The CDN Showdown: Fastly Outpaces Akamai in Real-World Performance

Key Takeaways

• Google’s Chrome User Experience Report shows Fastly consistently outperforming Akamai in key real-world performance metrics

• Faster digital experiences drive conversions, boost retention, improve search visibility, and increase revenue

• Even marginal gains in performance translate into higher engagement, stronger loyalty, more conversions, and greater revenue

• Fastly’s products deliver lower latency, higher cache hit rates, and faster delivery than legacy, hardware-bound CDNs.

Executive Summary

Real-world performance data matters when selecting a CDN. Google’s Chrome User Experience Report - an independent, publicly available dataset capturing billions of anonymized user interactions across the web  - provides a transparent view of how CDNs perform where it matters the most: in the hands of real users. 

When analyzing the latest CrUX data, Fastly consistently outperforms Akamai in key metrics, including Time-to-First-Byte, across major global markets. These findings validate what leading online businesses already know: a modern edge platform like Fastly delivers content faster, more reliably, and more consistently than legacy CDN architectures.

The performance advantage is not incremental - it is measurable, repeatable, and significant enough to influence user engagement, search visibility, and conversion outcomes. Fastly’s software-defined edge, intelligent routing, and real-time routing capabilities ensure that content is served closer to users, at higher cache hit rates, and with lower latency - even under peak demand.

For organizations competing on digital experience, the message is clear: choosing a CDN built for speed and agility is a direct investment in growth. And with independent data confirming its leadership over Akamai, Fastly stands out as the platform best equipped to help businesses meet rising user expectations and stay ahead.

Why Performance Matters

Your CDN’s performance isn’t a nice-to-have - it’s mission-critical. It’s a strategic decision with direct business impact. From eCommerce and online streaming to gaming and enterprise platforms, every millisecond matters. Faster sites convert more users, rank higher in search, retain audiences longer, and ultimately generate more revenue.

Performance isn’t just a technical metric - it’s a fundamental driver of business success. As outlined in the Executive Summary, every millisecond has a significant impact on conversions, retention, revenue, and brand reputation. That’s why CDN performance must be treated as a core strategic decision, not a background infrastructure choice. Speed and reliability define market leaders across eCommerce, streaming, gaming, and enterprise platforms.

User expectations have shifted dramatically. They don’t tolerate sluggish load times, buffering, or latency. Instead, they expect instant, uninterrupted access from any device, anywhere. And with global audiences, diverse network conditions, and billions of connected devices shaping how online experiences are delivered, the gap between “good enough” and “best-in-class” performance has never been more consequential. The companies that bridge that divide become the ones customers flock to and stay with. The ones that don’t, lose users - often permanently - to competitors that do.

A Modern CDN: The Foundation of Digital Advantage

A modern CDN is more than just infrastructure - it’s a strategic asset. By caching content at the edge and routing traffic through the fastest, most efficient paths, a next-generation CDN minimizes latency, maximizes reliability, and ensures consistent user experiences, even under peak demand. It’s not about delivering data slightly faster - it’s about enabling faster decision-making, higher engagement, stronger conversion rates, and more predictable growth.

Legacy architectures can’t keep up with this mandate. Platforms such as Fastly are built from the ground up to deliver dynamic, personalized content at scale, closer to users, and with higher cache hit rates and lower latency. That translates directly into business outcomes: more time spent on site, more transactions completed, and stronger long-term customer relationships.

Performance as a Holistic Strategy

Of course, achieving true performance leadership requires more than just a powerful CDN. It demands a holistic approach - one where application design, content, and image optimization, and delivery infrastructure work together to eliminate friction at every layer of the digital experience. But the CDN is the foundation. Without it, even the best-designed platforms will underperform when it matters most: in the hands of real users. 

In a landscape where milliseconds define winners and losers, performance is no longer an IT consideration - it’s a growth strategy. And with independent data confirming that Fastly consistently outperforms Akamai, organizations have a clear path to turning digital speed into a sustained competitive advantage.

Fastly vs. Akamai: Hard Data, Clear Winner - Fastly

When it comes to delivering speed, user experience, and business results on the modern web, the numbers speak for themselves. Google’s July CrUX dataset - the industry’s most trusted source for real-world performance data - shows a decisive leader in both Time-to-First-Byte (TTFB) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). And topping both metrics is one name: Fastly.

Faster From the First Byte - Everywhere It Matters

Speed isn’t a nice-to-have - it’s the foundation of digital success. Across the vast majority of global markets, Fastly outperforms Akamai on TTFB - the critical metric that determines how quickly a site begins to load for every user.

As shown in Figure 3, Fastly consistently delivers lower latency and faster response times worldwide, meaning content reaches users more quickly and experiences start sooner. And in many regions, the difference isn’t just noticeable - it’s significant enough to directly influence engagement, conversion rates, and SEO outcomes.

A Better Experience, Proven by LCP

First impressions matter - and on the web, LCP is that first impression. It measures how quickly the most meaningful part of a page appears for the user. Figure 6 tells a clear story: Fastly outperforms Akamai across the vast majority of regions, helping brands deliver faster, more seamless experiences that keep users engaged and coming back.

From shopping carts to streaming platforms, faster LCP isn’t just a technical edge - it’s a business advantage. And Fastly delivers. At scale.

