Akamai vs Cloudflare
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Akamai and Cloudflare.
Quick Verdict
3.5/5
Akamai
375 reviews
4.4/5
Cloudflare
122 reviews
Cloudflare is rated higher (4.4 vs 3.5). 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. Cloudflare provides distributed content delivery, DDoS mitigation, and R2 object storage. Designed for developers and enterprises needing reliable infrastructure with minimal latency.
 Akamai The original CDN — 340,000 servers globally | Cloudflare Global CDN and DDoS protection with object storage | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.5 (375 reviews) | 4.4 (122 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | paid | freemium |
| Starting price | From €500/mo | Free tier available✓ |
| Best for | Global media companies and enterprises needing the largest and most battle-tested CDN infrastructure | Teams building web applications requiring global distribution, DDoS protection, and cost-efficient object storage without egress fees. |
| Specifications (entry plan) | ||
| CPU cores | — | 0 vCPU |
| RAM | — | 0 GB |
| Storage | — | 0 GB |
| Bandwidth | — | 0 TB/mo |
| SLA uptime | — | 99.99% |
| Data-center count | — | 300 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | Global — 300+ cities |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | ddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter | free tiers3 compatibleddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenterapi accessipv6terraform provider |
| Visit Akamai → | Visit Cloudflare → | |
Akamai
Pros
- + 340,000 servers — unmatched global scale
- + Enterprise security and media delivery
- + Includes Linode cloud compute
Cons
- - Enterprise-only pricing — complex procurement
- - Not for individuals or SMBs
Cloudflare
Pros
- + Remove egress fees with R2 object storage pricing model
- + Deploy content globally with automatic edge caching
- + Mitigate DDoS attacks with Anycast network
- + Integrate security and performance in one platform
Cons
- - R2 has limited regional availability compared to AWS S3
- - Steeper learning curve for complex configuration options
- - Egress costs still apply for some traffic patterns outside R2
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