Easily compare Akamai and Edgio 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 | Edgio |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | 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. |
Products
| Product | Akamai | Edgio |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Site Accelerator | Performance |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Ion | Performance |
| Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB) | Download Delivery | Performance |
| Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing? | Adaptive Media Delivery | Live Streaming |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Delivery | |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image & Video Manager | Image Optimization |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | Edge DNS | |
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web Application Protector | Security |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | Kona DDoS Defender | Security |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | EdgeWorkers | App Edge |
Network
How many POP locations do Akamai and Edgio have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Akamai | Edgio |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Akamai | Edgio |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 12 months | Unknown |
| 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 | Edgio |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | Can't sign up and get started. Must talk to sales. | Available through Microsoft Azure |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | A few minutes | |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
If you also use their Fast DNS for your domain | Anycasted network (regional) |
| HTTP/2 | ||
| HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | Q4 2023 |
| WebSockets | WebSockets docs | WebSockets docs |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | ||
| 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 | |
| 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 serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
||
| Purge Invalidate 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 | Akamai | Edgio |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Akamai | Edgio |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Akamai techdocs | Yes, public |
| Humans | All customers get 24/7 email and phone support. |