Akamai vs Azure Front Door comparison

Akamai and Microsoft are both solutions in the CDN category. Akamai is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.7, while Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.9. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Akamai and Azure Front Door are competing content delivery network solutions in the realm of optimized web traffic management. Azure Front Door appears to have the upper hand due to its seamless integration with Microsoft services and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Akamai offers advanced security features, a global reach, and robust threat intelligence, making it ideal for enterprises focusing on security. Azure Front Door excels in integration with Azure services, adaptive traffic routing, and effective load balancing. Its centralized platform for deploying resources globally enhances its value proposition.

Room for Improvement: Akamai could improve by simplifying its deployment process and reducing its higher setup costs. Azure Front Door needs more advanced security features to match Akamai's level, expand its global reach beyond Microsoft services, and refine its rule-based protection capabilities for enhanced security.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Akamai offers diverse deployment solutions tailored for different security needs, supported by expert customer service. Azure Front Door benefits from seamless deployment within the Azure ecosystem and offers strong integration support, making management straightforward with centralized tools.

Pricing and ROI: Akamai's pricing reflects its comprehensive feature set, often leading to higher costs but substantial ROI for security-focused enterprises. Azure Front Door provides cost-effective solutions with high ROI, especially beneficial for businesses already within the Azure ecosystem, thanks to competitive pricing and an integrated environment.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai vs. Azure Front Door Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai vs. Azure Front Door

July 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

Cloudflare Web Application ...

Featured Reviews

SachidDoshi

Senior Enterprise Security Architect at HGS - Hinduja Global Solutions

Offers a huge signature repository and is superiorly effective in mitigating DDoS attacks

The solution's learning curve can still be further reduced, which presently stands at two or three months. The product has a custom rule set that users can modify and manifest as needed. The vendor can probably shorten the learning curve using cutting-edge technologies like AI. The solution provider can also work around the web applications and identify the toolset that needs to be implemented to deploy the solution in less time. The vendor has launched a SASE product that can function with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall, but many improvements are needed in terms of features, such as the web filtering feature, and CASB has not yet been added.

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Aryan Singh1

Product Manager at Infozion

Offers great enterprise support, ideal for solutions requiring high scalability and seamless integration with AWS infrastructure

For Akamai, it is definitely one of the best tools out there. However, there are challenges with how their approach is designed for large enterprises. While it's great for solutions with high scalability, like global e-commerce, it's not really built for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It has too many options and can be complex for SMBs to utilize. That's the biggest challenge we faced when migrating to Akamai from other solutions, like Cloudflare. It can be difficult to migrate between platforms. Due to its great features but high activation thresholds. So, while it's a powerful tool, it has limitations for some implementations. It was difficult to migrate from and to Akamai. It is challenging when we are building a website.

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SayedAbdelrhman

Cloud Solution Architect at MentorMate

Provide bot protection and has proficient documentation

During our discussion with the internal Microsoft team about assessing our environment, they confirmed that we have sufficient security measures, especially regarding edge protection. Internally, we believe we are now certified. In the future, we could consider adding layer four protection from the firewall. Front Door combines CDN and WAF protection, so further enhancing its features could benefit both the customer and us. We monitor the number of users attempting to access our IP or DNS servers. When designing the system, we initially needed to ensure our environment was protected with a WAF. However, WAF is currently too costly for us, so we created private links and connected them to Front Door. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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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

"The setup process is very simple for me."

"It's pretty convenient and pretty easy to set up and run. And then kind of for static content, it also offers caching."

"It is configurable via API."

"The product has improved our security posture by blocking bad actors."

"I'm highly satisfied. It's remarkably user-friendly, enabling me to quickly identify issues, and deploy solutions, and it offers the necessary features."

"The product has a valuable security control functionality."

"The integration of Cloudflare with Cloud Suite is its most valuable feature."

"We like that there's load balancing, firewall capabilities, DDoS protection, et cetera, all covered by Cloudflare."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pros

"As of now, the best thing about Akamai is WAF, and though CDN is a good feature, it comes in second place when compared to WAF. I am very impressed with the WAF offered by Akamai."

"The solution's most valuable feature is that it has been quite helpful in our company, especially when it comes to applications needing updates frequently."

"The solution's technical support is very good...The installation phase of Akamai was easy."

"The worldwide reach of the Akamai CDN is one of the key values of this CDN and the agreements worldwide that they keep running."

