Akamai App and API Protector vs Kentik comparison

Akamai App and API Protector

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Kentik and Akamai App and API Protector are both leaders in network analysis and security. Kentik seems to shine in network visualization and analysis, while Akamai is prominent in DDoS protection and scalability.

Features: Kentik is recognized for its SaaS delivery model, providing extensive NetFlow visualization and robust real-time visibility for network monitoring. Additionally, it supports detailed traffic analysis and customization of alerts. Akamai App and API Protector is noted for its strong DDoS protection, scalability, and seamless integration of security controls, including a customizable WAF and detailed traffic filtering.

Room for Improvement: Kentik could enhance user permissions granularity and API usability, while making its visualization dimensions more intuitive. Users would also benefit from improved automation and mitigation feature integration. Akamai could refine its WAF interface, advance its reporting capabilities, and improve pricing competitiveness and intelligent dashboard monitoring.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Kentik is praised for its proactive customer support and offers deployment flexibility, including on-premises and private cloud. Akamai, focusing on public cloud deployment, also enjoys positive feedback for its support, although experiences with response times vary. Kentik supports traditional data center models, whereas Akamai is oriented towards cloud integration.

Pricing and ROI: Kentik is seen as cost-effective with significant ROI, particularly in traffic insights and transit cost optimization. Akamai, though considered expensive with usage-based pricing, justifies its cost through a comprehensive feature set attractive to larger enterprises. Both could benefit from more flexible pricing and billing models to reach diverse customers.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. Kentik Report (Updated: June 2025).

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Kentik

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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

5.8

Akamai App and API Protector offers superior traffic management, security, and cost savings for large infrastructures, despite higher costs.

Sentiment score

7.0

Kentik enhances network management and cost efficiency, offering data insights while reducing engineering efforts, boosting operational efficiency and security.

No quotes available

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In production environments, especially for service providers on IP networks and data centers, Kentik helps in reducing the time to identify and resolve issues.

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BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.7

Customer service is excellent, while technical support has mixed reviews with praise for expertise but needs improved availability.

Sentiment score

8.3

Kentik's customer service is efficient and responsive, with proactive communication and expertise, greatly enhancing user satisfaction.

No quotes available

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I have mostly used forums for any support needed because the setup is straightforward and the documentation is quite good.

BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

They have monthly calls and discuss the product roadmap with us to determine what is needed.

For more quotes and insights, download the Kentik report

Network Engineer III at Fortanix

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

8.1

Akamai App and API Protector excels in scalability, seamlessly handling extensive user demands and large-scale deployments with stability.

Sentiment score

8.3

Kentik is praised for its scalability in large, global installations, handling increased data flows and integrating with Kubernetes.

No quotes available

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Kentik's integration with Kubernetes makes scaling easier.

BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

You can scale as many devices and tests as you want, but you should have a good number of credits in your accounts.

For more quotes and insights, download the Kentik report

Network Engineer III at Fortanix

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.4

Akamai App and API Protector is highly stable and reliable, with no reported outages or issues over years of use.

Sentiment score

8.1

Users commend Kentik for its strong stability, minimal disruptions, efficient issue resolution, and satisfactory performance, especially in lab settings.

No quotes available

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Based on stability, I would give Kentik a nine.

Network Engineer III at Fortanix

In production, however, dimensioning of the underlying platforms is something to be mindful of.

For more quotes and insights, download the Kentik report

BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

Room For Improvement

Akamai App and API Protector needs enhancements in flexibility, UI, customer support, documentation, and advanced protection features.

Kentik users desire enhanced permissions, UI, API access, integrations, AI, insights, cost-effectiveness, and alert and data features.

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More work is required to integrate AI for troubleshooting, simplifying root cause analysis, and providing suggested solutions for network issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the Kentik report

BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

Setup Cost

Akamai App and API Protector is expensive yet considered worth the cost by large enterprises for its quality services.

Kentik's pricing depends on usage factors, offering discounts for education, with annual and multi-year contracts available.

No quotes available

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Kentik’s pricing is competitive in the marketplace.

ADRIANA SALDARRIAGA TOBON

BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

The pricing is good and aligns with the market target.

Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks

For more quotes and insights, download the Kentik report

Valuable Features

Akamai App and API Protector delivers scalable security, ease of use, and cost-effective protection with advanced features like DDoS defense.

Kentik offers real-time network visibility, customizable dashboards, and automation, enhancing security, performance, and user experience efficiently.

No quotes available

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One of the most valuable features of Kentik, especially for service providers, is its ability to visualize all the BGP peering and the status of the BGP peering platform.

