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Akamai App and API Protector vs Fortinet FortiWeb comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.8
Akamai App and API Protector offers superior traffic management, security, and cost savings for large infrastructures, despite higher costs.
Sentiment score
6.5
Fortinet FortiWeb offers cost-effective security, reducing expenses by up to 80%, enhancing reliability, and mitigating cyber threats.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Customer service is excellent, while technical support has mixed reviews with praise for expertise but needs improved availability.
Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiWeb's support is responsive and competent, though users note room for improvement in expertise and response times.
The back-end development team is available, and if any issue arises, they will help us immediately by providing solutions when contacted.
Technical Support Engineer at Intimesolutions
The expertise of engineers varies across different time zones, affecting the effectiveness of the support provided, especially during our daytime.
Chief Technology Officer at Future Point Technologies
Their support is truly exceptional when I compare it with similar large-sized companies.
Global Channel Alliances Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Akamai App and API Protector excels in scalability, seamlessly handling extensive user demands and large-scale deployments with stability.
Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiWeb is scalable but limited in hardware upgrades; virtual machines offer more adaptability for various needs.
You can add additional boxes that combine together to achieve a bigger throughput for investigation and research.
Security Team Lead at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Akamai App and API Protector is highly stable and reliable, with no reported outages or issues over years of use.
Sentiment score
7.9
Fortinet FortiWeb is generally reliable, with minimal stability issues, although some users face occasional configuration or version challenges.
We have not faced any significant issues during deployments.
Chief Technology Officer at Future Point Technologies
 

Room For Improvement

Akamai App and API Protector needs enhancements in flexibility, UI, customer support, documentation, and advanced protection features.
Fortinet FortiWeb needs improvements in upgrades, support, threat intelligence, user interface, cloud integration, reporting, stability, and load balancing.
Fine-tuning is a room for improvement in Fortinet FortiWeb.
Joint Director at PAA
If inbuilt larger logging capability is added, it would enhance usability, and features like clickable options to unblock or create exceptions would greatly assist customers in managing their websites.
Technical Support Engineer at Intimesolutions
After the customer submits a specific question and requests troubleshooting help from Fortinet support, it takes at least three to five days to provide a proper answer.
Security Team Lead at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Akamai App and API Protector is expensive yet considered worth the cost by large enterprises for its quality services.
Fortinet FortiWeb provides flexible pricing and licensing, appealing to enterprises for cost-effectiveness despite some users noting variable costs.
Most security products charge less at the time of purchase because of competition, but when we go to renewals, the prices become very high.
Joint Director at PAA
For VM machines, the price increases based on CPU configurations of 2, 4, or 8 CPUs.
Presales Engineer at SAUDI PARAMOUNT COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Fortinet FortiWeb is cost-effective compared to solutions like F5.
Chief Technology Officer at Future Point Technologies
 

Valuable Features

Akamai App and API Protector delivers scalable security, ease of use, and cost-effective protection with advanced features like DDoS defense.
Fortinet FortiWeb provides advanced security features and seamless integration, offering cost-effective, robust protection and easy deployment for enterprises.
The area in which Akamai excels compared to other competitors with a WAF is in threat intelligence, as threats continually evolve, requiring ongoing updates to backend algorithms to effectively capture smart bots.
Privacy & Risk Management Vice President, Information Security at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Fortinet FortiWeb has positively impacted my organization because most of our servers and applications are secure from hackers and other security threats.
Joint Director at PAA
If any user tries to input any text format in a web form mistakenly using SQL queries, the web solution detects the input, checking whether it's impacting or analyzing queries in the database.
Technical Support Engineer at Intimesolutions
Fortinet's pricing is way more competitive than Cisco or Palo Alto.
Global Channel Alliances Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai App and API Protector
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (8th), Cloud and Data Center Security (14th)
Fortinet FortiWeb
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 2.9%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiWeb is 8.1%, up from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiWeb8.1%
Akamai App and API Protector2.9%
Other89.0%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

Gavin Pinho - PeerSpot reviewer
Privacy & Risk Management Vice President, Information Security at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Has provided strong protection against evolving threats but still needs support for configuration fine-tuning
The standout features of Akamai App and API Protector are rooted in it being the Web Application Firewall, where all traffic gets scanned, including the implementation of web firewall rules, and after this phase, traffic proceeds through the BMP, which is Bot Management. Akamai App and API Protector exceeds expectations in terms of AI capabilities, and it genuinely combines a plethora of advanced features. The area in which Akamai excels compared to other competitors with a WAF is in threat intelligence, as threats continually evolve, requiring ongoing updates to backend algorithms to effectively capture smart bots, and Akamai's commitment in that regard is backed by an excellent team, while other providers are still catching up.
HameedAhmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Joint Director at PAA
Security threats have been reduced through seamless deployment and strong integration with other tools
I have used Fortinet FortiWeb's integration features. We have easily integrated all of the applications with the product. Most of the applications we are using are in-house built. My technical team is looking after the best features. I have not used it extensively for maybe two and a half years. I have been involved in the installation, but I am not actually using the product. I work with it from time to time but not extensively. I would assess Fortinet FortiWeb's adaptive machine learning and artificial intelligence as having new patches installed regarding artificial intelligence, but when we bought it, I think the learning feature was there. Now they have installed artificial intelligence features through patches. We have a complete portfolio of Fortinet in our organization, including FortiMail, Fortinet FortiWeb, and FortiGate, along with multi-factor authentication. All of the products are from Fortinet. Fortinet tools integrate with each other and work in conjunction. I think Fortinet FortiWeb has helped us meet regulatory compliance because we are not a regulatory organization, but our sister organization is regulatory. We have regulatory compliance with the International Civil Aviation Authority, whose audit teams have checked our data center and these security products, and they are satisfied with us. The question about leveraging Fortinet FortiWeb's automated policy management does not pertain to my domain because I am not so technical, but I am in a management role now. My engineer is more technical than me. I would rate this product an eight point five out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Performing Arts
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business60
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise36
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?
There are no significant areas for improvement on the WAF side or for Akamai App and API Protector solution; they are comprehensive in their current state.
What is your primary use case for Akamai Web Application Protector?
The main use case for Akamai App and API Protector is serving as the WAF, Web Application Firewall.
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiWeb?
The WAF profiles has been effective at mitigating web-based threats.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiWeb?
The pricing for Fortinet FortiWeb varies with different models having different prices. It depends on the requirement. For VM machines, the price increases based on CPU configurations of 2, 4, or 8...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiWeb?
There is room for improvement in Fortinet FortiWeb. The team was only from FortiGate itself. They are making new firmware versions and releasing them before checking, which leads to many bugs in th...
 

Also Known As

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender
FortiWeb Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet
Lush, Barnabas Health, Options, Riverside Healthcare, Hillsbourough County Schools, Columbia Public Schools, Schiller AG
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. Fortinet FortiWeb and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.