Akamai vs Imperva DDoS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai
Ranking in CDN
2nd
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Imperva DDoS
Ranking in CDN
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (18th), Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection (7th)
 

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 Imperva DDoS is 6.5%, down from 8.3% 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)
2.1%
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection
8.4%
 

Featured Reviews

Bill Lee - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 23, 2023
Very scalable, sustainable, and flexible with good technical support
Our company uses the solution as a content delivery network. We enhance website performance and have about 150 customers in Taiwan who use the solution.  The solution is very sustainable and flexible.  The solution could offer more integrations.  I have been using the solution for one year.…
ST
Apr 13, 2020
Good DDoS and bot features, but it needs support for SSL management
The most valuable features for us are the DDoS and Bot I would like to have support for SSL management and secure DNS. We have been using Imperva for more than a year. We have had no problems with stability. Imperva is a scalable solution. We have about 20 users but it's protecting our main…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"Akamai's scalability is good."
"We can see how much traffic can be downloaded on the portal."
"Akamai has a very established network of PoPs globally."
"With 300 servers deployed worldwide, it's highly scalable and is the best web application firewall on the market."
"This solution can be used for web , video and media caching and streaming."
"The most valuable feature of Akamai is its ease of use and simple integration. Additionally, the solution has new aspects added to it regularly."
"​Technical support provides good, quick responses."
"Imperva DDoS is fairly stable, and its availability is quite high."
"Incapsula takes care of the CDN infrastructure and bandwidth volume, providing several enterprise "load balancing" features."
"DDoS protection and WAF are the most valuable features. It is easy to deploy a service. It is easy and quick to deploy to a new website."
"An improvement has been to our website: It increases the speed of our response, the capacity of the site, and optimizes the bandwidth.​"
"The most valuable features for us are the DDoS and Bot."
"The most valuable features are DDoS protection."
"Its unique interface for managing security performance and ease of use are the most valuable features of this solution."
 

Cons

"Akamai's configuration part is an area of concern where improvements are required to make the process easy."
"Akamai should improve its integrations."
"The product's scalability can be improved since certain shortcomings regarding the security part of the solution currently exist."
"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."
"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."
"I'd like to see improvements in log files and data visualizations within the interface."
"One area for improvement with Akamai could be pricing."
"The fact that it is an expensive product is its only shortcoming."
"We faced issues regarding compliance with client procedures. The client had strict compliance rules, and Imperva needed to be on a VM, while the client required containerization, causing a conflict. They went with Imperva for the on-premise version but shelved the cloud project due to too many blockers."
"I would like to see automated reporting to improve visibility."
"Imperva always needs to adjust to new versions of cyber attacks, it needs to be faster, improve the resiliency of the software of the solution."
"It would be better if we were able to manage and apply changes to multiple websites/web applications, and search WAF logs for multiple websites, via the Incapsula dashboard."
"A limited tool if you're looking to customize."
"It needs to be improved every time there are new attacks."
"Imperva DDoS does not provide version control."
"There’s nothing that’s missing in terms of features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 the solution depends upon its usage."
"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."
"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 solution can be one of the more expensive options, reflecting their established market position."
"Quite high in price, but equivalent to other enterprise products on the market"
"Pricing could be more competitive."
"The data packages are higher than our needs so we end up paying for data that we don't use."
"There is a license or subscription renewal that our customers pay."
"We have an issue with Imperva Incapsula in the Iraqi market because of the high price."
"The solution's price is high for small companies."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
"It is expensive."
"The cost is on par with other solutions such as Cloudflare and Akamai."
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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
Educational Organization
27%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

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.
What needs improvement with Akamai?
One area for improvement with Akamai could be pricing.
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...
What do you like most about Imperva Incapsula?
We use Imperva DDoS to stop DDoS attacks and reduce the amount of unwanted queries against web services or web scraping.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Imperva Incapsula?
The solution is very affordable. It's based on the traffic utilization, the average traffic utilization, not the DDoS traffic. Therefore, if you're being DDoSed, you don't pay extra for the absorpt...
What needs improvement with Imperva Incapsula?
It’s hard to think of an improvement. The three-second service level agreement is already better than the competition. You would ordinarily say something like API protection. However, they've got t...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Imperva Incapsula
 

Learn More

 

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
Hitachi, BNZ, Bitstamp, Moz, InnoGames, BTCChina, Wix, LivePerson, Zillow and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai vs. Imperva DDoS and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.