Easily compare Akamai and Imperva 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 | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Imperva's CDN (formerly Incapsula) makes your websites and applications faster, more reliable and safer. A global network of servers provides content caching, load balancing and failover, while an enterprise-grade cloud web application firewall and DDoS protection safeguard your site from the latest threats. |
Products
| Product | Akamai | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ... | Dynamic Site Accelerator | Content Delivery Network |
| Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB) | Ion | Content Caching |
| 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 | |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | ||
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image & Video Manager | Image Compression |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | Edge DNS |
Name Server (NS) Protection
Name Server (NS) Protection is a secure proxy in front of your authoritative DNS
|
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web Application Protector | 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 |
Network
How many POP locations do Akamai and Imperva have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Akamai | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| North America | ? | 12 |
| Latin America | ? | 5 |
| Europe | ? | 12 |
| Russia & CIS | ? | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | ? | 12 |
| China | ? | 0 |
| Oceania | ? | 3 |
| Middle East | ? | 3 |
| Africa | ? | 2 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Akamai | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| 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  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
If you also use their Fast DNS for your domain | Anycasted network (regional) |
| HTTP/2 | FAQ | |
| HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | |
| WebSockets | WebSockets docs | WebSockets docs |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | IPv6 support | |
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge | Compress on the edge |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS |
HTTP and HTTPS.
Can be IP address
|
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? |
Can configure specific other Host header.
Forward client request Host header is possible
|
|
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | ||
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Virtual Waiting Room | Waiting Room |
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | ||
| Cache control - CDN caching | Granular control/override rules possible | |
| Cache control - client caching | Granular control/override rules possible | |
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
||
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Instant | |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, by directory, by file extension, by tag(s) | |
| Analytics | Real time perf and security events dashboard | |
| Log files |
Available via UI, API, or full SIEM integration
Logs are not delayed
|
|
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Akamai | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | CDN and SSL/TLS | |
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | ||
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | ||
| Token authentication | Via authentication header | |
| Geo blocking | ||
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | ||
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | Two Factor Authentication | |
| IP white/blacklisting | IP address/ranges/subnets, self-service in UI |
Support
| Customer support | Akamai | Imperva |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Akamai techdocs | Yes, public |
| Humans | Imperva’s team of support engineers deliver technical assistance 24x7x365 via phone, email, or online via the self service portal |