Easily compare Akamai and CDNetworks for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.
Company
| Company | Akamai | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| Short profile | Akamai is one of the oldest CDNs and generally considered to be the largest global CDN. They have 'servers everywhere' and a wide range of products and services. The company is actively involved in Let's Encrypt and is pushing HTTP/2 adoption. | As a leading network with over 2,800 global Points of Presence and more than 20 years of technology experience, CDNetworks has made huge leaps forward in edge computing, from basic CDN services to elastic, stable, and secure content delivery services and all-in-one WAAP Protection Solution. Recognized in Gartner Competitive Landscape: CDN and Edge Services in 2022. |
Products
| Product | Akamai | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Site Accelerator | Dynamic Web Acceleration |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Ion | Content Acceleration |
| Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | Download Delivery | Content Acceleration |
| Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Adaptive Media Delivery | Media Acceleration Live Broadcast |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Media Acceleration VoD | |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image & Video Manager | Image Processing |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | Edge DNS | Cloud DNS+ |
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web Application Protector | Application Firewall |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | Kona DDoS Defender | Flood Shield |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | EdgeWorkers | Edge Computing Platform |
Network
How many POP locations do Akamai and CDNetworks have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Akamai | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| North America | ? | 13 |
| Latin America | ? | 6 |
| Europe | ? | 14 |
| Russia & CIS | ? | 27 |
| Asia excl. China | ? | 35 |
| China | ? | 66 |
| Oceania | ? | 3 |
| Middle East | ? | 10 |
| Africa | ? | 7 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Akamai | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 12 months | 12 months |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | Unknown |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | Unknown |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | Unknown |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | Akamai | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | Can't sign up and get started. Must talk to sales. | CDN Pro has self signup and getting started. For other products you must talk to sales |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | ~ 15 minutes | |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
If you also use their Fast DNS for your domain | |
| HTTP/2 | Docs | |
| HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | |
| WebSockets | WebSockets docs | Docs |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | Docs | |
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge | Resend from origin, or compress on edge |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS | HTTP and HTTPS |
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? |
Configure specific other Host header
CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
|
|
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Multiple POPs can act as shield | |
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Virtual Waiting Room | |
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | ||
| Cache control - CDN caching | Full and granular control | |
| Cache control - client caching | Full and granular control | |
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
||
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Completion time is 5 - 10 minutes | |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, by directory, by cache tag | |
| Analytics | ||
| Log files | ||
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Akamai | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | ||
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | ||
| Token authentication | ||
| Geo blocking | ||
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | ||
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting |
Support
| Customer support | Akamai | CDNetworks |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Akamai techdocs | Yes, public |
| Humans | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support |