Not Just Better - Clearly Better

It’s true that neither provider achieved peak performance in a handful of isolated geographies. But the global story is impossible to ignore: Fastly consistently beats Akamai where it matters most. The advantage isn’t theoretical - it’s measurable, repeatable, and validated by real-world data across millions of user sessions.

If performance is a priority, there’s only one choice proven to deliver results at a global scale: Fastly.

Results – Time to First Byte (Google CrUX data)

Figure 1: Fastly

Figure 2: Akamai

Figure 3: Fastly vs. Akamai

Figure 4: Fastly

Figure 5: Akamai

Figure6: Fastly vs. Akamai

How Fastly Achieves Industry-Leading Performance

The July CrUX dataset makes one thing clear: Fastly isn’t just winning on speed and user experience. The platform is winning because of its design. Unlike legacy CDNs that are weighed down by outdated architecture and operational limitations, Fastly was designed from the ground up for the demands of the modern internet. The difference comes down to architecture. Purpose-built for the modern internet, Fastly consistently delivers performance that’s faster, more reliable, and more impactful - everywhere your users are.

Modern Architecture - Built for Speed

Traditional CDNs were designed in an era when the internet looked very different. They’re built on hardware-heavy, centralized infrastructure that, for a while, has struggled to keep up with dynamic digital experiences. Fastly takes a completely different approach.

At its core is a software-defined edge. A modern, flexible architecture purpose-built to eliminate the bottlenecks that slow down legacy systems. That means faster delivery, more consistent performance, and the agility to scale without compromise.

Smarter Edge Network - Close to the User, Every Time

Performance starts with proximity. Fastly’s edge network is strategically placed and intelligently routed to keep content as close to users as possible. This reduces latency, improves cache hit ratios, and ensures that the data users need is served from the optimal location - often just milliseconds away.

The result is a network that isn’t just faster on paper - it’s faster where it matters: in the real world, across the vast majority of global markets.

Real-Time Control - Agility That Legacy CDNs Can’t Match

Speed isn’t just about the network. It’s about how quickly you can respond. With Fastly, developers have real-time control over their delivery environment - pushing changes instantly, optimizing configurations on the fly, and monitoring performance as it happens.

That agility means you’re never waiting on long update cycles or outdated processes. Your site stays fast, responsive, and optimized - no matter how quickly user needs or business priorities change.

Embedded Edge Innovation - Speed Where It Matters Most

Fastly takes edge performance a step further by embedding capabilities directly into ISP networks. By serving content closer to the source of demand, Fastly removes unnecessary hops and delays, delivering an even faster and more efficient user experience.

This innovation gives Fastly a structural advantage that traditional, centralized CDNs simply can’t replicate - and it shows up clearly in independent benchmarks like CrUX.

Proven Results, Built In

These aren’t incremental improvements. They’re the fundamental reasons why Fastly consistently outperforms Akamai and other legacy providers in real-world metrics, such as TTFB and LCP. From architecture and edge intelligence to real-time control and embedded innovation, every part of Fastly’s platform is engineered for speed.

The outcome is clear: improved performance, enhanced user experiences, and stronger business results - all validated on a global scale.

The Business Impact of Performance:
Turning Speed Into Competitive Advantage

Performance must be part of your growth strategy. Every millisecond matters in terms of engagement, conversion, retention, and revenue. Companies that treat performance as a strategic priority consistently outperform those that don’t - because speed drives business outcomes at every stage of the customer journey.

Speed Drives Revenue, Slowness Destroys It

Performance is directly tied to business success. Even small delays in page load times can result in double-digit declines in conversions, lost ad impressions, higher churn, and abandoned carts. In eCommerce, streaming, and gaming alike, customers don’t wait - they switch.

Fastly delivers measurable business impact. Sites delivered over Fastly consistently load faster across most global markets - not by milliseconds, but by margins that directly translate into higher engagement, more transactions, and stronger revenue streams.

Performance Builds Loyalty and Brand Equity

Speed isn’t just about first impressions - it’s about lasting ones. A frictionless digital experience builds trust, loyalty, and long-term customer value. Conversely, slow or inconsistent performance damages brand credibility and drives users to competitors.

With Fastly, organizations deliver consistently reliable, high-performance experiences even under peak demand - strengthening retention and safeguarding brand reputation.

Future-Ready Infrastructure

User expectations are rising, applications are becoming more complex, and global audiences are expanding. Legacy CDNs built for a different era can’t keep up. Fastly’s software-defined edge, real-time control, and embedded network intelligence ensure your delivery infrastructure scales with your business - without compromise.

The Competitive Divide

Market leaders increasingly separate themselves from competitors by how fast, reliable, and seamless their digital experiences are. Fastly helps organizations close that gap - and stay ahead - by turning speed into market share, performance into revenue, and milliseconds into measurable advantage.

Conclusion / Next Steps

The Chrome User Experience Report makes it clear: Fastly’s modern edge architecture delivers faster and more consistent performance than Akamai in most global markets.

When speed is strategy, a modern, responsive CDN isn’t a back-end choice - it’s a front-line competitive weapon. With performance validated by independent data and a platform purpose-built for the demands of today and tomorrow, Fastly turns milliseconds into market share.

For organizations that want to grow faster, compete harder, and deliver better, the path forward is clear: choose a CDN that doesn’t just keep up - choose one that leads.