Akamai App and API Protector vs F5 Advanced WAF comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Akamai App and API Protector and F5 Advanced WAF based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Akamai App and API Protector vs. F5 Advanced WAF Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"They have a fantastic tool for analyzing and viewing your traffic.""The features are powerful and better than F5.""Adaptive stream delivery and WAF protection are valuable.""Akamai Web Application Protector is a good solution that provides basic web application protection.""The product has a good UI.""The most valuable feature is the DDoS protection, which is the main reason we got it.""I have contacted the support team of Akamai... I am happy with their responses and answers to my problems.""I can attest to its benefits in terms of understanding and mitigating threats...The solution's technical support team seems to be pretty responsive."

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"Customers find the load balancer feature as the most valuable.""The most valuable features of F5 Advanced WAF are the overall capabilities, there is not a comparable solution on the market.""The anti-bot protection is the solution's most valuable feature. Safe-guard or credential staffing are also useful features.""In terms of F5 Advanced WAF's most valuable features, I would definitely say its stability. F5 is one the most stable products. Either as the load balancer or the web application firewall, it is very stable.""F5 Advanced WAF has very good stability and scalability. Its initial setup was straightforward.""It is also quite intuitive and user-friendly. They have several webinars that are actually like labs. You can use these webinars to learn about how to use all features of the product.""The valuable features vary from customers to customers. Some customers are okay with the basic features of the WAF, and some customers use advanced WAF with a few other features.""F5 Advanced WAF is a stable solution, we are satisfied. It is more stable than ForiWeb."

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Cons
"It would be better if there weren't any issues with latency. We had latency issues, but I think they are all solved now.""The interface is a little bit clunky and can be improved.""They are already very flexible, but room for improvement is there. Reports generation could be better and should be improved.""If we talk about application layer attacks, including WAF, CloudFlare is leading. Akamai can focus a bit more on the application layer attacks and how to protect them.""Akamai needs to focus on quickly responding to risks, even those that may potentially be of zero threat..Maybe some of the documentation is a little confusing. They have a lot of different places where you can go to get information, and some of the information is quite out of date.""I do not see any area for improvement. Akamai is already maintaining its own databases for the security concerns, vulnerabilities, and attacks that are there. If anything, they should have a solution in the infrastructure security area as well. They should not be only in cloud cybersecurity; they should also be in infrastructure security.""A lot of piracy happens in India and other countries. If there is a product for protection from piracy, it would be great. For example, there are multiple hackers that hack your event, and there are some channels that pirate and publish the event on some other website. We protect our streaming through DRM and different technologies. We are also protecting the website, but hacking is still happening. If they can work on protecting from piracy, it would be great.""In terms of precedence of Akamai rules, the last one is implemented. That is the one that is operational. If two rules contradict, the last one is implemented. We had a clash, but it was really tough to find that out. I would like to have a rulebook because, in their architecture documentation, it is not mentioned anywhere that if two rules clash, the last one works, and if it does not work, then what to do. This is something we were debating today with their tech support. With AWS, we get documents for the issues so that they do not occur in the future. Akamai's support and knowledge base needs to be improved."

