Four years after "edge functions" became a buzzword, the category is mature. Four serious players, four philosophies. Where we are in 2026.
Cloudflare Workers
Market leader. 320+ global PoPs, predictable pricing ($5/mo up to 10M req), V8 isolates with near-zero cold start. Wins at: global latency, sudden scalability, integration with edge storage (R2, KV, D1). Limit: not 100% Node-compatible, some libraries don't work.
Vercel Edge
Most convenient for Next.js. Build edge wherever it makes sense, automatic Node fallback. Wins at: DX integrated with Next.js, frictionless deploy. Limit: pricing growing fast, moderate lock-in.
Deno Deploy
Stable and mature for 2 years. TypeScript-first, Web Standard APIs everywhere. Wins at: developer experience, out-of-the-box security. Limit: Node-style ecosystem still marginal, smaller hosting footprint.
Bun Deploy
Launched in beta in late 2025. Aiming to be the "cloud for Bun" with extreme performance. Wins at: execution speed on compute-heavy loads. Limit: still young, limited global coverage.
Our matrix
| Case | Pick |
|---|---|
| Next.js app already on Vercel | Vercel Edge |
| Global workload, latency-first | Cloudflare Workers |
| Edge API with global SQLite | Cloudflare Workers + D1 |
| Pure TypeScript apps, no Next.js | Deno Deploy |
| Bun microservices with in-memory state | Bun Deploy |
What NOT to do in 2026
Don't move a monolithic app to edge just because it's "modern". Edge wins when: global latency matters, requests are many and short, state is small. It loses when: an app reads heavily from a central database (queries cross the ocean), user sessions are heavy, loads are CPU-bound.
Frequent mistake
Putting edge functions in front of a central EU Postgres. Result: worse latency than a well-positioned traditional Node. Rule: edge is right when state is also edge.