ADRIANA SALDARRIAGA TOBON

BDM at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives.

Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks

Kentik is easy to use and set up.

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Network Engineer III at Fortanix

Categories and Ranking

Akamai App and API Protector

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th), Cloud and Data Center Security (10th)

Kentik

Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

15th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (34th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 4.3%, up from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Kentik is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

Deepesh Singh

Senior Engineering Manager Cybersecurity at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Bot Manager and different features to manage threats

As a product, it has good capabilities, including professional support. However, it's risky for us to rely on AI for real-time traffic management. We use in-house analytics but avoid automatic actions due to their high impact. For example, I live in a developing country. Everyone has different types of phones, apps, and everything else. So, if someone is using a legacy phone, that is still a use case here. If AI decides that this is an end-of-life phone or end-of-life Android operating system, it starts blocking that traffic. We may potentially lose millions or probably thousands and hundreds of thousands of hits per second. Everything is all about how well we serve payments because we're into payments. So, AI is used for analytics but not for real-time decisions. We can't afford to block traffic based on AI models due to the variety of devices and operating systems our users have.

Read full review

ADRIANA SALDARRIAGA TOBON

Sales Manager at IFX NEtworks

Client experience and cybersecurity have improved with an easy setup

The solution is valuable for client experience, especially in the financial sector. The most important feature is cybersecurity. The pricing is good, but the functionality is the most important aspect for clients. The solution is easy to deploy and requires only one person to set up, making it easy and quick. Overall, the ease of use and the fact that it meets client expectations are major positives.

Read full review

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection solutions are best for your needs.

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860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai Web Application Protector?

The product is user-friendly.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai Web Application Protector?

The price is higher than others. It could be about 80% to 70% more expensive than other tools. So, it’s not just a slight difference.

What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?

It could have better analytics and reporting visibility in the OEM console.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kentik?

I would say Kentik's pricing is not cheap. From my perspective as part of the technical team, I would not categorize it as expensive, but I know it is not cheap.

What needs improvement with Kentik?

There's always room for improvements and better relations when using any kind of product. We faced some issues with Kentik UI and alerting, which we asked them to fix, and they succeeded. They have...

What is your primary use case for Kentik?

We are using Kentik mostly for synthetic tests, and from one last year, network monitoring as well. We are using it for inter DC BGP tests and server monitoring as well.

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Product Reports

Akamai App and API Protector

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Also Known As

Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender

No data available

Overview

Akamai App and API Protector provides website security by preventing DDoS attacks, acting as an application firewall, managing content delivery, and monitoring APIs. It adapts to threat profiles and is used for fast media delivery and identifying malicious activities.

Akamai App and API Protector offers strong protection, adaptable security features, and efficient traffic management. Its WAF blocks IP addresses and country-specific threats while preventing SQL injections. Companies utilize it for scalable CDN services and comprehensive traffic analysis. Known for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly dashboard, this protector stands out for its customizable rules and technical support. Users also highlight the ease of integration and detailed attack insights available through its advanced dashboard.

What are the key features of Akamai App and API Protector?

DDoS Protection: Strong defense against Distributed Denial of Service attacks.
Scalable CDN: Manages content delivery efficiently under high traffic loads.
WAF Capabilities: Blocks specific IPs and countries, prevents SQL injections.
Traffic Filtering: Analyzes and controls incoming requests to maintain security.
Adaptive Stream Delivery: Adjusts content delivery to meet bandwidth needs.

What benefits should users expect?

Cost-Effectiveness: Provides robust security tools at a competitive price.
Enhanced Security: Comprehensive protection against cyber threats.
Scalability: Easily handles increasing traffic and data loads.
Ease of Integration: Simple integration with existing systems.
Insightful Analytics: Offers data-driven insights into traffic and attack patterns.

In media, Akamai App and API Protector ensures smooth streaming by handling high bandwidth demands. E-commerce companies use it to guard against fraud and data breaches. Financial sectors rely on its ability to protect sensitive transactions. Implementations in healthcare focus on safeguarding patient data while maintaining compliance with regulations.

Akamai

Kentik's AIOps Network Traffic Intelligence platform unifies network operations, performance, security, and business intelligence.

With a purpose-built big data engine delivered as public or private SaaS, Kentik captures a high-resolution view of actual network traffic data and enriches it with critical application and business data, so every network event or analysis can be tied to revenue & costs, customer & user experience, performance & risk.

Sample Customers

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

Pandora, Yelp, Neustar, Box, University of Washington, Zoom, Tata, and Cogent.

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Kentik