Akamai App & API Protector vs. F5 Distributed Cloud API Security vs. NGINX

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Akamai App & API Protector
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Akamai Akamai App & API Protector offers protection for websites, web applications and APIs. An evolution of Kona Site Defender, a web application security platform designed to protect web and mobile assets from targeted web application attacks and DDoS attacks while improving performance.N/A
F5 Distributed Cloud API Security
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
F5's Distributed Cloud API Security provides discovery and deep insights from use of AI/ML. It can be used to block API attacks in real time and eliminate vulnerabilities at their source. The SaaS-based portal enables users to manage and go deep for threat analytics, forensics, and troubleshooting of modern applications.N/A
NGINX
Score 9.1 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
NGINX, a business unit of F5 Networks, powers over 65% of the world's busiest websites and web applications. NGINX started out as an open source web server and reverse proxy, built to be faster and more efficient than Apache. Over the years, NGINX has built a suite of infrastructure software products o tackle some of the biggest challenges in managing high-transaction applications. NGINX offers a suite of products to form the core of what organizations need to create…N/A
Pricing
Akamai App & API ProtectorF5 Distributed Cloud API SecurityNGINX
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Akamai App & API ProtectorF5 Distributed Cloud API SecurityNGINX
Free Trial
YesYesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Akamai App & API ProtectorF5 Distributed Cloud API SecurityNGINX
Considered Multiple Products
Akamai App & API Protector

No answer on this topic

F5 Distributed Cloud API Security
Chose F5 Distributed Cloud API Security
For F5, there is no company that can compete for security protection.
So far, F5 has the strongest security session level provided to the market.
Also F5 Distributed Cloud API Security is inter connect to all different environment, which make thing way easier to operate and …
NGINX

