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Akamai vs CDNetworks CDN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Akamai
Ranking in CDN
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CDNetworks CDN
Ranking in CDN
12th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the CDN category, the mindshare of Akamai is 15.0%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CDNetworks CDN is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CDN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Akamai15.0%
CDNetworks CDN0.7%
Other84.3%
CDN
 

Featured Reviews

JV
Sr. Strategic Accounts Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Improved security and faster operations with a seamless integration
They are one of the top solution vendors in the market. Premium though, but they're the best. We've worked closely with digital-native customers, not so much from the media segment. Fintechs, financial organizations, banking segment, manufacturing, these are the ones we have worked with. Not much on media because most of the media houses are already covered by Akamai. 95% of media houses are already covered by Akamai. It gives a seamless view of how your infrastructure is, from an attack perspective, from a threat perspective, how your assets are behaving. It gives a very comprehensive view. It depends on the customer's environment. Wherever the customer wants, but mostly it is on the private cloud or public cloud because it's a cloud-based SaaS solution that Akamai has to offer. Implementation is feasible anywhere. The solution is aimed at Enterprise customers because it is on a premium side. On a scale of 1-10, this solution rates at 9.5.
Jakir Shaikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Caching content across regions has improved access speed and reduced downtime risks for global users
The best features CDNetworks CDN offers are low latency, improved service performance, and easy accessibility for users from anywhere. The low latency and improved service performance have helped users significantly. For instance, users in India trying to access a data center in the USA would experience a long wait, but with multiple CDNetworks CDN points of presence around India, users are getting the content nearby their country or region, thus eliminating the need to connect directly to the USA data center. CDNetworks CDN has many points of presence and their service is also very good. They are very proactive, and if there is an issue in the backbone network, CDNetworks CDN connects all the points of presence through their backbone, and they have edge swaps which makes it faster for users to get the service. CDNetworks CDN has positively impacted the organization significantly. If CDNetworks CDN is down for a moment, there could be a million dollar loss due to the nature of the work being solely in the financial domain, which highlights the criticality of the financial sector. If CDNetworks CDN goes down or any part of it experiences issues, there is a substantial business-critical impact.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a scalable and reliable solution."
"As of now, the best thing about Akamai is WAF, and though CDN is a good feature, it comes in second place when compared to WAF. I am very impressed with the WAF offered by Akamai."
"The most valuable feature of Akamai is its ease of use and simple integration. Additionally, the solution has new aspects added to it regularly."
"The solution's most valuable feature is that it has been quite helpful in our company, especially when it comes to applications needing updates frequently."
"The solution's technical support is very good...The installation phase of Akamai was easy."
"The stability and efficiency of Akamai have enhanced our network's performance significantly."
"With 300 servers deployed worldwide, it's highly scalable and is the best web application firewall on the market."
"The worldwide reach of the Akamai CDN is one of the key values of this CDN and the agreements worldwide that they keep running."
"The low latency and improved service performance have helped users significantly, for instance, users in India trying to access a data center in the USA would experience a long wait, but with multiple CDNetworks CDN points of presence around India, users are getting the content nearby their country or region, thus eliminating the need to connect directly to the USA data center."
 

Cons

"When we open tickets, we have a delay in response times."
"On the commercials and pricing based on the region, they might have to work a bit because sometimes we lose on commercials."
"I'd like to see more Web 3.0 and IoT solutions."
"I'd like to see improvements in log files and data visualizations within the interface."
"The solution could offer more integrations."
"The fact that it is an expensive product is its only shortcoming."
"Their support is very slow. If you file a support ticket, it takes a long time before it gets resolved."
"Costing-wise and integration with other tools need improvement, especially API security."
"CDNetworks CDN is currently very good, but there is room for improvement on weekends as some issues occur on Saturdays and Sundays, where there is a little less response from CDNetworks CDN."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of Akamai is moderate, in my opinion. My company makes yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to Akamai. There are no additional costs besides the licensing costs for the solution."
"The price of Akamai could be less expensive."
"Price-wise, I find Akamai's pricing model's inclination to be more towards the expensive side of the spectrum, though I can't say that it is a very expensive product."
"It is an expensive product. The licensing costs for the solution are based on the usage. If we need premium support, we need to buy it from Akamai."
"This is a very expensive solution but it works well."
"Quite high in price, but equivalent to other enterprise products on the market"
"Akamai is an expensive tool. Moreover, we have a pay-as-you-go model for additional features."
"The solution's pricing is based on bandwidth."
Information not available
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Comparison Review

it_user69348 - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Nov 17, 2013
Akamai vs. CloudFlare – Simple Stats
In the world of CDNs Akamai is the incumbent 500 pound gorilla, no question. They have a HUGE global presence, super solid technology and networks, and have the most experience with large enterprise clients. However, now there other strong players in the CDN market. One of the most…
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Akamai?
The most valuable feature in managing web traffic has been the ability to handle vertical scaling effectively.
What needs improvement with Akamai?
Other solutions are probably easier to set up, but you have more capability in Akamai. It would be beneficial if they could make some cases less complex to set up. There could be improvements in ho...
What is your primary use case for Akamai?
We are using many of the solutions from Akamai, with the WAF in front of it and distribution to multiple targets where AWS is one of the targets. We are building up websites that we are pointing to...
What needs improvement with CDNetworks CDN?
CDNetworks CDN is currently very good, but there is room for improvement on weekends as some issues occur on Saturdays and Sundays, where there is a little less response from CDNetworks CDN. From M...
What is your primary use case for CDNetworks CDN?
CDNetworks CDN is used primarily for Malala, where vendors connect through the networking infrastructure via CDN. CDNetworks CDN is mostly used for caching content, especially static content, to se...
What advice do you have for others considering CDNetworks CDN?
If someone is looking to implement CDN and has a data center in one part of the world while users are connecting from another region, CDNetworks CDN is highly recommended, as it offers great servic...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Capital One, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Disney, Ebay, Facebook, Google, Home Depot, HP, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, LinkedIn, McDonald's, Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, Oracle, PayPal, Pinterest, Qualcomm, Rakuten, SAP, Spotify, Tesla, Toyota, Visa, Walmart, WeWork
Hostelworld, MailUp, Leader Summaries, Linkstorm, The French Tennis Federation, Oxybul, King Jouet, Thomsons Online Benefits, Calam_o, Yatedo, Wistia, Wacker
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft and others in CDN. Updated: January 2026.
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