"If an attacker conducts an attack, we can check what query he is running and whether he wants to see our password or any other files."

"The initial setup is simple, especially for SaaS solutions."

"Akamai is leveraged by many top-level businesses, ensuring reliability and support in case of outages or issues."

"Akamai has a very established network of PoPs globally."

More Akamai pros

"Has a great application firewall and we like the security."

"I find the technical support excellent, and I rate it a ten."

"You can assign as many web application firewall policies as you want to the same instance of Front Door."

"Azure Front Door provides DDoS protection and features related to WAF."

"Rules Engine is a valuable feature."

"I am impressed with the tool's integrations."

"Azure Front Door's advanced routing rules for traffic management are highly effective, allowing you to configure HTTP tags, change different header or header response values, configure origin domains, and add security to your Layer 7 using these routing rules."

"The tool is easy to use for beginners."

More Azure Front Door pros

Cons

"They have some limitations with third-party integrations."

"The dashboard could be more user-friendly."

"Its stability could be better."

"The accuracy of the Cloudflare Web Application Firewall could be improved by reducing the number of false-negative alerts."

"Support can be challenging at times."

"The ModSecurity core rules need to be updated."

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall should include port forwarding features."

"The product can improve by having more multitenancy capability, which is currently not available."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall cons

"The product's scalability can be improved since certain shortcomings regarding the security part of the solution currently exist."

"Their support is very slow. If you file a support ticket, it takes a long time before it gets resolved."

"Akamai should improve its integrations."

"I'd like to see more Web 3.0 and IoT solutions."

"I would like to see improvements in the security aspect. The web application firewall needs to be enhanced and offers more customization options."

"Local connectivity would be great linked to our own telecom/Cablevision CDN."

"While it's great for solutions with high scalability, like global e-commerce, it's not really built for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It has too many options and can be complex for SMBs to utilize."

"The solution could offer more integrations."

More Akamai cons

"We should be able to use Front Door defenders with multiple cloud vendors. Currently, they can be used only with the Azure cloud. Azure Front Door should also be able to do global load balancing and provide internal front door services. Microsoft should clearly define what Traffic Manager, Application Gateway, and Azure Front Door products do. These are similar products, and people get confused between these products."

"This is a relatively expensive solution."

"There is room for improvement and they're working on it."

"In the tool, there needs to be a good amount of monitoring in the area of health probes to capture in front of what is happening."

"The tool should improve its cost."

"I dislike the URL set parameters."

"The product's features are limited compared to Cloudflare. The tool also doesn't work well in a hybrid environment. I would like to see a way to add personalized APIs in the system."

"The product needs to improve its latency."

More Azure Front Door cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing model is very straightforward compared to the competition. You just pay per month for the product and usage."

"The solution's pricing option needs to be more transparent for enterprise clients."

"What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I believe the pricing is not the best, but it's reasonable and acceptable. We also use the McAfee system in parallel. In terms of pricing, its okay - not great, but not bad either. It falls in the middle, which is acceptable. In terms of support licensing, last time, we were searching for a solution, and we considered products from resellers rather than directly from the cloud provider. However, the pricing we encountered was exceptionally high. As a result, we are inclined to select support from the reseller."

"We pay $210 per month for CloudFlare WAF."

"The annual licensing fee is $10,000 USD."

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is more affordable than other solutions."

"Cloudflare offers different types of subscriptions for businesses, enterprises, and personal users, and the pricing is negotiable."

"It starts at $20 and can easily go up to $200 monthly"

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

"Quite high in price, but equivalent to other enterprise products on the market"

"The price of the solution depends upon its usage."

"Price-wise, I find Akamai's pricing model's inclination to be more towards the expensive side of the spectrum, though I can't say that it is a very expensive product."

"It is an expensive product. The licensing costs for the solution are based on the usage. If we need premium support, we need to buy it from Akamai."

"The pricing of Akamai is moderate, in my opinion. My company makes yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to Akamai. There are no additional costs besides the licensing costs for the solution."

"This is a very expensive solution but it works well."

"Akamai is an expensive tool. Moreover, we have a pay-as-you-go model for additional features."

"The price of Akamai could be less expensive."

More Akamai pricing and cost advice

"Considering the standard licensing of the tool, even though we have not checked the billing as of now, it might not be very costly."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"The transition to the premium tier has led to increased costs, making it more expensive than the classic tier."

