Developer Tools · head to head
Cortex vs Fastly
Cortex
Developer Tools
Internal developer portal that scores service ownership and maturity rather than just cataloguing services
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Only Fastly has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Cortex pricing is quote only, so a platform team cannot build a business case or compare against the true cost of self-hosted Backstage without entering a sales cycle first.; Fastly bandwidth is priced per region, and delivery to India, Africa and South Korea is $0.28 per GB against $0.12 in North America and Europe
- They diverge on capability: Cortex covers Service catalogue, Fastly covers Edge Compute.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Cortex and Fastly actually diverge.
Identical on both: platforms (Web, API), user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Cortex
- Service catalogue
- Scorecards
- Initiatives
- Self-service templates
- Query language
- Eng intelligence
- Integrations layer
- On-call and ownership mapping
Only in Fastly
- Edge Compute
- CDN
- DDoS Protection
- Real-time Analytics
- Image Optimization
- Video Streaming
- API
- Instant Purge
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Cortex
- A platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a Kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of servicesnot Fastly
- An organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitionsnot Fastly
- Enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident reviewnot Fastly
- Replacing a self-hosted Backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgradednot Fastly
Fastly
- Serving static and dynamic content through a global CDNnot Cortex
- Running edge logic and caching in front of an origin applicationnot Cortex
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Cortex
- Pricing is quote only, so a platform team cannot build a business case or compare against the true cost of self-hosted Backstage without entering a sales cycle first.
- The catalogue is only as accurate as the metadata you supply, so an organisation with inconsistent repository conventions spends its first quarter cleaning data before any scorecard means anything.
- Scorecards create political friction: publishing a per-team grade turns an engineering standard into a performance metric, and teams will game the rules rather than fix the underlying issue.
- It is closed source and hosted, so organisations with strict data residency or air-gap requirements have limited options compared with running Backstage themselves.
- Value scales with organisation size, so a company with fifty engineers and thirty services will find the catalogue tells them nothing they did not already know while still paying an enterprise contract.
Fastly
- Bandwidth is priced per region, and delivery to India, Africa and South Korea is $0.28 per GB against $0.12 in North America and Europe
- The same traffic therefore costs more than twice as much depending on where the audience is, which is invisible until the bill arrives
- The free allowance is 100 GB of bandwidth and 1M requests a month
- Requests are billed separately from bandwidth, at $0.01 per 10,000 above the first million
- High volume rates past 50 TB are not published and require contacting sales
Pricing, plan by plan
Cortex
On request- Cortex$undefined/year
- Service catalogue and ownership mapping
- Scorecards and initiatives
- Self-service templates
Fastly
Free- Free TrialFree
- CDN
- DDoS protection
- Real-time analytics
- Pay-As-You-GoFree
- Usage-based pricing
- Advanced features
- Priority support
Which should you pick?
Choose Cortex if
- You need service catalogue.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want scorecards.
Choose Fastly if
- You need edge compute.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want cdn.
Questions people ask
- Is Cortex or Fastly better?
- Neither clearly leads. Cortex starts at On request and Fastly at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Cortex or Fastly?
- Fastly has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Cortex and Free for Fastly.
- Does Cortex or Fastly run on more platforms?
- Cortex runs on Web, API. Fastly runs on Web, Api.
- Can I use Fastly for free?
- Yes. Fastly has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cortex starts at On request.
- What is Cortex best used for?
- Cortex is most often used for a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services, an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions, enforcing production readiness standards on new services at creation time rather than at incident review, replacing a self-hosted backstage that is consuming a full-time engineer or two just to stay upgraded. Of those, a platform team that needs to prove to leadership how far a kubernetes or framework migration has actually progressed across hundreds of services and an organisation where ownership of production services is genuinely unknown after reorganisations or acquisitions are not what Fastly is typically brought in for.
- What can Cortex do that Fastly cannot?
- Cortex covers Service catalogue, Scorecards, Initiatives, Self-service templates. Fastly covers Edge Compute, CDN, DDoS Protection, Real-time Analytics.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Cortex: How is Cortex different from Backstage?
Backstage is an open source framework you build and staff. Cortex is a hosted product with scorecards and initiatives out of the box and no platform team required to keep it running.
Fastly: Does Fastly charge based on usage or a flat monthly fee?
Fastly operates on a usage-based model with volume discounts. They offer a free tier with 100 GB bandwidth and 1M requests for experimentation, then customers pay per unit consumed with tiered discounts as consumption increases.
SourceCortex: Is pricing published?
No. Cortex requires a sales conversation and prepares a custom proposal.
Fastly: What are Fastly's main service packages and their costs?
Fastly offers Network Services Packages ($1,500-$6,000/month baseline), Security Packages (custom pricing), Compute Packages ($500/month entry level), and Observability Packages ($1,500/month entry level). Enterprise solutions include custom quotes for high-volume deployments.
SourceCortex: Can it self-host?
It is offered as a hosted product; on-premise arrangements are handled through sales rather than published.
Fastly: Can I start using Fastly for free?
Yes, Fastly offers a free tier with generous allowances for experimentation including 100 GB bandwidth and 1M requests. You can start building free and only pay when you use additional resources.
SourceCortex: What is the main adoption risk?
Bad or missing service metadata. The catalogue and every scorecard on top of it inherit whatever quality your repositories already have.
Fastly: Are there surprise overage charges with Fastly?
Fastly advertises predictable pricing with no surprise overages. The pricing structure is designed to be transparent as consumption grows.
SourceRelated pages
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