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CDN

CDN comparison

Edge vs Akamai

Akamai pioneered the CDN and still runs one of the largest networks on Earth. Edge gives you enterprise-grade delivery without the procurement cycle. Here's the trade-off.
Start freeHow to switch
Akamaitime to live: weeks
  1. RFP→
  2. Negotiate→
  3. Annual contract→
  4. Onboarding→
  5. Live
Edgetime to live: minutes
  1. Sign up→
  2. Add CNAME→
  3. Live

The short version

Where each one wins

Where Akamai is stronger

  • One of the largest and longest-running delivery networks in the world
  • A deep enterprise suite: security, media, edge compute and professional services
  • Proven at the very largest events and audiences
  • Established compliance and account management for big organisations

Where Edge is different

  • Self-service: live in minutes, not weeks of onboarding
  • Published prices and monthly billing, no annual contract
  • $0 egress instead of $0.10/GB and up
  • DDoS protection included, not a separate product

Feature by feature

Edge and Akamai, side by side

Edge CDN compared with Akamai
Akamai
EgressFree$0.10/GB+
PricingPublishedNegotiated
Setup timeMinutesWeeks
ContractMonthlyAnnual minimum
DDoS protectionIncludedSeparate product
HTTP/3
Real-time analytics
Free SSL
Transparent pricing
Decentralised
Self-serviceLimited

Competitor details from their public pricing and product pages. Tell us if something's changed.

Cost

What the same month costs

Three traffic levels at published rates. Edge charges $0.25 per million requests after the free 500k and nothing for bandwidth. Try your own numbers.
  • 500 GB · 5M requestsEdge$1.13Akamai$50
  • 5 TB · 50M requestsEdge$12.38Akamai$512
  • 50 TB · 500M requestsEdge$125Akamai$5,120

Assumes ~100 KB per request. Akamai at a $0.10/GB list estimate. Real Akamai pricing is negotiated under annual contracts and often includes commit discounts, so treat this as a starting point, not a quote. Edge egress is $0 at every volume. Estimates, not quotes.

When to choose Edge

Edge is the better fit when…

  • You want to start this week

    Create a deployment, add a DNS record, done. No RFP, no statement of work, no onboarding project.

  • You'd rather not sign for a year

    Monthly billing, published rates and no minimum. Scale up or leave without renegotiating anything.

  • Your spend is mostly bandwidth

    Per-GB contracts grow with every launch. Edge's egress is $0, so the same growth barely moves the bill.

Switching

Moving from Akamai without downtime

Have us do it
  1. 01

    Map your properties

    List hostnames, origins and caching rules from your Akamai configuration. Our team can do this with you.
  2. 02

    Run Edge in parallel

    Serve a staging hostname through Edge and compare performance with your Akamai property.
  3. 03

    Cut over DNS, then the contract

    Move traffic hostname by hostname. Let the Akamai contract lapse at renewal, not before.

FAQ

Edge vs Akamai, answered

Is Edge a like-for-like replacement for Akamai?
For content delivery, caching, image optimisation, SSL and DDoS absorption, yes. If you rely on Akamai's wider suite, such as advanced bot management or media workflows, plan those separately.
How do costs compare at scale?
At a $0.10/GB list estimate, 50 TB a month is around $5,000 in bandwidth alone. On Edge the same traffic is billed per request with $0 egress. Negotiated Akamai contracts vary, so compare against your own invoice.
Do you offer an SLA and account management?
Yes. Enterprise volume pricing starts at $499 a month and includes a 99.99% uptime SLA and an account manager.

More comparisons

Weighing up someone else?

Enterprise delivery, without the enterprise process

Set up a deployment in minutes, run it next to Akamai, and decide on real numbers.

Start freeAll comparisons

Free tier: 3 deployments and 500k requests a month, hard-capped. Bandwidth is always $0.