Why most 'DDoS protection' is just marketing

ShadowIP's description of DDoS protection is specific, and it is narrow. Mitigation sits upstream. It is described as L3–L7. Attack traffic gets scrubbed. Clean traffic doesn't get billed.

That is the claim. Scrubbing-center counts, product names, and mitigation capacity are not published, so this site does not add them.

On the pricing cards, upstream DDoS protection is listed on Transit 1G and Transit 10G. The free-tier FAQ also says the free plan includes real DDoS protection, with bandwidth capped at 1 Gbps.

The comparison published on the site lists DDoS protection as included for ShadowIP, and as paid for Hurricane Electric, Cogent, and NTT. That table is ShadowIP's comparison, reproduced as published.

The useful distinction is where filtering happens and what you are charged for. Here, filtering is upstream of your service, and clean traffic is not billed as if it were the attack.