Akamai App and API Protector vs Symantec Data Center Security comparison

Akamai and Broadcom are both solutions in the Cloud and Data Center Security category. Akamai is ranked #14 with an average rating of 7.7, while Broadcom is ranked #17. Akamai holds a 1.3% mindshare in CDCS, compared to Broadcom’s 2.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Akamai App and API Protector

Read 29 Akamai App and API Protector reviews

4,306 Views
258 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Symantec Data Center Security

Read 12 Symantec Data Center Security reviews

880 Views
590 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Akamai App and API Protector

Symantec Data Center Security

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 14, 2024

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Symantec Data Center Security and Akamai App and API Protector are in the security solutions market, focusing on data protection and application security. Symantec has an edge in data protection and cost-effectiveness, while Akamai is preferred for its robust features and performance.

Features: Symantec Data Center Security offers comprehensive data protection with endpoint security, policy compliance, and file integrity monitoring. Akamai App and API Protector provides application and API security with advanced threat defenses, DDoS protection, and scalable cloud deployment.

Room for Improvement: Symantec could enhance its application security, improve threat detection for cloud environments, and update its scalability for contemporary needs. Akamai might improve its pricing model, refine endpoint protection, and enhance policy compliance capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec offers straightforward deployment and solid support services. Akamai features flexible cloud-based deployment, backed by reliable customer support aiding seamless transitions.

Pricing and ROI: Symantec is typically more cost-effective with lower initial costs, providing stable ROI. Akamai, despite a higher upfront investment, offers excellent ROI through continuous security advancements, making it a worthwhile investment for application and API security.

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To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. Symantec Data Center Security Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Symantec Data Center Security

December 2025

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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 Cloud and Data Center Security

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (16th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (8th)

Symantec Data Center Security

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

17th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

4.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Data Center Security is 2.5%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud and Data Center Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Akamai App and API Protector	1.3%
Symantec Data Center Security	2.5%
Other	96.2%

Cloud and Data Center Security

Featured Reviews

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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Muhammad Ejaz ul Hassan

CEO at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Continuous server hardening has protected critical legacy workloads and simplified security control

Symantec is lagging on the reporting side. I have been working for 10 years and I have identified many gray areas. As a user protecting your infrastructure, you need to sell the value to your management. Management buys the tool for preventing threats, and it works for them. However, you cannot sell it because every solution needs to show what happened in the last few years or how you will be protected in the future. Reporting is the most important thing for the CIO level, not the admin level. I have seen Symantec really lag in this area. I am creating my own tool to build a dashboard to share with the CIO level because they want to know what happened last week, last month, and last year. These reports will tell you about activities. Symantec changed the licensing when Broadcom acquired the company. The question of who will provide support became unclear. Support has now changed and they are making money. I have seen that most of the time when you ask implementation questions, they do not answer you. If you have a problem, they give you a low-level engineer at the first level. This delays resolution. Support has to be better.

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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

"Adaptive stream delivery and WAF protection are valuable."

"Everything will be handled by Akamai's system before it reaches our infrastructure."

"Features like scalability and uptime are most effective."

"Traffic filtering and WAF are valuable."

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

"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."

"The most valuable feature is the DDoS protection, which is the main reason we got it."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"The tool will then detect any anomalies, such as an intruder who has breached the network, which can trigger the system lockdown feature if it's enabled and meets the defined threshold."

"The real strength lies in its straightforward approach, offering just two key policies: prevention and detection."

"The most valuable feature is the centralized console, which can handle different products that we have."

"The advantage of Data Center Security is its ease of use and that it serves as a single unified platform, where I can apply all my security policies to protect that server."

"The monitoring in the management console allows us to find out what is going wrong, and it gets reports even before the user reports it."

"Symantec Data Center Security, as a name, represents the perfect solution if you want to harden your servers."

"Good file integrity monitoring features."

"We use the product to prevent unauthorized access to data, systems, and servers. It provides essential features for data center security."

More Symantec Data Center Security pros

Cons

"The effectiveness of Akamai's bot management in reducing unauthorized access is quite good, although it does require a lot of fine-tuning and tweaking, which involves spending ample time with their support teams to tailor the configuration to our applications."

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

"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."

"There are some issues with pushing configurations across a network. It still takes about 20 minutes and that means to retract it's another 20 minutes."

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

"Support and the pricing need to improve."

"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."

"One area where Akamai can improve is the captcha part. Cloudflare provides a captcha if there are a certain number of threats. For example, I can assign that if there are 10 requests within a second from a single IP, it should send a captcha to the user. The user should fill in the captcha, and only after that, the user should be able to access our website. This captcha feature should be built into Bot Manager. I love this captcha feature of Cloudflare."

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"The support is very bad. They're not fast at all. Trend Micro's support is much better."

"They need to develop a more flexible product that can be scaled such that it fits well into a small business or a bigger, enterprise-level solution."

"A user or administrator making the policy in the DCS should have a very thorough knowledge of the operating system or policy making. You have to be very specific about the data structure."

"There is room for improvement in enhancing its graphical user interface for a more user-friendly experience."

"There is plenty of room for improvement with this product, and it could start with platform metrics."

"Could have better reporting capabilities and better support."

"The product blocks certain processes, even after allowlisting them."

"Symantec is lagging on the reporting side."

More Symantec Data Center Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 product’s price is high."

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

"Akamai is very expensive."

"Cost depends on the volume of traffic."

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

"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."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"The product is a bit costly."

"It is notably more expensive when compared to other solutions."

"Compared to some other solutions, such as CrowdStrike, Symantec is more expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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

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Comparisons

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 7% of the time

AWS WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 5% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 45% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Symantec Data Center Security

Compared 14% of the time

VMware NSX vs Symantec Data Center Security

Compared 9% of the time

Trellix MOVE AntiVirus vs Symantec Data Center Security

Compared 9% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs Symantec Data Center Security

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector

January 2026

Download Akamai App and API Protector product report

Buyer's Guide

Symantec Data Center Security

January 2026

Download Symantec Data Center Security product report

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

Docker containers make it easy to develop, deploy, and deliver applications where containers can be deployed and brought down in a matter of seconds. This flexibility makes it very useful for DevOps to automate deployment of containers. Symantec Data Center Security: Server Advanced provides agentless Docker container protection that allows you to achieve the performance benefits of Docker without sacrificing security. Full application control enables administrator privilege de-escalation, patch mitigation, and protection against zero day threats in today's heterogeneous data centers.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Symantec Data Center Security

December 2025

Free Report: Akamai App and API Protector vs. Symantec Data Center Security

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