We compared Akamai and Cloudflare based on our user's reviews in several parameters.
In summary, the key differences between Akamai and Cloudflare are highlighted in user feedback regarding their valuable features, customer service, implementation duration, pricing, return on investment, and areas for improvement. While Akamai is praised for exceptional performance, speed, and personalized solutions, Cloudflare stands out for its robust security measures, user-friendly interface, and efficient caching capabilities. Akamai receives positive feedback for its responsive customer service, competitive pricing, and positive ROI, while Cloudflare is commended for its real-time threat detection, flexible scalability, and reasonable cost. Areas for enhancement on Akamai include improving performance and speed, customer support, and analytics features, while Cloudflare could benefit from enhancements in network performance, user interface, documentation, customization options, pricing transparency, and integration with other services.
Features: Akamai's valuable features include exceptional performance, reliable content delivery, advanced security, efficient caching, and comprehensive analytics. On the other hand, Cloudflare offers robust security, reliable content delivery, efficient caching, user-friendly interface, enhanced website performance, protection against DDoS attacks, SSL support, easy DNS management, extensive analytics, real-time threat detection, and flexible scalability.
Pricing and ROI: When comparing the setup cost between Akamai and Cloudflare, both products are considered to have minimal and straightforward setup costs. Akamai offers flexible and customizable licensing options, accommodating different business needs. Cloudflare's licensing experience is smooth and satisfactory, with no expressed concerns or issues., Akamai users reported positive ROI with improved website performance and security, scalable and reliable platform. Cloudflare users also experienced positive ROI including improved website performance, increased security, and user-friendly interface.
Room for Improvement: Akamai could improve its performance and speed, user interface and navigation, customer support and responsiveness, occasional latency issues, and reporting and analytics features. Cloudflare could benefit from enhancements in network performance, user interface, documentation and support, customization options, pricing transparency, and integration with other services.
Deployment and customer support: Based on user feedback, both Akamai and Cloudflare have varying durations for establishing a new tech solution. However, Cloudflare emphasizes the importance of evaluating the context in which these terms are used, suggesting possible differences in deployment and setup phases., Akamai's customer service is highly praised for their responsive and efficient assistance, personalized solutions, and commitment to customer satisfaction. Cloudflare is commended for their exceptional assistance, quick and knowledgeable responses, and reliable and efficient support.
The summary above is based on 29 interviews we conducted recently with Akamai and Cloudflare users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"Akamai is leveraged by many top-level businesses, ensuring reliability and support in case of outages or issues."
"The solution is very sustainable and flexible."
"Akamai provides low-latency throughput."
"This solution can be used for web , video and media caching and streaming."
"Akamai's scalability is good."
"Akamai has a very established network of PoPs globally."
"We can see how much traffic can be downloaded on the portal."
"The solution's technical support is very good...The installation phase of Akamai was easy."
"Cloudflare allows us to self-host services such as Rocket.Chat and Node-RED, in high-availability mode, thanks to round robin DNS which allows us to share one hostname between our two locations."
"The solution is very good at mitigating threats."
"The most valuable feature is the web application firewall."
"New and innovative way to protect the client's data."
"I rate its stability a ten out of ten."
"Cloudflare has many features."
"The solution provides good load balancing and protection against DDoS attacks."
"Easier http to https redirect using page rules"
"I'd like to see more Web 3.0 and IoT solutions."
"It would be better if we could be notified about specific attacks."
"The solution could offer more integrations."
"The fact that it is an expensive product is its only shortcoming."
"Akamai could improve by providing its own cloud services. We have to use third-party cloud services at this time, such as Amazon AWS. The offering becomes a lot easier for an SMB if everything was in one single platform to be used for the services."
"While it's great for solutions with high scalability, like global e-commerce, it's not really built for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It has too many options and can be complex for SMBs to utilize."
"The product's scalability can be improved since certain shortcomings regarding the security part of the solution currently exist."
"Local connectivity would be great linked to our own telecom/Cablevision CDN."
"One area of improvement is in the Access Rules. Hypothetically, if we wanted to block or challenge traffic outside of the United States, the only way to currently do that (as far as I know) is to enter every single country outside of the United States. That could be a labor intensive job. A solution could be to enable users to create a rule where traffic is only allowed within a certain country."
"It should confirm audit findings of the assigned area with auditees to ensure that the audit conclusions are based on an accurate understanding of the issues."
"The solution could work at being less expensive. It costs a lot to use it."
"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."
"Support response time could be improved."
"There should be a specific price list for enterprise-level customers."
"The product needs to improve its automation."
"There are some issues with the CDN services."
Akamai is ranked 3rd in CDN with 18 reviews while Cloudflare is ranked 1st in CDN with 56 reviews. Akamai is rated 9.0, while Cloudflare is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Akamai writes "An easy to setup product offering multiple useful functionalities under a single package". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cloudflare writes "It's easy to set up because you point the DNS to it, and it's working in under 15 minutes". Akamai is most compared with Azure Front Door, Imperva DDoS, Amazon CloudFront, Fastly and AWS Global Accelerator, whereas Cloudflare is most compared with Azure Front Door, Imperva DDoS, AWS Shield, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway and Arbor DDoS. See our Akamai vs. Cloudflare report.
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