Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) comparison

Akamai and Check Point Software Technologies are both solutions in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category. Akamai is ranked #26, while Check Point Software Technologies is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.5. Akamai holds a 1.3% mindshare in SASE, compared to Check Point Software Technologies’s 3.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Check Point Software Technologies users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Akamai Enterprise Application Access and Check Point Harmony SASE compete in secure application access and network security. Akamai has the upper hand in integration and customer support, while Check Point Harmony SASE is favored for feature satisfaction and flexibility.

Features: Akamai is known for its robust security protocols, comprehensive feature set, and seamless integration capabilities. Check Point Harmony SASE is recognized for its flexibility, ease of use, and innovative features. Despite a strong security focus, Akamai's comprehensive scope sometimes overshadows Check Point's adaptability to diverse needs.

Room for Improvement: Akamai users suggest enhancing user experience, offering more customization options, and refining monitoring tools. Check Point Harmony SASE users point out the need for better reporting features, expanded integration options, and more depth in feature adaptability. Both solutions are viewed as needing improvements in monitoring capabilities, with Check Point requiring more adjustments in adaptability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Akamai receives positive feedback for straightforward deployment and effective customer service support. Check Point Harmony SASE excels in easy initial setup but faces challenges with support response times. Akamai offers a smoother deployment process, while Check Point Harmony SASE users value self-service options despite occasional difficulties with support.

Pricing and ROI: Akamai is seen as offering a better ROI due to reliable support and effective deployment, justifying its higher initial setup costs. Check Point Harmony SASE provides competitive pricing with a good balance between cost and feature offerings. Despite higher costs, Akamai users find the ROI aligns with service quality and reliability, whereas Check Point offers satisfaction in cost-feature balance.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs. Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs. Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

February 2025

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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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category, the mindshare of iboss is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai Enterprise Application Access is 1.3%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) is 3.5%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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Bill Lee

Cloud Architecture Consultant at Metaage

Very scalable, convenient, and stable protection against attacks

Our company uses the solution as a cloud perimeter and VPN. We don't need to use on-premises devices to open firewalls to inbound or outbound traffic. The solution is very convenient and stable because you don't have to worry about attacks to public IPs or public networks. The solution has two…

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reviewer8099174

IT Help Support - Coop at DistillerSR

Secure access with an intuitive design and straightforward controls

In terms of improvement, Perimeter 81 could enhance its reporting and analytics capabilities to provide more detailed insights into network activity. Additionally, expanding integration options with a broader range of third-party tools would be beneficial for seamless compatibility with various existing systems. As for additional features in the next release, it would be great to see advanced threat detection and response capabilities integrated into the platform. This would further enhance security by proactively identifying and mitigating potential threats. Additionally, improved mobile device management features and more comprehensive user behavior analytics would be valuable additions to meet evolving cybersecurity needs.

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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

"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."

"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."

"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."

"Valuable features: Within the filter: Controls (Web categories, applications, and Allow/Block list) and Network (local Subnets). Within the reporter: Logs (Event Log) and Reports."

"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."

"Its initial setup was straightforward."

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

More iboss pros

"The capability of Akamai Enterprise Application Access is what you're looking for, it's giving you the service that you're looking for. It's simple and doesn't use an agent. It uses LCSD responders, and they have a lot of services around the globe. That's the reason that we were very interested in using it because it has a lot of coverage. This is because it's under the GDS umbrella."

"The solution is very convenient and stable because you don't have to worry about attacks to public IPs or public networks."

"Application Access's most valuable feature is the accessibility of enterprise tech protection."

"The product’s ability to block phishing sites is valuable."

"Perimeter 81 has increased my security and privacy while maintaining solid internet performance."

"The Harmony Connect solution helped by unifying in a single portal all the necessary accesses for the company's internal employees, such as RDP, SSH, bank access databases, and even internal portals, bringing security and organization to the entire environment and facilitating employee access with a single, centralized login to the entire environment."

"The tool is easy to use and set up."

"Providing access and security allows our company employees to work from home and remotely."

"It has centralized management that allows administrators to supervise and control the security of the entire network."

"The reports give a simple overview of the traffic pattern within the organization."

"The ease of use not only translates to quick adoption rates - it also ensures that our employees remain compliant with our cybersecurity protocols, enhancing the overall security posture of our organization."

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) pros

Cons

"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."

"Sometimes when you call in support, you get someone who is just following a sheet. It feels like a runaround. You feel that you are running into that support wall."

"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."

"To scale up, a new iboss Node Blade Chassis must be purchased."

"Its pricing could be better."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"Fold that in with the risk intelligence they're getting from all of the different subscriptions they are a part of. Now, these security companies subscribe to things like emerging threats, databases, etc. You can fold all this intelligence to decide what's happening on an endpoint. I would love to see them start moving into that space. That would compete directly with Microsoft. Maybe that's why they haven't. Having that ability native within the solution would be great. The other area in which I would love to see improvement is more detailed descriptions of why they block websites."

"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."

More iboss cons

"The solution has two agents so should combine its enterprise application and security access into one agent."

"We need another approach to bring the solution to the cloud. In addition to Access Management, we would like to see if we can jump into Directories. I think ADs are going to go away and everything is going to be cloud-based and minimize the use of ADs because of the cost and some other dependencies to the cloud. Every time you buy AD it is more hardware, and everything's changing to software. The network's changing, the applications are changing, and for IT it is hard to keep up with it."

