Akamai App and API Protector vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall comparison

Akamai and Cloudflare are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Akamai is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.7, while Cloudflare is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.4. Akamai holds a 4.0% mindshare in WAF, compared to Cloudflare’s 7.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Cloudflare users who would recommend it.

Akamai App and API Protector

Read 28 Akamai App and API Protector reviews

4,224 Views
3,066 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cloudflare Web Application ...

Read 21 Cloudflare Web Application Firewall reviews

7,103 Views
5,262 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Akamai App and API Protector

Cloudflare Web Application ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Akamai App and API Protector and Cloudflare Web Application Firewall based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. Cloudflare Web Application Firewall Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Akamai App and API Protector

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection (4th), Cloud and Data Center Security (10th)

Cloudflare Web Application ...

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 4.0%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is 7.7%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Featured Reviews

Deepesh Singh

Senior Engineering Manager Cybersecurity at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 9, 2024

Bot Manager and different features to manage threats

As a product, it has good capabilities, including professional support. However, it's risky for us to rely on AI for real-time traffic management. We use in-house analytics but avoid automatic actions due to their high impact. For example, I live in a developing country. Everyone has different types of phones, apps, and everything else. So, if someone is using a legacy phone, that is still a use case here. If AI decides that this is an end-of-life phone or end-of-life Android operating system, it starts blocking that traffic. We may potentially lose millions or probably thousands and hundreds of thousands of hits per second. Everything is all about how well we serve payments because we're into payments. So, AI is used for analytics but not for real-time decisions. We can't afford to block traffic based on AI models due to the variety of devices and operating systems our users have.

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SachidDoshi

Senior Enterprise Security Architect at HGS - Hinduja Global Solutions

Apr 9, 2024

Offers a huge signature repository and is superiorly effective in mitigating DDoS attacks

The solution's learning curve can still be further reduced, which presently stands at two or three months. The product has a custom rule set that users can modify and manifest as needed. The vendor can probably shorten the learning curve using cutting-edge technologies like AI. The solution provider can also work around the web applications and identify the toolset that needs to be implemented to deploy the solution in less time. The vendor has launched a SASE product that can function with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall, but many improvements are needed in terms of features, such as the web filtering feature, and CASB has not yet been added.

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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

"I have contacted the support team of Akamai... I am happy with their responses and answers to my problems."

"The product is user-friendly."

"We are getting security for each and every API."

"It gives us a report of traffic. It gives us a report of the day-to-day URL traffic, and it also gives an individual report. If we reach out to Akamai, they give us the IPs as well."

"The solution can scale extremely well."

"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."

"It is scalable for DDoS."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is a good solution that provides basic web application protection."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"It is a SaaS solution unlike much of the competition."

"We like that there's load balancing, firewall capabilities, DDoS protection, et cetera, all covered by Cloudflare."

"The integration of Cloudflare with Cloud Suite is its most valuable feature."

"We extensively use the solution every day. The solution is very stable; we haven’t seen any glitches."

"It protects web applications efficiently."

"Caching is the most valuable feature of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall."

"The Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's most valuable feature is its ease of configuration."

"The product has a valuable security control functionality."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pros

Cons

"It would be nice if Akamai Web Application Protector's price is lowered and made cheaper."

"The product should provide a secure NTP."

"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."

"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."

"We are experimenting with EdgeWorkers to write our own code at the Edge level. It could grow to be much better."

"The custom rules must be improved."

"I do not see any area for improvement. Akamai is already maintaining its own databases for the security concerns, vulnerabilities, and attacks that are there. If anything, they should have a solution in the infrastructure security area as well. They should not be only in cloud cybersecurity; they should also be in infrastructure security."

"If we talk about application layer attacks, including WAF, CloudFlare is leading. Akamai can focus a bit more on the application layer attacks and how to protect them."

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"The blocked logs are difficult to read at times."

"Their documentation could be better. They don't have documentation that explains everything well. They have documentation for everything you're looking for, but they lack a single piece of documentation to tie everything together. As a new user or beginner, it took us a little bit of time to figure out how to put all these things in place."

"I have experienced some difficulties with Cloudflare's support as a customer based in India."

"We have noticed some latency when the call goes through the firewall. That could be improved."

"There could be an option to duplicate the cluster to maintain the consistency of rules."

"Support can be challenging at times."

"The reporting could be more granular."

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall should include port forwarding features."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive, but it is worth the money."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."

"The solution is expensive."

"The price they are offering is quite reasonable for premium customers, but it's very expensive if you're a small and medium-sized enterprises."

