In terms of improvement, overall, Akamai Bot Manager is a strong solution, but there are a few areas where it could be improved. One is the learning curve for new users because the platform offers many configuration options and detailed analytics. It can take time for teams to become fully comfortable with tuning policies and interpreting reports. Another area for improvement is reporting and dashboard customization. While the existing visibility is very good, having more flexible and user-friendly reporting options would make it easier to create tailored views for different stakeholders. Additionally, more out-of-the-box guidance and recommendations for policy tuning could help organizations accelerate deployment and reduce the effort required during the initial setup. One additional area for improvement would be simplifying policy management for organizations that have many applications and APIs. As deployment grows, having more automation and AI-driven recommendations for policy tuning could help reduce administrative effort. One additional improvement I would mention is enhancing automation and operational efficiency. For example, more AI-driven recommendations for policy tuning, anomaly detection, and remediation actions could help the security team respond even faster to evolving bot threats.
The biggest friction point I have encountered with Akamai Bot Manager has been the occasional delay in bot detection updates. If I could change one thing, I would add more real-time customization so we could adjust thresholds on the fly. This would help us respond even faster, reducing false positives and freeing me up to work on the latest threats.
Infrastructure Securiy & Cyber Engineer at a transportation company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
Nov 10, 2025
Because we are an airline, we have various attacks on our website and application, and we really have to involve our experience and try to find attacks by ourselves. These days attacks are very sophisticated and they are trying to manipulate in the same way as humans, so the anomaly feature is not really helpful. Bots are very clever these days and they move through the website the way humans do. We are not really using it because again, the attacks are sophisticated. We need something that involves different AI models that can try to find similarity in all the data that we are getting from Akamai Bot Manager to understand where exactly we can find similarities between the ways bots are reacting on the website. The most valued feature these days is getting research on all the data as fast as possible and trying to find similarities to understand which bots are trying to manipulate or abuse my website. We are going toward AI solutions because it is the fastest, but it should be a very sophisticated model. Bots these days move the way humans do, so it's really hard to understand which of them is a bot and which is human. Bots can go through the challenges you are putting on the website, and it seems nothing can stop them.
Privacy & Risk Management Vice President, Information Security at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
May 8, 2024
In terms of the need for improvement, I feel that it is a continuous cycle where Akamai keeps updating the databases. There are new emerging threats, risks, and sources from which threats can emerge. The aforementioned area consists of all the challenges that our company has outsourced to Akamai, so we rely heavily on the tool. Continuous improvement needs to happen all throughout, irrespective of the solution. I feel that customer support has certain concerns where improvements are required.
Platform Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Oct 27, 2023
There is a clear need for improvement. Over the past year or so, we've observed an increase in the sophistication of attacks, with some occurring at the start of this year or even extending back one and a half years. Despite having ample resources, particularly with the advent of advanced AI, these entities can now execute basic bot attacks. Fine-tuning our defenses is an ongoing challenge, as they consistently find ways to evade detection or operate just below our predefined thresholds. At the same time, we must maintain these thresholds carefully to avoid inadvertently blocking legitimate customer traffic. Each time these entities attempt new tactics, we analyze their traffic patterns meticulously to refine our solution. In the event of bot attacks, our response involves scrutinizing their traffic patterns and IT signatures, followed by conducting a thorough analysis. This analysis serves as the basis for fine-tuning our defenses. To streamline this process, it would be beneficial if there were an automatic fine-tuning mechanism leveraging machine learning. This would significantly ease the ongoing task of managing and adapting to evolving bot traffic patterns.
Akamai Bot Manager Premier has some additional functionalities, particularly for web telemetry, but they don't have it for app telemetry. If there are specific hits, Akamai Bot Manager won't be smart enough to handle it. We have to create our own mitigation or custom whitelist and blacklist bots.
Cyber Recovery Lead at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Oct 13, 2023
When you hit a domain using Akamai Bot Manager, it's unclear where it's coming from. If you search with an IP, it may show a different domain, which is not the origin domain exactly. That is where Akamai promised that they're working on change, which may be another few months or years, which they can promise, but they're working on it. We cannot block illegitimate web scrapers because Akamai Bot Manager does not provide detailed information about various origins and remote VPNs they come through. They could access from one location different destinations with different IPs. That kind of information is not visible on Akamai Bot Manager.
Staff Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
Apr 25, 2023
In my opinion, the UI of Akamai Bot Manager is a bit unconventional and not as intuitive as one might expect. However, once you become familiar with the various features' layout and location, it functions well and meets expectations. I feel that the UI could be improved and made more user-friendly compared to other SaaS platforms. Please note that I am not comparing Akamai Bot Manager with Akamai CDN but rather referring to other similar platforms. I am not comparing it with Akamai CDN. I am just saying that its UI is not so intuitive, but it does work.
Head of Information at a leisure / travel company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Sep 14, 2022
Akamai Bot Manager can improve by having better SDK integration. SDK would be required to integrate with any mobile applications and if they are able to make that more seamless, it will help.
Chief Technologist at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Real User
Jul 7, 2022
There are other rules that are user-friendly, however, many of the things have a learning curve. This is not something you enter into lightly. It's not easy. I didn't just jump into it and start using it. There is a lot to learn here. I've never used anything else. It works for me the majority of the time, and it serves its purpose.
