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Akamai versus Gcore

Easily compare Akamai and Gcore 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 Gcore
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. Gcore is a global edge platform providing AI, cloud, network, and security solutions, all seamlessly integrated at the edge. With over 180 POPs across six continents, Gcore ensures fast, reliable, and secure delivery of dynamic and static content worldwide.

Products

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Product Akamai Gcore
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 Live Streaming
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video VoD
Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization Image & Video Manager Image Stack
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain Edge DNS DNS
WAFWeb Application Firewall Web Application Protector WAF
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

Network

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

Region Akamai Gcore
North America ? 15
Latin America ? 18
Europe ? 31
Russia & CIS ? 14
Asia excl. China ? 17
China ? 0
Oceania ? 2
Middle East ? 12
Africa ? 20

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration Akamai Gcore
Minimum contract term 12 months None month
Minimum monthly costs Unknown $0
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests Unknown First 1 billion free, more cost $0.0079 per 10,000
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred Unknown Yes
NA/EU traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.0315 per GB
APAC traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.0315 per GB
LATAM traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.0315 per GB

Features

Yes
Sort of/partially
No
Extra costs
Unknown
Web acceleration Akamai Gcore
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? ~15 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 CNAME flattening
HTTP/2
HTTP/3 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? Can be different from origin host
Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP Enable and configure Origin shielding
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 Origin or CDN controlled
Cache control - client caching Origin or CDN controlled
Serve Stale CDN Guide: Serve StaleCDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble Always Online
Purge CDN Guide: PurgeInvalidate or delete cached objects on CDN Purge Speed
Purge - capabilities Purge all and by pattern
Analytics Detailed statistics by server and by user
Log files Log Viewer
API Purge, analytics, configuration
HTTPS & Content Protection Akamai Gcore
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 Manage self in control panel
Token authentication Secure Token
Geo blocking Country Access Policy
Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content Referer Access Policy
Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content
IP white/blacklisting IP Access Policy

Support

Customer support Akamai Gcore
Documentation Akamai techdocs Yes, public
Humans 8/5 email support for low volume plans. Volume and Enterprise customers get 24/7 chat, phone and email support