Akamai vs Fastly comparison

Akamai

Read 18 Akamai reviews

6,752 Views
6,045 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Fastly

Read 6 Fastly reviews

1,348 Views
1,149 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Akamai

Fastly

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Akamai and Fastly based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two CDN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai vs. Fastly Report (Updated: July 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai vs. Fastly

July 2024

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Helped 793,295 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Akamai

Ranking in CDN

2nd

Average Rating

9.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Fastly

Ranking in CDN

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (17th), Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Akamai is 15.4%, down from 15.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fastly is 3.6%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CDN

Unique Categories:

No other categories found

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

1.5%

Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection

2.9%

Featured Reviews

Nick Wilsdon

CEO at Torque

Jun 29, 2023

The product is very strong in distribution and security, but they must improve the data visualizations within the interface

Fastly is just beating Akamai on computing at the moment. It's a very fast-evolving space. They are all trying to release new functionalities. In some respect, Akamai is better than CloudFront. It's a big decision to decide which CDN to work with. If someone plans to use the product, they must engage Akamai's teams and get a good idea of what these platforms are like. For enterprises, Akamai will clearly tell them what they are dealing with. Akamai would want to have quite a few conversations with the individual teams to get a feel for the functionality they can give. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

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Nick Wilsdon

CEO at Torque

Jun 29, 2023

An easily scalable and stable product that provides exceptional support

I use the product mostly for its Compute@Edge capabilities. Fastly is a content delivery network with various functions inside CDN. It has a functionality around security. It also has a content delivery functionality, which is a more standard function within CDN. If you are accessing a website…

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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

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

"With 300 servers deployed worldwide, it's highly scalable and is the best web application firewall on the market."

"The most valuable feature of Akamai is its ease of use and simple integration. Additionally, the solution has new aspects added to it regularly."

"The solution's technical support is very prompt and good."

"It's a scalable and reliable solution."

"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."

More Akamai pros

"Its initial setup process is straightforward."

"Rate limiting is a good feature that protects from volumetric attacks."

"The product helps our organization to access sites located in different regions quickly."

"Support is good; the product works as advertised. We have a Slack connection with them. So we can basically ask for help, live, engage, and ring when they respond. Very quickly."

"Compute@Edge features are valuable to me."

"Fastly uses configuration versioning, where you can deploy a new version in less than one minute."

Cons

"Akamai's configuration part is an area of concern where improvements are required to make the process easy."

"The fact that it is an expensive product is its only shortcoming."

"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."

"It would be better if we could be notified about specific attacks."

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

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

"Sometimes a little hard to navigate around the user console."

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

More Akamai cons

"Stronger analytics would be helpful, like showing configurations that haven't served a certain amount of traffic in a while. With many properties, things can get lost track of - duplicates or unused configurations not properly decommissioned."

"It is missing a "staging" platform to deploy a test configuration with all of the real settings, which would allow us to properly test before putting it into production."

"The product should provide improved bot detection and management."

"Support is not that great."

"Fastly's customer service area needs improvement."

"The solution's pricing could be better."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The price of Akamai could be less expensive."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"The solution can be one of the more expensive options, reflecting their established market position."

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

More Akamai pricing and cost advice

"In my opinion, Fastly is priced competitively."

"The pricing has been very competitive."

"Fastly is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The solution is cheaper than other products in the market."

"I've generally found Fastly to be very competitive in pricing, especially around Compute@Edge."

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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

Educational Organization

27%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Akamai?

One area for improvement with Akamai could be pricing.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Akamai?

Akamai is useful for web content delivery in business because it helps improve speed, reliability, and security. Caching content closer to users reduces latency and improves load times. This is esp...

See all answers

What do you like most about Fastly?

Support is good; the product works as advertised. We have a Slack connection with them. So we can basically ask for help, live, engage, and ring when they respond. Very quickly.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fastly?

The pricing has been very competitive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fastly?

Stronger analytics would be helpful like showing configurations that haven't served a certain amount of traffic in a while. With many properties, things can get lost track of - duplicates or unused...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cloudflare vs Akamai

Compared 36% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Akamai

Compared 24% of the time

Imperva DDoS vs Akamai

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon CloudFront vs Akamai

Compared 8% of the time

AWS Global Accelerator vs Akamai

Compared 4% of the time

More Akamai Competitors

Cloudflare vs Fastly

Compared 18% of the time

AWS WAF vs Fastly

Compared 11% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs Fastly

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon CloudFront vs Fastly

Compared 7% of the time

Imperva DDoS vs Fastly

Compared 6% of the time

More Fastly Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Akamai

July 2024

Download Akamai product report

Buyer's Guide

Fastly

July 2024

Download Fastly product report

Learn More

Akamai

Fastly

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.

Fastly helps the world’s most popular digital businesses keep pace with their customer expectations by delivering fast, secure, and scalable online experiences. Businesses trust Fastly’s edge cloud platform to accelerate the pace of technical innovation, mitigate evolving threats, and scale on demand.

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

Twitter, Airbnb, Alaska Airlines, Pinterest, Vimeo, The Guardian, The New York Times, Ticketmaster, The Drupal Association, Opera, about.com, imgur, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, New Relic, shopify, Shazam, Firebase

Buyer's Guide

Akamai vs. Fastly

July 2024

Free Report: Akamai vs. Fastly

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai vs. Fastly and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.

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