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"It's sometimes difficult to customize APIs with F5 Advanced WAF.""F5 Advanced WAF could improve on its funding for WAF features. There is a need to be more advanced WAF features.""Most customers encounter stability issues with the product's Big-IP logs.""Scalability could be improved.""The deployment side is quite complex.""Compatibility with multiple cloud environments needs improvement. Both stability and scalability need to be improved.""I would like to see a better interface and better documentation compatibility with other products. It's more complicated with OWASP.""The administrator's user interface and some of the settings can sometimes be very complicated to understand."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "There is no license at all for Akamai. They are going to charge us only for the usage."
  • "The price they are offering is quite reasonable for premium customers, but it's very expensive if you're a small and medium-sized enterprises."
  • "Cost depends on the volume of traffic."
  • "The solution is not expensive."
  • "The product’s price is high."
  • "The solution is expensive."
  • "Akamai Web Application Protector is an expensive product."
  • "Price-wise, I would say Akamai's pricing is competitive."
  • More Akamai App and API Protector Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing is too high."
  • "I think the price is very high."
  • "After buying the program, you just pay for the support every year."
  • "Licensing fees for this solution are paid on a yearly basis."
  • "It's more expensive than other solutions and depending on the modules, there can be additional fees."
  • "F5 bundles up services and the bundle is what you pay for rather than individual components."
  • "Its price is fair. We have done a couple of deals where they were able to give some kind of discount to the customers. The price was initially high for the customers, but after a couple of negotiations, it came within their budget. They were happy with that."
  • "There are various plans available for Fortinet FortiWeb Cloud WAF as a Service, including a trial version."
  • More F5 Advanced WAF Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The custom rules must be improved. If we have a domain to be monitored, we can use the solution to alert us if a certain specification is met. If we need only 20,000 transactions, but there are 40,000… more »
    Top Answer:F5's user-friendly interface and seamless integration stand out as the most valuable features for us.
    Top Answer:The customer service could be improved.
    Ranking
    Views
    5,326
    Comparisons
    4,060
    Reviews
    16
    Average Words per Review
    669
    Rating
    8.6
    Views
    12,449
    Comparisons
    9,913
    Reviews
    21
    Average Words per Review
    413
    Rating
    8.7
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Akamai Web Application Protector, Akamai Kona Site Defender, Akamai Kona DDoS Defender
    Learn More
    Overview

    Akamai App & API Protector brings together web application firewall, bot mitigation, API security, and Layer 7 DDoS protection into a single solution. It quickly identifies vulnerabilities and mitigates threats across your entire web and API estates — even for the most complex distributed architectures. Recognized as the leading attack detection solution on the market, App & API Protector is easy to implement and use. It delivers automatic updates for security protections and provides holistic visibility into traffic and attacks.

    F5 Advanced WAF is a web application security solution for financial and government sectors, e-commerce, and public-facing websites. It offers protection against various attacks, including botnets, web scraping, and foreign entities. The solution can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud and is often used with other security tools. Its most valuable features include DDoS and DNS attack protection, SSL uploading, anomaly detection, and the ability to input custom rules. 

    F5 Advanced WAF has helped organizations to expose more services to the public while providing an extra layer of protection, preventing revenue loss, and securing connectivity.

    Sample Customers
    Douglas Omaha Technology Commission, ZALORA, PrintPlanet
    MAXIMUS, Vivo, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office, City Bank
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm26%
    Retailer16%
    Leisure / Travel Company11%
    Computer Software Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm28%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Insurance Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm33%
    Computer Software Company27%
    Non Tech Company7%
    Media Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Government7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise63%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise71%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise64%
    Buyer's Guide
    Akamai App and API Protector vs. F5 Advanced WAF
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai App and API Protector vs. F5 Advanced WAF and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Akamai App and API Protector is ranked 9th in Web Application Firewall (WAF) with 27 reviews while F5 Advanced WAF is ranked 3rd in Web Application Firewall (WAF) with 53 reviews. Akamai App and API Protector is rated 8.4, while F5 Advanced WAF is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Akamai App and API Protector writes "Easy to learn and gives us a report of traffic". On the other hand, the top reviewer of F5 Advanced WAF writes "Flexible configuration, reliable, and highly professional support". Akamai App and API Protector is most compared with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, AWS WAF, Prolexic and AWS Shield, whereas F5 Advanced WAF is most compared with Fortinet FortiWeb, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, Imperva Web Application Firewall, AWS WAF and Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks. See our Akamai App and API Protector vs. F5 Advanced WAF report.

    See our list of best Web Application Firewall (WAF) vendors.

    We monitor all Web Application Firewall (WAF) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.