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Akamai API Security vs Imperva Application Security Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Akamai API Security enhanced efficiency, reduced costs, improved detection, and increased visibility, resulting in 30-40% savings.
Sentiment score
6.0
Imperva's platform offers high ROI by enhancing security, reducing downtime, and improving efficiency, despite initial costs.
Getting everything from one single portal without anyone's interference saved us a lot of money, time, and frustration.
Incident Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
For example, by preventing API-related incidents, we estimate saving tens of thousands in potential breach costs.
Cloud Engineer at HCL Software
Akamai API Security is preventing multiple issues, and the organization is doing well with Akamai API Security profits, which is good.
IT Specialist at Allianz
They know how much money they are losing while the system is down, so by increasing the possibility of not having a down website or web application, return on investment can be calculated easily.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I was able to save over seven million dollars last year as return on investment in the company.
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberoutcome Limited
I have seen a return on investment with Imperva Application Security Platform, as it is generally associated with time savings, because the review of alerts and the visibility it gives saves us significant operational time.
Ingeniero Preventa at Imperia
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Akamai API Security support is responsive and knowledgeable, offering high-quality but costly service with occasional communication issues.
Sentiment score
7.0
Imperva's support is praised for reliability and knowledge, despite occasional delays and calls for faster initial responses.
Sometimes they inform about changes, and sometimes they do not, which impacts clients as a P1 or P2 incident.
IT Specialist at Allianz
The technical support from Akamai API Security is responsive when I have dealt with them.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
The team was responsive and technically knowledgeable.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
I would rate the technical support of Imperva DDoS as ten.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
They need to work faster on the response time because of issues of urgent replies.
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberoutcome Limited
Responsive support addressing urgent needs.
Cybersecurity Consultant at Accenture Singapore Services Pte Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.9
Akamai API Security offers seamless scalability, managing high traffic and API changes efficiently with automatic scaling and global network support.
Sentiment score
7.5
Imperva offers scalable security adaptable to enterprises, with cloud options easing expansion despite licensing cost considerations.
I have also seen it handle spikes in API traffic, especially during peak usage periods without any performance degradation.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
The scalability of Akamai API Security is very appropriate for the architecture given that it is a SaaS application, so it adapts well to any infrastructure.
Consulting Systems Engineer at Boomslang Tech
It scales very well. Since Akamai API Security operates at the edge, it handles large volumes of API traffic seamlessly.
Cloud Engineer at HCL Software
99% of customers are using the cloud version of Imperva DDoS protection, so they just purchase the new license and scale as needed.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I have not even needed support after deployment, since it has remained stable.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
It is easy to always scale to add more users.
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberoutcome Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Akamai API Security is reliable, robust, and highly effective in production, excelling in stability, scalability, and cyber crime investigations.
Sentiment score
7.9
Imperva offers reliable performance with 99% uptime, though occasional disruptions and link issues may affect availability temporarily.
My experience has been good, and it is an excellent WAF solution.
Arquiteto at C.Vale - Cooperativa Agroindustrial
We have not encountered any significant downtime or disruption in protection.
Cloud Engineer at HCL Software
It is also a stable product without much glitch or downtime.
Senior Presales Consultant at Techlab security
One notable drawback is that, unlike Fortinet, which offers fast track labs and continuous enablement, Imperva Application Security Platform lacks lab access and fast track labs for enablement and product advertising.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
The stability of Imperva DDoS is very good, as it seems they have a lot of servers around the world.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Akamai API Security needs enhanced customization, intuitive controls, and better integrations to improve efficiency and streamline operations.
Users recommend improving Imperva's visibility, integration, AI, analytics, licensing, POPs, dashboard, support, documentation, and threat detection.
I believe Akamai API Security could be improved specifically in the integrations so that they can be executed more effectively with platforms such as a SIEM or SOAR, which would help me automate workflows for incident response.
Consulting Systems Engineer at Boomslang Tech
From a pricing standpoint, licensing and pricing depend from module to module. Some modules are expensive, and some are affordable.
System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
If Akamai API Security could provide many more security options and make it more transparent to users about exactly what is happening, that would be beneficial.
Security Delivery Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
To convince my clients, a purely on-prem solution would be ideal since they are financial institutions.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
Maybe Imperva DDoS could use endpoints to get information about the attacks before they commence from the endpoint level or establish cooperation with endpoint vendors to share this information.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Regarding return on investment, ROI, I can say it is noticeable with Imperva Application Security Platform.
Senior Presales Consultant at Techlab security
 

