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Akamai Logo
6,855 views|6,183 comparisons
Cloudflare Logo
10,188 views|8,825 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 6, 2024

We compared Akamai and Cloudflare based on our user's reviews in several parameters.

In summary, the key differences between Akamai and Cloudflare are highlighted in user feedback regarding their valuable features, customer service, implementation duration, pricing, return on investment, and areas for improvement. While Akamai is praised for exceptional performance, speed, and personalized solutions, Cloudflare stands out for its robust security measures, user-friendly interface, and efficient caching capabilities. Akamai receives positive feedback for its responsive customer service, competitive pricing, and positive ROI, while Cloudflare is commended for its real-time threat detection, flexible scalability, and reasonable cost. Areas for enhancement on Akamai include improving performance and speed, customer support, and analytics features, while Cloudflare could benefit from enhancements in network performance, user interface, documentation, customization options, pricing transparency, and integration with other services.

Features: Akamai's valuable features include exceptional performance, reliable content delivery, advanced security, efficient caching, and comprehensive analytics. On the other hand, Cloudflare offers robust security, reliable content delivery, efficient caching, user-friendly interface, enhanced website performance, protection against DDoS attacks, SSL support, easy DNS management, extensive analytics, real-time threat detection, and flexible scalability.

Pricing and ROI: When comparing the setup cost between Akamai and Cloudflare, both products are considered to have minimal and straightforward setup costs. Akamai offers flexible and customizable licensing options, accommodating different business needs. Cloudflare's licensing experience is smooth and satisfactory, with no expressed concerns or issues., Akamai users reported positive ROI with improved website performance and security, scalable and reliable platform. Cloudflare users also experienced positive ROI including improved website performance, increased security, and user-friendly interface.

Room for Improvement: Akamai could improve its performance and speed, user interface and navigation, customer support and responsiveness, occasional latency issues, and reporting and analytics features. Cloudflare could benefit from enhancements in network performance, user interface, documentation and support, customization options, pricing transparency, and integration with other services.

Deployment and customer support: Based on user feedback, both Akamai and Cloudflare have varying durations for establishing a new tech solution. However, Cloudflare emphasizes the importance of evaluating the context in which these terms are used, suggesting possible differences in deployment and setup phases., Akamai's customer service is highly praised for their responsive and efficient assistance, personalized solutions, and commitment to customer satisfaction. Cloudflare is commended for their exceptional assistance, quick and knowledgeable responses, and reliable and efficient support.

The summary above is based on 29 interviews we conducted recently with Akamai and Cloudflare users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai vs. Cloudflare Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It's a scalable and reliable solution.""Akamai's scalability is good.""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.""Akamai provides low-latency throughput.""The solution is very sustainable and flexible.""This solution can be used for web , video and media caching and streaming.""The solution's technical support is very good...The installation phase of Akamai was easy.""The most valuable feature of Akamai is its ease of use and simple integration. Additionally, the solution has new aspects added to it regularly."

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"Cloudflare has many features.""The solution provides good load balancing and protection against DDoS attacks.""What I like best about Cloudflare is that my company can use it to trace and manage applications and monitor traffic. The solution tells you if there's a spike in traffic. Cloudflare also sends you a link to check your equipment and deployment and track it through peering, so it's a valuable tool.""When using services like Heroku, Cloudflare is very useful for CNAME flattening. I also use it for their end-to-end SSL with TLS authentication on nginx for securing servers.""From what I've seen so far, there are no negatives to report as of yet""We're using dynamic components to build flexible pages to create and manage Git merge requests for code and reviews.""Easier http to https redirect using page rules""The DDoS protection is the most valuable aspect of the solution."

More Cloudflare Pros →

Cons
"I'd like to see more Web 3.0 and IoT solutions.""The fact that it is an expensive product is its only shortcoming.""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.""The product's scalability can be improved since certain shortcomings regarding the security part of the solution currently exist.""Caching strategy is an area with certain shortcomings in the solution where improvements are required.""Akamai could improve by providing its own cloud services. We have to use third-party cloud services at this time, such as Amazon AWS. The offering becomes a lot easier for an SMB if everything was in one single platform to be used for the services.""Akamai's configuration part is an area of concern where improvements are required to make the process easy."

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"Technical support is lacking.""It should have easier documentation for the configuration. It's very technical and people who aren't technical should also be able to do the configuration.""I think the APIs are a little bit hard for us to work with. The APIs could be more open so that we could integrate better with our SolarWinds or our monitoring solution.""We are a product integrator and reseller, and we would like to have a better partner relationship, similar to a channel sales relationship. Sometimes we are on our own or get diverted by Cloudflare because they have direct sales, which competes with us and makes it difficult to build a relationship with this company since we want to be an MSP or a managed service provider for the solution.""Cloudflare does not have an on-premise solution. If they had different approaches they could be better suited to accommodate more customers, such as on-premise and hybrid deployments. For example, hybrid deployments would be useful where you could move the traffic from the enterprise to the cloud.""If they improve on the placement of their data centers, it would be better. I'm living in a remote area. I would like to connect to them without any kind of lag.""Latencies are always a problem.""The solution could work at being less expensive. It costs a lot to use it."

