Akamai App and API Protector vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation comparison

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Download the complete report

Helped 863,331 peers since 2012

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 App and API Protector

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (4th)

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (11th), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (4th), Microsegmentation Software (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is 23.9%, up from 22.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud and Data Center Security

Featured Reviews

Deepesh Singh

Senior Engineering Manager Cybersecurity at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Bot Manager and different features to manage threats

As a product, it has good capabilities, including professional support. However, it's risky for us to rely on AI for real-time traffic management. We use in-house analytics but avoid automatic actions due to their high impact. For example, I live in a developing country. Everyone has different types of phones, apps, and everything else. So, if someone is using a legacy phone, that is still a use case here. If AI decides that this is an end-of-life phone or end-of-life Android operating system, it starts blocking that traffic. We may potentially lose millions or probably thousands and hundreds of thousands of hits per second. Everything is all about how well we serve payments because we're into payments. So, AI is used for analytics but not for real-time decisions. We can't afford to block traffic based on AI models due to the variety of devices and operating systems our users have.

Read full review

KlavsThaarup

Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense

Offers micro segmentation capabilities and easy to setup

It's micro-segmentation The label-based segmentation is the most valuable feature. There are always areas for improvement. It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud. So that could be improved. In future releases, I would like to see more integration with other…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Akamai Web Application Protector is a good solution that provides basic web application protection."

"It is scalable for DDoS."

"It gives us a report of traffic. It gives us a report of the day-to-day URL traffic, and it also gives an individual report. If we reach out to Akamai, they give us the IPs as well."

"The features are powerful and better than F5."

"The solution easily identifies, delays, or allows business traffic."

"It enables us to move faster with new products because we have this layer of protection set up in our infrastructure."

"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 can scale extremely well."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"This tool greatly helps in understanding the footprint of the attacks."

"The real bonus is the fact that we can secure applications, all the way down to the individual services, on each host. It's actually more granular security than we can get out of a traditional firewall."

"Application Ring-Fencing and Deception Server, which is basically like a honeypot, are pretty useful features."

"Guardicore makes its own rule set automatically, so we can work fast when creating a rule set."

"We like the centralized management of the firewalls. Until we installed Guardicore Centra, we managed all our firewalls individually, so making changes was complicated, difficult, and time-consuming."

"The most valuable feature is the visibility of processes and connections."

"The solution is very scalable, especially when connected to the cloud resources."

"The interface and dashboard are amazing."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pros

Cons

"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."

"It would be nice if Akamai Web Application Protector's price is lowered and made cheaper."

"Could integrate more features for each security."

"The product should provide a secure NTP."

"The pricing could be reduced a bit."

"They are already very flexible, but room for improvement is there. Reports generation could be better and should be improved."

"The interface is a little bit clunky and can be improved."

"Akamai App and API Protector is very new to me, so I do not have any insights on improvement areas for the product. However, when we ask for some help, it can take some time. We understand that the job is done by professionals, but if that time can be reduced, it would be great."

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"In our version, when using the terminal server, we cannot exclude user tasks for each session."

"I would rate the stability a six out of ten, where one is low and ten is high stability."

"Kubernetes is not installed in the way we need it."

"It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud."

"The product needs a few features like enhanced user policies and payload-level inspection to improve the offering."

"Customers would want to see the cost improved."

"Needs more customization of honeypots and a vaster catalog of systems able to be mimicked."

"The long-term management of the security policies could be improved with some kind of automation platform, something like Chef or Puppet or Ansible, to help you manage the policies after day-one... to then manage the policies and changes to those policies, going forward, through some type of automation process is not turning out to be really easy."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cost depends on the volume of traffic."

"Price-wise, I would say Akamai's pricing is competitive."

"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 price they are offering is quite reasonable for premium customers, but it's very expensive if you're a small and medium-sized enterprises."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."

"The product’s price is high."

"If you want quality, you have to pay the price. Its price is fair. Their account managers are also very helpful. They help you a lot with pricing even though they are working with Akamai."