Setup Cost

Akamai API Security offers premium pricing, licensing flexibility, and valued support, with potential extra costs for bundled API limits.
Imperva's pricing offers varied experiences, from affordable to expensive, influenced by user needs and varying licensing models.
It is not expensive.
Arquiteto at C.Vale - Cooperativa Agroindustrial
Akamai API Security is not expensive.
IT Specialist at Allianz
The pricing is definitely on the premium side, reflecting the advanced protection it offers.
Cloud Engineer at HCL Software
I would rate the pricing of Imperva DDoS as five, where one is very cheap and ten is very expensive.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
the setup cost was high, with the hardware installation in the data center being particularly expensive.
Cyber Security Product Owner at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
We have noticed faster response times and fewer security alerts because after doing some custom policy tuning, everything seemed to be aligned and we have fewer attacks to monitor and fewer alerts to monitor.
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberoutcome Limited
 

Valuable Features

Akamai API Security offers automated discovery, anomaly detection, bot management, and DDoS protection for comprehensive API threat mitigation.
Imperva Application Security Platform provides comprehensive threat protection with easy deployment, real-time monitoring, and reduced vulnerabilities for improved security.
This gave us an overall picture of how many APIs we are using across our organization, and now we are more cautious about which APIs should be used publicly and how we secure our APIs.
Incident Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
That improvement in visibility and risk posture has translated into concrete benefits for my organization, as I can now proactively identify risky endpoints and apply protection policies, which improves overall security and reduces response times to incidents.
Consulting Systems Engineer at Boomslang Tech
Before an attack goes live, we detect it on the WAF itself, which is the outer layer of security. We detect it and block it.
Security Delivery Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The API security feature is particularly valuable because most attackers do not try to come in from where it is expected.
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberoutcome Limited
If someone attempts to access the server, the WAF blocks that SSRF alert, or RCE, Remote Code Execution alert, blocking immediately based on the signature, not only by the payload or the IP address.
SOC Analyst L1 at CMS-IT-SERVICES-PVT-LTD
It reduces the DDoS attacks and reduces the attacks from threat actors, including SQL Injection and zero-day attacks, by using dynamic application profiling from Imperva.
IT Security Analyst & Engineer (Project, Remote) Australia-Europe at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai API Security
Ranking in API Security
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Imperva Application Securit...
Ranking in API Security
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
144
Ranking in other categories
CDN (2nd), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (1st), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (4th), Bot Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the API Security category, the mindshare of Akamai API Security is 7.4%, down from 19.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Imperva Application Security Platform is 9.6%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Akamai API Security7.4%
Imperva Application Security Platform9.6%
Other83.0%
API Security
 

Featured Reviews

Ron Machan - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Engineer at HCL Software
Stronger API defenses have reduced suspicious traffic and now protect sensitive data confidently
The standout features include automated API discovery, which helps us find even undocumented endpoints. The real-time behavioral analysis is valuable, as Akamai API Security detects abnormal patterns quickly. I also value schema validation to block improper requests and their bot management integration, which keeps malicious automation at bay.It has made a significant difference in reducing risk. We have had fewer incidents of API abuse, such as scraping or suspicious traffic spikes. Our security posture is stronger because we have better visibility into all our APIs, even ones we did not initially know were exposed. Ultimately, it has given us confidence that our data and services are well-protected.
ST
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberoutcome Limited
Strong policies and bot defenses have secured critical APIs and have reduced attack noise
From my research regarding the IAM space that Imperva Application Security Platform is trying to look into, I believe they still need to do a lot of modeling and modification to make sure that also helps. There are several competitors in the IAM space, so Imperva would do well if they can do some basic modeling and modifications from my own personal research and my own experience in the IAM space. Alternatively, they could actually just focus on trying to be stronger in the web application space and the database activity monitoring space.The main reason it is not a perfect ten is regarding support. At times, having to reach the support team takes eight hours to ten hours maximum. There are times when clients could have urgent issues to attend to. The support team could do more by having a faster response rate.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business88
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Akamai API Security?
One thing that really surprised me was how effective the behavioral-based detection is in identifying the anomalies that traditional rule-based systems might miss. It gives much better visibility i...
What is your primary use case for Akamai API Security?
Akamai API Security's main use case in my environment is to protect critical APIs that are exposed to the internet, especially for banking and financial applications. I primarily use it to secure A...
Which Web Application Firewall (WAF) would you recommend? R&S or Imperva?
Imperva is a strong choice, given their security focus and ongoing R&D into the product in areas such as bot management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Imperva DDoS?
The pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Imperva DDoS are reasonable for the amount of technical capabilities provided. I would rate the pricing of Imperva DDoS as five, where one is very cheap a...
What needs improvement with Imperva DDoS?
I would like to see improvements in the pooling of threats and attacks, possibly to enlarge the scale of indicators of compromise. For example, the initiation of an attack on the endpoint level cou...
 

Also Known As

Noname Security
Imperva Bot Management, Imperva Web Application Firewall, Imperva API Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Hitachi, BNZ, Bitstamp, Moz, InnoGames, BTCChina, Wix, LivePerson, Zillow and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai API Security vs. Imperva Application Security Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.