Akamai vs Uplynk comparison

Akamai and Uplynk are both solutions in the CDN category. Akamai is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Uplynk is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.5. Akamai holds a 11.6% mindshare in CDN, compared to Uplynk’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Uplynk users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Akamai and Uplynk are competitors in the content delivery and video streaming markets. Akamai holds an advantage in scalability and security features, while Uplynk offers superior streaming capabilities and user friendliness.

Features: Akamai comes with an extensive global delivery network, robust security features, and high scalability making it a great choice for large enterprises. Uplynk offers seamless integration with broadcast systems, advanced cloud-based tools, and adaptive streaming technologies which cater to media-focused applications.

Room for Improvement: Akamai could enhance its user interface for easier management and integration. The complex deployment process could be simplified to reduce deployment time. Offering more competitive entry-level pricing would attract smaller businesses. Uplynk can expand its global reach to cater to a wider audience. It could also improve security features to match Akamai's standards. Developing more comprehensive support materials could assist in troubleshooting.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Akamai is known for comprehensive deployment options and 24/7 customer service which aligns with enterprise needs but involves complex processes. Uplynk provides a straightforward, efficient deployment model with intuitive interfaces and emphasizes proactive, responsive support.

Pricing and ROI: Akamai's setup cost is higher due to its extensive features and infrastructure but offers significant ROI for businesses requiring high security and scalability. Uplynk's cost-effective setup with a high potential ROI is appealing to cost-sensitive buyers, particularly for those focused on streaming features.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai vs. Uplynk Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai vs. Uplynk

August 2026

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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 CDN category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 15.0%, down from 21.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Akamai is 11.6%, down from 16.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Uplynk is 4.1%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CDN Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare	15.0%
Akamai	11.6%
Uplynk	4.1%
Other	69.3%

CDN

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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VinuThomas John

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.

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AliKhalil

manager at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees

Reliable live streaming has increased our continuous viewership and maintained audience trust

Uplynk is deployed in my organization on-premises and is fully on-site. Uplynk supports our business continuity or disaster recovery plans because it's really well protected and it doesn't lag or crash when there's a spike in all areas. Uplynk helps us comply with regulatory requirements in our industry by keeping us live. Uplynk integrates really well with other systems or tools we use. You need a whole team to really run Uplynk because there are so many moving pieces, the code, the app, and other components. My experience with Uplynk's analytics or reporting capabilities is that they are especially helpful to update the teams and our stakeholders. I would describe Uplynk's flexibility or customization options as really easy, really customizable, and it integrates in many areas. Uplynk helps me deliver content to different devices or platforms by allowing us to upload on and stay live on tablets, computers, and televisions. It allows us to stay live to get those viewerships. Uplynk is a software that saves time, but you need a solid team to run Uplynk to ensure viewership and everything is moving because there are many pieces to keep. I advise others looking into using Uplynk that it takes many different areas: coding, integration, APIs, and all that. It takes a team to run it, and you need to be a big company. If you're streaming and doing all that at a big scale, use it. If you're on a smaller scale, Uplynk is going to be really hard for you to manage. It's not something that's simple; just use the ones that are basic out there if you're an influencer and things like that. I would rate this product a nine overall.

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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

"It is easier to configure and develop documentation to see how we have configured firewalls."

"If it was not for CloudFlare, I would have to hire a dedicated resource to manage all this for me."

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

"I didn’t have to pay anything for better website security and reduced server load."

"The most valuable feature of Cloudflare is the GUI. You are able to control the solution very well through the interface. There is a lot of functionality that is embedded in the service."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is external DNS. It is also very secure. They have their own main server and once you configure it, the product takes care of everything. There are no issues in resolving IPs and low latency is also present."

"It is a fast and secure DNS."

"Cloudflare has many features."

More Cloudflare pros

"All the policies of the CDNs are very beneficial."

"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."

"The solution's technical support is very prompt and good."

"The stability and efficiency of Akamai have enhanced our network's performance significantly."

"We can see how much traffic can be downloaded on the portal."

"If an attacker conducts an attack, we can check what query he is running and whether he wants to see our password or any other files."

"The solution's technical support is very good...The installation phase of Akamai was easy."

"With 300 servers deployed worldwide, it's highly scalable and is the best web application firewall on the market."

More Akamai pros

"I recommend this solution because, for me, it's one of the most efficient and performant CDN operators."

