# Akamai, what it is and how websites use it. One of the oldest and largest CDN networks in the world. Akamai offers comprehensive solutions for security, performance, and content availability. Used by the world's largest companies. - **Status:** Stable. Enterprise standard for CDN and web security. Extensive global infrastructure with advanced edge computing capabilities. - **Category:** [Servers & Hosting](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server) - **First release:** 1998 - **License:** Proprietary - **Official website:** https://www.akamai.com - **Documentation:** https://techdocs.akamai.com - **Page:** https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/akamai ## Akamai on audited websites 49 of the 16,845 websites audited by be1st run Akamai (<1%). That ranks it #23 of the 34 technologies in Servers & Hosting we have seen in audits. ### Websites running Akamai vs all websites - **Web score:** 76 (all websites 72) - **SEO:** 81 (all websites 79) - **Security:** 68 (all websites 59) - **Performance:** 71 (all websites 72) - **AI Readiness:** 37 (all websites 31) ### Most used in Servers & Hosting 1. [Cloudflare](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/cloudflare): 22% (3,772) 2. [Vercel](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/vercel): 22% (3,635) 3. [Google CDN](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/google-cdn): 16% (2,700) 4. [nginx](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/nginx): 14% (2,284) 5. [OpenResty](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/openresty): 10% (1,707) 6. [Apache HTTP Server](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/apache-http-server): 9.3% (1,574) 7. [jsDelivr](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/jsdelivr): 7.2% (1,221) 8. [cdnjs](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/cdnjs): 6.0% (1,019) 9. [Netlify](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/netlify): 5.8% (971) 10. [AWS CloudFront](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/aws-cloudfront): 5.1% (859) ## Other technologies in Servers & Hosting - [unpkg](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/unpkg): 2.8% of websites - [Fastly](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/fastly): 1.6% of websites - [BunnyCDN](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/bunnycdn): 1.2% of websites - [Microsoft IIS](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/microsoft-iis): 1.0% of websites - [LiteSpeed](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/litespeed): <1% of websites - [Caddy](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/caddy): <1% of websites - [Amazon S3](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/amazon-s3): <1% of websites - [Google Cloud](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/google-cloud): <1% of websites - [Varnish](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/varnish): <1% of websites - [Azure](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/azure): <1% of websites - [Hostinger CDN](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/hostinger-cdn): <1% of websites - [GitHub Pages](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server/github-pages): <1% of websites [All 35 in Servers & Hosting](https://be1st.ai/technologies/server) ## Questions about Akamai ### What is Akamai? One of the oldest and largest CDN networks in the world. Akamai offers comprehensive solutions for security, performance, and content availability. Used by the world's largest companies. The be1st catalog lists Akamai under Servers & Hosting. License of Akamai: Proprietary. ### How many websites use Akamai? 49 of the 16,845 websites audited by be1st run Akamai (<1%), as of 8 Nov 2026. ### When was Akamai first released? Akamai was first released in 1998. ### Is Akamai still a modern choice? Akamai is a stable, mature choice rather than a new one. Enterprise standard for CDN and web security. Extensive global infrastructure with advanced edge computing capabilities. ### What are the alternatives to Akamai? Technologies that do the same job as Akamai include Cloudflare, AWS CloudFront, and Fastly. Numbers: latest audit of each of 16,845 websites audited by be1st, as of 8 Nov 2026.