Akamai App and API Protector vs Fortinet FortiDDoS comparison

Akamai and Fortinet are both solutions in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category. Akamai is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Fortinet is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0. Akamai holds a 4.5% mindshare in DDOS, compared to Fortinet’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Fortinet FortiDDoS and Akamai App and API Protector are key players in the cybersecurity sector. Fortinet FortiDDoS leads in pricing and customer support, while Akamai App and API Protector offers superior advanced features, making it an attractive choice for those prioritizing comprehensive security capabilities.

Features: Fortinet FortiDDoS provides powerful DDoS protection, real-time threat analysis, and automatic mitigation which focus on network security enhancement. Akamai App and API Protector, on the other hand, delivers extensive API security, bot management, and adaptive threat protection, offering a versatile range of policies suitable for varied environments.

Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiDDoS could enhance its capabilities in API security and flexibility of security policies. Improvements in handling complex application-level threats might also be beneficial. Akamai App and API Protector could simplify its deployment process, offer better pricing strategies, and further reduce complexity in user interface operations for wider accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiDDoS impresses with easy deployment and responsive customer service, offering straightforward guidelines. Akamai App and API Protector provides comprehensive documentation and skilled support, although its deployment is more complex. Customers can benefit from Akamai’s robust feature set with the right resources.

Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiDDoS is lauded for its attractive pricing and efficient cost-to-benefit ratio, resulting in faster ROI. Akamai App and API Protector, despite higher initial costs, shows strong long-term ROI owing to advanced security capabilities. The choice depends on budget limits and needed security feature levels.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS

April 2026

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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

Cloudflare

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 14.0%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 4.5%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiDDoS is 2.2%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare	14.0%
Akamai App and API Protector	4.5%
Fortinet FortiDDoS	2.2%
Other	79.3%

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility

From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.

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Gavin Pinho

Privacy & Risk Management Vice President, Information Security at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Has provided strong protection against evolving threats but still needs support for configuration fine-tuning

The standout features of Akamai App and API Protector are rooted in it being the Web Application Firewall, where all traffic gets scanned, including the implementation of web firewall rules, and after this phase, traffic proceeds through the BMP, which is Bot Management. Akamai App and API Protector exceeds expectations in terms of AI capabilities, and it genuinely combines a plethora of advanced features. The area in which Akamai excels compared to other competitors with a WAF is in threat intelligence, as threats continually evolve, requiring ongoing updates to backend algorithms to effectively capture smart bots, and Akamai's commitment in that regard is backed by an excellent team, while other providers are still catching up.

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Marcos AntonioOliveira

IT Analyst at Evapco, Inc.

Reliable protection and smooth setup enhance company security

Currently, I have two firewalls, with one located in Sorocaba, model 90D, and the other in São Paulo, model 30D. They are connected by VPN. I use the firewalls for VPN and final protection for my company, and my equipment is maintained by an internet company called Multiprox The equipment works…

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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

"I didn’t have to pay anything for better website security and reduced server load."

"The overall performance of this solution is what makes it one of the best solutions on the market."

"Easier http to https redirect using page rules"

"Cloudflare's DNS services deliver the best performance in terms of speed and reliability."

"Cloudflare has many features."

"From a technical point of view, Cloudflare is the best CDN."

"The DDoS protection is the most valuable aspect of the solution."

"The solution is very good at mitigating threats."

More Cloudflare pros

"It's a very good solution."

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

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

"If you compare it to other products in the market, it's quite holistic in terms of the features that it provides."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"It is scalable for DDoS."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"The pricing of this solution is better than that of Cisco and other software on the market, which are very expensive."

"The protection resources and the support are valuable features of the solution."

"The product's initial setup phase was really easy."

"This solution can protect Layer 3, Layer 4 and Layer 7 attacks of applications for us."

"We have researched them all, and it's a good solution all around."

"Compared to other DDoS mitigation solutions with similar deployment, FortiDDoS does not require a 24x7 NOC and has lower TCO."

"The solution is very user-friendly and very easy to use."

"We've been completely satisfied with the product."

More Fortinet FortiDDoS pros

Cons

"We have noticed multiple instances where Cloudflare falsely indicates that our servers are down, even when there is no actual load on them. This makes it challenging for us to identify the exact issue."

"Several features that I think is essential is not available in the free and business package."

"For large enterprises, the pricing is okay. However, the enterprise price for small projects is a bit high. A mid-tier pricing option would be beneficial."

"Sometimes their more advanced caching tools can cause higher first-byte times and problems with JavaScript."

"The pricing could be improved."

"Perhaps I would ask that they improve the Free plan and allow us to use it with any TLD (certain ones are not allowed)."

"Technical support is lacking."

"They lack a good way to manage DNS as a company, since everything is relegated to single account logins until you get to the higher levels. They have come out with a paid feature to remedy this, but I have not had a chance to fully review it yet to know if it fixes the access problem."

More Cloudflare cons

"It's fine for a simple tool, but as I recall, if you encounter a lot of bots, scrapers, and other things, you'll need this tool bot and this other thing they offer called Bot Manager."

