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Edgio versus Akamai

Easily compare Edgio and Akamai 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 Edgio Akamai
Short profile Edgio is the result of the merger between well-known CDNs Edgecast and Limelight Networks and now a global edge platform with 300+ edge locations across the globe. The Edgio platform has four pillars: Delivery, Streaming, Security and AppOps. 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.

Products

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

Network

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

Region Edgio Akamai
North America 18 ?
Latin America 12 ?
Europe 15 ?
Russia & CIS 0 ?
Asia excl. China 12 ?
China 100 ?
Oceania 3 ?
Middle East 3 ?
Africa 2 ?

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration Edgio Akamai
Minimum contract term Unknown 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

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration Edgio Akamai
Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. Available through Microsoft Azure Can't sign up and get started. Must talk to sales.
Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? A few minutes
Apex/root domain OK Blog: Root domain on CDN and performanceNo performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com Anycasted network (regional) If you also use their Fast DNS for your domain
HTTP/2
HTTP/3 Q4 2023 HTTP/3 announcement
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? Configure specific other Host header
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP Single POP shield or multiple. Full control
Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room Virtual Waiting Room
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin Origin Storage
Cache control - CDN caching Full and granular control
Cache control - client caching Full and granular control
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 Purge Speed
Purge - capabilities Purge all, purge by directory, by file extension
Analytics Real-time, with many metrics in the UI
Log files < 60 seconds
API Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection Edgio Akamai
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate Non-SNI. Pricing is custom. Wildcard possible
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN Pricing is custom
Token authentication Included as core feature
Geo blocking Included as core feature
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content Included as core feature
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content Supported via special configuration
IP white/blacklisting Included as core feature

Support

Customer support Edgio Akamai
Documentation Yes, public Akamai techdocs
Humans All customers get 24/7 email and phone support.