Akamai App and API Protector vs Nexusguard DDoS Protection comparison

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Nexusguard DDoS Protection

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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:

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 12.4%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai App and API Protector is 5.0%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nexusguard DDoS Protection is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare	12.4%
Akamai App and API Protector	5.0%
Nexusguard DDoS Protection	2.1%
Other	80.5%

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility

From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.

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Gavin Pinho

Privacy & Risk Management Vice President, Information Security at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

Has provided strong protection against evolving threats but still needs support for configuration fine-tuning

The standout features of Akamai App and API Protector are rooted in it being the Web Application Firewall, where all traffic gets scanned, including the implementation of web firewall rules, and after this phase, traffic proceeds through the BMP, which is Bot Management. Akamai App and API Protector exceeds expectations in terms of AI capabilities, and it genuinely combines a plethora of advanced features. The area in which Akamai excels compared to other competitors with a WAF is in threat intelligence, as threats continually evolve, requiring ongoing updates to backend algorithms to effectively capture smart bots, and Akamai's commitment in that regard is backed by an excellent team, while other providers are still catching up.

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ShashikaKodikara

Head of Cybersecurity at Technovage Solution

A solution requiring straightforward maintenance while remaining cost-effective compared to its competitors in the market

I am not in a position to speak about the areas where the solution needed improvement because I resigned during the implementation phase. At that time, the implementation was ongoing, and everything seemed to be going well. Using the solution, our team managed to transfer a couple of routers through a few areas. However, I believe the migration is still ongoing. Nonetheless, the first phase of the implementation was successful before my departure. There was a certain level of performance degradation in the solution, which I don't know if it can be tuned. This is because I was working for a short period on the solution. In my experience, it is an area that can be improved while also considering the stability and scalability aspects of the solution. If one wants to scale up, then one needs to change their plan. However, the thing is, one can always go for the larger scale based on one's anticipation of future traffic.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The attacker won't have details since my public IP is anonymous. It offers us good privacy."

"The solution automatically detects and responds to certain types of traffic based on geolocation."

"The technical support on offer is excellent; they are very helpful and responsive, and we are quite happy with the level of service they provide to their customers."

"It is a stable solution. I rate the stability a ten out of ten...I rate the scalability a ten out of ten."

"Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. You don't necessarily need a certificate if you have a connection between your website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host."

"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."

"I have not had a DDOS attack since, or at least not become unavailable due to DDOS which means my ROI is pretty good."

"For businesses that don't have a dedicated security team, I think it's a better product; it's more intuitive for people like us."

More Cloudflare pros

"Akamai Web Application Protector is exceptionally stable; after all, it is Akami."

"The solution can scale extremely well."

"The product has a good UI."

"It is scalable for DDoS, keeps our sites up through any size of attack, and has a good breadth of controls."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is a good solution that provides basic web application protection."

"The features are powerful and better than F5."

"It's a very good solution."

"The support that we got from their technical team has been fantastic. I have never experienced this level of support from other CDN providers."

More Akamai App and API Protector pros

"Based on the support received for implementation, I rate the solution's technical support a nine out of ten."

"Nexusguard has given us confidence that we are protected against any outside attacks."

"The support team was helpful."

"The managed service allows us to confidently rely on Nexusguard’s professional team to take relevant actions as and when required to make sure DDoS attacks are successfully mitigated, ensuring 100% uptime of our service."

"Nexusguard has exponentially improved the availability of our services because we don't have to worry much about any threats or DDoS attacks towards our services."

"Filters can be customized depending on the characteristics of the attack traffic. This feature has made it easier for Nexusguard's SOC team to further isolate any specific attack that can't be blocked by pre-configured mitigation."

"Cloud Diversion is another good feature packaged with the whole solution. When attack traffic is detected, Cloud Diversion triggers to automatically route our prefix to Nexusguard’s scrubbing center, ensuring that all attack traffic is dropped in the shortest time possible."

Cons

"It looks like they don't support as many TLDs as other registrars, but since they are very new as a registrar, I expect this may improve soon."

"There might be helpful if there was some web application firewall feature."

"Perhaps I would ask that they improve the Free plan and allow us to use it with any TLD (certain ones are not allowed)."

"At the end, it is worth than giving your house keys to the NSA."

"I rate technical support quite badly."

"Cloudflare does not have an on-premise solution. If they had different approaches they could be better suited to accommodate more customers, such as on-premise and hybrid deployments. For example, hybrid deployments would be useful where you could move the traffic from the enterprise to the cloud."

"Support response time could be improved."

"Cloudflare should add more documentation and pricing to the cloud version."

More Cloudflare cons

"The performance of the cloud monitoring tool is low."

"The custom rules must be improved."

"A lot of piracy happens in India and other countries. If there is a product for protection from piracy, it would be great. For example, there are multiple hackers that hack your event, and there are some channels that pirate and publish the event on some other website. We protect our streaming through DRM and different technologies. We are also protecting the website, but hacking is still happening. If they can work on protecting from piracy, it would be great."

"The solution could offer even more integrations."

"The WAF features definitely have a lot of room for improvement. A lot of the WAF is really basic. For some products or some of our solutions, we need to run a second layer of more advanced WAF. If it had better layer seven protection then we would not need a second WAF."

"I think there could be an improvement with the integration of more features for each security."

"We are experimenting with EdgeWorkers to write our own code at the Edge level. It could grow to be much better."

"I do not see any area for improvement. Akamai is already maintaining its own databases for the security concerns, vulnerabilities, and attacks that are there. If anything, they should have a solution in the infrastructure security area as well. They should not be only in cloud cybersecurity; they should also be in infrastructure security."

More Akamai App and API Protector cons

"One of the features that should be added to the next release is report generation."

