TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Akamai CDN vs. Forcepoint Secure Web Gateway vs. Google Cloud CDN

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Akamai CDN

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AAkamai Technologies, headquartered in Boston, offers Akamai Connected Cloud, a content delivery network (CDN) with a variety of services used to guarantee application, API, and media delivery.N/A

    Forcepoint SWG

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AThe Forcepoint ONE Secure Web Gateway (SWG) is one of the three foundational gateways of the Forcepoint ONE all-in-one cloud platform. Forcepoint ONE SWG monitors and controlsany interaction with any website, including blocking access to websites based on category and risk score, blocking download of malware, blocking upload of sensitive data to personal filesharing accounts, detecting shadow IT, and optionally providingRemote Browser Isolation (RBI) with Content Disarm andReconstruction (CDR).N/A

    Google Cloud CDN

    Score6.2 out of 10
    N/AThe Google Cloud CDN is touted as a low cost option with tight integration with Google Cloud apps and services.N/A
    Pricing
    Akamai CDNForcepoint SWGGoogle Cloud CDN
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Akamai CDNForcepoint SWGGoogle Cloud CDN
    Free Trial
    NoNoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Akamai CDNForcepoint SWGGoogle Cloud CDN
    Considered Multiple Products
    Akamai
    No answer on this topic
    Forcepoint
    No answer on this topic
    Google
    Chose Google Cloud CDN
    Akamai and Cloudflare are leaders in the CDN and Security sectors. Akamai has a very strong capability and execution in terms of enterprise services. Their offerings are are somewhat similar in some aspects but there is no products in the respective markets that compares to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Google Cloud CDN
    It has More transparency in pricing as well as more services at a lower cost. The ability to stream video and other specialized features, and the ability to manage all projects can be accessed through a separate creative dashboard. The initial setup is very simple and you can …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    70%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    78%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    8 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    78%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    9 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Akamai CDNForcepoint SWGGoogle Cloud CDN
    Small Businesses
    Amazon CloudFront
    Score8.2 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Amazon CloudFront
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Google Cloud CDN
    Score6.2 out of 10
    UniFi Cloud Gateways
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Amazon CloudFront
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Azure CDN
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway
    Score8 out of 10
    Azure CDN
    Score7.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Akamai CDNForcepoint SWGGoogle Cloud CDN
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.3
    (16 ratings)
    8.0
    (76 ratings)
    4.0
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Akamai CDNForcepoint SWGGoogle Cloud CDN
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Akamai
    Akamai is a well-established brand name with a great product. It meets and many time exceeds the needs for global content delivery and security management layer at the edge. Fine grain security tuning seems cumbersome as the definition of the app keeps changing. It also requires an investment of time for the setup which doesn't necessarily make sense for smaller scale scenarios. Some products offered by AWS, Azure or the Google Cloud can be more tightly integrated with cloud provider offerings thus easier to configure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Forcepoint
    Over the years, [in our experience], the maintenance of the Forcepoint Web Security solution proved to be more cumbersome and troublesome with each version upgrade. In addition, it did not transition well to support the large increase of remote workers. We also experienced weird incompatibilities with the client. We have since replaced this solution with Zscaler Internet Access, a cloud-based secure web gateway solution with a client that behaves as expected, is more flexible, and requires significantly less administration.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    Google Cloud CDN is available globally and supports various load balancers available in different regions around the globe, so I find Google Cloud CDN as one of the best choices for CDN as it serves globally and it is really fast, safe, and secure. It might be not suitable for you if you do not have any technical background.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Akamai
    • Content offloading - once rules are set up within Akamai you don't need to even think about how many images or large JavaScript or CSS files (for example) are being served from your own estate, Akamai takes care of it all via rules that are quick, easy and flexible.
    • Page caching - for pages that don't change very often Akamai allows you to set up rules, quickly and easily, to serve up your page content for you, which takes even more load away from your origin servers.
    • Quick rollback - the Akamai system allows easy testing of rules and changes via a staging system, and also offers a quick rollback option, which is perfect for the rare occasions when something has been set up incorrectly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Forcepoint
    • It prevents users from accessing websites that may have recently been created for the purpose of distributing malware.
    • It prevents users from accidentally or intentionally accessing websites that are considered inappropriate for a work environment.
    • It allows us to create different policies for different teams in our organization.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • The intelligent categorization and management of site content cache in Google Cloud CDN is unique and offers the best results with simple settings.
    • It has powerful servers in all geographical regions of the world and the speed of the site will increase many times for the customer with smart routing.
