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Akamai App and API Protector vs NGINX App Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai App and API Protector
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection (4th), Cloud and Data Center Security (10th)
NGINX App Protect
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Container Security (21st), API Security (4th)
 

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 NGINX App Protect is 2.2%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

Deepesh  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Tomaz Sobczak - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 25, 2024
Signature-based detection, DOS protection, and bot protection
NGINX App Protect is easier to automate and configure, or manage from an API. This is good for securing applications. However, it's not suitable for more complex tasks. NGINX App Protect positively impacted performance changes. There's a cache or it works like a proxy, so it can speed up…

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 support that we got from their technical team has been fantastic. I have never experienced this level of support from other CDN providers."
"Adaptive stream delivery and WAF protection are valuable."
"Akamai Web Application Protector is a good solution that provides basic web application protection."
"I can attest to its benefits in terms of understanding and mitigating threats...The solution's technical support team seems to be pretty responsive."
"Everything will be handled by Akamai's system before it reaches our infrastructure."
"The solution can scale extremely well."
"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."
"It has the best documentation features."
"The most valuable feature of NGINX App Protect is the reverse proxy."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of NGINX App Protect is its open source."
"There's a cache, or it works like a proxy, so it can speed up applications."
"The stability of the product is very impressive since it handles 60,000 to 70,000 requests or transactions per second."
"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 initial setup was simple and took three to four days."
 

Cons

"The solution could offer even more integrations."
"It could have better analytics and reporting visibility in the OEM console."
"One thing I asked them is to integrate the API discovery product that they have and push that data into Akamai App and API Protector so that we do not have two types of reviews to identify the type of traffic. We already know the APIs that are frequently getting used, so analysis becomes easier. We can integrate both products and use them."
"Akamai App and API Protector is very new to me, so I do not have any insights on improvement areas for the product. However, when we ask for some help, it can take some time. We understand that the job is done by professionals, but if that time can be reduced, it would be great."
"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."
"The pricing could be reduced a bit."
"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."
"The custom rules must be improved."
"The integration of NGINX App Protect could improve."
"The product's user interface is an area with shortcomings as it can be quite confusing for users, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Right now, the tool doesn't provide an option revolving around update feeds, specifically the signature update option in the UI."
"I encountered issues with NGINX App Protect while trying to upgrade custom rules."
"Areas for improvement would be if NGINX could scan for vulnerabilities and learn and update the signatures of DoS attacks."
"Its technical support could be better."
"NGINX App Protect could improve security."
"It's challenging if you need to go for a high throughput."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you want quality, you have to pay the price. Its price is fair. Their account managers are also very helpful. They help you a lot with pricing even though they are working with Akamai."
"The product is expensive, but it is worth the money."
"One reason not all people use Akamai is that it is a little bit more expensive than some other providers."
"The solution is not expensive."
"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."
"Akamai is very expensive."
"Price-wise, I would say Akamai's pricing is competitive."
"Cost depends on the volume of traffic."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
"The product's price is high."
"There is a license needed to use NGINX App Protect."
"The price of NGINX App Protect is approximately $3,000 annually. All of our licenses are observed by a managed service partner."
"NGINX is not expensive."
"Our licensing costs are about $40,000 a year."
"There is a monthly or annual subscription to use NGINX App Protect. There are not any additional costs to the subscription."
"NGINX App Protect is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
5%
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender
NGINX WAF, NGINX Web Application Firewall
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. NGINX App Protect and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.