No one is rating WAFs, so we are doing that

wafplanet.com · 0xffeedd · 20 days ago · view on HN · research
quality 7/10 · good
0 net
WAF Providers - Compare Web Application Firewalls | Your Guide to Web Application Firewalls All 58 Free Tier Open Source Cloud / SaaS Self-Hosted Enterprise On AWS On Azure On GCP All WAF Providers AWS Web Application Firewall 4.3 / 5 Native AWS security service providing scalable WAF protection for applications hosted on AWS infrastructure with pay-per-use pricing. Pay-per-use (rules + requests) Read review → Visit website Akamai App & API Protector 4.5 / 5 Enterprise-scale WAF from the CDN pioneer, delivering comprehensive application security with unmatched global infrastructure and advanced threat intelligence. Custom enterprise pricing based on traffic and features Azure Read review → Visit website Alibaba Cloud WAF 3.8 / 5 Cloud-native WAF from Alibaba Cloud, the largest cloud provider in Asia-Pacific. AI-powered deep learning detection, bot management, API security, and DDoS protection. Battle-tested during Double 11 (Singles' Day) handling millions of QPS. Available as pay-as-you-go (SeCU-based billing) or subscription. Recognized by Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and Frost & Sullivan. Pay-as-you-go (SeCU) or Subscription Read review → Visit website All-In-One Security (AIOS) 3.9 / 5 Comprehensive free WordPress security plugin with PHP-based firewall, .htaccess hardening, login lockdown, and 6G blacklist rules protecting over one million sites. Free Tier Open Source Freemium (Free tier with nearly full features + Premium add-ons) Read review → Visit website AppTrana by Indusface 4.0 / 5 Fully managed cloud WAF by Indusface with integrated vulnerability scanning, zero false positive guarantee, and 24/7 SOC support. Deploys in block mode from day one. Per application / Per month Read review → Visit website Azure Web Application Firewall 4.2 / 5 Microsoft's cloud-native WAF integrated with Azure Application Gateway and Front Door, offering enterprise-grade protection with deep Azure ecosystem integration. Pay-per-use (gateway hours + data processed) Read review → Visit website Barracuda Web Application Firewall 4.1 / 5 Comprehensive WAF with flexible deployment options from appliances to cloud, featuring strong bot defense, API protection, and deep DevOps integration. Appliance + subscription / WAF-as-a-Service Azure Read review → Visit website BitNinja Server Security 3.9 / 5 All-in-one server security platform with built-in WAF, malware scanning, IP reputation, and DDoS protection. Popular with hosting providers and sysadmins managing shared hosting environments. Free Tier Per server / Usage-based Read review → Visit website Blackwall 3.4 / 5 Bot protection and WAF platform formerly known as BotGuard. Two products, BotGuard (website protection for SMBs) and GateKeeper (distributed reverse proxy with WAF for hosting providers). B2B2C model targeting hosting providers who bundle security for their customers. Free monitoring mode available. CloudFest Diamond sponsor. Free Tier Custom (contact sales) Read review → Visit website BulletProof Security 3.7 / 5 WordPress security plugin featuring .htaccess-based firewall protection, one-click setup wizard, login security, database backups, and a lifetime Pro license for unlimited sites. Free Tier Free edition + one-time Pro license (lifetime) Read review → Visit website BunkerWeb Open Source WAF 4.0 / 5 Next-generation open source WAF built on NGINX with ModSecurity integration, offering comprehensive web security with an intuitive web UI and extensive plugin system. Free Tier Open Source Free (Open Source) / Pro Support Azure Read review → Visit website Bunny Shield 4.1 / 5 Affordable all-in-one web security from bunny.net, combining AI-powered WAF, DDoS protection, bot mitigation, and upload scanning with a generous free tier and simple pricing. Free Tier Per feature tier + overage Read review → Visit website CDNetworks Application Shield 3.7 / 5 Cloud-based WAF integrated with CDNetworks' global CDN, offering signature-based threat detection, DDoS protection, and bot management across 1,500+ points of presence worldwide. Custom pricing, usage-based Read review → Visit website Check Point CloudGuard AppSec 4.3 / 5 AI-powered WAF with preemptive zero-day protection, featuring dual machine learning engines and minimal false positives for cloud-native applications. Usage-based / BYOL Azure GCP Read review → Visit website Citrix NetScaler Application Firewall 4.0 / 5 