Company

Company	StackPath	Akamai
Short profile	StackPath launched in 2016 and is built on top of the Highwinds and MaxCDN platforms. StackPath promises global, high performance content delivery + top notch security (integrated web application firewall and DDoS mitigation) while keeping things simple, transparent and affordable. StackPath is developer-friendly with 24/7/365 support and a fully-documented API.	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.

Products

Product	StackPath	Akamai
Dynamic content deliveryNon-cacheable content delivery. User login, shopping cart ...
Small file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of small files (file size <1 MB)
Large file deliveryStatic object delivery; caching of large files (file size >1 MB)
Live videoDelivery of live video. RTMP? Transcoding/transmuxing?
Video on demandDelivery of on demand video
Image OptimizationAutomatic image compression/optimization
DNSAuthoritative DNS for customer domain
WAFWeb Application Firewall
Anti-DDoSDDoS attack protection. Specific product(s) for this.
Private CDNDedicated edge resources & custom configs

Network

Region	StackPath	Akamai
North America	10	Unknown
Latin America	1	Unknown
Europe	7	Unknown
Russia & CIS	0	Unknown
Asia, excl China	3	Unknown
China	0	Unknown
Oceania	1	Unknown
Middle-East	0	Unknown
Africa	0	Unknown

Pricing

Pricing & contract duration	StackPath	Akamai
Minimum contract term	One month	12 months
Minimum monthly costs	$20	Unknown
Requests costsCustomers pay for client to CDN requests	None	Unknown
Ingress costsCustomers pay for origin-to-CDN bytes transferred	Unknown	Unknown
NA/EU traffic (low volume)	$0.06 per GB	Unknown
APAC traffic (low volume)	$0.06 per GB	Unknown
LATAM traffic (low volume)	$0.06 per GB	Unknown

Features

Web acceleration	StackPath	Akamai
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
HTTP/2
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?
Origin shieldOne POP pulls from origin, other POPs pull from the shield POP
Push / uploadStore your content directly on CDN, no customer origin
Cache control - CDN caching	Full and granular control with EdgeRules
Cache control - client caching	Full and granular control with EdgeRules
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
Analytics	Real-time!
Log files	Only for larger volume plans
API	Purge, analytics, configuration

HTTPS & Content Protection	StackPath	Akamai
CDN domain HTTPSUse the CDN's domain, like cloudfront.net	Free. SNI
Customer domain HTTPSYour domain in the CDN's certificate
Customer cert HTTPSYour certificate on the CDN	Free. SNI
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	StackPath	Akamai
Documentation	Yes, public	Yes, but not public
Humans	24/7 phone and email support included in all plans. Higher volume plans get a dedicated technical account manager