Akamai vs jsDelivr
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Akamai and jsDelivr.
Quick Verdict
4.1/5
Akamai
0 reviews
4.3/5
jsDelivr
0 reviews
jsDelivr is rated higher (4.3 vs 4.1). Akamai invented the CDN industry in 1998. 340,000+ servers in 130+ countries. Enterprise CDN, edge security, and media delivery at massive scale. Acquired Linode for cloud compute. jsDelivr is a free CDN for open source npm and GitHub packages. Serve any npm package from the CDN with automatic versioning. Used by millions of websites. No setup required.
 Akamai The original CDN — 4,400+ edge PoPs across 130+ countries | jsDelivr Free CDN for open source JavaScript packages | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.1 (0 reviews) | 4.3 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | free |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free |
| Best for | Global media and streaming platforms, gaming backends, and attack-prone enterprises that need the largest edge footprint and top-tier DDoS scrubbing under enterprise contracts | Websites and developers serving open source JavaScript, CSS, and library assets from npm, GitHub, or WordPress plugins via CDN |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | Global multi-CDN: Cloudflare, Fastly, Bunny, Gcore plus custom servers |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | ddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter | free tieropen source |
| Visit Akamai → | Visit jsDelivr → | |
Akamai
Pros
- + Unmatched edge reach: 4,400+ PoPs across 130+ countries and 1,200+ networks
- + Prolexic DDoS scrubbing is the industry reference: 20+ Tbps dedicated capacity, zero-second mitigation, 100% platform availability SLA
- + Two decades-plus of delivery track record at the largest media and event scale
- + Aggressive egress pricing on the Akamai Cloud compute side, inherited from the Linode acquisition
- + Edge compute (EdgeWorkers, Functions) plus core and distributed compute regions under one network
Cons
- - No public pricing — quote-based enterprise procurement with real sales-cycle overhead
- - Not an option for individuals, small businesses, or anyone who wants self-serve onboarding
- - Dense, modular product catalog that is easy to over-buy or misconfigure
- - Volume commitments can make traffic overruns expensive
- - Compute breadth is thin compared with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud
jsDelivr
Pros
- + Completely free with no bandwidth limits or premium tiers
- + Multi-CDN delivery (Cloudflare, Fastly, Bunny, Gcore) with 540+ points of presence
- + Proven at very large scale — hundreds of billions of requests per month
- + Version pinning, semver ranges, purge API, stats API, ESM support (esm.run)
- + Absorbed BootstrapCDN, RawGit, and OSSCDN — broad legacy URL coverage
Cons
- - No SLA, no support contract, no uptime guarantee — offered as-is
- - Open source files only (npm, GitHub, WordPress plugins); not for private application assets
- - Upstream package removals or policy decisions can take files offline
- - Sponsorship-funded and small-team operated; support is best-effort
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