"The solution must provide features for the post-processing of the traffic type and the traffic quality."

"There was a certain level of performance degradation in the solution, which I don't know if it can be tuned...In my experience, it is an area that can be improved while also considering the stability and scalability aspects of the solution."

"The mitigation scope of Origin Protection is not fully efficient as there could be delays in activating the countermeasures."

"One thing that we would like to improve from them is to provide more training to SOC team for them to have a deep understanding of the solution so that they would always be ready to answer anything without the need to escalate queries to senior personnel."

"One of the features that should be added to the next release is report generation. Currently, reports can be downloaded every month and are only available at the beginning of each month. It would be nice to generate the reports based on specific dates that we prefer and not have to wait until the next month for the current month’s report."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A free version of the solution is available."

"For Cloudflare, I recommend it heavily for small businesses with revenue under a couple of million dollars. Onboarding is easy, and they even have a free plan. This makes it simple for businesses in the $100,000-$500,000 range to try it out and see its value, allowing them to scale up their infrastructure as needed."

"The pricing for the service is reasonable, neither excessively cheap nor prohibitively expensive. It aligns well with the value of their solution."

"We don't have any issues with the price."

"That is one of the great features. I was able to access the majority of the features and services for free."

"The solution has many features but there are ones that you need to pay for. Sometimes you have to find out which is available for free and which you have to pay for."

"So far I use free tier and happy with it. You can subscribe to business package if needed."

"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

"The price they are offering is quite reasonable for premium customers, but it's very expensive if you're a small and medium-sized enterprises."

"One reason not all people use Akamai is that it is a little bit more expensive than some other providers."

"Based on the billing discussions in the DevOps team, Akamai's cost does not seem to be a major thing. However, LOE is an issue. When it comes to support, we know that even all the competitors do this. For a 30-minute issue, they give us a LOE of one or two hours. That is a basic practice, but that is something we worry about."

"If you want quality, you have to pay the price. Its price is fair. Their account managers are also very helpful. They help you a lot with pricing even though they are working with Akamai."

"It's more expensive than others, but the ROI is good for large-scale infrastructure."

"The product is expensive, but it is worth the money."

"Akamai is very expensive."

"Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."

More Akamai App and API Protector pricing and cost advice

"On a scale of one to ten, where one represents a cheap option, and ten represents an expensive option, I would rate the solution a seven in terms of cost."

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908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

44%

Media Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	18

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...

Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?

Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare DNS?

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall.

What needs improvement with Akamai Web Application Protector?

There are no significant areas for improvement on the WAF side or for Akamai App and API Protector solution; they are...

What is your primary use case for Akamai Web Application Protector?

The main use case for Akamai App and API Protector is serving as the WAF, Web Application Firewall.

What advice do you have for others considering Akamai Web Application Protector?

The primary way Akamai App and API Protector helps manage evolving cyber threats is by considering the impact on reve...

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

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Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 31% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Compared 3% of the time

Fastly vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

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AWS Shield vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 8% of the time

AWS WAF vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 5% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

Radware DDoS vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 4% of the time

Radware Alteon vs Akamai App and API Protector

Compared 3% of the time

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F5 Silverline Managed Services vs Nexusguard DDoS Protection

Compared 22% of the time

Arbor DDoS vs Nexusguard DDoS Protection

Compared 12% of the time

Radware DDoS vs Nexusguard DDoS Protection

Compared 7% of the time

Fortinet FortiDDoS vs Nexusguard DDoS Protection

Compared 7% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Nexusguard DDoS Protection

Compared 5% of the time

More Nexusguard DDoS Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Cloudflare

Download Cloudflare product report

Akamai App and API Protector

Download Akamai App and API Protector product report

Nexusguard DDoS Protection

July 2026

Download Nexusguard DDoS Protection product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

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

No data available

Overview

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?

CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

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

Nexusguard DDoS Protection provides comprehensive Origin Protection, customizable filters, and cloud-based attack traffic routing to ensure 100% uptime without additional hardware or staff.

Nexusguard DDoS Protection is designed to shield networks and critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks, including DDoS incidents. It offers Origin Protection and customizable filters covering site, network, and host levels. With automatic traffic routing through Cloud Diversion, businesses enjoy managed services ensuring consistent uptime. Nexusguard's local scrubbing capacity reaches up to 100 GB, and transparent traffic analysis is facilitated through intuitive dashboards. Users have access to 24/7 support via the Help Center, ensuring efficient DDoS mitigation and minimized downtime without requiring extra hardware or staff. Areas for improvement include report generation and post-processing features, while application security within Origin Protection might benefit from enhanced application layer analysis.

What are Nexusguard DDoS Protection's key features?

Origin Protection: Safeguards against all attack types with customizable filters.
Cloud Diversion: Automatically reroutes attack traffic to scrubbing centers.
Local Scrubbing: Supports up to 100 GB to handle larger threats.
Intuitive Dashboards: Facilitates transparent traffic analysis.
24/7 Support: Assistance via Help Center for uninterrupted operations.

What benefits should be considered in reviews?

100% Uptime: Maintains consistent service availability.
Network Efficiency: Reduces downtime without additional hardware or staff.
Scalability: Accommodates growing demands with robust protection.
Compliance Assurance: Keeps businesses aligned with security standards.

Industries like online gaming and cargo management utilize Nexusguard DDoS Protection to maintain service availability and meet uptime requirements. By effectively managing network traffic and overcoming ISP-related challenges, companies can ensure seamless operations and continuity. Nexusguard’s customizable, enterprise-grade services support proactive security measures, enabling businesses to remain resilient against cyber threats.

Nexusguard

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet

21st Century Technologies, Netpluz, REDtone, SNOC, StarHub, aamra

Akamai App and API Protector vs. Nexusguard DDoS Protection