Akamai App and API Protector vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service comparison

Akamai and Barracuda Networks are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Akamai is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.7, while Barracuda Networks is ranked #35. Akamai holds a 2.9% mindshare in WAF, compared to Barracuda Networks’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Barracuda Networks users who would recommend it.

Akamai App and API Protector

Read 29 Akamai App and API Protector reviews

4,306 Views
2,497 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

Read 6 Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service reviews

615 Views
615 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Akamai App and API Protector

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service and Akamai App and API Protector are security solutions for web applications and APIs. Akamai has the upper hand with its advanced feature set, offering comprehensive protection and analytics, despite Barracuda's competitive pricing and strong support.

Features: Barracuda offers automated threat updates, DDoS protection, and ease of use. Akamai provides zero-trust security, sophisticated analytics, and detailed threat detection.

Room for Improvement: Barracuda could enhance its analytics capabilities, scalability, and integration options. Akamai may improve deployment simplicity, pricing flexibility, and user interface for smaller teams.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Barracuda excels in straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. Akamai provides extensive documentation and support, with a more complex deployment process but significant scalability options.

Pricing and ROI: Barracuda offers competitive pricing with potentially quicker ROI for smaller enterprises. Akamai requires higher initial costs but promises greater long-term ROI for larger businesses due to its extensive features and scalability.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

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 Web Application Firewall (WAF)

16th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (8th), Cloud and Data Center Security (14th)

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

35th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 2.9%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Akamai App and API Protector	2.9%
Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service	0.8%
Other	96.3%

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

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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Tarandeep Kaur

DevOps Manager at Flash.co

Security management has reduced ransomware risk and now protects cloud workloads efficiently

The best features that Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service offers are an intuitive centralized dashboard, allowing us to manage policies, Internet protocol servers, antiviruses, anti-DDoS attacks, and traffic shaping across multiple sites. This feature enables seamless scaling of our environments, especially as we work within Amazon Web Services. Additionally, real-time threat intelligence helps us to detect threats in real-time. Another major feature I love is application control and VPN support, providing granular visibility and protection without needing separate appliances. The centralized dashboard is helping us streamline visibility across our admin panels and provides site-to-site visibility deployed directly to our AWS environment, securing VPC traffic and ensuring the firewall is in place. The real-time threat intelligence is an advanced feature helping us track real-time attacks, such as anti-DDoS attacks, ransomware, or viruses that can compromise system integrity. Through the intuitive centralized dashboard, we can manage policies and set rules, assisting us effectively.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"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."

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

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

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

"Features like scalability and uptime are most effective."

"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 CDN and the WAF features are the best."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"The solution can be used for threat prevention or as a cloud-to-cloud backup system"

"Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service has positively impacted our organization by reducing cyber threats like ransomware and phishing by ninety-five percent."

"The most valuable features of the solution are it is plug and play, has automated policies, a simple configuration, and is easy to create rules."

"I like its ability to identify known attacks, including DDOS attacks. It's valuable because software must be able to stop known attacks. Application attacks are evolving all the time. When it comes to software-as-a-service, we need to have software that knows about all the latest attacks. It should also protect against major unknown attacks."

"It provides an ease of policy management."

"The product's bot protection feature is valuable for our company."

Cons

"It would be better if there weren't any issues with latency. We had latency issues, but I think they are all solved now."

"The product should provide a secure NTP."

"The solution could offer even more integrations."

"The pricing could be reduced a bit."

"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."

"Support and the pricing need to improve."

"It could have better analytics and reporting visibility in the OEM console."

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

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"The solution can improve by bundling Security Operation Center (SOC) with the WAF-as-a-Service, it would provide a lot more value to customers."

"We found it a bit slow when accessing it through the web browser. The URL also exposed the user name and the hashed password. When I log into my Barracuda WAF user portal, I could see the username and the hashed password on the URL itself. So, it is not very secure, and it is important to take that off."

"The stability of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"It's a very specific solution that is only requested for a customer's web code or their global IT policy."

"One significant area for improvement in Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service lies in its market positioning and pricing strategy."

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 solution is not expensive."

"Akamai is very expensive."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."

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

"The product’s price is high."

"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."

"There is no license at all for Akamai. They are going to charge us only for the usage."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"It's very difficult for me to give an estimate of the cost. All I know is that we sell the box itself as a service."

"The product is expensive but it offers flexible pricing. It could be affordable."

"I rate the product's price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high. There are no additional costs to be paid apart from the standard licensing fees attached to the solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Government

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

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.

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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 comprehensive in their current state.

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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.

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What do you like most about Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service?

It provides an ease of policy management.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service?

One significant area for improvement in Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service lies in its market positioning and pricing strategy. Additionally, it could operate in a local data center. This limitation hinder...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service?

We use the product for securing email systems, protecting websites, and safeguarding web-based applications and portals.

See all answers

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 46% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

Compared 15% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

Compared 14% of the time

Azure Web Application Firewall vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

Compared 14% of the time

AWS WAF vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

Compared 11% 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

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

January 2026

Download Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service product report

Also Known As

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

Barracuda WAF as a Service

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

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service is a comprehensive solution designed to provide application security, DDoS protection, SSL authentication, protocol support, and application delivery. It is a plug-and-play solution with automated policies, simple configuration, and easy rule creation.

The solution can be used for threat prevention or as a cloud-to-cloud backup system based on email protection with cloud security. It is also a web application firewall and covers major protection and threat management functions. With Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service, customers can ensure the security of their web code and comply with global IT policies.

Barracuda Networks

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

Salvation Army

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

December 2025

Free Report: Akamai App and API Protector vs. Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service

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