Skip to content
inetGeek

Azure Front Door vs Fastly

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Azure Front Door and Fastly built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 22 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Azure Front Door if…

Teams on Azure that want CDN, global load balancing and WAF as one combined entry point rather than separate products.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Fastly if…

High-traffic sites where volume-discount tiers actually kick in, or teams that want CDN and edge compute (Fastly Compute) on the same platform.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Azure Front Door: Budget-sensitive at small scale — no free tier and a $35/month base fee before any traffic is a higher floor than most pay-as-you-go CDNs in this category.
  • Fastly: Traffic is modest — the $1,500/month entry plan for dedicated network services is priced for scale a smaller site won't reach, where a pay-as-you-go CDN has no equivalent floor.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Azure Front Door alternatives · Fastly alternatives

17 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Azure Front Door documentationVisit Fastly documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionAzure Front DoorFastly
Pricing
Free tier
No
Yes
Kind of free offerFree creditFree tier
Entry paid plan
Standard tier: $35/month base fee. Premium tier: $330/month base fee. Base fees are billed hourly and only for the hours used.
Network Services packages start at $1,500/month, including 100M requests.
Pricing modelMulti-dimensional: an hourly base fee, outbound data transfer to clients, outbound transfer to origins, and per-request fees.Usage-based with built-in volume-discount tiers — the per-GB and per-request rate falls as monthly usage rises.
Egress over allowance
North America (Zone 1): $0.083/GB for the first 10 TB/month, with tiered reductions at higher volumes.
North America and Europe: free to 100 GB, then $0.12/GB to 10 TB and $0.08/GB for the next 10 TB. Priced by region — Africa, India and South Korea are $0.28/GB in the same band.
Infrastructure
RegionsGlobal service: Front Door is not deployed to an Azure region; the profile is a global resource distributed to all edge locations worldwide.10 billing regions priced separately for Full Site Delivery bandwidth: Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, India, Mexico, North America, Saudi Arabia, South America, South Korea.
CDN
Points of presence
192 edge locations across 109 metro cities, plus four edge locations in four Azure US Government cloud regions.
164 POPs, counted from Fastly's own complete list of active POPs in the docs — Fastly publishes the table of POP identifiers rather than a total.
Compliance
SOC 2Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.SOC 2 Type 2 audited against the AICPA Trust Service Criteria for Security and Availability; reports on request (NDA for prospective customers).
ISO 27001Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (ISO 27001) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.Certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 for its Information Security Management System (ISMS).
HIPAAListed among Azure's compliance offerings (HIPAA) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.Audited against relevant sections of the HIPAA Security and Privacy Rules; customers configure a HIPAA-compliant caching product to support compliance.
GDPR / data residencyFront Door is a global resource distributed to every edge location; the only location you choose stores the resource group's metadata. From the FAQ answer on which regions Front Door can be deployed in.Audited against key articles of the GDPR, mapped to data protection and privacy controls for Fastly as a data processor. Audit scope as processor; the page states no region-pinned storage guarantee.
PCI DSSListed among Azure's compliance offerings (PCI DSS) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.PCI DSS compliant as a Level 1 Service Provider; a PCI-compliant caching product covers Network services, Compute and Observability.
Encryption at restMicrosoft's security baseline for the service records that it stores no customer content at rest; in-transit encryption is on by default.Customer-provided private keys are encrypted at rest; disk encryption and secure boot are maintained as additional controls where deemed appropriate.
Customer-managed keys
Azure Key Vault integration supported for customer keys, secrets and certificates; customer-configured, not enabled by default. Same baseline records the service stores no customer content at rest.
Supported logging endpoints take a PGP public key you supply; Fastly encrypts log files with it before writing to disk and you hold the private key. Scope: streamed log files only; separate from Fastly TLS bring-your-own-certificate keys.
Role-based access controlAzure RBAC built-in roles: CDN Profile Contributor manages CDN and Front Door Standard and Premium profiles and their endpoints. Control plane; the page also lists Front Door Domain and Secret Contributor/Reader roles.User roles and permissions control account access; account-management roles (Superuser, User Admin, Billing) plus service-configuration roles are assigned per user.
Private networking / VPCOrigins can be reached over Azure Private Link from a Front Door managed regional private network; documented for the Premium tier.Origin Connect provides a dedicated private network interconnection between a customer origin server and a Fastly Shield POP.
Dedicated infrastructureShared: all customers use a common infrastructure, with per-profile configuration isolation rather than dedicated capacity.Dedicated anycast IPv4/IPv6 address pools assigned exclusively to a single customer, maintained and managed by Fastly across its global edge cloud platform. Scope is dedicated IP addressing on Fastly's edge platform.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Free tier

