Akamai App and API Protector vs Fastly comparison

Akamai App and API Protector

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100% willing to recommend

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Fastly and Akamai App and API Protector both operate in the competitive landscape of content delivery and security solutions. Akamai often emerges superior due to its advanced features, even though Fastly is praised for attractive pricing and robust support.

Features: Fastly offers real-time visibility, instant configuration updates, and a flexible edge cloud platform. Akamai provides a comprehensive web application firewall, threat intelligence, and automated security responses.

Room for Improvement: Fastly could enhance its scalability and DDoS protection features. Akamai could streamline its configuration interface and reduce setup complexity. Fastly's rate limiting and visibility tools need refinement for better handling of high traffic spikes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fastly provides straightforward deployment with comprehensive documentation and an engaged support team. Akamai involves a more complex setup process but offers thorough onboarding and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Fastly offers competitive pricing models with impressive ROI. Akamai typically involves higher setup costs but delivers significant long-term value with its exhaustive security offerings.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fastly Report (Updated: June 2025).

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fastly

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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 Web Application Firewall (WAF)

8th

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud and Data Center Security (10th)

Fastly

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

18th

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

12th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CDN (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 3.7%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fastly is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

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.

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Nick Wilsdon

CEO at Torque

An easily scalable and stable product that provides exceptional support

The product should provide improved bot detection and management. The product should also provide support for code management. Everybody working in CDN is currently looking for ways to better manage code deployment with various authorization levels and synchronization with our lower environments. Matching up what's happening in CDN with what's happening on the origin regarding testing would always be useful.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are getting security for each and every API."

"It is scalable for DDoS."

"The dashboard is the most interesting feature of the Akamai portal where you can have a detailed analysis of all the attacks that are happening. You can drill down an issue and see exactly what is happening, who are the bad guys attacking your website, and how Akamai is protecting the website. That is the most valuable feature."

"They have a fantastic tool for analyzing and viewing your traffic."

"I have contacted the support team of Akamai... I am happy with their responses and answers to my problems."

"All the solution's features are very good."

"The most valuable feature is the custom rules feature. This is because many of our customers require a lot of custom rules. Because it's a very customized project for our customers, I think they have the best of everything already."

"Adaptive stream delivery and WAF protection are valuable."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

"Rate limiting is a good feature that protects from volumetric attacks."

"Fastly uses configuration versioning, where you can deploy a new version in less than one minute."

"Support is good; the product works as advertised. We have a Slack connection with them. So we can basically ask for help, live, engage, and ring when they respond. Very quickly."

"Its initial setup process is straightforward."

"Compute@Edge features are valuable to me."

"The product helps our organization to access sites located in different regions quickly."

Cons

"Could integrate more features for each security."

"Akamai needs to focus on quickly responding to risks, even those that may potentially be of zero threat..Maybe some of the documentation is a little confusing. They have a lot of different places where you can go to get information, and some of the information is quite out of date."

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

"The performance of the cloud monitoring tool is low."

"We are experimenting with EdgeWorkers to write our own code at the Edge level. It could grow to be much better."

"The pricing could be reduced a bit."

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

"In terms of precedence of Akamai rules, the last one is implemented. That is the one that is operational. If two rules contradict, the last one is implemented. We had a clash, but it was really tough to find that out. I would like to have a rulebook because, in their architecture documentation, it is not mentioned anywhere that if two rules clash, the last one works, and if it does not work, then what to do. This is something we were debating today with their tech support. With AWS, we get documents for the issues so that they do not occur in the future. Akamai's support and knowledge base needs to be improved."

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"Fastly's customer service area needs improvement."

"The product should provide improved bot detection and management."

"It is missing a "staging" platform to deploy a test configuration with all of the real settings, which would allow us to properly test before putting it into production."

"Support is not that great."

"What I don't like about Fastly is that they charge a heavy price."

"The solution's pricing could be better."

"Stronger analytics would be helpful, like showing configurations that haven't served a certain amount of traffic in a while. With many properties, things can get lost track of - duplicates or unused configurations not properly decommissioned."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Akamai is very expensive."

"The product is expensive, but it is worth the money."

"The solution is not expensive."

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

"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."

"Based on the billing discussions in the DevOps team, Akamai's cost does not seem to be a major thing. However, LOE is an issue. When it comes to support, we know that even all the competitors do this. For a 30-minute issue, they give us a LOE of one or two hours. That is a basic practice, but that is something we worry about."

"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."

"Cost depends on the volume of traffic."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"The pricing has been very competitive."

"I've generally found Fastly to be very competitive in pricing, especially around Compute@Edge."

"You need to pay a premium price for the tool."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The solution is cheaper than other products in the market."

"Fastly is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"In my opinion, Fastly is priced competitively."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing 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 do you like most about Fastly?

Support is good; the product works as advertised. We have a Slack connection with them. So we can basically ask for help, live, engage, and ring when they respond. Very quickly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fastly?

You need to pay a premium price for the tool.

What needs improvement with Fastly?

What I don't like about Fastly is that they charge a heavy price. The pricing is different per region. If you have a customer who is international and has deployments in different regions, it is ve...

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Product Reports

Akamai App and API Protector

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Also Known As

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

No data available

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

Fastly helps the world’s most popular digital businesses keep pace with their customer expectations by delivering fast, secure, and scalable online experiences. Businesses trust Fastly’s edge cloud platform to accelerate the pace of technical innovation, mitigate evolving threats, and scale on demand.

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

Twitter, Airbnb, Alaska Airlines, Pinterest, Vimeo, The Guardian, The New York Times, Ticketmaster, The Drupal Association, Opera, about.com, imgur, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, New Relic, shopify, Shazam, Firebase

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fastly