More Cloudflare Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "This is a very expensive solution but it works well."
  • "Quite high in price, but equivalent to other enterprise products on the market"
  • "The price of Akamai could be less expensive."
  • "The solution's pricing is based on bandwidth."
  • "The solution can be one of the more expensive options, reflecting their established market position."
  • "Akamai is an expensive tool. Moreover, we have a pay-as-you-go model for additional features."
  • "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 price of the solution depends upon its usage."
  • More Akamai Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "So far I use free tier and happy with it. You can subscribe to business package if needed."
  • "I think the pricing is competitive. I think as far as licensing is concerned it's pretty straightforward because it's based on domain. It's just that sometimes domains could be tricky with some customers."
  • "There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
  • "The cost primarily depends on the size of the organization."
  • "We don't have any issues with the price."
  • "The price is reasonable."
  • "The solution is expensive when compared to other products but offers unlimited bandwidth."
  • "It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."
  • More Cloudflare Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:It's a scalable and reliable solution.
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:My company uses Akamai for all our web applications since it minimizes attacks, monitors traffic, and filters and blocks malicious emails.
    Top Answer:Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GRE tunnels. We have decreased site load times on Mobile 3G from 8 to 1,6 seconds by… more »
    Top Answer:Smaller businesses have seen great ROI due to the low investment and strong performance.
    Top Answer:Cloudflare's biggest plan for initial businesses is $200 per month, and if you're an enterprise, you'll likely exceed that on either AWS or Cloudflare itself. For comparison, Akamai's minimum billing… more »
    Ranking
    3rd
    out of 34 in CDN
    Views
    6,855
    Comparisons
    6,183
    Reviews
    12
    Average Words per Review
    484
    Rating
    8.9
    1st
    out of 34 in CDN
    Views
    10,188
    Comparisons
    8,825
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    529
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Azure Front Door logo
    Compared 22% of the time.
    Imperva DDoS logo
    Compared 14% of the time.
    Amazon CloudFront logo
    Compared 9% of the time.
    AWS Global Accelerator logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Fastly logo
    Compared 4% of the time.
    Learn More
    Overview

    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.

    Cloudflare is a highly-regarded Content Delivery Network (CDN) and a Distribution Denial of Service (DDoS) protection solution. The robust global cloud platform that is Cloudflare ensures users are able to connect to the internet quickly, securely, and reliably. Cloudflare is one of the world's largest networks in the marketplace today. Using Cloudflare, businesses, educational entities, NGOs, vloggers, bloggers, and anyone else with an internet presence can use the solution and experience more secure, faster websites and applications.

    Currently, there are millions of internet locations on Cloudflare, and the Cloudflare network continues to grow every day by the thousands. The solution is able to fulfill the requests for millions of websites seamlessly and serves on average 45 million HTTP requests per second.

    Cloudflare has safe, secure data centers in close to 300 cities worldwide to ensure every client request is filled as quickly as possible. It is Cloudflare’s edge network that makes this possible by keeping content and other services as close to each client as possible, so the information requests are always only seconds away.

    Many organizations that work in democracy, civil society, human rights, or the arts are able to access Cloudflare highest levels of protection for free via Project Galileo. Additionally, official election websites can be secured from hacking and fraud through Cloudflare’s Project Athenian, also at no additional cost.

    Cloudflare can also help organizations of all sizes develop a robust zero-trust strategy to ensure the highest levels of productivity and profitability. Employees, stakeholders, and end-users have a greater level of satisfaction and overall improved user experience, which can, in turn, result in higher revenues and overall ROI. Zero-trust and BYOD ( bring your own device) access ensure end-users and employees always have the best resources and technology available to them at all times.



    Cloudflare Benefits

    Cloudflare has many benefits. Some of its most valuable benefits include:

    • Faster load times
    • Robust DNS security
    • Intuitive cloud Web Application Firewall (WAF)
    • Free universal SSL
    • Image Enhancement
    • Automatic Browser Caching
    • Next-generation cloud load balancer
    • Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
    • Rate Limiting
    • Minification
    • Zero-trust capabilities 
    • Cost-effective
    • Reduced carbon footprint

    Reviews from Real Users

    “Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. If you have a connection between your website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host, you don't necessarily need a certificate.”  Spencer M., Owner at Tech Exchange

    “What I like best about Cloudflare is that my company can use it to trace and manage applications and monitor traffic. The solution tells you if there's a spike in traffic. Cloudflare also sends you a link to check your equipment and deployment and track it through peering, so it's a valuable tool.” Daniel P., Network engineer at Ufinet

    The most valuable feature of Cloudflare is the GUI. You are able to control the solution very well through the interface. There is a lot of functionality that is embedded in the service.” A PeerSpot user who is a Competence Center Manager at a tech services company. 

    Sample Customers
    * **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**
    Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider38%
    Media Company13%
    Leisure / Travel Company13%
    Consumer Goods Company13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization27%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider23%
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Engineering Company9%
    Marketing Services Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization37%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise45%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise53%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business64%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise23%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise45%
    Large Enterprise36%
    Buyer's Guide
    Akamai vs. Cloudflare
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai vs. Cloudflare and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Akamai is ranked 3rd in CDN with 16 reviews while Cloudflare is ranked 1st in CDN with 55 reviews. Akamai is rated 9.0, while Cloudflare is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Akamai writes "An easy to setup product offering multiple useful functionalities under a single package". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cloudflare writes "It's easy to set up because you point the DNS to it, and it's working in under 15 minutes". Akamai is most compared with Azure Front Door, Imperva DDoS, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator and Fastly, whereas Cloudflare is most compared with Azure Front Door, Imperva DDoS, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, AWS Shield and Arbor DDoS. See our Akamai vs. Cloudflare report.

    See our list of best CDN vendors.

    We monitor all CDN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.