No answer on this topic

Features
Akamai App & API ProtectorF5 Distributed Cloud API SecurityNGINX
API Security
Comparison of API Security features of Product A and Product B
Akamai App & API Protector
-
Ratings
F5 Distributed Cloud API Security
8.4
30 Ratings
0% above category average
NGINX
-
Ratings
Data Protection00 Ratings8.230 Ratings00 Ratings
Audit Logging00 Ratings8.328 Ratings00 Ratings
Input Validation00 Ratings7.825 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Filtering00 Ratings8.126 Ratings00 Ratings
Denial of Service (DoS) Protection00 Ratings8.829 Ratings00 Ratings
Security Notification and Alerts00 Ratings8.729 Ratings00 Ratings
API Key Management00 Ratings8.327 Ratings00 Ratings
Cross-origin Resource Sharing (CORS) Protection00 Ratings8.824 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Servers
Comparison of Application Servers features of Product A and Product B
Akamai App & API Protector
-
Ratings
F5 Distributed Cloud API Security
-
Ratings
NGINX
8.7
32 Ratings
9% above category average
IDE support00 Ratings00 Ratings7.617 Ratings
Security management00 Ratings00 Ratings8.627 Ratings
Administration and management00 Ratings00 Ratings8.827 Ratings
Application server performance00 Ratings00 Ratings9.327 Ratings
Installation00 Ratings00 Ratings8.929 Ratings
Open-source standards compliance00 Ratings00 Ratings9.025 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Akamai App & API ProtectorF5 Distributed Cloud API SecurityNGINX
Small Businesses
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 9.0 out of 10
Cloudflare
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
Score 9.3 out of 10
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
Score 9.3 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
Score 9.3 out of 10
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
F5 Big-IP Advanced WAF
Score 9.3 out of 10
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Score 8.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Akamai App & API ProtectorF5 Distributed Cloud API SecurityNGINX
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(28 ratings)
8.9
(50 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(6 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(26 ratings)
8.3
(3 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
8.1
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Akamai App & API ProtectorF5 Distributed Cloud API SecurityNGINX
Likelihood to Recommend
Akamai
Akamai Kona Site Defender KSD, works fine for any website or mobile application (Native/JDK), it can be used as a WAF, a rate limiting tool, or a bot management tool all in one, plus you will get all the benefits of the Akamai CDN (Content distribution network) as well
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F5
I believe it covers everything related to the applications' security aspects, but there are a lot of improvements that need to be made. For example, better granular controls like bot categories listed on the distributed console and a granular URL-based control for the rate-limiting option are needed.
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F5
Nginx is well-suited for any web server scenarios, such as web applications, backend or reverse proxy for both application and HTTP requests, and distribution. It is less appropriate for Windows-based applications that run directly on a Windows Server host. In any case, it is very easy to manage, through separate conf files for each application or site you want to host with it.
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Pros
Akamai
  • Web Security
  • Bot managment
  • Rate Control
Read full review
F5
  • It auto-discovers APIs, even the ones engineers forget to document. Then profiles them without needing changes to our codebase.
  • Shadow API exposure.
  • It's pretty decent at abnormal behavior detection.
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F5
  • Very low memory usage. Can handle many more connections than alternatives (like Apache HTTPD) due to low overhead. (event-based architecture).
  • Great at serving static content.
  • Scales very well. Easy to host multiple Nginx servers to promote high availability.
  • Open-Source (no cost)!
Read full review
Cons
Akamai
  • Custom rules might be hard to configure
  • For some cases you will need to contact the Akamai team to adjust the backend
  • Interface might feel laggy if used in a non-powerful PC
Read full review
F5
  • More accurate detection of advanced persistent threats (APTs) targeting APIs.
  • A greater emphasis on checking APIs' schema and contract may prevent them from accepting misconfigurations or malicious input.
  • More customized, dynamic, and targeted protection for high-value APIs or high-risk user groups.
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F5
  • Customer support can be strangely condescending, perhaps it's a language issue?
  • I find it a little weird how the release versions used for Nginx+ aren't the same as for open source version. It can be very confusing to determine the cross-compatibility of modules, etc., because of this.
  • It seems like some (most?) modules on their own site are ancient and no longer supported, so their documentation in this area needs work.
  • It's difficult to navigate between nginx.com commercial site and customer support. They need to be integrated together.
  • I'd love to see more work done on nginx+ monitoring without requiring logging every request. I understand that many statistics can only be derived from logs, but plenty should work without that. Logging is not an option in many environments.
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Likelihood to Renew
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
F5 Distributed Cloud API Security provides robust API protection with solid threat detection, excellent visibility, and seamless integration into our architecture
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F5
Great value for the product
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Usability
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
Great product. Working with F5 for many years, we found the products F5 provided are all cutting edge technology. Although in F5 Distributed Cloud API Security we still have a lot to find out, but we believe this experience will be very good. Especially on the security side. Trust in F5.
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F5
This tool is really easy to use and configure. Consumes very less system resources. It is highly modular and configurable. You can easily use it with other tools like certbot for SSLs. You can configure basic security with configuration and headers
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Reliability and Availability
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
Always available
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F5
No answers on this topic
Performance
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
The UI is cloud-native and generally responsive. Report generation is easy Integrates with cloud providers
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F5
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
Lo hacemos mediante un partner We did it through a partner
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F5
Community support is great, and they've also had a presence at conferences. Overall, there is no shortage of documentation and community support. We're currently using it to serve up some WordPress sites, and configuring NGINX for this purpose is well documented.
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Implementation Rating
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
F5 Distributed Cloud API Security is our company looking forward product. With more and more API is using in both on prem, private cloud, public cloud and multi cloud environment, we as a financial institution, we are keep into the security settings to protect the information. That's the main reason we want to use this product.
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F5
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
We ran a short POC with Salt. Its data classification and attack replay features were impressive. What held us back was the limited support for hybrid deployments and poor integration into our CI/CD pipelines, as F5 did.
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F5
I have found that [NGINX] seems to perform better throughout the years with less issues although I've used Apache more. I would definitely recommend [NGINX] for any high volume site and I've seen this to usually be the case from most provided web hosts who will pick [NGINX] over alternatives
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Scalability
Akamai
No answers on this topic
F5
Centralized policy management: You can manage API security policies consistently across locations without duplicating effort, which supports scaling.


API discovery and monitoring at scale: It automatically discovers APIs and monitors them in real time across large and complex environments.
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F5
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Akamai
  • Fair Security investment
  • An attack impact would be higher
  • Support contract is not cheap
Read full review
F5
  • F5 Distributed Cloud API Security mitigates many API-related security threats, including bot attacks, DDoS, data breaches, and unauthorized access attempts.
  • F5 Distributed Cloud API Security uses robust threat detection, machine learning, and real-time monitoring for speedier identification.
  • Reductions in security events result in fewer breaches, reduced downtime, and lower attack remediation costs.
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F5
  • By using Nginx, we can host multiple web services on a single server, keeping our infrastructure costs lower.
  • Nginx maintains our HTTPS connections, allowing us to keep our promise to our customers that their data is safe in transit.
  • Due to Nginx's extremely low failure rate, our web addresses always return something meaningful, even when individual services go down. In sense, this means we are "always online" and allows us to maintain brand and support our customers even in the face of catastrophe.
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ScreenShots

F5 Distributed Cloud API Security Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

NGINX Screenshots

Screenshot of Overview of the NGINX Application PlatformScreenshot of NGINX Controller - MonitoringScreenshot of NGINX Controller - Configuration