Akamai App and API Protector vs Prolexic comparison

Akamai App and API Protector and Prolexic are both solutions in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category. Akamai App and API Protector is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Prolexic is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.0. Akamai App and API Protector holds a 4.5% mindshare in DDOS, compared to Prolexic’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai App and API Protector users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Prolexic users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Prolexic and Akamai App and API Protector compete directly in cloud security, each with unique strengths. Prolexic is often favored for its affordability and responsive customer service, whereas Akamai is recognized for its advanced features, making it a preferred choice for functionality-focused users.

Features: Prolexic offers strong DDoS protection, efficient handling of large-scale attacks, and thorough traffic analysis. Akamai App and API Protector provides robust application-layer security, real-time analytics, and automated threat detection, positioning it as a superior option for comprehensive, feature-rich protection.

Room for Improvement: Prolexic could enhance scalability and user interface intuitiveness, while its technical documentation can be expanded. Akamai could offer simpler deployment, reduce costs, and streamline customer support processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prolexic is praised for easy deployment and reliable customer service, facilitating smooth integration. Akamai, with its advanced functionalities, might present a more complex deployment but compensates with thorough documentation and support services.

Pricing and ROI: Prolexic is noted for its competitive pricing and favorable ROI for cost-conscious businesses. Akamai, despite a higher initial cost, offers extensive protection that may validate the investment over time for those seeking advanced security capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. Prolexic Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Prolexic

April 2026

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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

Cloudflare

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 14.0%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 4.5%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prolexic is 2.6%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare	14.0%
Akamai App and API Protector	4.5%
Prolexic	2.6%
Other	78.9%

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility

From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.

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Gavin Pinho

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.

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Gavin Pinho

Privacy & Risk Management Vice President, Information Security at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Has faced challenges with bot detection while benefiting from strong threat monitoring and compliance support

Akamai's most valuable features include being industry recognized and PCI compliant, which is really great; their cloud is PCI compliant, and having a vendor that is PCI certified is crucial for organizations focused on PCI compliance. We utilize the real-time monitoring of the solution. Real-time monitoring helps us identify network vulnerabilities by allowing us to see a spike in traffic and understand the traffic levels compared to this time last month or last week. If we notice a sudden increase, we investigate further to determine if it indicates a DDoS attack or a card testing situation. In terms of threat detection capabilities, they are very good because Akamai has a SOC service that we have tapped into for active threat detection and threat hunting, and they monitor everything carefully 24/7. Scrubbing is done by Akamai as a backend service, and we utilize their SOC, which is a service that you pay additional fees for, allowing us to have our queries prioritized. Prolexic features help maintain business continuity during high-volume attacks by having built-in threat detection capabilities in its bot detection and other functionalities, as attacks usually occur through intelligent bots trying to infiltrate the system.

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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

"It is a stable solution. I rate the stability a ten out of ten...I rate the scalability a ten out of ten."

"The solution is stable, and the DNS servers are simple to use."

"The aggressive caching and DDOS mitigation are the most valuable features offered by Cloudflare."

"The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security."

"Smaller businesses have seen great ROI due to the low investment and strong performance."

"New and innovative way to protect the client's data."

"The overall performance of this solution is what makes it one of the best solutions on the market."

"Cloudflare's DNS services deliver the best performance in terms of speed and reliability."

More Cloudflare pros

"Akamai is a very reliable provider and a very safe bet that will suit most environments' needs."

"The CDN and the WAF features are the best in this solution."

"The dashboard is the most interesting feature of the Akamai portal where you can have a detailed analysis of all the attacks that are happening. You can drill down an issue and see exactly what is happening, who are the bad guys attacking your website, and how Akamai is protecting the website. That is the most valuable feature."

"It is scalable for DDoS."

"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."

"If you compare it to other products in the market, it's quite holistic in terms of the features that it provides."

"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."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"The support from Akamai is great, and they provide excellent information and mitigation services."

