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Akamai vs Cloudflare vs Uplynk comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Akamai is 17.1%, up from 15.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudflare is 21.8%, up from 22.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Uplynk is 4.7%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CDN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cloudflare21.8%
Akamai17.1%
Uplynk4.7%
Other56.39999999999999%
CDN
 

Featured Reviews

Aryan Singh1 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Carlos Alam Hernandez Baruch - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast and secure deployments simplify operations for government and fintech clients
It is a fast and secure DNS. It is very easy to deploy, and my customers are happy with this tool. Additionally, the CDN performance in Mexico is excellent, providing fast service and tools. It offers reliability during high-traffic periods, ensuring no impact on the environment. It helps my clients avoid using on-premise boxes, simplifying operations as they only use the prices on Cloudflare.
Eduardo Oviedo-Blanco - PeerSpot reviewer
A CDN solution to enhance loading times and streamline navigation
When one of the primary nodes spanning from North to South America, from the northern US to the southern US, became operational, it had a big impact. It can be challenging to explain its advantages to clients. The technical nature of the marketing material is too technical for stakeholders. Integrating the solution was straightforward, requiring no extra effort. Edgio Global CDN operates, resembling familiar cloud services but offering elevated functionality. Unlike platforms such as Google Cloud Platform or RIN geared towards development teams, Edgio emphasizes client-facing services that are integral to our operations. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Akamai is leveraged by many top-level businesses, ensuring reliability and support in case of outages or issues."
"All the policies of the CDNs are very beneficial."
"The most valuable feature of Akamai is its ease of use and simple integration. Additionally, the solution has new aspects added to it regularly."
"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 technical support is very prompt and good."
"The most valuable feature in managing web traffic has been the ability to handle vertical scaling effectively."
"Akamai's scalability is good."
"We can see how much traffic can be downloaded on the portal."
"Its ease of integration with Office 365 and the fact that it's a good product compared to what I had before"
"The solution offers the flexibility to control configuration rules."
"The DDoS protection is the most valuable aspect of the solution."
"From what I've seen so far, there are no negatives to report as of yet"
"I get a lot of value from Cloudflare's API because it enables you to build a separate environment inside the solution. You can create a domain for performing test requests before you move to the production environment and connect various domains."
"The most valuable feature of Cloudflare DNS is its global reach and it is always evolving."
"Its most significant benefit to date is the speed with which it refreshes DNS records on the internet once you change it. If you are changing a website or registering a new record, it is very quick."
"There are key things that are used for our enterprise customers, such as Lambda and DNS."
"The Rules Engine V4 is the most valuable feature."
"The customer support and service responsiveness were excellent."
"It's super easy to use and integrate with."
"The product is easy to use and easy to implement."
"The tool's most valuable feature is the Uplynk platform for streaming purposes."
 

Cons

"The product's scalability can be improved since certain shortcomings regarding the security part of the solution currently exist."
"Akamai should improve its integrations."
"I would like to see improvements in the security aspect. The web application firewall needs to be enhanced and offers more customization options."
"When we open tickets, we have a delay in response times."
"Sometimes a little hard to navigate around the user console."
"Caching strategy is an area with certain shortcomings in the solution where improvements are required."
"After three or four months from this perspective, I don’t know all the features on the platform yet, so I am still learning about it."
"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."
"Areas like how assessment, discovery, and payload are dealt with and how it all comes into your organization can be considered when trying to make suggestions to Cloudflare for improvements."
"It would be helpful if the solution could continue evolving to compete with the other solutions on the market."
"The tool needs to improve caching of servers. The product needs to include PFX certificate as well."
"The analytics, basically the dashboard, doesn't have much to it."
"In the last two years, there has been a certain amount of downtime when using the VDM."
"Cloudflare could offer a better view or maybe dashboards of the main resources used in the client."
"I would like Cloudflare to offer a dedicated account manager for large enterprise clients like us."
"The solution could use more analytics on the backend to give us more insights into everything. More reports would be helpful."
"We could not create more than 15 custom rules."
"The web interface of the Verizon Edgecast portal is very old. It's not user-friendly, slow, and it is missing some valuable features like the ability to make bulk changes."
"In the next release, I would like to see more global endpoints for their CDN and a lower price."
"The tool needs to resolve its lack of innovation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Quite high in price, but equivalent to other enterprise products on the market"
"This is a very expensive solution but it works well."
"The solution can be one of the more expensive options, reflecting their established market position."
"The price of the solution depends upon its usage."
"Akamai is an expensive tool. Moreover, we have a pay-as-you-go model for additional features."
"From the resource component, it's very costly, and Akamai's charges are also high. So, any organization with a high-tech budget can definitely afford it, but companies with 10-15% of their revenue as a technical budget probably won't be able to. That's where they have a lot of room for improvement if they want to onboard those early users."
"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."
"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."
"We don't have any issues with the price."
"The product's pricing is minimal compared to other products."
"The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive."
"A free version of the solution is available."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"So far I use free tier and happy with it. You can subscribe to business package if needed."
"I give the price a five out of ten."
"The pricing depends on the usage, but the cheapest would be around 5,000 USD a month."
"Be careful about the options because to have all the features can be very expensive."
"The product is cheaper compared to other solutions."
"When I modeled it out, we are spending somewhere between $600 to $800 a month with Verizon EdgeCast."
report
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Comparison Review

it_user69348 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise25
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai?
The most valuable feature in managing web traffic has been the ability to handle vertical scaling effectively.
What needs improvement with Akamai?
Other solutions are probably easier to set up, but you have more capability in Akamai. It would be beneficial if they...
What is your primary use case for Akamai?
We are using many of the solutions from Akamai, with the WAF in front of it and distribution to multiple targets wher...
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...
What do you like most about Cloudflare?
Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Edgio Global CDN?
The pricing was initially very expensive. However, after improving and restructuring the application, it became more ...
What needs improvement with Edgio Global CDN?
Regarding improvements, I focused on testing and compatibility to ensure reliability across various mobile devices. B...
What is your primary use case for Edgio Global CDN?
I usually use the product for mobile development. At my last company, OmniTier, I worked as a senior principal softwa...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Cloudflare DNS
Edgio, Limelight Content Delivery, Limelight Orchestrate Delivery, Limelight Origin Storage, Global CDN, Verizon EdgeCast
 

Overview

 

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.
TD Ameritrade, Plus500, Solvay Bank, Yahoo, Deckers Brands, and Coach
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in CDN. Updated: August 2025.
866,744 professionals have used our research since 2012.