Cloudflare vs Akamai
Nine of fourteen models named Cloudflare first on the direct prompt; zero named Akamai. Both were named by all fourteen models and Cloudflare carries 72 labels and Akamai 48, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in seven categories this edition.
Named in four categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the content delivery networks page.
By framing
CloudflareFirst choices, of fourteen modelsAkamai
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Cloudflare and Akamai were named in the same answer 133 times, of the 480 answers naming Cloudflare and the 169 naming Akamai. In those answers Akamai took the first choice twenty-one times and Cloudflare sixty-four.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | | | |
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | ||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | ||
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | ||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | ||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | | | |
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | ||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | | |
Cloudflare Akamai first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Cloudflare on the left and Akamai on the right.The direct prompt
Cloudflare first, Akamai an alternative
9 of 14 modelsAkamai was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
3 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
2 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Cloudflare85%#1 of 7Akamai0%#7 of 7Cloudflare68%#1 of 8Akamai2%#6 of 8Cloudflare46%#1 of 8Akamai31%#2 of 8What the models said about Cloudflare
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.
“Major outages (2024‑2025)... When to be cautious - If your application is mission‑critical, consider a multi‑CDN or fail‑over strategy.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cloudflare is a strong all-around CDN and security platform for organizations that want acceleration, DNS, DDoS mitigation, WAF, Zero Trust services, and edge computing features in one ecosystem” Claude Haiku 4.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
“Cloudflare: *The "All-in-One" Choice.* Excellent if you want a massive feature set ... Great developer experience, but enterprise pricing negotiations can sometimes feel rigid.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“the best default choice is usually Cloudflare because it combines broad CDN performance, strong built-in security, and a relatively accessible business tier” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · first choice
What the models said about Akamai
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Avoid enterprise ones (Akamai, Fastly) as they're pricier.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid—too pricey/complex for mid-market.” Grok 4.1 Fast · direct prompt · hard negative
“traditionally complex to configure, slower to deploy changes, and usually the most expensive. Typically suited for very large enterprises” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · soft negative
“One of the oldest and largest CDNs; handles ~30 %+ of internet traffic. ... Global scale & compliance: Akamai.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice
“I'd recommend evaluating Cloudflare, Fastly, Akamai, and CloudFront first” GLM 4.7 FlashX · scale prompt · first choice
“best when you need maximum resilience, compliance, and security depth, but it is generally positioned more toward large enterprises than mid-market teams” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · alternative
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.