - Security Presales at Raya Integration
 

Room For Improvement

Fastly requires improvements in China presence, configuration complexity, pricing, customer support, security features, documentation, and bot detection.
NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protection needs improvements in troubleshooting, integration, pricing, support, reporting, stability, and management flexibility using AI features.
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.
Senior software engineer at Simplify vms
Fastly could improve by improving the documentation and having some code examples.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Fastly should provide features similar to Cloudflare regarding a block list.
Technical support engineer at Adobe
I would like to see an option to decrypt the traffic with Arbor DDoS, as some clients are interested in this, particularly for application layer attacks on port 443.
Network Engineer at A1 Bulgaria
Enhancing the handshakes between Arbor DDoS and third-party solutions is essential for obtaining better and real-time data that supports any organization’s support team effectively.
System Engineer at TIGER LOGIC
I would like to see a roadmap for one or two years, and it is tough to predict what will happen in that timeframe without a clearer description.
CTO at UkrNet
 

Setup Cost

Fastly is competitively priced with usage-based costs and customizable options, but some find it expensive with a learning curve.
NETSCOUT Arbor's DDoS solution is costly, with complex licensing impacting affordability, especially for smaller enterprises.
It operates on a pay-as-you-go structure, but costs scale with traffic, requiring monitoring to avoid unexpected spikes based on data transfers and the number of requests handled.
Senior software engineer at Simplify vms
In terms of price, I find it good.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The prices for Arbor DDoS are expensive.
Team Lead Network Engineer at Artco Group d.o.o Sarajevo
For some customers, the cost is expensive, but for enterprises looking to protect their services, it is affordable.
Network Engineer at A1 Bulgaria
 

Valuable Features

Fastly CDNs integrate with Signal Sciences WAF for efficient content delivery, enhancing performance with global edge locations and code management.
NETSCOUT Arbor offers scalable DDoS protection with user-friendly features, AI-enhanced detection, and cloud integration, ideal for effective threat mitigation.
The best feature that Fastly offers is the Edge location, which reduces latency, making our applications work smoother because we do not have to constantly call the backend.
Senior software engineer at Simplify vms
Fastly has a wide number of configuration features that can be performed, and I emphasize that they can be done from code, which makes it much more traceable.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
In this project, it is working as a reverse proxy for CDN and WAF, web application firewall, additionally image optimization.
Technical support engineer at Adobe
That is an attack over 10 gigabit per second, and if an attack enters the telecommunication network, that will be a disaster for their customer, their services, and so on.
Team Lead Network Engineer at Artco Group d.o.o Sarajevo
We have many updates for the library of different attacks, and they have artificial intelligence that automatically learns the process during different attacks.
CTO at UkrNet
You can generate flow spec filters. These filters are transferred through BGP to border routers, which automatically build filters, mitigating the attack even at the network's boundary and preventing it from reaching the TMS.
Director Of Research And Development at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Fastly
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
CDN (7th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (25th)
NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protect...
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Fastly is 3.7%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protection & Mitigation is 5.5%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Arbor DDoS5.5%
Fastly3.7%
Other90.8%
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

Pranay Jain - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
reviewer1331304 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Of Research And Development at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Automated threat intelligence and flow-based mitigation have improved our DDoS defense
A very useful feature in Arbor DDoS is its ability to send flow spec announcements to routers. For example, if it is clear that a Layer 3 or Layer 4 attack is occurring and the attack pattern is identified through source and destination IP addresses and ports, you can generate flow spec filters. These filters are transferred through BGP to border routers, which automatically build filters, mitigating the attack even at the network's boundary and preventing it from reaching the TMS. This allows the TMS to focus on other tasks. This is a highly effective feature that can mitigate huge volumetric attacks; for example, we experienced a 32-gigabit attack, and all those 32 gigabits were dropped by our border routers, not by Arbor DDoS itself. The flow spec announcement was generated by Arbor DDoS, and as far as I know, the same technology is used by Radware, but it comes under a different feature and a different license. At the time, we were told that flow spec mitigation was an additional very expensive license to purchase from Radware, while Radware included everything in one package.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection solutions are best for your needs.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

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...
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
I would say if it’s an ISP that will build a scrubbing center, Netscout/Arbor is a good solution. In all other solutions, Imperva is a great choice.
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Arbor would be the best bid, apart from Arbor, Palo Alto and Fortinet have good solutions. As this is an ISP, I would prefer Arbor.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arbor DDoS?
The prices for Arbor DDoS are expensive. The licensing is subscription-based. From our sales department, they discuss that prices are very high.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Arbor Networks SP, Arbor Networks TMS, Arbor Cloud for ENT
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Xtel Communications
Find out what your peers are saying about Fastly vs. NETSCOUT Arbor DDoS Protection & Mitigation and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
916,240 professionals have used our research since 2012.