Azure Front Door
No
Fastly
Yes
Sources (2) →

Kind of free offer

Azure Front Door
Free credit
Fastly
Free tier
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

Azure Front Door
Standard tier: $35/month base fee. Premium tier: $330/month base fee. Base fees are billed hourly and only for the hours used.
Fastly
Network Services packages start at $1,500/month, including 100M requests.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

Azure Front Door
Multi-dimensional: an hourly base fee, outbound data transfer to clients, outbound transfer to origins, and per-request fees.
Fastly
Usage-based with built-in volume-discount tiers — the per-GB and per-request rate falls as monthly usage rises.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Azure Front Door ↗

    “Azure Front Door Standard/Premium billing is based on the following pricing dimensions: Base fees (i.e., fixed charge calculated on hourly basis) Outbound data transfer from edge to the client Outbound data transfer from edge to the origin Requests incoming from client to Front Door's edge location”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Fastly Pricing ↗

    “only pay for what you use, with built in discounts as usage grows. [...] Usage-based, volume discounts Spend less as you use more with our built-in pricing tiers”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

Egress over allowance

Azure Front Door
North America (Zone 1): $0.083/GB for the first 10 TB/month, with tiered reductions at higher volumes.
Fastly
North America and Europe: free to 100 GB, then $0.12/GB to 10 TB and $0.08/GB for the next 10 TB. Priced by region — Africa, India and South Korea are $0.28/GB in the same band.
Sources (2) →
  • Azure Front Door Pricing ↗

    “For North America (Zone 1), the first 10 TB/month is $0.083 per GB with tiered reductions for higher volumes.”

    Read 2026-09-11 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Fastly Pricing ↗

    “Bandwidth (per month) Africa Asia Australia Europe India Mexico North America Saudi Arabia South America South Korea 0 - 100 GB Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free 100 GB - 10 TB $0.28 $0.19 $0.19 $0.12 $0.28 $0.16 $0.12 $0.19 $0.19 $0.28 Next 10 TB $0.24 $0.14 $0.14 $0.08 $0.24 $0.12 $0.08 $0.14 $0.14 $0.24”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

Regions

Azure Front Door
Global service: Front Door is not deployed to an Azure region; the profile is a global resource distributed to all edge locations worldwide.
Fastly
10 billing regions priced separately for Full Site Delivery bandwidth: Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, India, Mexico, North America, Saudi Arabia, South America, South Korea.
Sources (2) →

Points of presence

Azure Front Door

192 edge locations across 109 metro cities, plus four edge locations in four Azure US Government cloud regions.

Fastly

164 POPs, counted from Fastly's own complete list of active POPs in the docs — Fastly publishes the table of POP identifiers rather than a total.

Sources (2) →

SOC 2

Azure Front Door
Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
Fastly
SOC 2 Type 2 audited against the AICPA Trust Service Criteria for Security and Availability; reports on request (NDA for prospective customers).
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

Azure Front Door
Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (ISO 27001) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
Fastly
Certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 for its Information Security Management System (ISMS).
Sources (2) →

HIPAA

Azure Front Door
Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (HIPAA) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
Fastly
Audited against relevant sections of the HIPAA Security and Privacy Rules; customers configure a HIPAA-compliant caching product to support compliance.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Azure Front Door
Front Door is a global resource distributed to every edge location; the only location you choose stores the resource group's metadata. From the FAQ answer on which regions Front Door can be deployed in.
Fastly
Audited against key articles of the GDPR, mapped to data protection and privacy controls for Fastly as a data processor. Audit scope as processor; the page states no region-pinned storage guarantee.
Sources (2) →

PCI DSS

Azure Front Door
Listed among Azure's compliance offerings (PCI DSS) on Microsoft's own compliance documentation — a platform-wide list, not scoped to this specific service.
Fastly
PCI DSS compliant as a Level 1 Service Provider; a PCI-compliant caching product covers Network services, Compute and Observability.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Azure Front Door
Microsoft's security baseline for the service records that it stores no customer content at rest; in-transit encryption is on by default.
Fastly
Customer-provided private keys are encrypted at rest; disk encryption and secure boot are maintained as additional controls where deemed appropriate.
Sources (2) →

