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Akamai API Security vs NGINX App Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

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
6.0
Akamai API Security enhances visibility, reduces risk, and saves time by uncovering undocumented APIs and centralizing information access.
Sentiment score
6.2
NGINX App Protect enhances network security and integration, offering positive ROI, cost-effectiveness, and compliance support during remote transitions.
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
The discovery of previously undocumented APIs reduced attack surface blind spots.
Consulting Systems Engineer at Boomslang Tech
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
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Akamai API Security support is efficient and reliable, receiving excellent user ratings despite its high cost.
Sentiment score
6.1
NGINX App Protect support is knowledgeable and helpful, though some users report delays, costs, and occasional skill gaps.
I would rate the customer support a ten on a scale of 1 to 10.
Consulting Systems Engineer at Boomslang Tech
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
They were quick and efficient when we had issues.
Project Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the customer support a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
4.7
Akamai API Security is praised for its scalability, reliability, and performance, seamlessly integrating with diverse architectures and traffic loads.
Sentiment score
6.3
NGINX App Protect is praised for scalability but faces challenges with traffic limits, configuration times, and centralized management needs.
Akamai API Security has good scalability and does not have problems because it works with APIs.
Consulting Systems Engineer at Boomslang Tech
The scalability of NGINX App Protect is good and open source at its best.
Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Akamai API Security is highly stable, performs well in cyber crime investigations, and is regarded as an excellent WAF.
Sentiment score
8.4
NGINX App Protect is stable, lightweight, and impressive in transaction handling, integrating well with Ingress Controller and rated highly.
My experience has been good, and it is an excellent WAF solution.
Arquiteto at C.Vale - Cooperativa Agroindustrial
It is a quality solution, and I would rate its stability as eight out of ten.
IT Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Akamai API Security needs better integration, precise risk scoring, and improved analytics, while pricing varies greatly by module.
NGINX App Protect faces issues with flexibility, cost, integration, and usability, prompting calls for enhancements and cost-effective solutions.
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
Akamai API Security should provide notifications when multiple alerts are received, such as one IP getting hit multiple times in a DOS attack.
IT Specialist at Allianz
There was more information from F5 regarding hardware requirements and specifications to deploy the service.
IT Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The GUI and web GUI configuration could be improved to be easier to manage and use.
Dev Ops Engineer at adesso AG
I think NGINX App Protect could be improved by having it come out of the box with NGINX.
Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Akamai API Security pricing is enterprise-tiered, traffic or API-based, with variable licensing and usually priced but valuable support.
NGINX App Protect is seen as expensive yet competitive, with pricing from $3,000 to $400,000 based on usage.
It is not expensive.
Arquiteto at C.Vale - Cooperativa Agroindustrial
The cost is justified in organizations with large API exposure.
Consulting Systems Engineer at Boomslang Tech
Akamai API Security is not expensive.
IT Specialist at Allianz
 

Valuable Features

Akamai API Security enhances security through automated API discovery, anomaly detection, and seamless integration, improving visibility and compliance.
NGINX App Protect offers advanced WAF, scalability, security features, and seamless integration for cloud-native architectures with effective traffic management.
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
The automatic API discovery has worked well for me by helping me identify APIs that were not formally documented, detect risky data exposure patterns, and flag abnormal traffic behavior early.
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 most valuable feature is the ability to operate in a DevOps environment and to be configured through API and pipeline by the developers themselves.
IT Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Detecting bots and blocking IPs have proven effective for securing applications.
Project Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
It is stable, affordable, and easy to manage.
Dev Ops Engineer at adesso AG
 

Categories and Ranking

Akamai API Security
Ranking in API Security
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NGINX App Protect
Ranking in API Security
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (15th), Container Security (27th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the API Security category, the mindshare of Akamai API Security is 9.1%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX App Protect is 4.0%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
API Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Akamai API Security9.1%
NGINX App Protect4.0%
Other86.9%
API Security
 

Featured Reviews

Alark Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at Allianz
Advanced API defense has protected web channels and consistently reduced downtime and incident impact
Akamai API Security helps comply with DORA compliance in the Europe region, preventing any compliance issues. It helps demonstrate that the ISO understands the secured side is protected by Akamai API Security, ensuring that if any DOS attack is present, it will not occur or take the side down. Currently, no improvements are apparent. In the last few years, there was improvement as bot attacks have been addressed, with more focus now placed on bot attacks. At that time, there was a drawback, but Akamai API Security is improving day by day. Currently, no drawbacks are evident, and the product is good. Akamai API Security is delivering the best products every year.
Valerio Guaglianone - PeerSpot reviewer
Dev Ops Engineer at adesso AG
Long-term web protection has supported reliable traffic management but needs a simpler interface
NGINX App Protect is a good product. I have used both versions from F5 -also the free version- (I mean the NGINX/NGINX One/App Protect free trial period), and I think it is a good product. It's stable, affordable, and easy to manage. NGINX App Protect is a comprehensive security solution that combines advanced WAF, DoS protection, API security, and DevSecOps automation in a lightweight, scalable package ideal for modern cloud-native architectures. The adaptive machine learning capabilities are truly commendable, as the solution can establish traffic baselines and detect anomalies in real time. It automatically adjusts security policies, minimizing the need for manual intervention and reducing false positives. Additionally, it supports scalable deployment across diverse environments, including on-premises, cloud, Kubernetes, and containers, offering both flexibility and scalability I have experience with the web server, F5 load balancer, and similar products provided by Ergon, for eg. the web application firewall and the Microgateway for K8S. I'm also familiar with F5 BIG-IP products.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai API Security?
It is not expensive. It is practical to use and represents an excellent solution.
What needs improvement with Akamai API Security?
The tool is blocking and only the person who has access to the tool can actually see how many DDoS attacks were blocked. Since I do not log in to the portal myself, I am unaware of this capability....
What is your primary use case for Akamai API Security?
Since multiple teams were involved in issue resolving, at least ten plus people from our side were involved in the implementation process. Everyone was contributing, even if we consider two per tea...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX App Protect?
I will not be able to answer about my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for NGINX App Protect, as something different handles that in my team.
What needs improvement with NGINX App Protect?
I think NGINX App Protect could be improved by having it come out of the box with NGINX.
 

Also Known As

Noname Security
NGINX WAF, NGINX Web Application Firewall
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai API Security vs. NGINX App Protect and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.