"Price-wise, I would say Akamai's pricing is competitive."

"There is no license at all for Akamai. They are going to charge us only for the usage."

"It's more expensive than others, but the ROI is good for large-scale infrastructure."

"Based on the billing discussions in the DevOps team, Akamai's cost does not seem to be a major thing. However, LOE is an issue. When it comes to support, we know that even all the competitors do this. For a 30-minute issue, they give us a LOE of one or two hours. That is a basic practice, but that is something we worry about."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"The pricing model is very straightforward compared to the competition. You just pay per month for the product and usage."

"The solution's pricing option needs to be more transparent for enterprise clients."

"It is not too pricey."

"We pay $210 per month for CloudFlare WAF."

"What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I believe the pricing is not the best, but it's reasonable and acceptable. We also use the McAfee system in parallel. In terms of pricing, its okay - not great, but not bad either. It falls in the middle, which is acceptable. In terms of support licensing, last time, we were searching for a solution, and we considered products from resellers rather than directly from the cloud provider. However, the pricing we encountered was exceptionally high. As a result, we are inclined to select support from the reseller."

"The solution is expensive."

"The annual licensing fee is $10,000 USD."

"It starts at $20 and can easily go up to $200 monthly"

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.

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815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

27%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai Web Application Protector?

The product is user-friendly.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai Web Application Protector?

The price is higher than others. It could be about 80% to 70% more expensive than other tools. So, it’s not just a slight difference.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?

It could have better analytics and reporting visibility in the OEM console.

See all answers

What do you like most about Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The product has a valuable security control functionality.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

From my perspective, the price of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is quite affordable, rating around an eight or nine.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The dashboard could be more user-friendly, and a console approach like Cloudflare CLI could enhance its usability.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 14% of the time

AWS WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 12% of the time

Prolexic vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 7% of the time

Arbor DDoS vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 7% of the time

Cloudflare vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 5% of the time

More Akamai App and API Protector Competitors

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 22% of the time

AWS WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 15% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 11% of the time

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Atomic ModSecurity Rules vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector

November 2024

Download Akamai App and API Protector product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

November 2024

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall report

Download Cloudflare Web Application Firewall product report

Also Known As

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender

Cloudflare WAF

Learn More

Akamai

Cloudflare

Overview

Akamai App and API Protector provides website security by preventing DDoS attacks, acting as an application firewall, managing content delivery, and monitoring APIs. It adapts to threat profiles and is used for fast media delivery and identifying malicious activities.

Akamai App and API Protector offers strong protection, adaptable security features, and efficient traffic management. Its WAF blocks IP addresses and country-specific threats while preventing SQL injections. Companies utilize it for scalable CDN services and comprehensive traffic analysis. Known for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly dashboard, this protector stands out for its customizable rules and technical support. Users also highlight the ease of integration and detailed attack insights available through its advanced dashboard.

What are the key features of Akamai App and API Protector?

DDoS Protection: Strong defense against Distributed Denial of Service attacks.
Scalable CDN: Manages content delivery efficiently under high traffic loads.
WAF Capabilities: Blocks specific IPs and countries, prevents SQL injections.
Traffic Filtering: Analyzes and controls incoming requests to maintain security.
Adaptive Stream Delivery: Adjusts content delivery to meet bandwidth needs.

What benefits should users expect?

Cost-Effectiveness: Provides robust security tools at a competitive price.
Enhanced Security: Comprehensive protection against cyber threats.
Scalability: Easily handles increasing traffic and data loads.
Ease of Integration: Simple integration with existing systems.
Insightful Analytics: Offers data-driven insights into traffic and attack patterns.

In media, Akamai App and API Protector ensures smooth streaming by handling high bandwidth demands. E-commerce companies use it to guard against fraud and data breaches. Financial sectors rely on its ability to protect sensitive transactions. Implementations in healthcare focus on safeguarding patient data while maintaining compliance with regulations.

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's intuitive dashboard enables users to build powerful rules through easy clicks and also provides Terraform integration. Every request to the WAF is inspected against the rule engine and the threat intelligence curated from protecting over 27 Million websites. Suspicious requests can be blocked, challenged or logged as per the needs of the user while legitimate requests are routed to the destination, agnostic of whether it lives on-premise or in the cloud. Analytics and Cloudflare Logs enable visibility into actionable metrics for the user.

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

crunchbase, udacity, marketo, okcupid, zendesk

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

October 2024

Free Report: Akamai App and API Protector vs. Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. Cloudflare Web Application Firewall and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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