Akamai DNS Posture Management vs altdns: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Akamai DNS Posture Management is a commercial external attack surface management tool by Akamai. altdns is a free external attack surface management tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best external attack surface management fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Mid-market and enterprise teams managing DNS across multicloud and on-prem infrastructure should pick Akamai DNS Posture Management for its agentless discovery and drift detection, which catches configuration gaps that ticketing-only workflows miss. The side-scanning deployment model eliminates the agent sprawl problem you hit with endpoint-dependent tools, and CIS-compliant reporting lets you close audit findings without manual translation. Skip this if your DNS footprint is small or static; the tool's value compounds with environment complexity, not simplicity.
Security teams hunting for overlooked subdomains in external attack surface reconnaissance will find altdns invaluable because it generates permutations that standard enumeration tools miss, catching typosquatting and subdomain variations that land in your blind spots. The 2,439 GitHub stars reflect adoption by practitioners who've validated the mutation logic against real-world domain configurations. Skip this if you need a managed UI or integration with your existing EASM platform; altdns is a CLI-first tool that demands operator familiarity and manual orchestration into your scanning workflow.
