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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.

 logo Gcore logo

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 CDN with a focus on gaming: "We expand the geographical presence of your game and speed up downloads for your players". Gcore is headquartered in Luxembourg and employs 400+ people.

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 ? 17
Europe ? 23
Russia & CIS ? 13
Asia excl. China ? 15
China ? 0
Oceania ? 2
Middle East ? 13
Africa ? 12

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration Akamai Gcore
Minimum contract term 12 months One month
Minimum monthly costs Unknown $37
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests Unknown First 1 billion free, more cost $0.0079/10,000
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred Unknown Yes
NA/EU traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.024 per GB
APAC traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.024 per GB
LATAM traffic (low volume) Unknown $0.024 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 Custom solution (host your DNS zone ...)
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, directory, and by file type/pattern
Analytics Many metrics, real-time updates
Log files Export logs to your storage. Logs are exported at the end of each hour.
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 Technical support depends on price plan. Pro plan and up get 24/7 mail, chat and phone support.