Enterprise application firewall integrated into the Citrix NetScaler (now Citrix ADC) application delivery controller, providing positive and negative security models with deep traffic inspection. Perpetual license or subscription, bundled with Citrix ADC Azure Read review → Visit website Cloudflare Web Application Firewall 4.5 / 5 Industry-leading WAF with global CDN integration, offering robust protection against OWASP threats with easy setup and generous free tier. Free Tier Per domain / Per feature tier Read review → Visit website Coraza Web Application Firewall 4.2 / 5 OWASP open source WAF written in Go, fully compatible with ModSecurity rules and OWASP Core Rule Set, designed as a modern alternative to ModSecurity with native support for Caddy, Traefik, and HAProxy. Free Tier Open Source Free and open source (Apache 2.0) Read review → Visit website CrowdSec Web Application Firewall 4.3 / 5 Open-source, crowd-powered WAF that combines traditional rule-based filtering with community-driven threat intelligence. Integrates with Nginx, Traefik, HAProxy, and Kubernetes. Compatible with ModSecurity SecLang rules. Free Tier Open source (MIT) + commercial blocklists and CTI Read review → Visit website DataDome 4.2 / 5 AI-powered bot and fraud protection platform that stops advanced bots, credential stuffing, scraping, and L7 DDoS attacks across websites, mobile apps, and APIs. Forrester Leader in Bot Management with 99.99% detection accuracy and sub-2ms latency. Starts at $3,830/month. Tiered (by request volume per month) Read review → Visit website F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF 4.3 / 5 Enterprise application security platform from F5 Networks combining behavioral analytics, bot defense, API protection, credential stuffing prevention, and L7 DDoS mitigation. The WAF that banks, airlines, and governments have relied on for over two decades. Perpetual license + subscription, or SaaS subscription Azure GCP Read review → Visit website F5 WAF for NGINX 4.2 / 5 Lightweight, high-performance WAF running natively inside NGINX Plus. Brings F5's enterprise threat intelligence to DevOps workflows with declarative configuration, Kubernetes-native deployment, and CI/CD integration. Part of the NGINX One platform. Per-instance annual subscription Azure Read review → Visit website Fastly Next-Gen WAF (Signal Sciences) 4.5 / 5 Developer-friendly WAF using proprietary SmartParse technology, offering low false positives and seamless DevOps integration for modern application security. Custom pricing based on requests and features Read review → Visit website Fortinet FortiWeb 4.2 / 5 AI-powered web application firewall from Fortinet providing advanced threat detection, API protection, and bot mitigation for web applications and APIs, available as hardware appliance, VM, or cloud service. Appliance purchase + subscription, or SaaS subscription Azure GCP Read review → Visit website Gcore Web Application and API Protection 3.9 / 5 Edge-deployed WAAP platform combining WAF, bot management, L7 DDoS mitigation, and API security in one service. AI-driven threat detection with pricing starting at EUR 55/month. Per month / Tiered Read review → Visit website Google Cloud Armor 4.2 / 5 Google Cloud's edge security service combining WAF, DDoS protection, and adaptive protection with the scale and intelligence of Google's global network. Pay-per-use (policies + rules + requests) Read review → Visit website HAProxy Enterprise WAF 4.3 / 5 High-performance WAF built into the world's most widely used open source load balancer. Uses machine learning-powered threat detection instead of regex-based signatures, delivering 98.5% balanced accuracy with sub-millisecond latency. Enterprise product with custom pricing. Custom pricing (contact sales) Read review → Visit website Imperva Web Application Firewall 4.4 / 5 Enterprise-grade cloud WAF with industry-leading threat research, offering comprehensive application security with advanced bot protection and API security. Custom enterprise pricing AWS Azure Read review → Visit website Invicti 3.8 / 5 Application security testing platform offering DAST and IAST scanning. Formerly Netsparker. Products include Invicti (enterprise DAST) and Acunetix (SMB DAST). Not a WAF, but a vulnerability scanner that finds the vulnerabilities WAFs protect against. OWASP Gold sponsor. Proof-based scanning reduces false positives. Custom enterprise pricing. Custom (enterprise, annual contract) Read review → Visit website Jetpack Protect / Jetpack WAF 4.0 / 5 WordPress