    • It has AnyCast IP feature and website receives a single global IP address. In this case, the site loads at the same speed worldwide.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Akamai
    • The interface in their control centre could be a bit more user-friendly with some of the settings in places that you wouldn't expect them to be. The search offsets this problem to an extent but it's still sometimes slower than you'd like to find what you are looking for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Forcepoint
    • The user access logs contain a lot of useless information. I understand this is very hard to tackle as I've seen this across any product that logs web activity.
    • I would like to see more customization options of website block pages.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Unable to use any kind of code to show different content.
    • Absence of cloud workers as provided by Cloudfront, Cloudflare and Akamai.
    • No support for dynamic routing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Akamai
    No answers on this topic
    Forcepoint
    It is very stable, the organisation has "locked in" the product and has no plans to change or try another product. We have already renewed our 2019-2020 licenses. It is user friendly and people catch on easily when they first use it. The only downtime is when we install Microsoft updates! It has excellent reporting which help in determining how the organisation's Internet is used and also during both internal and external IT audits.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Akamai
    No answers on this topic
    Forcepoint
    Despite the intimidating Linux CLI when you use the appliance for troubleshooting, the web security usability compensates as most of the Administration of the system is done there. It is GUI based and has an easy to use UI where one can navigate around rather easily like getting reports, checking alerts, looking the whole setup under deployment to check if all services are running in one place though there are other parts to the system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    There is not really an interface for managing rules directly, compared to market leaders, Google's implementation is probably strong on the technical side but for the average user it might be lacking. There are no advanced features which can be compared to what other leaders in the CDN sector are providing or they can be achieved but with high implementation cost and usage of other products in the Google Cloud suite
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Akamai
    Their support documents are excellent and provide a lot of useful information for all their services. The only reason I didn't give them a 10 is that the time it takes for them to respond to an issue could be slightly faster.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Forcepoint
    The is a quick first response to acknowledge your issue and the Engineers never take more than two hours to fix an issue and we hardly get issues looking at the fact that the system is pretty stable. There is also a robust Knowledge Base in the site for known problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    I didn't have the need to use support from Google when I was either testing or setting up my website. Information was easily found by searching online if I needed to, and the options that I needed to install or enable were there on the setup page. Honestly, I was a former systems administrator so most of this stuff is not challenging for me.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Akamai
    No answers on this topic
    Forcepoint
    Research known issues with upgrading from the Support Knowledge base, this will enable you avoid road blocks along the way and reduce your dependence on Forcepoint Support
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Akamai
    We've used -- and considered -- a whole number of CDN offerings. The good news is that almost all of the CDN products on the market are terrific, and will pay for themselves via increased customer satisfaction and lower monthly hosting bills. For some cases, we're still more likely to suggest CloudFlare (which has a free tier) or an integrated offering from a cloud provider, like Cloudfront.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Forcepoint
    To be honest, once using Forcepoint for our Web Security, I have not wanted to look anywhere else. The dashboard gives me quick insight of threats, productivity, and bandwidth usage. Again, this is a layer in my security and it fills many holes. I feel safe and I do like I can just let it do its thing
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    We have limited software developers and don't have the need for a big cloud service provider along with their costs. Google Cloud CDN brings to usr, reliability and brand familiarity. Google Cloud CDN also doesn't bother us with pitches or 1000 emails about the products. We went and signed up for it, without dealing with a pushy salesperson.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Akamai
    • Akamai RoI improved over a period of times since it comes with heavy costs, however global deliveries in over 100 counties and global web platforms usage helps improve RoI
    • With the complex UI challenges, ROI could be impacted negatively when you have to invest in operations and time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Forcepoint
    • Being a non-profit the cost is a bit higher than some competitors so our ROI takes a bit longer to recoup. I would really like to see better non-profit pricing.
    • The ease of doing a report on someone cuts down on the IT man-hours to do website tracking for managers as we can do it from a central point whereas in the past (prior to Forcepoint/Websense) we would have to ghost their machine to look for activity as well as their local servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Google
    • Google Cloud CDN has worked great as a tool to provide more reliable and faster interactive web experiences such as with e-learning sites.
    • The product can require additional training costs, even for experienced IT administrators.
    • Overall, ongoing costs can also be prohibitive for organizations with smaller web presences.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots