AWS CloudFront vs Akamai
CDN & Edge pricing comparison · 2026
AWS CloudFront pricing ranges from $0–$1000/month, while Akamai ranges from $5–$992/month. Akamai is typically 98% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.
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AWS CloudFront and Akamai both operate in the cdn & edge category. This page compares their list pricing.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | AWS CloudFront | Akamai |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Flat-Rate) | Free /month | Custom |
| Pro (Flat-Rate) | $15 /month | Custom |
| Business (Flat-Rate) | $200 /month | Custom |
| Premium (Flat-Rate) | $1K /month | $5 /month |
| Custom Pricing | Custom | — |
Cost at Scale
Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.
AWS CloudFront
4 scenarios$0/month
Personal Blog on AWS
Flat-rate Free plan with 100 GB/1M requests, includes WAF (5 rules), DDoS protection, and Route 53 DNS
$15/month
Growing SaaS on AWS
Flat-rate Pro plan with 50 TB allowance, 20 WAF rules, bot management, and no overage charges
$200/month
Business Application with SLA
Flat-rate Business plan with 125M requests, 50 WAF rules, origin failover, and 500 GB S3 storage
Akamai
8 scenarios$500
Small Enterprise Website
$2,000/month - Standard CDN with 12-month contract, estimated $0.049/GB at lower volumes
$5,000
Mid-Size Financial Services
$15,000/month - CDN + Web Application & API Protection bundle with compliance features and premium support
$15,000
Large Media Platform
$50,000+/month - Media Delivery with NetStorage, streaming optimization, multi-CDN support, and dedicated account team
Market Intelligence
AWS CloudFront
- Median annual cost
- $1,083
- Based on
- 50 deals
Akamai
- Median annual cost
- $3,200
- Based on
- 37 deals