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Akamai App and API Protector pros and cons

Vendor: Akamai

4.2 out of 5

29 reviews
100% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Akamai App and API Protector effectively handles DDoS attacks and accelerates product launches with protective infrastructure, CDN, WAF, and adaptable custom rules. Despite scalable usage-based pricing, it faces configuration delays and lacks advanced WAF features. While praised for technical support, improvements are needed in pricing, outdated documentation, and custom rules. It suits large-scale implementations but requires additional protection for layer seven. Buyers should weigh support advantages against configuration and documentation limitations.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Akamai App and API Protector is scalable and handles DDoS attacks efficiently, which is essential for fast-paced product deployment and infrastructure protection.

DDoS protection, customizable WAF features, and CDN efficiency are highlighted as some of the most valuable aspects of Akamai App and API Protector, enhancing web application security.

Charges for Akamai App and API Protector are usage-based, particularly beneficial for managing large volumes of Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) while keeping costs tied to actual traffic and labor for onboarding.

Custom rules capabilities cater to specialized client requirements, making Akamai App and API Protector adaptable for customized security projects.

Technical support from Akamai App and API Protector is noted for being responsive and helpful, providing significant assistance compared to other CDN providers.

CONS

Pushing configurations across a network has issues, taking about 20 minutes, and retracting requires another 20 minutes.

Pricing is considered high and could be reduced.

Customer support and documentation need improvement.

Akamai needs better application layer attack protection compared to competitors like Cloudflare.

Custom rules and analytics reporting could be improved for better visibility in the OEM console.

Akamai App and API Protector Pros review quotes

Security Architect at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Mar 11, 2019

It is scalable for DDoS.

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AC

CTO at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 18, 2019

It enables us to move faster with new products because we have this layer of protection set up in our infrastructure.

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Head of Cloud Security & DevSecOps at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Jan 26, 2020

The most valuable feature is the DDoS protection, which is the main reason we got it.

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Akamai App and API Protector

Free Report: Akamai App and API Protector Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Akamai App and API Protector. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

879,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer1362408

Solutions Architect, Cloud & SDDC at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 8, 2020

The CDN and the WAF features are the best.

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Head of Information at a leisure / travel company with 51-200 employees

Mar 29, 2021

The solution can scale extremely well.

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YA

Co-Founder and CEO at PT Eugenea Kreasi Utama

Jan 10, 2024

The features are powerful and better than F5.

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RB

Head of Infrastructure at AIA

Aug 10, 2021

I like that the charges are all based on usage and labor costs. For the time that we spend onboarding almost 252020 FQDN, Akamai charges us only for the traffic usage, but it's only charging us for the labor costs for onboarding.

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CF

Senior Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Oct 7, 2021

The most valuable feature is the custom rules feature. This is because many of our customers require a lot of custom rules. Because it's a very customized project for our customers, I think they have the best of everything already.

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reviewer1892376

Chief Technologist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Jul 7, 2022

They have a fantastic tool for analyzing and viewing your traffic.

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Cloud Architecture Consultant at Metaage

Feb 23, 2023

The solution easily identifies, delays, or allows business traffic.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 26)

Akamai App and API Protector Cons review quotes

Security Architect at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Mar 11, 2019

There are some issues with pushing configurations across a network. It still takes about 20 minutes and that means to retract it's another 20 minutes.

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AC

CTO at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Aug 18, 2019

The WAF features definitely have a lot of room for improvement. A lot of the WAF is really basic. For some products or some of our solutions, we need to run a second layer of more advanced WAF. If it had better layer seven protection then we would not need a second WAF.

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Head of Cloud Security & DevSecOps at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Jan 26, 2020

The interface is a little bit clunky and can be improved.

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Akamai App and API Protector

Free Report: Akamai App and API Protector Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Akamai App and API Protector. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.

879,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer1362408

Solutions Architect, Cloud & SDDC at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 8, 2020

Could integrate more features for each security.

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Head of Information at a leisure / travel company with 51-200 employees

Mar 29, 2021

The pricing could be reduced a bit.

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YA

Co-Founder and CEO at PT Eugenea Kreasi Utama

Jan 10, 2024

Support and the pricing need to improve.

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RB

Head of Infrastructure at AIA

Aug 10, 2021

It would be better if there weren't any issues with latency. We had latency issues, but I think they are all solved now.

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CF

Senior Security Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Oct 7, 2021

They are already very flexible, but room for improvement is there. Reports generation could be better and should be improved.

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reviewer1892376

Chief Technologist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

Jul 7, 2022

It's fine for a simple tool, but as I recall, if you encounter a lot of bots, scrapers, and other things, you'll need this tool bot and this other thing they offer called Bot Manager.

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Cloud Architecture Consultant at Metaage

Feb 23, 2023

The solution could offer even more integrations.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 26)

Product Categories

Product Categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Cloud and Data Center Security

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See all alternatives

Product Categories

Product Categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Cloud and Data Center Security

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Cloudflare vs Akamai App and API Protector

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Akamai App and API Protector

Cloudflare One vs Akamai App and API Protector

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Akamai App and API Protector

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Akamai App and API Protector

Azure Front Door vs Akamai App and API Protector

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Akamai App and API Protector

F5 Advanced WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

NetScaler vs Akamai App and API Protector

AWS WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Akamai App and API Protector

Arbor DDoS vs Akamai App and API Protector

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs Akamai App and API Protector

Radware DDoS vs Akamai App and API Protector

Azure Web Application Firewall vs Akamai App and API Protector

See all alternatives

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