Akamai vs Cloudflare

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The Internet has grown into a fast-growing arena where businesses need fast, secure, and always-available websites. It is where the workings of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) become visible. Among the big players in this industry are Akamai and Cloudflare. Both boost website loading speeds and vectors of protection against cyber threat vectors. Still, they have many differences in their approaches to the digital world.

What is a CDN?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is network of servers that is placed around the world that allows fast access to website information via users. A CDN does not centralize all website content from one central server. It stores copies of your site on different servers. This way, if ever a user visits your site, it is the closest server that will send the data, hence minimizing the load time.

What is Akamai?

Akamai has been in the business of being one of the oldest and biggest CDN providers. The third business serves a lot of private major clients − banks, government agencies, and streaming platforms. Akamai is known for very high performances while providing reliable and advanced security solutions.

What is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare, on the other hand, is a new CDN that basically focuses on straightforwardness, low-costs, and security. It has both free and premium accounts, which make it famous in small businesses, blog owners, and hobbyist developers. Besides being CDN, Cloudflare also works with firewall services in blocking cyber threats.

Speed and Performance

Following is a comparison between Akamai and Cloudflare on basis of speed and performance −

Akamai

• Akamai boasts one of the largest networks in the world today, comprising over 4000 locations.
• This caters particularly well to very large enterprises looking for customization of speed optimization.
• Very high-quality streaming for videos and web content in general.

Cloudflare

• Cloudflare consists of about 310+ locations but remains highly optimized.
• It offers a speed boost for websites and handles web traffic very well.
• Cloudflare operates with Anycast routing to find the fastest route available for data automatically.

Security Features

Have a look at the following comparison between Akamai and Cloudflare on basis of security features –

Akamai

• It has a high-end security feature for DDoS, bot mitigation, and web application firewall.
• Ideal for governments and large enterprises needing high-security solutions.
• Uses customized security solutions, which may need professional installation.

Cloudflare

• Comes with built-in security, such as DDoS, WAF, and bot protection.
• Perfects the network with zero trust security.
• It is much less technical to play with.

Easy Set-up Features

Below is a comparison between Akamai and Cloudflare, when we talk about the easiness of setup features –

Akamai

• An interrupting configuration requires technical expertise.
• Best suited for large enterprises having their dedicated IT teams.

Cloudflare

• Simple set-up pattern with easy integration.
• Can be installed in a matter of minutes without much technical knowledge.
• But when taking ease of usage into account, Cloudflare is the winner.

Tools and Code Usage

On basis of tolls and code usage, following is a comprehensive comparison between Akamai and Cloudflare. Have a look on these points −

Akamai

Akamai has a plethora of tools that best serve developer and business needs in terms of performance and security. The following tools are essential ones for Akamai:

• Akamai Luna Control Center: A web-based graphical interface to manage Akamai services.
• Akamai CLI: Command-line interface for services provided by Akamai.
• Akamai API: RESTful API to automate configurations and security.

Example of Using Akamai API with Python

import requests

api_url="https://api.akamai.com/config-security/v1/configs"
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_AKAMAI_API_KEY", "Content-Type": "application/json"}
response=requests.get(api_url,headers=headers)
print(response.json())

Cloudflare

Cloudflare provides for a whole range of easy-to-use tools and APIs that quite nicely integrate with websites and applications.

• Cloudflare Dashboard − This soothingly user-friendly user interface allows you to manage your settings and security with much ease.
• Cloudflare API − A REST API used for the automation and configuration of security and performance.
• Cloudflare Workers − A serverless platform to run JavaScript projects on the edge.

Example of Use Cloudflare API in Python

import requests

api_url = "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones"
headers = {
    "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_CLOUDFLARE_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}
response = requests.get(api_url, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

Difference Between Akamai and Cloudflare

The following table highlights the major differences between Akamai and Cloudflare −