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Akamai versus ChinaCache

Easily compare Akamai and ChinaCache for POP locations, products, pricing, features & support. We hope this helps you better understand the similarities and differences between these content delivery networks.

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Company

Company Akamai ChinaCache
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. Founded in 1998, publicly traded on NASDAQ (CCIH), ChinaCache is the first CDN in China and generally considered to be one of the better CDNs for China delivery because of their network, knowledge and experience from working with (enterprise) multinational customers. The ChinaCache network and services are not limited to mainland China and ChinaCache has been growing steadily outside China in the past years.

Products

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Product Akamai ChinaCache
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... Dynamic Site Accelerator Dynamic Content Acceleration
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) Ion Static Content Acceleration
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) Download Delivery Download Acceleration
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? Adaptive Media Delivery Media Acceleration
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video Media Acceleration
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization Image & Video Manager
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain Edge DNS
WAFWeb Application Firewall Web Application Protector
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. Kona DDoS Defender
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs
Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers EdgeWorkers

Network

How many POP locations do Akamai and ChinaCache have in different parts of the world?

Region Akamai ChinaCache
North America ? 8
Latin America ? 1
Europe ? 3
Russia & CIS ? 0
Asia excl. China ? 10
China ? 400
Oceania ? 0
Middle East ? 1
Africa ? 1

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration Akamai ChinaCache
Minimum contract term 12 months 12 months
Minimum monthly costs Unknown Unknown
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests Unknown None
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

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration Akamai ChinaCache
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. Can't sign up and get started. Must talk to sales.
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? <5 minutes
Apex/root domain OK Blog: Root domain on CDN and performanceNo performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com If you also use their Fast DNS for your domain Non-Anycasted network
HTTP/2
HTTP/3 HTTP/3 announcement
WebSockets WebSockets docs
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? At customer request
Compression CDN Guide: CompressionReduce file size for faster delivery 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
tooltip CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP
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 CDN can honor origin headers
tooltip Custom rules can be set by CDN support team
Cache control - client caching
Serve Stale CDN Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate or delete cached objects on CDN <3 minutes delay
Purge - capabilities Purge all, purge by directory
Analytics
Log files Logs are daily or hourly
API Purge, analytics, billing. Not configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection Akamai ChinaCache
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net Only for testing
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 ChinaCache
Documentation Akamai techdocs Yes, but not public.
Humans Different levels of support are available.