"Uplynk has positively impacted our organization by bringing us more viewership, as it does not glitch and stays stable during spikes in viewership, leading to approximately a 15 to 20 percent increase in viewership because there's no lag and nothing fails."

"It's super easy to use and integrate with."

"The tool's most valuable feature is the Uplynk platform for streaming purposes."

"The product is easy to use and easy to implement."

"The customer support and service responsiveness were excellent."

"Without EdgeCast, our website was taking 10 to 15 seconds to load; with EdgeCast, it loads under five seconds and it's a good product."

"The Rules Engine V4 is the most valuable feature."

Cons

"The one feature that is paid is the custom nameservers instead of using the default ones, I want to use a custom one."

"With CDN loads, sometimes we get an error that the host server is unavailable when the connection between CloudFlare and the server timed out."

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

"In the last two years, there has been a certain amount of downtime when using the VDM."

"It would be helpful if the solution could continue evolving to compete with the other solutions on the market."

"CloudFlare doesn't provide the cache flush history. I am not able to find out the URL information of those I have recently flushed."

"There could be more courses with engineers. I like e-learning, however, having a specialist in a classroom is more comfortable for me."

"We experienced some downtime in the fall of 2013, causing us to switch to Incapsula."

More Cloudflare cons

"Akamai could improve by providing its own cloud services. We have to use third-party cloud services at this time, such as Amazon AWS. The offering becomes a lot easier for an SMB if everything was in one single platform to be used for the services."

"I would like to see improvements in the security aspect. The web application firewall needs to be enhanced and offers more customization options."

"Their support is very slow. If you file a support ticket, it takes a long time before it gets resolved."

"The solution can be improved by creating a communication pathway with technical engineers because 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."

"Akamai could improve by having a more robust and responsive support team."

"Akamai's configuration part is an area of concern where improvements are required to make the process easy."

"The user console is quite overloaded, sometimes it's hard to find your way around."

More Akamai cons

"We could not create more than 15 custom rules."

"The web interface of the Verizon Edgecast portal is very old. It's not user-friendly, slow, and it is missing some valuable features like the ability to make bulk changes."

"In the next release, I would like to see more global endpoints for their CDN and a lower price."

"The comparable features that we are looking at fits into Cloudflare's free version, as opposed to Verizon EdgeCast, which we are paying for."

"The pricing was initially very expensive."

"To improve Uplynk, it should be made more user-friendly, as it takes a lot of moving pieces to make it work."

"The tool needs to resolve its lack of innovation."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The pricing depends on the usage, but the cheapest would be around 5,000 USD a month."

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

"I believe their performance has improved, but I'd like to refrain from discussing the pricing aspect related to the cloud. The pricing, in my opinion, could be simplified, and I think they should consider reevaluating the pricing for support, as it can be quite high. At times, this cost can make it challenging to choose CARFAGuard or opt for the support."

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

"The cost primarily depends on the size of the organization."

"A free version of the solution is available."

"We are using the free version."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

"Akamai is an expensive tool. Moreover, we have a pay-as-you-go model for additional features."

"This is a very expensive solution but it works well."

"The solution's pricing is based on bandwidth."

"The price of the solution depends upon its usage."

"From the resource component, it's very costly, and Akamai's charges are also high. So, any organization with a high-tech budget can definitely afford it, but companies with 10-15% of their revenue as a technical budget probably won't be able to. That's where they have a lot of room for improvement if they want to onboard those early users."

"The solution can be one of the more expensive options, reflecting their established market position."

"Quite high in price, but equivalent to other enterprise products on the market"

"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."

More Akamai pricing and cost advice

"Be careful about the options because to have all the features can be very expensive."

"The product is cheaper compared to other solutions."

"When I modeled it out, we are spending somewhere between $600 to $800 a month with Verizon EdgeCast."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

17%

Construction Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

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...

See all answers

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...

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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.

See all answers

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...

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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 wher...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Akamai?

The pricing is good, with no complaints about costs, which is essential when deciding to have Akamai in your network.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Edgio Global CDN?

I wasn't a part of the pricing, setup cost, and licensing discussions, but from what I heard from my colleagues, they...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Edgio Global CDN?

To improve Uplynk, it should be made more user-friendly, as it takes a lot of moving pieces to make it work. Uplynk i...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Edgio Global CDN?

