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Akamai API Security vs F5 Distributed Cloud Services comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Akamai API Security
Ranking in API Security
1st
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
F5 Distributed Cloud Services
Ranking in API Security
6th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
CDN (10th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the API Security category, the mindshare of Akamai API Security is 11.4%, down from 22.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 Distributed Cloud Services is 5.5%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Akamai API Security11.4%
F5 Distributed Cloud Services5.5%
Other83.1%
API Security
 

Featured Reviews

WB
Arquiteto at C.Vale - Cooperativa Agroindustrial
Uses bot detection and browser inspection features to fine-tune access policies effectively
I enabled the anomaly detection to understand the solution better. I configured the policies and created exclusions for some bots. For example, when I read and inspected the user agent data, I found that the Axion bot request was blocked by the browser inspector. In this case, I created an exclusion for the user agent Axion. I enabled the anomaly detection to study and understand the solution.
FM
IT Analyst at Atlas.cz, a.s.
Protects web applications with comprehensive security features
All features are valuable. In a multi-cloud or distributed cloud, there are many protection possibilities from data to web application or API protection, including bot mitigation. This is a comprehensive package for web application security. The main benefit is Web App Security, offering a complete security package from DDoS to web application firewall, API protection, and bot mitigation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its integration with API gateways, WAP and with part of their SDLC."
"Akamai API Security has made a positive difference for our organization by improving our security posture and saving our team time, as we can actually prioritize tasks unless there are some false positives, but it is definitely saving a lot of time."
"The API part is effective."
"API throttling is the most valuable feature of Akamai API Security."
"The support from Akamai API Security is good, the employment and support are of excellent quality."
"The main benefit is Web App Security, offering a complete security package from DDoS to web application firewall, API protection, and bot mitigation."
"In a multi-cloud or distributed cloud, there are many protection possibilities from data to web application or API protection, including bot mitigation."
"F5 is known for being the best load balancer in the market. Customers with an existing module can easily adopt additional modules without investing in new hardware."
 

Cons

"More features would be beneficial."
"The challenge I found was with contextualization and how analytics are generated."
"I think it would be good if they can integrate more with API gateways as this is currently limited."
"It would be beneficial to use machine learning and API throttling together to identify how the APIs are called and whether it's coming from the right person or the wrong person."
"The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF."
"The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF. There are some problems, mainly from the perspective of implementation and customer expectations, which sometimes differ from reality."
"The pricing could be adjusted to better meet the needs of typical customers in regions like Poland, where the product is considered too expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a limit to the number of APIs we can use inside a bundle, and we have to pay extra if we exceed that limit."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai API Security?
It is not expensive. It is practical to use and represents an excellent solution.
What is your primary use case for Akamai API Security?
I use Akamai API Security. I downloaded a report comparing WAF Akamai and WAF Azure to understand the real differences. I studied the solution to comprehend how it detects bots. For example, with A...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Distributed Cloud Services?
I am not involved in sales, so I do not deal with the pricing aspect directly. I give the cost of the solution a four out of ten since it is not a cheap product.
What needs improvement with F5 Distributed Cloud Services?
It's a long way to be perfect, of course, as with all solutions. The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF. There are some problems, mainly from the pers...
What is your primary use case for F5 Distributed Cloud Services?
There are two main use cases for Distributed Call Services: DDoS or Distributed attacks protection and WAF web application security or firewall.
 

Also Known As

Noname Security
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai API Security vs. F5 Distributed Cloud Services and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.