"The technical enablement sessions are quite limited, and Akamai could help by providing more of them."

"Automation and scalability are areas where the solution lacks and needs to improve."

"There are a few areas where the solution could be improved. For instance, we sometimes encounter connectivity issues, which can be problematic. Recently, I experienced a connectivity issue while trying to move to Azure. Connectivity issues can be quite frustrating."

"The platform still lacks relevant dashboards and the ability to customize them based on our needs."

"The access to the portal should be faster. It shouldn't crash a lot."

"What would be useful would be a notification/warning that a session is due to timeout after exceeding the default connection limit."

"In mobile devices, there is also sometimes a bit of tear when it is via LTE, however, that must be due to connectivity."

"The support is not very good."

"Harmony lacks this ability when anything more than a vanilla access policy is used (we use layers and source user objects in our policy which make this impossible according to Check Point)."

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"The license can be shared based on the number of active users."

"The price is great it is all-inclusive, they use an enterprise cost model. That's what we like compared to other users. This is one of the main attractions of Akamai Enterprise Application Access. It's already an enterprise cost model established with us for services."

"Licensing is based on user count."

"Perimeter 81 charges separately for gateways and VPN connectivity, but compared to Azure, it seemed more reasonable."

"The pricing of Check Point is relatively high when compared to other competitors like Palo Alto and Fortinet. While Palo Alto may be on the higher side in terms of cost, Check Point's pricing is similar to that of Fortinet. In some cases, Check Point offers better value for the features it provides. We initially considered other options but ultimately decided to purchase hardware that came with three years of iOS. This approach eliminated the need for any additional costs associated with Check Point. I would rate it 10 out of 10."

"Overall I am very happy with the solution’s flexibility and pricing."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"Annual licenses cost $30 to $40 each."

"The cost of the solution's licenses depends on the particular use cases."

"The product is neither cheap nor expensive."

"The product's pricing model accommodates diverse needs and deployment sizes."

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

16%

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

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What needs improvement with iboss?

I have the same complaint about them that I have about other software companies. Sometimes when you call in support, ...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

We are a PreK-12 public school district, and we use iboss to filter internet content for our students at home and sta...

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What do you like most about Perimeter 81?

Even after restarting, it tries to quickly reestablish connection which is very helpful.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Perimeter 81?

It's essential to consider the organization's specific requirements and budget. Here are some general recommendations...

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What needs improvement with Perimeter 81?

In terms of improvement, Perimeter 81 could enhance its reporting and analytics capabilities to provide more detailed...

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Comparisons

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Infoblox BloxOne Threat Defense vs iboss

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Compared 10% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Akamai Enterprise Application Access

Compared 9% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Akamai Enterprise Application Access

Compared 8% of the time

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Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 17% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 13% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 8% of the time

Netskope vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 7% of the time

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

ZTNA as a Service

March 2025

Akamai Enterprise Application Access report

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Buyer's Guide

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

March 2025

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) report

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Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

Soha

Check Point Quantum SASE

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Akamai Enterprise Application Access is a cloud-based solution that provides secure access to enterprise applications and data from any device, anywhere. It eliminates the need for traditional VPNs and allows organizations to easily manage access to applications and data for employees, partners, and customers. With its zero-trust approach, it ensures that only authorized users can access sensitive information, reducing the risk of data breaches.

Akamai

Perimeter 81 is a cloud-based network security and software-defined perimeter (SDP) solution designed to provide secure access to resources in the cloud, data centers, and on-premises environments. It offers a unified platform for organizations to manage and secure their network infrastructure, regardless of the location or type of resources.

Perimeter 81 Benefits:

Easy to use
Flexible access policies
Strong encryption and authentication protocols
Scalable
Compatible with various devices and platforms

Perimeter 81 Features:

Secure Network Access: Perimeter 81 provides secure access to internal resources and cloud-based applications through its client applications and gateways.
Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP): SDP is a security framework that focuses on dynamically creating secure connections between users and resources on a need-to-know basis.
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Perimeter 81 follows the Zero Trust security model, which assumes that no user or device can be inherently trusted.
Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Support: Perimeter 81 is designed to secure access to resources across multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments.
User and Device Management: The solution offers centralized user and device management capabilities, allowing administrators to define access policies, manage user roles, and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for enhanced security.
Network Segmentation: Perimeter 81 enables organizations to segment their network resources, creating isolated environments based on logical groupings.
Centralized Management and Analytics: Perimeter 81 provides a centralized management console where administrators can configure and monitor their network security settings.

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot user, Frontend Developer at Limelight Networks, states that "We use some VPN solutions, and Perimeter 81 has the best user experience for desktop or mobile".

Daniel Goldfeld, Vice President of Customer Success at Mine - The All-in-One Privacy Suite, says that Perimeter 81 has "Great SAML and SCIM support with the ability to deploy site-2-site tunnels with specific IP restrictions".

Another PeerSpot user, Accounts Payable Specialist at Simera, writes that "The feature that I have found to be most valuable is the reputation that the company has regarding privacy. Nowadays, this is critical, especially when you do all of your work online."

Check Point Software Technologies

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

Bugcrowd, InPowered, Spirent Communications

Aqua Security, Cognito, Multipoint, Kustomer, Postman, Meredith

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs. Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

February 2025

Free Report: Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs. Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs. Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.

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