"It is on a pay-as-you-go basis."

"The pricing of the solution is good."

"The product is expensive."

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Comparison Review

it_user69348

Partner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 17, 2013

Akamai vs. CloudFlare – Simple Stats

In the world of CDNs Akamai is the incumbent 500 pound gorilla, no question. They have a HUGE global presence, super solid technology and networks, and have the most experience with large enterprise clients. However, now there other strong players in the CDN market. One of the most…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The product has a valuable security control functionality.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The price of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

I cannot say much about areas of improvement for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall because I haven't gone through d...

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What do you like most about Akamai?

The most valuable feature in managing web traffic has been the ability to handle vertical scaling effectively.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Akamai?

Akamai could improve by having a more robust and responsive support team. While the support is not bad, there is room...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Akamai?

We use Akamai ( /products/akamai-reviews ) as our CDN ( /categories/cdn ) to advertise prefixes and download traffic....

See all answers

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides...

See all answers

What do you like most about Azure Front Door?

Rules Engine is a valuable feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Front Door?

I am not sure about the pricing but believe Azure Front Door might require a higher cost due to its entry point nature.

See all answers

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

August 2025

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall report

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Akamai

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Azure Front Door

August 2025

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Also Known As

Cloudflare WAF

No data available

Azure Front-Door

Overview

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's intuitive dashboard enables users to build powerful rules through easy clicks and also provides Terraform integration. Every request to the WAF is inspected against the rule engine and the threat intelligence curated from protecting over 27 Million websites. Suspicious requests can be blocked, challenged or logged as per the needs of the user while legitimate requests are routed to the destination, agnostic of whether it lives on-premise or in the cloud. Analytics and Cloudflare Logs enable visibility into actionable metrics for the user.

Cloudflare

Akamai is a powerful solution that aims to enhance the performance and reliability of websites and applications. With features like excellent performance, robust security measures, and efficient content delivery, it optimizes user experience. It also offers bandwidth optimization, caching, online asset security, and protection against DDoS attacks. Users value its wide network coverage and reliable customer support.

Akamai

Azure Front Door is employed for securing external traffic, global load balancing, integrating web application firewalls, enabling disaster recovery, and enhancing application accessibility.

Organizations leverage Azure Front Door to support data publishing, act as a CDN, and ensure low latency for global users. Clients use it to protect numerous internet-accessible applications, integrate with DNS, and implement custom routes. Favored for caching web content and securely, efficiently distributing traffic to backend services, Azure Front Door offers SSL offloading, traffic inspection, and global scalability. Users value its affordability, ease of implementation, and web application firewall. Azure Front Door provides rich security features, traffic management, and URL rewriting. Load-balancing capabilities enhance performance with additional content security policies and bot protection. Integrations, including with GitOps, along with combined CDN and load-balancing, are also highlighted.

What are the most important features?

SSL Offloading: Reduces the burden on backend services
Traffic Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting incoming traffic
Global Scalability: Ensures performance for users worldwide
Web Application Firewall: Provides in-depth security features
Load Balancing: Distributes traffic to improve performance
URL Rewriting: Customizes URL paths for better navigation
Bot Protection: Shields applications from automated threats
Integrations: Supports technologies like GitOps
Combined CDN and Load-Balancing: Streamlines content delivery and traffic management

What are the benefits or ROI of using this service?

Affordability: Provides cost-effective solutions for web traffic management
Ease of Implementation: Streamlines setup processes for quick deployment
Enhanced Security: Offers robust protection for web applications
Improved Performance: Optimizes traffic distribution and latency
Scalability: Supports growing application demands with global reach

Azure Front Door finds usage across multiple industries due to its versatile applications. E-commerce companies benefit from improved global accessibility and speed, while financial institutions leverage its security features for protecting sensitive data. Media and entertainment sectors use its CDN capabilities for seamless content delivery, and healthcare providers rely on its compliance and protection standards for patient data security.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

crunchbase, udacity, marketo, okcupid, zendesk

Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Capital One, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Disney, Ebay, Facebook, Google, Home Depot, HP, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, LinkedIn, McDonald's, Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, Oracle, PayPal, Pinterest, Qualcomm, Rakuten, SAP, Spotify, Tesla, Toyota, Visa, Walmart, WeWork

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Akamai vs. Azure Front Door

July 2025

Free Report: Akamai vs. Azure Front Door

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai vs. Azure Front Door and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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