"The solution does not have hardware or maintenance requirements and is very easy to scale."

"They've scrubbed DDoS traffic that was blasting us offline, thus allowing legitimate traffic through and letting our service return online."

"Prolexic technical support is second to none."

"Akamai's most valuable features include being industry recognized and PCI compliant, which is really great; their cloud is PCI compliant, and having a vendor that is PCI certified is crucial for organizations focused on PCI compliance."

"The solution does not have hardware or maintenance requirements and is very easy to scale."

Cons

"Sometimes their more advanced caching tools can cause higher first-byte times and problems with JavaScript."

"Although I think it's quite good, it doesn't provide me with all the features I would expect to have if I were using Imperva."

"We experienced some downtime in the fall of 2013, causing us to switch to Incapsula."

"Access to the solution's dashboards is not intended for a service company. You are practically blind, and to validate a problem, you must view the customer's screen."

"The Always Online feature has room for improvement. It seems to work sometimes and not others even with the pro version."

"They lack a good way to manage DNS as a company, since everything is relegated to single account logins until you get to the higher levels. They have come out with a paid feature to remedy this, but I have not had a chance to fully review it yet to know if it fixes the access problem."

"It would be beneficial for us if Cloudflare could offer a scrubbing solution. This would involve taking a snapshot of my website and keeping it live during a DDoS attack, ensuring uninterrupted service for our users. DDoS attacks are typically short in duration, and having Cloudflare maintain the site's availability from its secure network would enhance the overall user experience. I would appreciate it if Cloudflare could consider implementing this feature. Many organizations already utilize similar capabilities in their CDN platforms, where a static snapshot of the web page is displayed during DDoS attacks. In terms of features, Cloudflare needs to enhance its resilience and stay more focused on adopting new technologies. For instance, solutions like F5 XC Box, Access Solution, and Distributed Cloud Solution have impressive features, and Cloudflare should strive to match and exceed those capabilities. There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features. Cloudflare should prioritize enhancements in areas such as behavioral DDoS and protection against SQL injection attacks, considering the prevalent trend of public exposure to the internet for business reasons. Overall, Cloudflare needs to invest more in advancing its feature set."

"For the free and Pro plans, Cloudflare could use a simple bot to provide information to users. This would improve support, especially for less advanced users who utilize the free components."

More Cloudflare cons

"In terms of precedence of Akamai rules, the last one is implemented. That is the one that is operational. If two rules contradict, the last one is implemented. We had a clash, but it was really tough to find that out. I would like to have a rulebook because, in their architecture documentation, it is not mentioned anywhere that if two rules clash, the last one works, and if it does not work, then what to do. This is something we were debating today with their tech support. With AWS, we get documents for the issues so that they do not occur in the future. Akamai's support and knowledge base needs to be improved."

"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."

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

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

"Akamai needs to focus on quickly responding to risks, even those that may potentially be of zero threat..Maybe some of the documentation is a little confusing. They have a lot of different places where you can go to get information, and some of the information is quite out of date."

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

"The solution could offer even more integrations."

"They should allow for multiple security configurations in one account which will enhance the scalability."

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"The web portal for checking status and traffic needs improvements."

"It's expensive, though."

"The solution needs additional product options for small and medium enterprises."

"The reports provided don’t give detailed information about DDoS mitigations, bandwidth utilization, etc."

"The solution needs additional product options for small and medium enterprises."

"In bot management, there are times when attackers find ways to bypass Akamai, which is a continuously evolving challenge."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe their performance has improved, but I'd like to refrain from discussing the pricing aspect related to the cloud. The pricing, in my opinion, could be simplified, and I think they should consider reevaluating the pricing for support, as it can be quite high. At times, this cost can make it challenging to choose CARFAGuard or opt for the support."

"The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive."

"Cloudflare's pricing is not much higher and is good for middle-level organizations."

"The solution is expensive when compared to other products but offers unlimited bandwidth."

