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Akamai App and API Protector vs Illumio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 14, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.8
Akamai App and API Protector offers superior traffic management, security, and cost savings for large infrastructures, despite higher costs.
Sentiment score
6.3
Illumio is praised for cost-effectiveness and efficiency, offering comprehensive features that enhance ROI and improve operations.
I observe extensive return on investment with Illumio.
Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense
Illumio serves as a single endpoint technology where I can implement various features, including a zero-trust network, north-to-south and east-to-west configurations, and micro-segmentation, all coming from one platform, which ultimately saves us time and money.
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Illumio definitely demonstrates its value in money-saving capabilities, enhancing our lateral environment inside the organization and providing effectiveness overall once integrated.
Security delivery specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Customer service is excellent, while technical support has mixed reviews with praise for expertise but needs improved availability.
Sentiment score
5.0
Illumio customer service is generally satisfactory but needs improvement in response times and empathy for some users.
Whenever I raise a case with their support team, regardless of the priority level—P1, P2, P3, or P4—they generally reply within an hour
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Even if we raise an issue on non-working days like Saturdays or Sundays, we receive prompt responses.
IT Specialist at Allianz
The customer support is very prominent.
Security delivery specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Akamai App and API Protector excels in scalability, seamlessly handling extensive user demands and large-scale deployments with stability.
Sentiment score
7.1
Illumio's scalability is praised for ease of expansion, seamless cloud integration, and efficient support for diverse environments and devices.
Scaling it to a large level is not an issue for us.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
By employing Linux scripting or other methods, I can push the policy to all devices at once, making it easy to scale.
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Illumio's scalability is very good; it is quite easy to scale.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Akamai App and API Protector is highly stable and reliable, with no reported outages or issues over years of use.
Sentiment score
8.1
Illumio is praised for strong stability, reliability, and effective use of native firewall functions to prevent disruptions.
Illumio is a stable solution with no glitches or bugs reported, making it a reliable product for us.
IT Specialist at Allianz
 

Room For Improvement

Akamai App and API Protector needs enhancements in flexibility, UI, customer support, documentation, and advanced protection features.
Illumio users desire better integration, support, and interface, with improved automation, scalability, compatibility, security, and deployment processes.
They need to install an agent in the container world, while Akamai Guardicore does not need to install an agent, so they have native support that Illumio lacks.
Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense
There could also be more examples of how the automations can be done using Illumio.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Another improvement might be around scalability, ensuring that as organizations grow, Illumio can handle even larger, more complex environments seamlessly.
DevOps at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Akamai App and API Protector is expensive yet considered worth the cost by large enterprises for its quality services.
Many find Illumio's flexible pricing, despite being costly, offers a good balance of cost and capability compared to competitors.
I know that Illumio is the cheapest solution in the security area.
IT Specialist at Allianz
But when you compare it to firewalls, then it may not be that expensive.
Senior Security Consultant at Orange Cyberdefense
I think it's not very expensive if we compare it with Guardicore.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Akamai App and API Protector delivers scalable security, ease of use, and cost-effective protection with advanced features like DDoS defense.
Illumio offers real-time control, micro-segmentation, and centralized rule management, enhancing security and visibility in dynamic environments.
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.
Privacy & Risk Management Vice President, Information Security at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Illumio helps in audit purposes by saving data and showing blocked traffic, ensuring no outside traffic is allowed.
IT Specialist at Allianz
The most important feature is the traffic review analysis, where we use the draft view and the reported view that helps us understand how the application interacts with other applications in the environment, and based on that, we are able to define the policies.
Cyber Security Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Illumio is a powerful tool for micro-segmentation and zero trust security that provides strong visibility, flexible policy management, and effective threat containment, enhancing an organization's internal security posture.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai App and API Protector
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (18th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (8th)
Illumio
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (11th), Microsegmentation Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 1.6%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Illumio is 16.1%, down from 25.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud and Data Center Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Illumio16.1%
Akamai App and API Protector1.6%
Other82.3%
Cloud and Data Center Security
 

Featured Reviews

Gavin Pinho - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Irfan Sharfi - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Professional at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Micro-segmentation has transformed endpoint protection and now isolates internal threats effectively
Illumio can be improved in several areas based on our feedback. Sometimes, the PCE experiences slowness, especially when deploying around 300,000 endpoint devices. When these devices communicate within the network, loading the map or connections can cause latency, which needs improvement for a more user-friendly and faster experience. Regarding improvements to the interface, I believe we can add more features to the graphical user interface, such as proper logs. While the logs currently indicate what was blocked or allowed, clicking on a specific log should provide more information, such as which extra-scope rule is causing a denial, offering better analysis for troubleshooting.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Performing Arts
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

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?
There are no significant areas for improvement on the WAF side or for Akamai App and API Protector solution; they are comprehensive in their current state.
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
It will be the same price as the Akamai price for Guardicore. It's expensive, that's true. But when you compare it to firewalls, then it may not be that expensive.
What needs improvement with Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
Illumio does not have much in terms of application dependency mapping features. They lack layer 7 process level segmentation, which is a limitation. In Guardicore, you have the layer 7, the process...
What is your primary use case for Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
Illumio's use case compared to Akamai is exactly the same. For the purpose of micro-segmentation, it is the same.
 

Also Known As

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender
Illumio Adaptive Security Platform, Illumio ASP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet
Plantronics, NTT Innovation Institute Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. Illumio and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,438 professionals have used our research since 2012.