Hetzner DDoS Protection vs Akamai
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Hetzner DDoS Protection and Akamai.
Quick Verdict
4.0/5
Hetzner DDoS Protection
0 reviews
4.1/5
Akamai
0 reviews
Akamai is rated higher (4.1 vs 4.0). Free automatic DDoS mitigation included with every Hetzner product. Arbor/Juniper scrubbing plus Nokia Deepfield Defender edge filtering (2026), with no per-gigabit charges and no configurable thresholds. 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.
Hetzner DDoS Protection Hardware-backed DDoS mitigation for high-traffic infrastructure |  Akamai The original CDN — 4,400+ edge PoPs across 130+ countries | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.0 (0 reviews) | 4.1 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | free | paid |
| Starting price | Free | Free tier available |
| Best for | Hetzner customers who want a credible zero-cost first line of volumetric defense and will layer external L7 filtering on top only where attack risk justifies paying for it. | 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 |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ | |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierddos protectioneu datacenter | ddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter |
| Visit Hetzner DDoS Protection → | Visit Akamai → | |
Hetzner DDoS Protection
Pros
- + Free and automatic for every Hetzner customer, with no scrubbing or per-gigabit charges during attacks
- + Nokia Deepfield Defender edge mitigation (since March 2026) filters most attack traffic before it enters the backbone
- + Distinguishes attack types (e.g. UDP flood vs SYN flood) instead of reacting to raw volume alone
- + Filtering stays inside Hetzner's own German/Finnish network, supporting GDPR data-sovereignty requirements
- + Covers all Hetzner products at once: cloud servers, dedicated root servers, web hosting, load balancers
Cons
- - Protects Hetzner infrastructure only; useless for non-Hetzner origins
- - Zero user control: no configurable thresholds, no dashboard, no WAF rules
- - No published mitigation capacity, detection SLA, or uptime credits tied to the service
- - Non-EU locations (Ashburn, Hillsboro, Singapore) not confirmed to run the same mitigation stack
- - Historic community reports of null-routing attacked dedicated servers could not be confirmed against current policy
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
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