My main use case for Uplynk is live channels around the clock. Since we're in the television business, we're constant...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 31% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

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Fastly vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Azure DNS vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

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Fastly vs Akamai

Compared 9% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Akamai

Compared 9% of the time

Windows Azure CDN vs Akamai

Compared 5% of the time

F5 Distributed Cloud Services vs Akamai

Compared 4% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Akamai

Compared 4% of the time

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Qwilt vs Uplynk

Compared 8% of the time

Windows Azure CDN vs Uplynk

Compared 6% of the time

Fastly vs Uplynk

Compared 6% of the time

Vision Solutions Double-Take vs Uplynk

Compared 4% of the time

Amazon CloudFront vs Uplynk

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

August 2026

Download Cloudflare product report

Buyer's Guide

Akamai

August 2026

Download Akamai product report

Buyer's Guide

Uplynk

July 2026

Download Uplynk product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

No data available

Edgio, Limelight Content Delivery, Limelight Orchestrate Delivery, Limelight Origin Storage, Global CDN, Verizon EdgeCast

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 enhances performance and security for web applications with features such as a robust CDN and web application firewall. It supports traffic management and improving content delivery speed through a global data center network.

Akamai, known for its web application firewall and CDN, provides comprehensive solutions catering to enterprises with advanced needs like traffic offloading, logging, security, and scalability. Its global Points of Presence network and threat intelligence capabilities, incorporating AI and machine learning, ensure strong security and traffic management. Users appreciate the ease of integration and management, despite the complexity and navigation challenges of the Akamai console. The potential improvements in API security, caching strategies, and migration processes alongside competitive pricing could broaden its appeal. Akamai primarily focuses on content delivery, video streaming, and caching, supporting sectors such as streaming, gaming, and businesses requiring rapid content delivery and cyber threat protection.

What are Akamai's key features?

Web Application Firewall: Protects against common vulnerabilities and threats.
CDN: Enhances website performance by reducing load times.
Security: Includes DDoS protection and threat intelligence.
Traffic Management: Efficient handling and scaling of web traffic.
Global Presence: Extensive data centers for faster content delivery.
Automatic Updates: Ensures security features are up-to-date.

What benefits do users find with Akamai?

Improved Performance: Faster content delivery enhances user experience.
Enhanced Security: Robust protection against cyber threats.
Scalability: Accommodates growing traffic demands seamlessly.
Integration Ease: Simplifies operational workflows.
Reliability: Ensures consistent uptime and performance quality.

In streaming and gaming industries, Akamai optimizes content delivery and security measures, meeting the demands for rapid, secure, and reliable services. Businesses leverage its CDN and monitoring capabilities to reduce load times and enhance application performance, whilst increasing protection against cyber threats.

Akamai

Uplynk is a robust platform providing CDN integration and optimized streaming services, improving user experience and application performance. It offers control over CDN caching, redirects, and asset transformations, supporting seamless asset management and mobile security.

Uplynk enhances application performance through efficient API calls, optimized web server loads, and robust CDN configurations. It ensures high availability and performance by leveraging Verizon EdgeCast CDN, crucial for managing high-volume traffic on e-commerce platforms. Though Uplynk excels in asset caching and mobile security with JWT tokens and AES encryption, some users note its global reach needs improvement, and its interface lacks modern user-friendliness. Deployment of new rules can be slower compared to competitors, while documentation and rate limiting features require enhancement. Despite this, Uplynk remains a preferred choice for organizations seeking streamlined web server load optimization and enhanced application performance.

What are Uplynk's key features?

Rules Engine V4: Manages CDN caching, redirects, and asset transformations.
Seamless Integration: Easily integrates with Verizon's existing offerings.
Efficient API Calls: Enhances streaming and application performance.
Staging Support: Testing in staging environments without impacting production.
Mobile Security: Includes JWT tokens and AES encryption.

What benefits should users expect in reviews?

Improved Load Times: Efficient CDN configurations enhance site speed.
Enhanced User Navigation: Optimized performance for high-volume traffic.
DDoS Protection: Layer 3, 4, and 7 protection for comprehensive security.
Performance Optimization: Mobile development and streamlined caching.

Organizations deploy Uplynk to optimize web server load, enhance streaming service performance and support high-traffic volume management, especially in e-commerce. Its security measures, combined with Verizon EdgeCast CDN, ensure high availability and reliable performance, enhancing mobile engagement through specialized frameworks.

Uplynk

Sample Customers

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

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

TD Ameritrade, Plus500, Solvay Bank, Yahoo, Deckers Brands, and Coach

Buyer's Guide

Akamai vs. Uplynk

August 2026

Free Report: Akamai vs. Uplynk

Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai vs. Uplynk and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

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