Akamai Bot Manager efficiently identifies and mitigates bot threats, providing robust protection for web platforms. Known for its seamless integration and customization capabilities, it serves as a primary defense against malicious bots and scrapers.Akamai Bot Manager addresses security challenges by detecting and blocking harmful bot scrapers. It offers advanced rules, monitoring features, and automation capabilities, ensuring a comprehensive defense for APIs and web applications. Users...
In terms of improvement, overall, Akamai Bot Manager is a strong solution, but there are a few areas where it could be improved. One is the learning curve for new users because the platform offers many configuration options and detailed analytics. It can take time for teams to become fully comfortable with tuning policies and interpreting reports. Another area for improvement is reporting and dashboard customization. While the existing visibility is very good, having more flexible and user-friendly reporting options would make it easier to create tailored views for different stakeholders. Additionally, more out-of-the-box guidance and recommendations for policy tuning could help organizations accelerate deployment and reduce the effort required during the initial setup. One additional area for improvement would be simplifying policy management for organizations that have many applications and APIs. As deployment grows, having more automation and AI-driven recommendations for policy tuning could help reduce administrative effort. One additional improvement I would mention is enhancing automation and operational efficiency. For example, more AI-driven recommendations for policy tuning, anomaly detection, and remediation actions could help the security team respond even faster to evolving bot threats.
I wish it had features to address what is the purpose of this call.
The biggest friction point I have encountered with Akamai Bot Manager has been the occasional delay in bot detection updates. If I could change one thing, I would add more real-time customization so we could adjust thresholds on the fly. This would help us respond even faster, reducing false positives and freeing me up to work on the latest threats.
Because we are an airline, we have various attacks on our website and application, and we really have to involve our experience and try to find attacks by ourselves. These days attacks are very sophisticated and they are trying to manipulate in the same way as humans, so the anomaly feature is not really helpful. Bots are very clever these days and they move through the website the way humans do. We are not really using it because again, the attacks are sophisticated. We need something that involves different AI models that can try to find similarity in all the data that we are getting from Akamai Bot Manager to understand where exactly we can find similarities between the ways bots are reacting on the website. The most valued feature these days is getting research on all the data as fast as possible and trying to find similarities to understand which bots are trying to manipulate or abuse my website. We are going toward AI solutions because it is the fastest, but it should be a very sophisticated model. Bots these days move the way humans do, so it's really hard to understand which of them is a bot and which is human. Bots can go through the challenges you are putting on the website, and it seems nothing can stop them.
In terms of the need for improvement, I feel that it is a continuous cycle where Akamai keeps updating the databases. There are new emerging threats, risks, and sources from which threats can emerge. The aforementioned area consists of all the challenges that our company has outsourced to Akamai, so we rely heavily on the tool. Continuous improvement needs to happen all throughout, irrespective of the solution. I feel that customer support has certain concerns where improvements are required.
There is a clear need for improvement. Over the past year or so, we've observed an increase in the sophistication of attacks, with some occurring at the start of this year or even extending back one and a half years. Despite having ample resources, particularly with the advent of advanced AI, these entities can now execute basic bot attacks. Fine-tuning our defenses is an ongoing challenge, as they consistently find ways to evade detection or operate just below our predefined thresholds. At the same time, we must maintain these thresholds carefully to avoid inadvertently blocking legitimate customer traffic. Each time these entities attempt new tactics, we analyze their traffic patterns meticulously to refine our solution. In the event of bot attacks, our response involves scrutinizing their traffic patterns and IT signatures, followed by conducting a thorough analysis. This analysis serves as the basis for fine-tuning our defenses. To streamline this process, it would be beneficial if there were an automatic fine-tuning mechanism leveraging machine learning. This would significantly ease the ongoing task of managing and adapting to evolving bot traffic patterns.
Akamai Bot Manager Premier has some additional functionalities, particularly for web telemetry, but they don't have it for app telemetry. If there are specific hits, Akamai Bot Manager won't be smart enough to handle it. We have to create our own mitigation or custom whitelist and blacklist bots.
When you hit a domain using Akamai Bot Manager, it's unclear where it's coming from. If you search with an IP, it may show a different domain, which is not the origin domain exactly. That is where Akamai promised that they're working on change, which may be another few months or years, which they can promise, but they're working on it. We cannot block illegitimate web scrapers because Akamai Bot Manager does not provide detailed information about various origins and remote VPNs they come through. They could access from one location different destinations with different IPs. That kind of information is not visible on Akamai Bot Manager.
In my opinion, the UI of Akamai Bot Manager is a bit unconventional and not as intuitive as one might expect. However, once you become familiar with the various features' layout and location, it functions well and meets expectations. I feel that the UI could be improved and made more user-friendly compared to other SaaS platforms. Please note that I am not comparing Akamai Bot Manager with Akamai CDN but rather referring to other similar platforms. I am not comparing it with Akamai CDN. I am just saying that its UI is not so intuitive, but it does work.
Akamai Bot Manager can improve by having better SDK integration. SDK would be required to integrate with any mobile applications and if they are able to make that more seamless, it will help.
There are other rules that are user-friendly, however, many of the things have a learning curve. This is not something you enter into lightly. It's not easy. I didn't just jump into it and start using it. There is a lot to learn here. I've never used anything else. It works for me the majority of the time, and it serves its purpose.