Software · head to head
Render vs Fastly
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Render the free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth; 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: Render covers Web services, Fastly covers Edge Compute.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Render and Fastly actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (usage-based), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web, Api), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
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 Render
- Web services
- Static sites
- Background workers
- Postgres database
- Redis database
- Scheduled jobs
- Environment variables
- Custom domains
Only in Fastly
- Edge Compute
- CDN
- DDoS Protection
- Real-time Analytics
- Image Optimization
- Video Streaming
- API
- Instant Purge
Both cover
- GitHub
- DDoS protection
- Cloud deployment
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Render
- Deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a Git repository without managing serversnot Fastly
- Running managed Postgres and Redis alongside application servicesnot Fastly
- Preview environments per pull request for small teamsnot Fastly
Fastly
- Serving static and dynamic content through a global CDNnot Render
- Running edge logic and caching in front of an origin applicationnot Render
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Render
- The free Hobby workspace is limited to 25 services and 5 GB of bandwidth
- Every paid plan charges the workspace fee plus compute on top, so $25 per month for Pro is a floor rather than a total
- SAML SSO and SCIM require the Scale plan at $499 per month
- HIPAA-compliant workspaces, inbound IP rules and advanced RBAC roles are Scale plan features
- Organization-level audit logs require Scale; Pro provides only workspace audit logs
- Contractual uptime SLAs, support response SLAs and a technical account manager are Enterprise only, and Enterprise is custom priced with no published rate
- Included bandwidth is 25 GB on Pro and 1 TB on Scale, with usage beyond that billed separately
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
Render
Free- FreeFree
- 1 web service
- 1 static site
- Shared CPU
- Starter$7/month
- Unlimited services
- Dedicated CPU
- 2GB RAM
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 Render if
- You need web services.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want static sites.
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 Render or Fastly better?
- Neither clearly leads. Render starts at Free and Fastly at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Render or Fastly?
- Render starts at Free and Fastly at Free.
- Does Render or Fastly run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Render for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Render best used for?
- Render is most often used for deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a git repository without managing servers, running managed postgres and redis alongside application services, preview environments per pull request for small teams. Of those, deploying web services, static sites and cron jobs from a git repository without managing servers and running managed postgres and redis alongside application services are not what Fastly is typically brought in for.
- What can Render do that Fastly cannot?
- Render covers Web services, Static sites, Background workers, Postgres database. Fastly covers Edge Compute, CDN, DDoS Protection, Real-time Analytics. Both handle GitHub, DDoS protection, Cloud deployment, Web support.