Fastly vs Windows Azure CDN comparison

Fastly and Microsoft are both solutions in the CDN category. Fastly is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.0. Fastly holds a 5.3% mindshare in CDN, compared to Microsoft’s 3.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fastly users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Fastly

Read 9 Fastly reviews

2,044 Views
1,288 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Windows Azure CDN

Read 13 Windows Azure CDN reviews

918 Views
918 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Fastly

Windows Azure CDN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Windows Azure CDN and Fastly are competing products in the content delivery network space. Based on data comparisons, Fastly often holds the upper hand due to its advanced features and performance despite Azure CDN's competitive pricing and reliable support.

Features: Windows Azure CDN's valuable features include scalability, global reach, and integration with Microsoft services. Fastly offers real-time analytics, instant configuration updates, and edge computing capabilities, appealing to tech buyers seeking high performance and dynamic capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Windows Azure CDN could improve its flexibility for users needing more tailored options, enhance its real-time analytics capabilities, and refine its interaction features to compete with advanced competitors. Fastly could enhance its user documentation for better onboarding, improve integration with non-technical environments, and potentially offer more competitive pricing models for wider accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Windows Azure CDN benefits from smooth integration with Microsoft environments, providing a straightforward deployment experience. It offers reliable support channels but may lack flexibility for some users. Fastly's developer-friendly approach enables rapid deployment with robust API support and personalized technical assistance, noted for its adaptability and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Windows Azure CDN is known for its competitive pricing structure and predictable costs, providing a strong ROI for organizations heavily invested in Microsoft ecosystems. Fastly, while potentially more expensive, offers compelling ROI for businesses demanding high-speed performance and customization due to its billing model based on performance and features.

To learn more, read our detailed Fastly vs. Windows Azure CDN Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fastly vs. Windows Azure CDN

December 2025

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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

Fastly

Ranking in CDN

8th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (18th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (10th)

Windows Azure CDN

Ranking in CDN

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Fastly is 5.3%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows Azure CDN is 3.4%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CDN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Windows Azure CDN	3.4%
Fastly	5.3%
Other	91.3%

CDN

Featured Reviews

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

AlaaMadkhana

Pre Sales at eSense Software

Has provided exceptional performance for handling high web traffic

In my opinion, Windows Azure CDN is one of the best CDNs. We tried to replace it and made a business case to check other options such as Cloudflare, and we are using Cloudflare and tried Akamai, wanting to explore alternatives from OCI. One of the best features of Windows Azure CDN is that it has integrated WAF; it is not only CDN alone and it is a very smart and capable WAF. Windows Azure CDN is easily integrated with Azure services such as Azure Storage and Azure Web Apps, and sometimes we are using just Azure Front Door while the back end and database will be on OCI. The impact of Windows Azure CDN's dynamic content acceleration on our application performance is very significant. For one of our clients, we could not use anything other than Azure Front Door.

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

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"Its initial setup process is straightforward."

"Compute@Edge features are valuable to me."

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

More Fastly pros

"We use the product for faster content delivery with low latency."

"I like that CDN offers a routing feature."

"I enjoy engaging in discussions with colleagues possessing unique expertise. I leverage the three platforms—Azure, Google, and AWS extensively. This allows me to offer diverse solutions to customers, commonly referred to as a multi-cloud approach."

"It is a stable solution."

"One of the tool's best features is its ability to handle edge cases. For instance, we encountered a situation where we needed to remove certain files from public access. The solution offered a purge feature that allowed us to remove these files. This feature ensured that the files were deleted from all edge servers. Subsequently, we were able to upload new versions of the files."

"The fact that it just delivers what it is supposed to do is its most valuable feature...The initial setup is very straightforward."

"One of the best features of Windows Azure CDN is that it has integrated WAF; it is not only CDN alone and it is a very smart and capable WAF."

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that one can access Windows Azure CDN from anywhere."

More Windows Azure CDN pros

Cons

"Support is not that great."

"The solution's pricing could be better."

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

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

"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."

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

"Fastly's customer service area needs improvement."

"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."

"The high price of Windows Azure CDN is an area of concern where improvements can be made."

"Windows Azure CDN should lower its prices."

"Exploring shared access solutions with cloud accounts would be a beneficial choice."

"The response time of the support team must be improved."

"It is not a weakness of Windows Azure CDN; rather, it is the fact that it is outside Saudi Arabia, leading to some regulation issues."

"We have experienced issues with switch connectivity."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"Azure is continuously improving its CDN but the documentation should be up-to-date."

More Windows Azure CDN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"The pricing has been very competitive."

"It is an expensive solution."

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

"In my opinion, Fastly is priced competitively."

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

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

"I rate the price of Windows Azure CDN a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is high."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"It comes at a relatively affordable cost."

"The pricing of the solution depends on usage and varies based on the company's needs. If you want additional features like advanced logging, it will be pricier. However, it could be cheaper if you don't need those features. It all depends on the resources and requirements."

"The solution's price depends on how much traffic you have. So, it was okay for us. Payments are to be made on a monthly basis since one has to pay for what they used."

"The tool's pricing is cheap."

"The solution's price is above the medium range."

More Windows Azure CDN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fastly?

You need to pay a premium price for the tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fastly?

See all answers

What do you like most about Windows Azure CDN?

One of the tool's best features is its ability to handle edge cases. For instance, we encountered a situation where we needed to remove certain files from public access. The solution offered a purg...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows Azure CDN?

In terms of pricing for Windows Azure CDN and the whole Microsoft products, you cannot compare networking alone or compute alone; you need a full solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Windows Azure CDN?

It is not a weakness of Windows Azure CDN; rather, it is the fact that it is outside Saudi Arabia, leading to some regulation issues. For computing, they could make a flex engine similar to other p...

See all answers

Comparisons

Akamai vs Fastly

Compared 22% of the time

Cloudflare vs Fastly

Compared 20% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Fastly

Compared 7% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Fastly

Compared 5% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Fastly

Compared 4% of the time

More Fastly Competitors

Cloudflare vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 30% of the time

Akamai vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 23% of the time

Amazon CloudFront vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 15% of the time

Uplynk vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Cloud Video vs Windows Azure CDN

Compared 3% of the time

More Windows Azure CDN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fastly

January 2026

Download Fastly product report

Buyer's Guide

Windows Azure CDN

January 2026

Download Windows Azure CDN product report

Overview

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.

Fastly

Windows Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) caches static web content at strategically placed locations to provide maximum throughput for delivering content to users. The CDN offers developers a global solution for delivering high-bandwidth content by caching the content at physical nodes across the world.

Microsoft

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

NORAD, Agreeya Mobility

Buyer's Guide

Fastly vs. Windows Azure CDN

December 2025

Free Report: Fastly vs. Windows Azure CDN

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