Customer-managed keys

Azure Front Door
Azure Key Vault integration supported for customer keys, secrets and certificates; customer-configured, not enabled by default. Same baseline records the service stores no customer content at rest.
Fastly
Supported logging endpoints take a PGP public key you supply; Fastly encrypts log files with it before writing to disk and you hold the private key. Scope: streamed log files only; separate from Fastly TLS bring-your-own-certificate keys.
Sources (2) →

Role-based access control

Azure Front Door
Azure RBAC built-in roles: CDN Profile Contributor manages CDN and Front Door Standard and Premium profiles and their endpoints. Control plane; the page also lists Front Door Domain and Secret Contributor/Reader roles.
Fastly
User roles and permissions control account access; account-management roles (Superuser, User Admin, Billing) plus service-configuration roles are assigned per user.
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

Azure Front Door
Origins can be reached over Azure Private Link from a Front Door managed regional private network; documented for the Premium tier.
Fastly
Origin Connect provides a dedicated private network interconnection between a customer origin server and a Fastly Shield POP.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

Azure Front Door
Shared: all customers use a common infrastructure, with per-profile configuration isolation rather than dedicated capacity.
Fastly
Dedicated anycast IPv4/IPv6 address pools assigned exclusively to a single customer, maintained and managed by Fastly across its global edge cloud platform. Scope is dedicated IP addressing on Fastly's edge platform.
Sources (2) →
  • Azure Front Door Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) | Microsoft Learn ↗

    “It uses a common infrastructure that all its customers share, but you can customize your own Front Door profile to configure your application's specific requirements. [...] Other customers' configurations can't affect your Front Door configuration, which is isolated from theirs.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • IP Addresses | Fastly ↗

    “Dedicated IP addresses provide a pool of IPv4 and IPv6 IP addresses, maintained and managed by Fastly, across our global edge cloud platform. [...] A dedicated IP address is an IP assigned exclusively to a single Fastly customer instead of being shared with other customers.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

Confirm by email; unsubscribe from any issue. Your address goes to Kit and nowhere else — what we do with it.

03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

What the free plan includesFastly: Fastly names a free entry point for experimenting and prototyping on usage-based pricing; the allowance figures are no longer stated on this page.
When the free offer endsAzure Front Door: 30 days.
Uptime SLAAzure Front Door: Not published as a web page. Microsoft consolidated its per-service SLAs into one downloadable document covering Azure, Dynamics 365, Office 365 and Intune; the former azure.microsoft.com SLA URLs now redirect to its licensing viewer.
Image optimizationFastly: Image Optimizer: first 100,000 image requests a month free, then $0.50 per 10,000 requests, with volume discounts scaling down to $0.01 per 10,000 beyond 5 billion monthly requests.
Support on entry paid planFastly: Standard support free and automatic for every user. Gold adds SLA-guaranteed response times, priority routing and 24/7 incident response; Enterprise adds around-the-clock emergency support.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Azure Front Door or Fastly?

Azure Front Door: Standard tier: $35/month base fee. Premium tier: $330/month base fee. Base fees are billed hourly and only for the hours used.

Fastly: Network Services packages start at $1,500/month, including 100M requests.

Free tier: Azure Front Door or Fastly?

Azure Front Door: No

Fastly: Yes

Egress over allowance: Azure Front Door or Fastly?

Azure Front Door: North America (Zone 1): $0.083/GB for the first 10 TB/month, with tiered reductions at higher volumes.

Fastly: North America and Europe: free to 100 GB, then $0.12/GB to 10 TB and $0.08/GB for the next 10 TB. Priced by region — Africa, India and South Korea are $0.28/GB in the same band.

Should I choose Azure Front Door or Fastly?

Pick Azure Front Door if Teams on Azure that want CDN, global load balancing and WAF as one combined entry point rather than separate products.

Pick Fastly if High-traffic sites where volume-discount tiers actually kick in, or teams that want CDN and edge compute (Fastly Compute) on the same platform.

Provider pages

Azure Front DoorMicrosoft's combined CDN, global entry point and app delivery layer, billed on base fee plus metered data transfer.FastlyEnterprise CDN and edge compute platform with volume-tiered bandwidth pricing and a metered image optimizer.

Related comparisons

Amazon CloudFront vs Azure Front DoorAmazon CloudFront vs FastlyAzure Front Door vs Bunny CDNAzure Front Door vs CloudflareAzure Front Door vs KeyCDNCloudflare vs FastlyFastly vs Bunny CDNFastly vs KeyCDN

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.