"We are using the free version."

"The product's pricing is minimal compared to other products."

"In terms of licensing costs, we don't pay for licensing for Cloudflare. We only establish communication, then for peering, Cloudflare takes care of the cross-connection in different data centers."

"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

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

"Its price is at the medium level. It is not very high. It is also not very low. It serves the purpose."

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

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

"The solution is not expensive."

"Its price is slightly high. Every company has a justification for the high price. Overall, it feels worth the money based on how the service has been structured, but we do negotiate it."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."

"Cost depends on the volume of traffic."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is a pay-as-you-go model that is charged by the hour."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

29%

Comms Service Provider

17%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	18

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...

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Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?

Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare?

The tool's pricing is moderate. I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expens...

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 sl...

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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...

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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.

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What needs improvement with Akamai Prolexic Routed?

For the DDoS protection, I don't see any areas for improvement because they are pretty solid there, though in bot man...

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What is your primary use case for Akamai Prolexic Routed?

The main use case for DDoS protection is to mitigate risks, and there are multiple ways Akamai provides DDoS protecti...

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What advice do you have for others considering Akamai Prolexic Routed?

We have a couple of products, including DDoS protection, WAF, and Bot Manager. There are two ways Akamai does DDoS pr...

See all answers

Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 39% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

Compared 3% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Fastly vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

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Radware Cloud WAF Service vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 5% of the time

AWS WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

AWS Shield vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

More Akamai App and API Protector Competitors

StackPath DDoS Protection vs Prolexic

Compared 9% of the time

Radware DDoS vs Prolexic

Compared 9% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Prolexic

Compared 8% of the time

Lumen DDoS Mitigation vs Prolexic

Compared 8% of the time

Arbor DDoS vs Prolexic

Compared 7% of the time

More Prolexic Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

May 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector

May 2026

Download Akamai App and API Protector product report

Buyer's Guide

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

April 2026

Download Prolexic product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

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

Akamai Prolexic Routed

Overview

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?

CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

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.

Akamai

Prolexic provides industry-leading DDoS protection, ensuring businesses maintain secure and uninterrupted connectivity. It offers robust defense mechanisms designed to mitigate cyber threats effectively, allowing enterprises to focus on their core operations with confidence.

Prolexic delivers a comprehensive suite of defenses against distributed denial-of-service attacks. Leveraging a global network, it quickly mitigates threats before they affect your networks. The rapid integration and real-time threat analytics facilitate swift, intelligent responses to protect infrastructure from both sophisticated and high-volume attacks. With an emphasis on scalability and reliability, Prolexic addresses the security demands of modern enterprises, minimizing downtime and potential revenue loss.

What are the key features of Prolexic?

Global Threat Intelligence: Provides up-to-date insights into emerging threats.
Customizable Protection: Offers tailored configurations to meet specific needs.
24/7 Monitoring: Ensures constant vigilance and rapid response to incidents.
Traffic Scrubbing: Filters malicious traffic while allowing legitimate traffic through.
Real-Time Reporting: Delivers actionable insights on threat activity and trends.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Reduced Downtime: Minimizes disruptions to maintain productivity and service delivery.
Enhanced Security: Strengthens defenses against cyber threats to protect critical assets.
Cost Efficiency: Lowers potential financial impact of attacks by preventing service outages.
Scalability: Adapts to the evolving needs of growing businesses, ensuring continuous protection.
Ease of Integration: Seamlessly fits into existing networks to streamline implementation.

In industries like finance and e-commerce, Prolexic is crucial due to high threat levels. Financial services leverage its protection to secure sensitive data and ensure transaction integrity, while e-commerce platforms benefit from uninterrupted service during traffic peaks, preserving user experience and transaction volumes.

Akamai

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

Fidor Bank

Buyer's Guide

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Prolexic

April 2026

Free Report: Akamai App and API Protector vs. Prolexic

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. Prolexic and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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