

F5 Distributed Cloud Services and Akamai API Security are competing in the cloud and API protection category. Akamai API Security has an edge with advanced features and robust API security, while F5 Distributed Cloud Services is preferred for pricing strategies and customer support.
Features: F5 Distributed Cloud Services offers extensive cloud networking, ease of integration, and efficient management tools. Akamai API Security features superior API protection, threat detection technologies, and comprehensive security insights.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Akamai API Security has a structured deployment process with flexible configuration and comprehensive documentation. F5 Distributed Cloud Services ensures streamlined setup and emphasizes customer service support.
Pricing and ROI: F5 Distributed Cloud Services is known for competitive pricing and delivering solid ROI through effective cloud service management. Akamai API Security is costlier but offers high-level security outcomes with potential for long-term value, focusing on premium security investment.
Getting everything from one single portal without anyone's interference saved us a lot of money, time, and frustration.
Akamai API Security is preventing multiple issues, and the organization is doing well with Akamai API Security profits, which is good.
I have seen a return on investment, and the main thing is the time saved, allowing our employees to focus on other priority work.
I would estimate the cost was reduced by approximately 30 percent in the first year.
There is definitely a return on investment in F5 Distributed Cloud Services.
I do find F5 Distributed Cloud Services to be cost-effective, as it brings benefits and a strong return on investment.
Sometimes they inform about changes, and sometimes they do not, which impacts clients as a P1 or P2 incident.
The technical support from Akamai API Security is responsive when I have dealt with them.
The team was responsive and technically knowledgeable.
There is a lot of support from F5 Distributed Cloud Services and the knowledge on the page is very good and reliable.
I would provide 9.5 for support.
Email services are good, but they need to have a good human-based interaction with the call centers.
I have also seen it handle spikes in API traffic, especially during peak usage periods without any performance degradation.
The scalability of Akamai API Security is very appropriate for the architecture given that it is a SaaS application, so it adapts well to any infrastructure.
I need the traffic management environments in distributed management, which have a very good goal to manage very difficult traffic in the world.
My experience has been good, and it is an excellent WAF solution.
I won't face any issues with stability as a concern because it provides the load balancers and all redundancy, so it's very unlikely that we have any downtime.
I believe Akamai API Security could be improved specifically in the integrations so that they can be executed more effectively with platforms such as a SIEM or SOAR, which would help me automate workflows for incident response.
From a pricing standpoint, licensing and pricing depend from module to module. Some modules are expensive, and some are affordable.
If Akamai API Security could provide many more security options and make it more transparent to users about exactly what is happening, that would be beneficial.
The main issue is integration with other parts or products of F5, like on-premise WAF.
For availability, they have added additional clusters across all the regional edges in the Kubernetes clusters to enhance availability.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services doesn't have something like that. That is the reason why CloudFlare remains a leader in that space for small customers and those who have just started or are startups.
It is not expensive.
Akamai API Security is not expensive.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services is affordable.
I believe the prices are much higher than I expected, but for the time being, the customer is still paying.
This gave us an overall picture of how many APIs we are using across our organization, and now we are more cautious about which APIs should be used publicly and how we secure our APIs.
That improvement in visibility and risk posture has translated into concrete benefits for my organization, as I can now proactively identify risky endpoints and apply protection policies, which improves overall security and reduces response times to incidents.
Before an attack goes live, we detect it on the WAF itself, which is the outer layer of security. We detect it and block it.
The main benefit is Web App Security, offering a complete security package from DDoS to web application firewall, API protection, and bot mitigation.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services is the market leader in load balancers and manages traffic really well.
Malicious user mitigation is an AI/ML-based technology that was introduced by the F5 team, and this particular MUG protects rate limiting.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Akamai API Security | 5.9% |
| F5 Distributed Cloud Services | 3.8% |
| Other | 90.3% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 5 |
| Large Enterprise | 8 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 5 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 8 |
Akamai API Security offers a comprehensive set of features designed to improve API security posture, including automated API discovery and anomaly detection, ensuring robust data protection and minimized response times.
Focused on safeguarding public-facing APIs, Akamai API Security provides full visibility into undocumented APIs and detects abnormal traffic patterns, minimizing unauthorized access and data exposure. Integration with tools like Bot Manager Premier and DDoS protection allows for enhanced security, making it effective in banking and financial sectors for handling sensitive data. Despite its strengths, there are areas for enhancement, such as policy tuning and integration with third-party tools. Users also seek simplified setup, AI-driven policy recommendations, and effective dashboards.
What are the key features of Akamai API Security?In industries like banking and finance, Akamai API Security effectively monitors sensitive customer data transmissions, enforcing rate limits and validating API schemas. It plays a crucial role in detecting credential abuse and excessive data requests, ensuring secure and legitimate access while enhancing API performance.
F5 Distributed Cloud Services excel in enhancing security, optimizing web application delivery, and ensuring robust network performance. Users value its integrated Web Application Firewall, DDoS protection, global server load balancing, and intuitive management interface. It boosts organizational efficiency, reduces operational costs, and scales seamlessly, making it essential for businesses operating in distributed environments.
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