Small business=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 62 → 59 of 62
Akamai · 1 category · RankedAkamai App & API Protector
99Judge labels
9First choices
20Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
1Category
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
16% in WAF for enterprise buyers
Rank 14 of 82 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 23% of its 30 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Akamai App & API Protector →By buyer segmentStrongest at enterprise.
Small business7 of 75
2%18 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market14 of 82
0%30 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise2 of 90
16%50 labels
accepted challenger
In waf · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Akamai App & API Protector for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web application firewalls | Network and edge | 0% | 14 of 82 | 23% | 30 | accepted challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
Movement
Since September 2026, Akamai App & API Protector held within the floor in its one category: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · WAF · by segment
Mid-market=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 6 → 15 of 80
Enterprise▼−9Since September 2026: 22% → 14%, −9 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
14%from 22% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 2 pointsRank 2 of 77, unchanged
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WAF | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 6 → 14 of 82 |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Akamai App & API Protector across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Akamai App & API Protector across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct15 labels4
Paraphrase24 labels3
Comparative20 labels2not counted in share
Budget-constrained5 labelsNone
Scale-constrained16 labels2
Negative19 labels2not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative99 labels in all, every segment counted; 9 of the 13 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Best for: Massive global enterprises with extreme traffic loads and advanced bot-mitigation needs.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · WAF · comparative prompt · alternative
“reputable cloud-based WAFs (like Cloudflare, Akamai, or AWS WAF) for ease of use and maintenance” Mistral Small · WAF · negative prompt · alternative
“Best if you want strong API, bot, and DDoS coverage at scale: Akamai App & API Protector” Perplexity Sonar · WAF · direct prompt · alternative
“Akamai — Consistently top-ranked in independent testing (SecureIQLab), strong in bot/L7 DDoS” DeepSeek V4 Flash · WAF · scale prompt · alternative
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“if you configure your WAF/CDN (like Cloudflare or Akamai) but fail to implement proper Origin Access Controls... you have effectively bypassed the WAF” GLM 4.7 FlashX · WAF · negative prompt · soft negative
“This is the BreakingWAF condition for Akamai, Cloudflare, Fastly, Imperva and similar CDN-WAF combos.” Muse Glimmer 30B · WAF · negative prompt · soft negative
“a pervasive misconfiguration bug affecting Akamai, Cloudflare, Fastly, and Imperva” DeepSeek V4 Flash · WAF · negative prompt · soft negative
“Akamai | Fortune 500-grade, but expensive (~$3K+/mo minimum)” Kimi K2 · WAF · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Akamai App & API Protector, over the 99 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Akamai App & API Protector was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Akamai App & API Protector, over the 99 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Akamai App & API Protector was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Akamai App & API Protector. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 87 of the 99 answers that named Akamai App & API Protector and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
radware.com52
imperva.com43
cybersecuritynews.com33
openappsec.io30
wafplanet.com29
indusface.com25
akamai.comYour site23
gartner.com23
checkpoint.com22
cyberpress.org21
278 of the 301 domain citations in answers naming Akamai App & API Protector came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Akamai App & API Protector stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Akamai App & API Protector stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- not counted (“akamai app & api protector”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 0 a month
- Its own site
- It sits on Akamai's site (akamai.com), so there are no site figures for it alone
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
0%
rank 14 of 82 in WAF
Segment leader
69%
Cloudflare WAF
- First choices
- 9 across its categories
- Named in
- 99 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 87 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as Akamai App & API Protector
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Akamai App & API Protector; a claim can dispute any of them.
Akamai 18Akamai (Kona Site Defender) 1Akamai (WAF + Bot Manager) 1Akamai (with PerimeterX) 1Akamai/Imperva 1
Follow Akamai App & API Protector
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Akamai is the company behind Akamai App & API Protector.ShowHide
The company
Akamai is the company behind Akamai App & API Protector.
ShowHideOn record
Company recordsIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- This release introduces Protector v1.6.1, featuring a critical security upgrade and an important bug fix for client IP visibility:
- For
- production use
- Free plan or trial
- Try Akamai techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-security/changelog/aug-24-2026-protector-v161
- Hosting
- AWSOn-premises (VMware ESXi)
- Not stated on the pages read
- Price, starting price, integrations, certifications, customers
What Akamai App & API Protector's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-security/changelog/aug-24-2026-protector-v161, techdocs.akamai.com/api-definitions/changelog/api-protections-enhancements, techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-security/changelog/aug-10-2026-app-api-protector-hybrid-local-siem-integration, techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-security/changelog/oct-29-2025-app-api-protector-hybrid-reverse-proxy-vm-beta-availability, techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-security/changelog/feb-2-2026-app-api-protector-hybrid-reverse-proxy-vm-now-generally-available. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Akamai App & API Protector's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Akamai App & API Protector, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Akamai App & API Protector by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Akamai App & API Protector is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Akamai App & API Protector, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.