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Comparison

Akamai vs Fastly

Akamai and Fastly both land on Depends.

Akamai

akamai.com

Depends
Confidence: Medium

Akamai fits large enterprises moving serious global traffic and wanting CDN plus edge security under one negotiated contract.

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Akamai versus Fastly
CompareAkamaiFastly
VerdictDependsDepends
Best forLarge enterprises with global trafficHigh-traffic media and streaming
Who it's not forSmall sites and side projects . freight-train tooling for a bicycleSmall blogs and low-traffic sites
PrivacyActively discloses and patches; at least four CVEs across edge and cloud products in 2025-2026.⁹No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.
Support qualityNo buyer-side support evidence foundPromises migration partnership; claims only, no review data
Public sentimentReddit comparisons with Cloudflare dominate the discussion, employees rate it 4.3/5 on Glassdoor, and independent Trustpilot feedback is nearly nonexistent.15Nearly all evidence is Fastly marketing; cited customers praise speed, cost, and fast rollout, with no independent review data.
Biggest gotchaNo public rate card for CDN/security . expect sales calls and budget surprises14Usage-based billing can spike with traffic; 'predictable pricing, no surprises' is asserted, no rates published

Pick Akamai when

  • Large enterprises with global traffic
  • Security teams needing edge WAF/DDoS/API protection
  • High-volume e-commerce or streaming CDN buyers
  • Startups qualifying for the Rise program

When Akamai is not a fit

  • Small sites and side projects . freight-train tooling for a bicycle
  • Bootstrapped startups wanting self-serve, transparent pricing
  • Teams with no dedicated infra or security staff
  • Anyone unwilling to sit through sales-negotiated contracts

Pick Fastly when

  • High-traffic media and streaming
  • Global ecommerce
  • Engineering teams wanting programmable edge
  • Enterprises leaving legacy CDNs

When Fastly is not a fit

  • Small blogs and low-traffic sites
  • Teams without DevOps engineers
  • Buyers wanting flat monthly bills
  • Anyone wanting published self-serve pricing

Sources

  1. Akamai Cloud Computing Reviews . G2g2.com
    review
  2. Akamai Reviews . Glassdoorglassdoor.com
    review
  3. Websites using Akamai in the United States . BuiltWithtrends.builtwith.com
    news
  4. Companies using Akamai . Bloomberrybloomberry.com
    news
  5. Akamai Cloud Pricingakamai.com
    official
  6. Akamai Productsakamai.com
    official
  7. Akamai Rise startup programakamai.com
    official
  8. Billing docs . Akamai Cloudtechdocs.akamai.com
    official
  9. CVE-2025-32094 advisory . Akamaiakamai.com
    security
  10. CVE-2026-26365 advisory . Akamaiakamai.com
    security
  11. CVE-2025-52491 . SentinelOne databasesentinelone.com
    security
  12. CVE-2025-66373 . NIST NVDnvd.nist.gov
    security
  13. Akamai CDN per-GB pricing . Blazing CDNblog.blazingcdn.com
    news
  14. Akamai costs thread . Reddit r/selfhostedreddit.com
    review
  15. Cloudflare vs Akamai . Reddit r/cybersecurityreddit.com
    review
  16. CDN replacement thread . Reddit r/sysadminreddit.com
    review