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Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs F5 BIG-IP DNS comparison

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Executive Summary

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 Secure Internet Acc...
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (19th)
F5 BIG-IP DNS
Ranking in Domain Name System (DNS) Security
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Domain Name System (DNS) Security category, the mindshare of Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is 2.3%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP DNS is 3.2%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
F5 BIG-IP DNS3.2%
Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise2.3%
Other94.5%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
 

Featured Reviews

Denis Burnaev - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Securiy & Cyber Engineer at El Al
Protects internet access through proxy while newer options offer more flexibility
Our organization does not utilize the internet access feature of Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise because our company routes internet traffic through our public ISPs rather than through Akamai. We use a firewall at the perimeter, which is a straightforward approach used by most companies. From my perspective, the internet access feature would not be the most accurate feature to review for our use case. From a financial standpoint, I do not believe Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is cost-effective when compared to other solutions available in the industry. More affordable and accessible solutions exist, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. Competing SASE platforms from Check Point, Palo Alto, and Zscaler offer cheaper alternatives that are more readily deployed. While I cannot speak to all capabilities since we are not fully utilizing Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise, routing clients through Akamai as a proxy does provide enhanced security benefits. Organizations can mask their public IPs behind Akamai's infrastructure, which provides additional security. However, the market currently offers many excellent alternative solutions. We are using all the features of the SaaS offering for Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise. My overall rating for this product is seven out of ten.
RR
Associate Consultant at HCLSoftware
Global load balancing has ensured continuous availability and optimized user response times
While F5 BIG-IP DNS is a very powerful solution, some improvements could enhance the overall experience. For example, the user interface could be more modern and simplified. The reporting and analytics features can be improved. Simplified deployment for cloud-native environments could be improved. Overall, F5 BIG-IP DNS is a robust and reliable solution for global traffic management and application availability. With its advanced traffic steering capability, we are definitely getting great benefits from that. However, the user interface is the major thing I think can be improved. The cost also can be reduced. Those are the two or three points that need to be improved. There is some scope for improvement, including the user interface and pricing. That is why I gave it a nine.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best feature of Akamai SPS Threat Avert is that it's very user-friendly compared to other technologies."
"Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is a product which has very good features and capabilities."
"The threat intelligence feature is particularly valuable when used with another product of Akamai, as their researchers continuously update this threat feed database, making it an effective tool for defending against and blocking bad actors, public malicious IPs, harmful hashes, and malicious URLs."
"BIG-IP DNS effectively handled a traffic surge. For example, we have application forms replicated across our DCs. If our primary application becomes unavailable, BIG-IP automatically fails over to a client-unaware secondary application."
"F5 BIG-IP DNS is a stable solution."
"The GTM feature is very good, It's very useful, especially if we have multiple data centers. If we want to load balance traffic from multiple data centers, the GTM feature is very useful."
"BIG-IP DNS is easy to deploy as you can just log in to F5 and request free trial licenses, and the Virtual Edition can be deployed on public and on-prem cloud."
"The solution is easy to configure and deploy. It is scalable and works without any downtime. F5 BIG-IP DNS is a flexible solution."
"BIG-IP DNS's best feature is the Global Traffic Manager (GTM)."
"F5 BIG-IP DNS stands out as they are number one when it comes to WAF and load balancing technologies, and they have plenty of add-on features such as APM and AFM to handle DDoS attacks, DNS security, and GSLB."
"F5 provides us with a mechanism to accomplish complex product balancing."
 

Cons

"From a financial standpoint, I do not believe Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is cost-effective when compared to other solutions available in the industry."
"Akamai SPS Threat Avert's pricing could be improved because it's a very expensive enterprise solution."
"Their support response time needs improvement. They take on average one week to respond, which is not satisfactory given how critical applications are to the organization."
"When it comes to denial of service or DNS security, F5 is not the best vendor as dedicated vendors such as Arbor for denial of service and Infoblox for DNS security offer more comprehensive solutions."
"The support response time could use improvement."
"The solution can improve by adding cloud integration through plugins or additional configurations so we can use F5 BIG-IP DNS to communicate with the cloud."
"Scalability is a concern, it could be improved."
"In the product, one of the shortcomings is related to its configuration part...Though you can find some manuals or F5 documents, in real life, it's very hard to understand this product."
"I sometimes encounter issues with the porting of F5 BIG-IP DNS."
"The messaging between NGINX and F5 should be simplified."
"The initial setup is a step-by-step process, so it can be a bit complicated for someone who's using it for the first time."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Provided the features Akamai SPS Threat Avert provides, it is bound to be expensive."
"This product is quite pricey but if you compare the feature set and its compatibility with similar products on the market, you would understand why it's that price."
"You cannot do much around DDoS protection without an additional license from F5."
"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being a low price."
"In some cases, it is expensive."
"BIG-IP DNS is more expensive than its competitors like Citrix, but it gives good value for money."
"The on-prem version is only available on a yearly license, but the cloud version can be paid for on a day-by-day basis."
"They are competitively priced."
"Cost is a factor. It is really costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Akamai SPS Threat Avert?
Since Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is not being used in our campus environment, as our users do not route their internet through Akamai, I cannot provide detailed feedback on areas for ...
What is your primary use case for Akamai SPS Threat Avert?
Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise is designed to protect users' access to the internet.
What advice do you have for others considering Akamai SPS Threat Avert?
Our organization does not utilize the internet access feature of Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise because our company routes internet traffic through our public ISPs rather than through Aka...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 BIG-IP DNS?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was good. We got great support from the F5 sales team. They helped us to deploy it in our organization.
What needs improvement with F5 BIG-IP DNS?
While F5 BIG-IP DNS is a very powerful solution, some improvements could enhance the overall experience. For example, the user interface could be more modern and simplified. The reporting and analy...
What is your primary use case for F5 BIG-IP DNS?
My main use case for F5 BIG-IP DNS is creating an active-active setup. With two data centers, if I want to make them active-standby or active-active, my major use case is to redirect traffic from o...
 

Also Known As

Akamai Enterprise Threat Protector, Akamai ETP, Akamai SPS Threat Avert
F5 BIG-IP DNS, F5 DNS Delivery
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

MCNC, Educational Testing Service
Ricacorp Properties, Bangladesh Post Office, Shawbrook Bank, Shinsegae Internet Duty Free
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Secure Internet Access Enterprise vs. F5 BIG-IP DNS and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.