Which bot platform fits your traffic?
Consider Peakhour when you want to review browser, network, proxy and request behaviour together, then set actions for login, checkout and API routes. Its bot management links those signals to allow, log, challenge, rate-limit and block decisions.
Fastly offers bot inspection within its delivery services. Staying with Fastly can make sense when your team already runs those services and its bot controls meet your needs. Start by checking where your chosen inspection mode runs.
What do Fastly's inspection modes cover?
Fastly documents two options. Pre-cache inspection, called ContentGuard, checks requests before the cache and covers cached and uncached resources. Post-cache inspection checks cache misses going to the origin. Pre-cache inspection requires Bot Management; post-cache inspection also requires Next-Gen WAF in its Edge WAF deployment. Fastly says the Essential WAF platform does not support Bot Management. These details come from its Bot Management deployment guide.
For a public catalogue, test cached pages as well as search and checkout. For an API, test the calls that reach the origin. Ask Fastly to confirm the features and inspection mode in your proposed package.
How does Peakhour handle the same decision?
Peakhour's bot product describes request decisions using browser and network fingerprints, proxy signals, route context and request rates. Browser details help explain requests when the client supplies them. Evaluate direct API clients separately.
Peakhour also documents rate-limit zones keyed by IP, cookie, header, TLS fingerprint or HTTP/2 fingerprint. Teams can count failed responses and apply a limit on later requests. This gives you concrete ways to test abuse that spreads across IP addresses. Check how a shared fingerprint groups legitimate clients before enforcing a limit.
If you want bot controls and WAF policy reviewed together, include Peakhour WAAP in the trial. Its product documentation describes WAF findings, bot signals, rate controls and decision logs in one request policy.
Can you keep Fastly for delivery?
Peakhour documents an existing-edge deployment option that includes Fastly. Confirm the supported integration, available signals, enforcement point and log flow for your service during design. Choose who owns each rule and how the team will roll it back.
Keeping Fastly alone may suit a team whose current inspection coverage, dashboards and operating process already handle its bot traffic. An evaluation should establish a clear benefit before adding another policy service.
What should you check before choosing?
- Can the trial inspect cached content, cache misses and direct API traffic on the paths you need?
- Can you give login, product search and checkout different actions and rate limits?
- Can operators see why a request received an action and find the related origin response?
- Do search crawlers, payment callbacks and partner clients still complete their tasks?
- Who reviews a disputed block, and which support channels does the contract include?
Peakhour's support guide lists tickets and chat, with emergency phone and team-chat access tied to plan. Agree on the support scope before purchase.
How should you evaluate or migrate?
- Save current Fastly settings and collect a baseline for bot traffic, completed logins and successful checkouts.
- Choose one affected route. Show where each service checks requests, before or after the cache, and where it can block them.
- Start with logging for the proposed policy. Review examples of abuse and legitimate requests together.
- Enable one action at a time. Track missed abuse, valid requests blocked and challenge completion.
- Expand only after the route owner signs off. Keep a tested rollback and remove duplicate rules as ownership moves.
Contact sales with your traffic path, affected routes and example request IDs to scope a Peakhour evaluation.
Official sources
Checked 6 November 2026: Fastly Bot Management. Peakhour product and support sources are linked beside the relevant claims.