Akamai App and API Protector vs Fortinet FortiWeb comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai App and API Protector
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection (3rd), Cloud and Data Center Security (10th)
Fortinet FortiWeb
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Anoop Mohan - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 4, 2023
Amazing stability, timely support, and helpful for getting clean traffic
I have given them a couple of suggestions through email. One thing I asked them is to integrate the API discovery product that they have and push that data into Akamai App and API Protector so that we do not have two types of reviews to identify the type of traffic. We already know the APIs that are frequently getting used, so analysis becomes easier. We can integrate both products and use them. Another request was to be able to segregate traffic for different app versions. A few of the APIs are already out in the market and are built into the applications. We cannot go and change those applications. Those applications are still being consumed, so we need a different strategy for those applications, whereas modern new applications are built using a different design. We have quite a lot of versions deployed since 2008, so designs are very different, and applying the rate limit for each API has its own challenges. Its pricing can be slightly better.
RE
Feb 13, 2023
A cost-effective solution with good pricing and good analytics and filtering capabilities
Their documentation is fairly complete, but it's sometimes a little bit difficult to search for exactly what you're looking for to resolve an issue. There have been times when we've gone to try to search for areas that we needed to get information on, and it has not always been extremely clear exactly how a particular thing needs to be set up. It sometimes takes a little bit of research to dig into figuring out exactly what it is. More examples would be helpful on what they have. The information sometimes doesn't relate directly to the state of the product at the time, so examples would be helpful.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution can scale extremely well."
"We are getting security for each and every API."
"Everything will be handled by Akamai's system before it reaches our infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature is the DDoS protection, which is the main reason we got it."
"The features are powerful and better than F5."
"Adaptive stream delivery and WAF protection are valuable."
"The support that we got from their technical team has been fantastic. I have never experienced this level of support from other CDN providers."
"I like that the charges are all based on usage and labor costs. For the time that we spend onboarding almost 252020 FQDN, Akamai charges us only for the traffic usage, but it's only charging us for the labor costs for onboarding."
"The solution has a very simple deployment."
"The ease of configuration is valuable. We have Azure WAF, we have OCI WAF, and we also have Cloud Armor for GCP, but their configuration isn't very easy. It's pretty simple in FortiWeb, and we can enable or configure whatever we want."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"Auto Learn feature: Makes policy additions or deletions for my customers very simple​"
"FortiWeb offers machine learning in the latest product. This fixed many problems. There are no false negatives."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiWeb is the ease of integration and configuration."
"It's the extra security that is the most valuable feature. You have insight into your traffic. There are some great insights into what utilities hackers are trying to exploit. It blocks a lot of stuff from the internet."
"The GUI makes it easy to scale in terms of learning and utilization."
 

Cons

"One area where Akamai can improve is the captcha part. Cloudflare provides a captcha if there are a certain number of threats. For example, I can assign that if there are 10 requests within a second from a single IP, it should send a captcha to the user. The user should fill in the captcha, and only after that, the user should be able to access our website. This captcha feature should be built into Bot Manager. I love this captcha feature of Cloudflare."
"The custom rules must be improved."
"If we talk about application layer attacks, including WAF, CloudFlare is leading. Akamai can focus a bit more on the application layer attacks and how to protect them."
"The solution could offer even more integrations."
"Could integrate more features for each security."
"A lot of piracy happens in India and other countries. If there is a product for protection from piracy, it would be great. For example, there are multiple hackers that hack your event, and there are some channels that pirate and publish the event on some other website. We protect our streaming through DRM and different technologies. We are also protecting the website, but hacking is still happening. If they can work on protecting from piracy, it would be great."
"The WAF features definitely have a lot of room for improvement. A lot of the WAF is really basic. For some products or some of our solutions, we need to run a second layer of more advanced WAF. If it had better layer seven protection then we would not need a second WAF."
"It would be nice if Akamai Web Application Protector's price is lowered and made cheaper."
"The dashboards are not that configurable. Application-specific dashboards can be improved. If we have 50 applications, there should be something to see what's happening with these 50 applications. There could be a graph or a consolidated alert page where all alerts are inbuilt. They have other products that I can use, but this feature should be built into FortiWeb."
"I would like to have an antivirus option."
"Centralized configuration using FortiManager – like what exists for NGFW FortiGate appliances - would improve the configuration."
"I know that we have run into some issues with an SSL certificate and how it functions. Sometimes this breaks connectivity or just limits certain websites that are whitelisted."
"The automation piece can be improved. Although they say it can be automated very well, there is still manual work. Its usability should be improved in terms of automation because we want to build an infrastructure with code, but you can't do that easily with this solution. If they can give us APIs in the firewalls that we can tap into, it would be perfect."
"HA Architecture needs improvement. I would improve it by working on AP HA."
"The initial setup is complex."
"Integration and learning about attacks. I would improve these areas by making FortiWeb integrate with other network technologies and feedback from multiple platforms."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is slightly high. Every company has a justification for the high price. Overall, it feels worth the money based on how the service has been structured, but we do negotiate it."
"The solution is not expensive."
"Price-wise, I would say Akamai's pricing is competitive."
"The product’s price is high."
"The product is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."
"Cost depends on the volume of traffic."
"Akamai is very expensive."
"The price is competitive."
"FortiWeb offers these services at a price that SME customers can afford, but it's also suitable for large enterprises. Still, they need to put in more work to gain a greater share of enterprise business because they face stiff competition in this segment from F5, Cloudflare, and some others."
"Keep a loose margin between your actual bandwidth and the product sizing when using hardware appliances. Only virtual machines are upgradable to larger sizes."
"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"​The pricing is reasonable."
"We are on an annual license for this solution and the price is approximately €100."
"The solution is very inexpensive when compared to F5 Advanced WAF and Avi Networks but offers the same benefits."
"The license cost depends on the size of the box or the size of the solution. It can go from €200 Euros to a few hundred thousand Euros a year depending on your size."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.
787,779 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Educational Organization
39%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?
The custom rules must be improved. If we have a domain to be monitored, we can use the solution to alert us if a certain specification is met. If we need only 20,000 transactions, but there are 40,...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiWeb?
The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiWeb?
The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a five out of ten. It feels like a justified cost for the features, but it might get more expensive in the future. Also, keep in mind that Che...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiWeb?
I'd like more customization. I'm not sure if everyone would agree, as it might add complexity. But for advanced users, it would be really useful to have access and the ability to manipulate packets...
 

Also Known As

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet
Lush, Barnabas Health, Options, Riverside Healthcare, Hillsbourough County Schools, Columbia Public Schools, Schiller AG
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fortinet FortiWeb and other solutions. Updated: June 2024.
787,779 professionals have used our research since 2012.