security plugin by Automattic with built-in WAF, brute force protection, malware scanning, and downtime monitoring backed by WordPress.com infrastructure. Free Tier Open Source Freemium (Free tier + paid subscriptions) Read review → Visit website Kong Gateway WAF 3.8 / 5 API gateway with built-in WAF plugin for enterprise customers. Kong is the most popular open source API gateway (35K+ GitHub stars, 312M+ downloads) built on NGINX, processing 400B+ API calls daily. The WAF plugin is an Enterprise-only add-on that protects API endpoints at the gateway layer. Tiered (Plus per-gateway + Enterprise custom) Read review → Visit website MalCare Security 4.0 / 5 Cloud-based WordPress security plugin with off-server malware scanning, one-click malware removal, real-time firewall, and uptime monitoring without impacting site performance. Free Tier Freemium (Free tier + annual subscriptions) Read review → Visit website ModSecurity Open Source WAF 4.0 / 5 The original open source WAF engine powering countless applications, offering unmatched flexibility for those willing to manage their own security infrastructure. Free Tier Open Source Free (Open Source) Read review → Visit website Modshield SB 3.5 / 5 ModSecurity-based web application firewall with an intuitive management UI, offering IP reputation filtering, geo-blocking, SIEM integration, and built-in load balancing in a self-hosted virtual appliance. Subscription-based, per appliance Read review → Visit website Monarx 3.3 / 5 Server-side malware prevention platform designed for hosting providers and data centers. Not a traditional WAF but prevents malware injection at the server level before files are written to disk. Targets hosting infrastructure at scale. CloudFest Platinum sponsor. Custom pricing via sales. Custom (contact sales) Read review → Visit website Myra Hyperscale WAF 3.7 / 5 German-made, GDPR-compliant cloud WAF built for critical infrastructure and regulated industries. BSI-qualified, NIS-2 and DORA compliant. Managed WAF service available. Blocks 8M+ malicious L7 requests per customer per year. Data processing exclusively in Germany on request. Custom (quote-based) Read review → Visit website NSFOCUS Web Application Firewall 3.8 / 5 Enterprise-grade next-gen WAF from Chinese cybersecurity leader NSFOCUS, offering comprehensive web and API protection with flexible cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployment options. Custom / Quote-based Read review → Visit website NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) 4.3 / 5 PHP-based WordPress firewall that hooks into WordPress before core loads, providing stand-alone WAF protection with file integrity monitoring and real-time detection without cloud dependency. Free Tier Free edition + annual license for premium Read review → Visit website Patchstack 4.2 / 5 WordPress-specific vulnerability mitigation platform with virtual patching (vPatching). Not a traditional WAF but deploys targeted mitigation rules for known WordPress vulnerabilities. Claims 74% more exploits blocked than leading WAFs. Number 1 WordPress vulnerability intelligence handler with 12K+ mitigation rules and 4.1K vulnerabilities disclosed in 2024. Free monitoring mode with no time limit. Free Tier Per site/month (billed annually) Read review → Visit website Peakhour Web Application & API Protection 4.0 / 5 Australian-based WAAP platform combining WAF, bot management, DDoS protection, and CDN in a single solution designed for DevOps and security teams. Free Tier Traffic-based (bandwidth + requests) Read review → Visit website Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud WAAS 4.3 / 5 Enterprise CNAPP with integrated WAF, API security, and bot management, designed for cloud-native applications across multi-cloud environments. Credit-based licensing Azure GCP Read review → Visit website Prophaze Web Application Firewall 4.0 / 5 AI-powered WAF built natively on Kubernetes, combining behavioral threat detection with zero-configuration API protection for cloud-native applications. Free Tier Per domain, usage-based Read review → Visit website Qualys Web Application Firewall 3.0 / 5 Cloud-managed WAF from Qualys that integrates with their vulnerability scanning platform, enabling one-click virtual patching of discovered vulnerabilities. Note — product was decommissioned September 2024. Subscription, per-asset licensing (product decommissioned) Azure Read review → Visit website Radware Cloud WAF Service 4.4 / 5 Fully managed cloud WAF combining automatic policy