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Akamai vs Uplynk vs Windows Azure CDN 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 June 2025, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Akamai is 17.7%, up from 15.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Uplynk is 3.6%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows Azure CDN is 3.0%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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.
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.
Muhammad ZaheerNazir - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps to handle edge cases and has purge features
I believe Windows Azure CDN can improve monitoring and measuring overall end-user performance. Providing monitoring tools or agents that can be integrated into our pages would be highly beneficial. Setting up a custom domain with Windows Azure CDN involves proving domain ownership, which can take some time. The process is relatively straightforward if your DNS or domain registrar is already integrated with Microsoft. However, the verification process may be more time-consuming if you use a different service provider.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Akamai's scalability is good."
"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."
"Akamai is leveraged by many top-level businesses, ensuring reliability and support in case of outages or issues."
"Akamai provides low-latency throughput."
"This solution can be used for web , video and media caching and streaming."
"We can see how much traffic can be downloaded on the portal."
"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 initial setup is simple, especially for SaaS solutions."
"The tool's most valuable feature is the Uplynk platform for streaming purposes."
"The customer support and service responsiveness were excellent."
"It's super easy to use and integrate with."
"The Rules Engine V4 is the most valuable feature."
"The product is easy to use and easy to implement."
"The fact that it just delivers what it is supposed to do is its most valuable feature...The initial setup is very straightforward."
"The UI is very intuitive."
"I enjoy engaging in discussions with colleagues possessing unique expertise. I leverage the three platforms—Azure, Google, and AWS extensively. This allows me to offer diverse solutions to customers, commonly referred to as a multi-cloud approach."
"We use the product for faster content delivery with low latency."
"I like that CDN offers a routing feature."
"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that one can access Windows Azure CDN from anywhere."
"It is a stable solution."
"The geolocation feature is very important because many colleagues travel worldwide and need to access information from anywhere. The product has improved security."
 

Cons

"The product's scalability can be improved since certain shortcomings regarding the security part of the solution currently exist."
"It would be better if we could be notified about specific attacks."
"Akamai should improve its integrations."
"Akamai's configuration part is an area of concern where improvements are required to make the process easy."
"Sometimes a little hard to navigate around the user console."
"When we open tickets, we have a delay in response times."
"One area for improvement with Akamai could be pricing."
"Local connectivity would be great linked to our own telecom/Cablevision CDN."
"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."
"We could not create more than 15 custom rules."
"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."
"I aim to enhance the reporting."
"The response time of the support team must be improved."
"Azure is continuously improving its CDN but the documentation should be up-to-date."
"They should include configuration for cache rules."
"There were a few bugs that were very disappointing. So, that is a part of the reason why we started using Fastly."
"Windows Azure CDN should lower its prices."
"We have experienced issues with switch connectivity."
"Exploring shared access solutions with cloud accounts would be a beneficial choice."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Akamai is an expensive tool. Moreover, we have a pay-as-you-go model for additional features."
"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."
"Quite high in price, but equivalent to other enterprise products on the market"
"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 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."
"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."
"It comes at a relatively affordable cost."
"I rate the price of Windows Azure CDN a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is high."
"The tool's pricing is cheap."
"The solution's price is above the medium range."
"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."
"The solution's price depends on how much traffic you have. So, it was okay for us. Payments are to be made on a monthly basis since one has to pay for what they used."
"The pricing of the solution depends on usage and varies based on the company's needs. If you want additional features like advanced logging, it will be pricier. However, it could be cheaper if you don't need those features. It all depends on the resources and requirements."
"The tool's pricing is cheap."
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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
16%
Educational Organization
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
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?
Akamai could improve by having a more robust and responsive support team. While the support is not bad, there is room...
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....
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...
What do you like most about Windows Azure CDN?
One of the tool's best features is its ability to handle edge cases. For instance, we encountered a situation where w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Windows Azure CDN?
The pricing of the solution depends on usage and varies based on the company's needs. If you want additional features...
What needs improvement with Windows Azure CDN?
Windows Azure CDN should lower its prices.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

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

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
TD Ameritrade, Plus500, Solvay Bank, Yahoo, Deckers Brands, and Coach
NORAD, Agreeya Mobility
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in CDN. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.