Easily compare Akamai and Kingsoft Cloud 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 | Kingsoft Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Founded in 2012, Kingsoft Cloud owns data centers and POPs around the globe, provides users services and solutions for vertical industries. Relying on technology accumulation, they focus on video and file delivery and support varied protocols including RTMP, HLS, HDS, HTTP TS and HTTP FLV. |
Products
| Product | Akamai | Kingsoft Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Stream Acceleration |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | Video On Demand Acceleration | |
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image & Video Manager | Need to enable Kingsoft Standard Storage Service |
| DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain | Edge DNS | |
| WAFWeb Application Firewall | Web Application Protector | |
| Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this. | Kona DDoS Defender | |
| Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs | ||
| Edge ComputeRun your code on CDN edge servers | EdgeWorkers |
Network
How many POP locations do Akamai and Kingsoft Cloud have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Akamai | Kingsoft Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| North America | ? | 5 |
| Latin America | ? | 0 |
| Europe | ? | 1 |
| Russia & CIS | ? | 1 |
| Asia excl. China | ? | 8 |
| China | ? | 600 |
| Oceania | ? | 0 |
| Middle East | ? | 1 |
| Africa | ? | 0 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Akamai | Kingsoft Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 12 months | No minimum |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | No minimum |
| Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests | Unknown | None |
| Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred | Unknown | None |
| NA/EU traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.03 per GB |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.07 per GB |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | $0.08 per GB |
Features
| Web acceleration | Akamai | Kingsoft Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Instant setupSign up, configure, start testing. | Can't sign up and get started. Must talk to sales. | Account creation requires a Kingsoft Cloud employee's assistance |
| Change propagation delayHow fast do config changes propagate to all POPs? | 5 minutes | |
Apex/root domain OK  No performance degradation when using http(s)://domain.com |
If you also use their Fast DNS for your domain | |
| HTTP/2 | ||
| HTTP/3 | HTTP/3 announcement | |
| WebSockets | WebSockets docs | |
| IPv6Do the edge servers have IPv6? | ||
| Compression Reduce file size for faster delivery |
Resend from origin, or compress on edge | |
| Origin pull - protocolHTTP only or HTTPS possible too? | HTTP and HTTPS |
HTTP and HTTPS.
Match protocol
|
| Origin pull - Host headerUse client > edge value? Set specific value? |
Configure specific other Host header
CDN can also forward client request Host header to origin
|
|
| Origin ShieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP | Setup by a Kingsoft Cloud employee | |
| Waiting RoomDuring peak traffic, route users to a virtual waiting room | Virtual Waiting Room | |
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | Customers can use Kingsoft Standard Storage Service Product. Upload via API. $0.1 per GB stored | |
| Cache control - CDN caching |
By default, CDN honors origin headers
Full and granular control is possible
|
|
| Cache control - client caching |
By default, CDN honors origin headers
Full and granular control is possible
|
|
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
Cache-Control extensions support | |
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Avg. purge time is 40s, 99.97% completed within 5 minutes | |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge all, purge by directory, soft purge | |
| Analytics | ||
| Log files | Accessible via UI and API. Free | |
| API | Purge, configuration, analytics, logs |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Akamai | Kingsoft Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net | SNI | |
| Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate | SNI. Pricing is custom | |
| Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN | SNI. Pricing is custom. EV cert possible | |
| Token authentication | Support is needed, custom pricing | |
| Geo blocking | Support is needed, custom pricing | |
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | Whitelist/blacklist on Referer header (max 100 entries) | |
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting | Whitelist/blacklist on IP (max 100 entries) |
Support
| Customer support | Akamai | Kingsoft Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Akamai techdocs | Good documentation but not public |
| Humans | Free, 24/7 email support and phone support |