generation, advanced bot mitigation, and 24/7 expert support with industry-leading DDoS protection. OPEX-based subscription Read review → Visit website Reblaze (Link11) Web Security 4.1 / 5 Cloud-native WAAP platform offering fully managed WAF, bot management, and DDoS protection with private cloud deployment options for enhanced data privacy. Custom enterprise pricing Read review → Visit website SafeLine Web Application Firewall 4.1 / 5 Self-hosted open source WAF by Chaitin Tech featuring a semantic analysis engine for intelligent threat detection, with a web management UI and one-command Docker deployment. Free Tier Open Source Free community edition, paid pro edition Read review → Visit website Sansec Shield Web Application Firewall 4.4 / 5 Magento-specific WAF with real-time threat protection, zero false positives, and deep Adobe Commerce integration for e-commerce stores. Subscription by store revenue tier Read review → Visit website Shield Security 3.8 / 5 WordPress security plugin with SilentCAPTCHA bot detection, automatic IP blocking, firewall rules, and activity logging designed for hands-off, automated protection. Free Tier Open Source Freemium (Free tier + annual ShieldPRO license) Read review → Visit website Solid Security (formerly iThemes Security) 4.1 / 5 Comprehensive WordPress security plugin with Patchstack-powered firewall rules, virtual patching, two-factor authentication, and site scanning for proactive protection. Free Tier Open Source Freemium (Free tier + annual Pro license) Read review → Visit website SonicWall Web Application Firewall 3.5 / 5 Appliance-based WAF from the established network security vendor, offering deep packet inspection, PCI DSS compliance, and integration with SonicWall's broader firewall ecosystem. Appliance + Annual subscription Azure Read review → Visit website StackPath Web Application Firewall 1.0 / 5 Edge-based WAF that was part of StackPath's CDN and edge computing platform. Discontinued in June 2024 when the company shut down operations. No Longer Active Per site / Per bandwidth tier (discontinued) Read review → Visit website Sucuri Website Security 4.2 / 5 Website security platform specializing in WordPress and CMS protection, combining WAF, malware scanning, and incident response in one affordable package. Per site, annual subscription Read review → Visit website Tempesta FW 4.0 / 5 High-performance open-source WAF and web accelerator built directly into the Linux kernel, delivering up to 1.8M requests per second with integrated L3-L7 DDoS protection and automated bot mitigation via WebShield. Free Tier Open Source Free (open source) + professional services Read review → Visit website UBIKA WAAP 4.0 / 5 European sovereign WAF offering comprehensive application and API protection with EU data residency guarantees and flexible SaaS or cloud deployment options. Subscription / Pay-as-you-go Read review → Visit website Vercel Firewall 3.8 / 5 Edge-based web application firewall built into the Vercel platform, providing DDoS protection, bot management, and configurable security rules for Next.js and other frontend applications deployed on Vercel. Free Tier Included in Vercel plans, features vary by tier Read review → Visit website Wallarm API Security Platform 4.3 / 5 API-first security platform combining cloud-native WAF, automated security testing, and advanced API abuse detection with real-time blocking capabilities. Free Tier Subscription based on requests GCP Read review → Visit website Wordfence Security 4.4 / 5 The most popular WordPress security plugin with endpoint firewall, malware scanner, and login security protecting over 5 million sites worldwide. Free Tier Freemium (Free tier + paid subscriptions) Read review → Visit website Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) WAF 3.8 / 5 Enterprise zero trust security platform with integrated cloud WAF capabilities as part of Zscaler Internet Access. Inspects all traffic including encrypted SSL/TLS at cloud scale. Per user / Annual subscription Azure Read review → Visit website open-appsec 4.1 / 5 Machine learning-based open source WAF that uses contextual AI to detect threats without signatures or rules, with native integration for NGINX, Kong, Envoy, and Kubernetes ingress controllers. Free Tier Open Source Free open source, managed cloud SaaS available Azure Read review → Visit website Are you a WAF vendor? Get your product in front of engineers actively evaluating WAFs. Featured listings, comparison highlights, and sponsored content. View sponsorship options →