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Akamai Edge DNS vs BlueCat Integrity comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

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 Edge DNS
Ranking in Managed DNS
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Domain Name System (DNS) Security (10th)
BlueCat Integrity
Ranking in Managed DNS
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
IP Address Management (IPAM) Tools (1st), DDI (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Managed DNS category, the mindshare of Akamai Edge DNS is 1.3%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BlueCat Integrity is 1.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed DNS
 

Featured Reviews

JF
High availability ensures robust protection against DDoS attacks
The high availability of Akamai Edge DNS is impressive due to their numerous POPs, which help in supporting all attacks, including DDoS counterattacks. It offers scalability, which allows me to improve and manage various DNS zones efficiently. The deployment process is very easy and straightforward for our organization. Akamai provides support in Portuguese, which is crucial for me.
Ryan Michael Patterson - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides a single pane of glass, a user-friendly GUI, and is extremely reliable
Currently, a significant portion of automation within our infrastructure relies on custom-written scripts. For instance, every time we require automated IP address space updates, we must develop the script ourselves. Looking forward, I would welcome pre-existing scripts readily deployable within our infrastructure to alleviate this burden. BlueCat currently meets our core needs, and we appreciate their service. However, we believe the platform could benefit from significant improvements, particularly in terms of ongoing maintenance and the implementation of new features. One crucial area for development is IPv6 support. As we transition to this newer networking protocol, we lack robust tools and functionalities tailored to IPv6 within BlueCat. Consequently, we'd like to see greater investment from BlueCat in building out their IPv6 feature set.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I haven't had any problems with the stability of Akamai Edge DNS in the past five years."
"We can maintain control of the configuration, and it seems to be covering the use case that we need."
"It is a very stable solution since it has a security feature that allows you to recover zone files if you accidentally delete them."
"The high availability of Akamai Edge DNS is impressive due to their numerous POPs, which help in supporting all attacks, including DDoS counterattacks."
"It's a critical infrastructure piece. This is where all the IPs are named for the whole organization. It's a big deal. It has all the features related to DNS and DHCP. It's pretty amazing."
"DNS aliases, which we use extensively in our applications are a valuable feature."
"Since implementing BlueCat, we have experienced fewer problems, anomalies, and strange issues."
"This inherent stability, derived from its Linux-based architecture, provides a well-established and reliable platform."
"The most significant advantage of BlueCat is its foundation on open-source software, specifically BIND and ISC DHCP."
"The most valuable feature is the IPAMs, which provide visibility into all the IP addresses on the network."
"The most valuable features are scalability and cloud infrastructure."
"BlueCat Integrity provides us with flexibility and visibility that we did not have before."
 

Cons

"The solution has a fairly complex setup with our cloud vendors, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle."
"CNAME flattening is a feature that Akamai does not support."
"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones."
"The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones. The price is higher than competitors, and Akamai should offer a better pricing model."
"The IPAM dashboard could be enhanced to display more information and provide data analysis features."
"Usability needs to be better."
"During our testing phase, we encountered some issues with Active Directory and DNS reverse lookups."
"One complaint about the interface is BlueCat's handling of subzones."
"I would like the GUI to be similar to AWS and Azure, where we can simply click on an item to expand it and see all the information on one page, without having to click to the next page."
"Unfortunately, BlueCat Integrity doesn't support bulk Content Security Policy configuration."
"While the product is IPAM, DNS, and DHCP, it does provide NTP functionality, but one of the things that they have yet to correct or catch up with is NTP authentication. There are new standards being pushed out and they are lagging a little bit in supporting them."
"XHA has some very unusual requirements. If you're running just two BlueCat appliances for a given area of responsibility, then in VMware, if they land on the same VM host, you can run into challenges with XHA, which we are learning."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Since Akamai is the industry leader, I imagine the solution would be a little more expensive than some other vendors."
"BlueCat Integrity is a little expensive, but it's worth the price because it offers the flexibility and features we need in our space. We have more than 25,000 employees, and it makes sense for a network of our size. It's required for us to be compliant in the defense industry. Given the restrictions we face, we must be able to easily show that we've complied with all the regulations."
"Our licensing model with BlueCat Integrity is cheaper than Infoblox."
"I am not sure about the exact pricing, but I believe their cost is lower compared to Infoblox."
"They're competitive. The way they run their model is good. Could it stand some tweaking? Sure. There are some items there. One of the things I looked at in the recent past was their container solutions. You have to pay for licensing to use their containerized platform, but the licensing doesn't include the container licensing itself. I'd love to be able to have one big package per se."
"Adaptive DNS's price depends on your network ranges, the services you want, and the level of support you require."
"Overall, it's a decent price for the product. There are other vendors that have support models and costs that are, sometimes, double what Bluecat charges."
"Compared to other solutions, BlueCat Integrity offers a competitive price."
"BlueCat Integrity meets our expectations and aligns with our budget forecast."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai Edge DNS?
It is a very stable solution since it has a security feature that allows you to recover zone files if you accidentally delete them.
What needs improvement with Akamai Edge DNS?
The only area that needs improvement is the pricing for DNS zones. The price is higher than competitors, and Akamai should offer a better pricing model.
What is your primary use case for Akamai Edge DNS?
I have experience with all Akamai products because I use all of them, including Edge DNS, API Security, and App and API Protector. I use Akamai Edge DNS to protect against DDoS attacks and to enhan...
What do you like most about BlueCat Adaptive DNS?
This inherent stability, derived from its Linux-based architecture, provides a well-established and reliable platform.
What needs improvement with BlueCat Adaptive DNS?
The solution is too granular and sometimes complex to configure. We do not always need so many details. Simpler configurations with fewer details would be beneficial. The API aspect could be improv...
What is your primary use case for BlueCat Adaptive DNS?
In the past, we did not have a DDI system, so information was distributed in different places. As our environment became more complicated with on-campus, remote offices, and cloud setups, we wanted...
 

Also Known As

Akamai Fast DNS
BlueCat Adaptive DNS, BlueCat Automation Manager, BlueCat DDI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Otto Group
Computer Sciences Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Edge DNS vs. BlueCat Integrity and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.