Skip to content

Akamai versus Cloudflare

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

 logo Cloudflare logo

Company

Company Akamai Cloudflare
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. Cloudflare provides a global CDN with unique performance capabilities and a strong focus on security. The company has a global infrastructure built from the ground up using only next-generation, high-performance equipment—no legacy software or hardware. The result is a CDN that's easy to set up, affordable, and built to continuously adapt and integrate emerging technologies to meet future needs of everyone's Internet properties.

Products

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

Network

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

Region Akamai Cloudflare
North America ? 49
Latin America ? 48
Europe ? 45
Russia & CIS ? 11
Asia excl. China ? 45
China ? 37
Oceania ? 10
Middle East ? 15
Africa ? 24

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration Akamai Cloudflare
Minimum contract term 12 months None
Minimum monthly costs Unknown $0
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests Unknown None
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred Unknown None
NA/EU traffic (low volume) Unknown $0
APAC traffic (low volume) Unknown $0
LATAM traffic (low volume) Unknown $0

Features

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration Akamai Cloudflare
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? Instant
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 Global Anycast network
HTTP/2
HTTP/3 HTTP/3 announcement HTTP/3 Prioritization
WebSockets WebSockets docs WebSockets docs
IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6?
Compression CDN Guide: CompressionReduce 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? Can be an IP address
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP Tiered Cache, included in all paid plans
Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room Virtual Waiting Room Cloudflare Waiting Room
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin
Cache control - CDN caching Page rules for overriding caching headers
Cache control - client caching
Serve Stale CDN Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble Only 'stale while revalidate'
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate or delete cached objects on CDN Purge Speed
Purge - capabilities Purge per file and purge all
Analytics Web analytics, threats and more. Live-updating for paying customers
Log files Only for Enterprise customers, instantly available
API Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection Akamai Cloudflare
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net SNI
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate More info
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN
Token authentication More info
Geo blocking Access Rules
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content Possible with Workers
IP white/blacklisting Access Rules

Support

Customer support Akamai Cloudflare
Documentation Akamai techdocs Yes, public. Cloudflare Community.
Humans Email support for all. Phone only for Enterprise customers