Easily compare Akamai and SwiftServe 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 | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | SwiftServe CDN, operated by Conversant, has a strong POP presence in Asia and especially Indonesia. Their services include web acceleration, file download optimisation, video on demand (VoD) and live streaming. Conversant operates the largest CDN Federation in Asia. |
Products
| Product | Akamai | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | |
| Video on demandDelivery of on demand video | ||
| Image OptimizationAutomatic image transformation/compression/optimization | Image & Video Manager | |
| 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 SwiftServe have in different parts of the world?
| Region | Akamai | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| North America | ? | 2 |
| Latin America | ? | 0 |
| Europe | ? | 1 |
| Russia & CIS | ? | 0 |
| Asia excl. China | ? | 20 |
| China | ? | 1 |
| Oceania | ? | 0 |
| Middle East | ? | 0 |
| Africa | ? | 1 |
Pricing
| Pricing & contract duration | Akamai | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum contract term | 12 months | 12 months |
| Minimum monthly costs | Unknown | Unknown |
| 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 | Unknown |
| APAC traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
| LATAM traffic (low volume) | Unknown | Unknown |
Features
| Web acceleration | Akamai | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| 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  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 | 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't configure specific other Host header | |
| 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 | |
| Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin | FTP or upload in portal. Storage costs apply | |
| Cache control - CDN caching | Set override caching rules. Per file type. | |
| Cache control - client caching | ||
| Serve Stale CDN serves cached but expired content in case origin is in trouble |
||
| Purge Invalidate or delete cached objects on CDN |
Up to 15 minutes | |
| Purge - capabilities | Purge file, all and by directory | |
| Analytics |
Updated daily or hourly (premium)
No metrics per config/zone
|
|
| Log files | Logs are daily | |
| API | Purge, analytics, configuration |
| HTTPS & Content Protection | Akamai | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ||
| Token authentication | ||
| Geo blocking | ||
| Hotlink protectionThird parties cannot deeplink to your content | ||
| Basic authenticationUser logs in on the CDN to get content | ||
| IP white/blacklisting |
Support
| Customer support | Akamai | SwiftServe |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation | Akamai techdocs | Yes, but not public |
| Humans | All customers get email support. 24/7 phone support is available (costs extra) |