Banana vs Fastly Compute@Edge
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Banana and Fastly Compute@Edge.
Quick Verdict
1.2/5
Banana
0 reviews
3.8/5
Fastly Compute@Edge
0 reviews
Fastly Compute@Edge is rated higher (3.8 vs 1.2). Banana was an ML inference hosting platform (Docker-based, Potassium framework). The service shut down permanently on March 31, 2024; do not purchase. Alternatives: Replicate, Modal, RunPod, Beam, Baseten. Fastly Compute@Edge runs WebAssembly serverless functions at Fastly's edge PoPs globally. Ultra-low latency, near-instant startup, and support for Rust, JavaScript, Go, and other WASM-compiled languages.
Banana DEFUNCT — serverless GPU inference platform sunset Feb 2024, shut down March 31, 2024 |  Fastly Compute@Edge Serverless on Fastly's programmable CDN edge | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 1.2 (0 reviews) | 3.8 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | usage-based (historical; shut down 2024-03-31) | freemium |
| Starting price | From $2024/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Nobody — the platform shut down on March 31, 2024. Use Replicate, Modal, RunPod, Beam, or Baseten for serverless GPU inference. | Latency-sensitive edge logic — personalization, auth, routing, API gateways, streaming — especially for teams already on Fastly's CDN or requiring per-request sandbox isolation |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | 100+ city-level PoPs across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia/NZ |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | gpu availableus datacenterapi access | free tierapi accesseu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter |
| Visit Banana → | Visit Fastly Compute@Edge → | |
Banana
Pros
- + Historical: developer-friendly Docker/Potassium deployment with scale-to-zero GPU autoscaling
- + Historical: per-second GPU billing with no charge while idle
- + Historical: warm pools and model caching reduced cold starts for popular models
- + The founder published an unusually candid shutdown account and migration guidance
Cons
- - Permanently shut down on March 31, 2024 — the service cannot be purchased or used
- - Pricing was opaque even while alive ($1,200/month Team tier, per-GPU costs unpublished)
- - No published uptime SLA and no independent benchmarks
- - Startup platform risk realized: GPU economics forced closure within two months' notice
- - Third-party listings of its pricing and features conflict and cannot be verified against a live product
Fastly Compute@Edge
Pros
- + Per-request WebAssembly sandboxes with very fast startup — effectively no cold starts
- + Generous free allowances: 10 million requests and 100 million vCPU-milliseconds free every month
- + Billing by requests and vCPU only (duration meter removed for new purchases) rewards efficient code
- + Runs globally on Fastly's 100+ PoP network with HTTP/3, IPv6 and DDoS mitigation included
- + Official SDKs for Rust, JavaScript, Go and C++, plus KV Store, Secret Store, Object Store and Fanout
Cons
- - WASM compilation and capability-based sandboxing add real tooling friction versus mainstream serverless
- - Free-trial state on first deploy, account-type-dependent limits, and two legacy pricing regimes complicate planning
- - Edge state stores use Fastly-specific APIs — no S3-compatible or Redis-compatible interface
- - Outside the official SDK languages, you are a pioneer; long-running workloads do not fit
- - Production use pushes toward a sales conversation rather than pure self-serve
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