"I do not see any area for improvement. Akamai is already maintaining its own databases for the security concerns, vulnerabilities, and attacks that are there. If anything, they should have a solution in the infrastructure security area as well. They should not be only in cloud cybersecurity; they should also be in infrastructure security."

"The pricing could be reduced a bit."

"The product should provide a secure NTP."

"The solution could offer even more integrations."

"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."

"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."

"They should allow for multiple security configurations in one account which will enhance the scalability."

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"All the thresholds that need to be configured should be included in the default so that user will not forget or misconfigure."

"I would like to see analytics, big data."

"The solution can be a little more user-friendly and it can be more affordable."

"The only thing they need to do is to automate it. Today, you must create tools that do not require the use of an expert or anyone with special skills."

"The primary area for improvement is the on-premises capacity limit, currently fixed at 10 GB."

"The challenge lies within the customer environment, particularly in Brazil, where companies have stringent security requirements for implementing solutions."

"The main improvement would be to change the firewall model, however, currently, everything is fixed and working well."

"Technical support isn't too good with Fortinet. They could be more responsive and helpful overall."

More Fortinet FortiDDoS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think the pricing is competitive. I think as far as licensing is concerned it's pretty straightforward because it's based on domain. It's just that sometimes domains could be tricky with some customers."

"We don't have any issues with the price."

"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."

"The pricing for the service is reasonable, neither excessively cheap nor prohibitively expensive. It aligns well with the value of their solution."

"That is one of the great features. I was able to access the majority of the features and services for free."

"The cost primarily depends on the size of the organization."

"The pricing depends on the usage, but the cheapest would be around 5,000 USD a month."

"The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

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

"The product’s price is high."

"One reason not all people use Akamai is that it is a little bit more expensive than some other providers."

"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."

"Its price is at the medium level. It is not very high. It is also not very low. It serves the purpose."

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

"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."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

"It's quite pricey."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	18

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...

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Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?

Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare?

The tool's pricing is moderate. I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expens...

See all answers

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 sl...

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What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?

There are no significant areas for improvement on the WAF side or for Akamai App and API Protector solution; they are...

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What is your primary use case for Akamai Web Application Protector?

The main use case for Akamai App and API Protector is serving as the WAF, Web Application Firewall.

See all answers

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Arbor would be the best bid, apart from Arbor, Palo Alto and Fortinet have good solutions. As this is an ISP, I would...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiDDoS?

Fortinet FortiDDoS offers lower costs compared to other solutions. The licensing costs are annually renewed.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiDDoS?

There is a need for more features that protect personal information, especially given the PDP issue in Indonesia.

See all answers

Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 40% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

Compared 3% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Fastly vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

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Radware Cloud WAF Service vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 5% of the time

Prolexic vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

AWS WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

More Akamai App and API Protector Competitors

Arbor DDoS vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 15% of the time

Radware DDoS vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 13% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 7% of the time

VMware NSX vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiDDoS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

May 2026

Download Cloudflare product report

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector

May 2026

Download Akamai App and API Protector product report

Buyer's Guide

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

April 2026

Download Fortinet FortiDDoS product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

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

Fortinet DDoS, FortiDDos

Overview

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?

CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

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

Fortinet FortiDDoS provides comprehensive protection against DDoS attacks across layers 3 to 7. It efficiently minimizes false positives and is valued for real-time attack monitoring, cloud DDoS scrubbing, and multi-layer security, leveraging purpose-built ASICs for high performance.

Fortinet FortiDDoS is favored for its robust defense capabilities in DDoS detection and mitigation, supporting sophisticated security infrastructures. Its purpose-built ASICs ensure effective performance without reliance on signature-based detection. While it offers strong features like attack monitoring and cloud scrubbing, users identify challenges with its complex setup and web interface. Additionally, the need for simplified features, enhanced application traffic management, and better alerts is crucial especially when handling sensitive data. Priced competitively, it presents scalability concerns particularly in on-premises environments.

What are Fortinet FortiDDoS's key features?

DDoS Detection: Protects infrastructure from layers 3 to 7 with minimal false positives.
Real-Time Monitoring: Enables instant attack detection and response.
Cloud Scrubbing: Offers cloud-based DDoS mitigation to cleanse traffic.
Purpose-Built ASICs: Ensures performance without reliance on signatures.
Multi-Layer Protection: Comprehensive security across different network layers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiDDoS?

Enhanced Security: Protects against a wide range of DDoS threats.
Performance Optimization: Improves network traffic management.
Cost Efficiency: Competitive pricing with powerful capabilities.
Effective Mitigation: Reduces risks with real-time threats monitoring.
User Data Protection: Safeguards personal and sensitive information.

Fortinet FortiDDoS is widely used in internet datacenters with multiple upstreams to protect infrastructure and customers from potential threats. Companies deploy Fortinet appliances for managing network traffic and ensuring optimal performance. They rely on it for safeguarding web pages, web services, and networks while benefiting from ease of troubleshooting and effective VPN connections, critical for application-based attack defense.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS

April 2026

Free Report: Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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