Dynamic

Self-Hosted CDN vs Fastly

Developers should use a self-hosted CDN when they need complete control over their content delivery, such as for compliance with data sovereignty laws, custom caching rules, or to avoid vendor lock-in and reduce long-term costs meets developers should learn and use fastly when building high-traffic websites, apis, or applications that require low-latency content delivery, real-time caching control, and edge computing capabilities. Here's our take.

🧊Nice Pick

Self-Hosted CDN

Developers should use a self-hosted CDN when they need complete control over their content delivery, such as for compliance with data sovereignty laws, custom caching rules, or to avoid vendor lock-in and reduce long-term costs

Self-Hosted CDN

Nice Pick

Developers should use a self-hosted CDN when they need complete control over their content delivery, such as for compliance with data sovereignty laws, custom caching rules, or to avoid vendor lock-in and reduce long-term costs

Pros

  • +It's ideal for organizations with high traffic volumes, specific performance requirements, or those operating in regions where commercial CDNs have limited coverage
  • +Related to: nginx, varnish-cache

Cons

  • -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Fastly

Developers should learn and use Fastly when building high-traffic websites, APIs, or applications that require low-latency content delivery, real-time caching control, and edge computing capabilities

Pros

  • +It is particularly valuable for e-commerce sites, media streaming services, and SaaS platforms that need to handle global traffic spikes, implement security features like DDoS protection, and optimize performance through programmable edge logic
  • +Related to: content-delivery-network, edge-computing

Cons

  • -Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

Use Self-Hosted CDN if: You want it's ideal for organizations with high traffic volumes, specific performance requirements, or those operating in regions where commercial cdns have limited coverage and can live with specific tradeoffs depend on your use case.

Use Fastly if: You prioritize it is particularly valuable for e-commerce sites, media streaming services, and saas platforms that need to handle global traffic spikes, implement security features like ddos protection, and optimize performance through programmable edge logic over what Self-Hosted CDN offers.

🧊
The Bottom Line
Self-Hosted CDN wins

Developers should use a self-hosted CDN when they need complete control over their content delivery, such as for compliance with data sovereignty laws, custom caching rules, or to avoid vendor lock-in and reduce long-term costs

Disagree with our pick? nice@nicepick.dev