Skip to content

Fastly vs Pantheon

Based on 380 and 77 real audits

MetricFastlyPantheonWinner
Performance4641Fastly
Accessibility9191Tie
Best Practices8986Fastly
SEO9292Tie
Security6665Fastly
TTFB148ms179msFastly
Composite7474Tie
Performance
Fastly
46
Pantheon
41
Accessibility
Fastly
91
Pantheon
91
Security
Fastly
66
Pantheon
65
SEO
Fastly
92
Pantheon
92
Composite
Fastly
74
Pantheon
74

Fastly outperforms Pantheon in 4 of 7 categories, with a stronger composite score (74 vs 74). Pantheon leads in no categories.

When to choose Fastly

Choose Fastly when your primary concern is server response time and performance. Its audit data shows consistent strength in these areas across the sampled sites.

When to choose Pantheon

Pantheon doesn't clearly lead Fastly in any category on the sampled sites — pick it based on developer experience, ecosystem, or existing team skills rather than the audit scores.

How this comparison was built

Scores are medians across 380 audited Fastly sites and 77 audited Pantheon sites in the BeaverCheck database. Every audit runs the same 100+ checks — Lighthouse performance, security headers, accessibility, SEO, server response time — against a real URL. No vendor input, no sponsorship, no affiliate links. Read the full methodology →

FAQ

Which is faster, Fastly or Pantheon?
Based on real BeaverCheck audits, Fastly sites score higher on Lighthouse performance (46 vs 41 on average).
Which has better security, Fastly or Pantheon?
Fastly sites score higher on security analysis (66 vs 65 on average).
Which has better accessibility, Fastly or Pantheon?
Accessibility scores measured by Lighthouse WCAG 2.1 checks favor Fastly (91 vs 91). Both technologies can be made fully accessible with care — the difference reflects common patterns in the sampled sites, not inherent platform limits.
Which is better for SEO, Fastly or Pantheon?
Fastly sites score higher on Lighthouse SEO signals (92 vs 92 on average), which cover meta tags, crawlability, mobile friendliness, and structured data. Content strategy and backlinks still matter more than platform choice for ranking.
Which has faster server response (TTFB), Fastly or Pantheon?
Fastly sites show lower Time to First Byte (148 ms vs 179 ms on average). TTFB depends heavily on hosting and CDN setup rather than the technology itself, but the sampled sites suggest a meaningful difference in common deployment patterns.
Should I choose Fastly or Pantheon for my website?
Both platforms have trade-offs. Fastly scores higher on overall composite score while Fastly may excel in metrics you care about most. Run a free BeaverCheck audit on a real site using each to compare the metrics relevant to your use case.

Send Feedback