"The solution is not expensive."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"This is not a cheap solution but you have to consider the bigger picture, which is what it is giving you."

"The customer would complain about the cost."

"Compared to the pricing we were seeing from both Illumio and Edgewise, Guardicore was very competitive."

"GuardiCore has made some new changes to the license now. We've seen monthly and annual licenses based on a subscription. We have a few clients that pay anywhere from $25,000 a year."

"The solution is reasonably priced and I would rate it a six out of ten. The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"Guardicore Centra provides better value for money than NSX, was the other solution that we looked at, which was too expensive for what it does."

"The pricing is too high."

"Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is expensive."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud and Data Center Security solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

863,331 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai Web Application Protector?

The product is user-friendly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai Web Application Protector?

The price is higher than others. It could be about 80% to 70% more expensive than other tools. So, it’s not just a slight difference.

What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?

It could have better analytics and reporting visibility in the OEM console.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Guardicore Centra?

I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. I know other micro-segmentation tools like Cisco or Illumio, and so I think they are in the middle.

What do you like most about Guardicore Infection Monkey?

Initially, I liked the telemetry part. But later, we used the microsegmentation features that we were able to deploy and found that they really stood out from other vendors. It allows us to see mi...

What needs improvement with Guardicore Infection Monkey?

When we have more than one interface, we can only have one policy for both interfaces. Normally, you have assets with a production interface and a server interface that are only for management. But...

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Akamai App and API Protector

Comparisons

Compared 11% of the time

AWS WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 10% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudflare vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 8% of the time

Prolexic vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 7% of the time

More Akamai App and API Protector Competitors

Illumio vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 44% of the time

VMware NSX vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco ACI vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 3% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 3% of the time

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation Competitors

Product Reports

Akamai App and API Protector

Download Akamai App and API Protector product report

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Download Akamai Guardicore Segmentation product report

Also Known As

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender

Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore

Overview

Akamai App and API Protector provides website security by preventing DDoS attacks, acting as an application firewall, managing content delivery, and monitoring APIs. It adapts to threat profiles and is used for fast media delivery and identifying malicious activities.

Akamai App and API Protector offers strong protection, adaptable security features, and efficient traffic management. Its WAF blocks IP addresses and country-specific threats while preventing SQL injections. Companies utilize it for scalable CDN services and comprehensive traffic analysis. Known for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly dashboard, this protector stands out for its customizable rules and technical support. Users also highlight the ease of integration and detailed attack insights available through its advanced dashboard.

What are the key features of Akamai App and API Protector?

DDoS Protection: Strong defense against Distributed Denial of Service attacks.
Scalable CDN: Manages content delivery efficiently under high traffic loads.
WAF Capabilities: Blocks specific IPs and countries, prevents SQL injections.
Traffic Filtering: Analyzes and controls incoming requests to maintain security.
Adaptive Stream Delivery: Adjusts content delivery to meet bandwidth needs.

What benefits should users expect?

Cost-Effectiveness: Provides robust security tools at a competitive price.
Enhanced Security: Comprehensive protection against cyber threats.
Scalability: Easily handles increasing traffic and data loads.
Ease of Integration: Simple integration with existing systems.
Insightful Analytics: Offers data-driven insights into traffic and attack patterns.

In media, Akamai App and API Protector ensures smooth streaming by handling high bandwidth demands. E-commerce companies use it to guard against fraud and data breaches. Financial sectors rely on its ability to protect sensitive transactions. Implementations in healthcare focus on safeguarding patient data while maintaining compliance with regulations.

Akamai

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is a software-based microsegmentation solution that provides the simplest, fastest, and most intuitive way to enforce Zero Trust principles. It enables you to prevent malicious lateral movement in your network through precise segmentation policies, visuals of activity within your IT environment, and network security alerts. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation works across your data centers, multicloud environments, and endpoints. It is faster to deploy than infrastructure segmentation approaches and provides you with unparalleled visibility and control of your network.

Akamai

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

Santander, Frontier Airlines, OpenLink, Intermountain Healthcare, Cellcom, BancoBASE

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation