Akamai CDN vs AWS CloudFront
AWS CloudFront is cheaper across every workload modelled here.
List prices checked
Rate cards side by side
Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.
| Billing axis | Akamai CDN | AWS CloudFront | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data transfer out | $0.085/GB | $0.085/GB | Same |
| Free tier | No | Yes | — |
Source: Akamai pricing (May 2026) · Amazon Web Services pricing (May 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.
Monthly cost for three real workloads
The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.
| Workload | Akamai CDN | AWS CloudFront | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process. | $8.50 | $0 | AWS CloudFrontsaves $8.50/mo (100%) |
| Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers. | $85 | $0 | AWS CloudFrontsaves $85/mo (100%) |
| Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought. | $850 | $765 | AWS CloudFrontsaves $85/mo (10%) |
Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.
What each one is for
Akamai CDN
by Akamai
The largest delivery network by points of presence, sold through negotiated enterprise contracts. Published rates apply only to the self-service tier and understate what large customers actually pay.
AWS CloudFront
by Amazon Web Services
Amazon's CDN, priced per gigabyte with regional tiers and steep volume discounts that only apply once you are moving petabytes. The permanent 1 TB free tier makes it effectively free for small sites.
Free tier: 1 TB egress and 10M requests per month, always free
Common questions
- Is Akamai CDN or AWS CloudFront cheaper in 2026?
- AWS CloudFront is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
- Which has the better free tier, Akamai CDN or AWS CloudFront?
- AWS CloudFront does — 1 TB egress and 10M requests per month, always free. Akamai CDN bills from the first unit of usage.
- What do these estimates not include?
- Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.