Linode (Akamai) vs Liquid Web

Linode (Akamai) is strongest for developers. Liquid Web is strongest for agencies. Here's how they stack up on price, uptime, and support.

Feature	Linode (Akamai)	Liquid Web
Starting price	$1/mo	$5/mo
Best for	Developers Startups GPU/AI workloads Small-to-mid production apps Kubernetes	Agencies E-commerce/WooCommerce High-traffic WordPress Businesses wanting fully-managed support
Stated uptime SLA	99.99%	100% (Liquid Web's published network/power/infrastructure uptime guarantee)
Storage	SSD	SSD
Regions	20	3
Managed Kubernetes	Yes	No
Support channels	Ticket, Community forum, Docs, Phone (higher support tiers)	24/7/365 phone, Live chat, Ticket, Docs/Knowledge Base
Compliance	SOC 2, PCI DSS (for compatible services), GDPR, HIPAA (with BAA on eligible services)	PCI DSS, HIPAA (available), SOC 2
Hidden costs to watch for	Outbound bandwidth billed at $0.005/GB (compute/storage) or $0.015/GB (NodeBalancer) once pooled network transfer allowance is exceeded Backups service is a separate add-on priced per instance (roughly 20-25% of the instance monthly price) HA control plane for LKE Kubernetes is a flat $60/mo add-on per cluster; LKE Enterprise clusters are $300/mo per cluster Managed Database HA (3-node) clusters cost roughly 2-3x the single-node price	Advertised prices are frequently promotional (e.g. 50% off for the first 2 months, or 10-15% off for 1-2 year prepay terms); renewal pricing is meaningfully higher than the teaser rate Bandwidth overages and additional storage are billed as add-ons beyond plan allowances Managed WordPress/Nexcess plans are billed upfront annually to get the advertised per-month rate ("2 months free" annual billing) in many cases Windows OS licensing adds a surcharge over equivalent Linux dedicated/cloud dedicated configurations
Last reviewed	2026-07-18	2026-07-18