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Akamai API Security vs NGINX App Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Akamai API Security
Ranking in API Security
1st
Average Rating
6.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NGINX App Protect
Ranking in API Security
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (15th), Container Security (23rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the API Security category, the mindshare of Akamai API Security is 23.5%, down from 27.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX App Protect is 3.1%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Security
 

Featured Reviews

Deepesh  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Excellent API authentication support but needs better analytics and reporting
I conducted a proof of concept for four months to identify PII and financial information exposed through APIs. Primarily, the API part is effective. I have been using Akamai AppMyWAF. The tool's API authentication, tokenization, and enhanced scalability and performance are valuable features. Akamai's support is impeccable, and its plug-and-play features are helpful.
Saurav Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers protection to users from external threats
NGINX App Protect secures our company's application, and it has helped me a lot, considering that we have critical infrastructure in India where we see how lots of attacks come onto our organization's servers. The tool offers protection against multiple threats present in India's IT ecosystem. The tool helps our company to make our payments secure, meaning it has the ability to provide a secure payment environment in India. Speaking about the improvements in our company's application performance since implementing NGINX App Protect, the gRPC support for the solution is very low. My company is not getting any proper documentation on how to deploy gRPC over NGINX App Protect. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. People can use the product as their company's base server, WAF, or for its proxy manager, depending on the business requirements. My company follows PCI DSS compliance because we operate in a payment-related industry. Right now, my company follows all the standards, so we comply with all the requirements and policies. I rate the tool an eight 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

"API throttling is the most valuable feature of Akamai API Security."
"The API part is effective."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its integration with API gateways, WAP and with part of their SDLC."
"It is a very good tool for load balancing."
"NGINX App Protect is stable."
"It's very easy to deploy."
"The most valuable feature of NGINX App Protect is its open source."
"The tool's most valuable feature is the OWASP certification. Additionally, the tool's ability to enforce strong passwords and OTP within minutes is impressive. With its analytics and recommendations, it is a very good solution."
"The most valuable feature is that I can establish different services from the firewall."
"NGINX App Protect's best features are auto-learning, which creates a profile of applications that are deployed, bot protection, and force protection, which lets you configure your brute force policy and alert for and prevent brute force attacks."
"NGINX App Protect has complete control over the HTTP session."
 

Cons

"The challenge I found was with contextualization and how analytics are generated."
"I think it would be good if they can integrate more with API gateways as this is currently limited."
"It would be beneficial to use machine learning and API throttling together to identify how the APIs are called and whether it's coming from the right person or the wrong person."
"The configuration needs to be more flexible because it is difficult to do things that are outside of the ordinary."
"The product's price is high, making it an area of concern where improvements are required. The tool's licensing model is also not good."
"The solution needs to be improved in the e-commerce portal."
"It's challenging if you need to go for a high throughput."
"It doesn't have more advanced features like no false-positive security, which you can configure in Advanced WAF."
"I encountered issues with NGINX App Protect while trying to upgrade custom rules."
"As far as scalability, it takes a long time for deployment."
"The setup of NGINX App Protect is complex. The full process took one week to complete. Additionally, we had to change the network infrastructure platform which took one month."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a limit to the number of APIs we can use inside a bundle, and we have to pay extra if we exceed that limit."
"There is a license needed to use NGINX App Protect."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
"There is a monthly or annual subscription to use NGINX App Protect. There are not any additional costs to the subscription."
"The price of NGINX App Protect is approximately $3,000 annually. All of our licenses are observed by a managed service partner."
"The price of NGINX App Protect is not much different from the products that fall under the leader category of Gartner Magic Quadrant."
"The product's price is high."
"Our licensing costs are about $40,000 a year."
"There are not any additional costs we had to pay to use NGINX App Protect."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai API Security?
API throttling is the most valuable feature of Akamai API Security.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai API Security?
I mentioned that support from Akamai is expensive yet it is worth it.
What needs improvement with Akamai API Security?
The challenge I found was with contextualization and how analytics are generated. Reports were sent in a raw format without proper analytics. There was no mechanism to identify which APIs will alwa...
What needs improvement with NGINX App Protect?
The product's price is high, making it an area of concern where improvements are required. The tool's licensing model is also not good. The product should have more documentation, especially like t...
 

Also Known As

Noname Security
NGINX WAF, NGINX Web Application Firewall
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai API Security vs. NGINX App Protect and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.