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AWS WAF vs Amazon CloudFront comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Amazon CloudFront boosts global accessibility, reduces costs, enhances stability, improves e-commerce profits, and decreases server maintenance and hiring needs.
Sentiment score
5.7
AWS WAF offers cost-effective security by reducing the need for extra staff and effectively blocking threats.
With AWS WAF, it is easier for us to block unwanted malicious DDoS attacks and threats from coming into our web application.
Dev Ops Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Amazon CloudFront's support varies by tier, with premium users receiving better service, though some experience delays and documentation issues.
Sentiment score
6.6
AWS WAF support is prompt and knowledgeable, but experiences vary in resolution speed and service costs.
I would rate the technical support by Amazon AWS as satisfactory, as they generally address issues promptly.
Head of Data & Content at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Resolving issues can take time because the support personnel may lack product expertise, leading to delays.
Security Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
They reach out when you send them a ticket, and within 24 hours or less, someone is able to get back to you to solve your problem.
Dev Ops Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Amazon CloudFront excels in scalability, reliably supporting large-scale operations and high traffic for diverse businesses and events.
Sentiment score
7.5
AWS WAF is highly scalable, versatile for various infrastructures, but some users desire expanded features for broader adaptability.
AWS WAF does scale in the sense that it is fully managed and has automatic scaling.
Dev Ops Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon CloudFront is highly reliable with global availability, low latency, and stability ratings of eight to ten by users.
Sentiment score
8.3
AWS WAF is stable, effectively blocking threats, with minor issues in custom rules, and continuous improvements enhance reliability.
If Amazon CloudFront is present, it will decrease latency; if it is not, then latency would be slightly greater, but it would still work.
Cloud Support Engineer at Operisoft Technologies
Since it protects web applications from common attacks such as SQL injection and XSS, it is very stable.
Dev Ops Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
In terms of reliability, I would rate AWS WAF about six out of ten due to the need for improved signature sets.
Security Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We faced issues with AWS WAF when writing the custom rules.
Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon CloudFront faces integration, latency, user-friendliness, and support challenges, with calls for price cuts and more data centers.
AWS WAF requires enhanced features, security, user interface, documentation, seamless integrations, and added automation for improved effectiveness.
The pricing for Amazon CloudFront is quite expensive; I would rate it six if we use all edges.
Cloud Support Engineer at Operisoft Technologies
I believe they may lack certain functionalities.
Head of Data & Content at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Compared to firewalls, WAFs generally provide limited stateful analysis capabilities.
Security Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The way we see it now is just mentioned as a percentage from bots and actual users, which should include proper graphs and detailed information.
Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC
The level of granularity is not great, and as you cross a certain threshold, the cost goes up by twenty or thirty percent every time.
Security Engineer Dev Sec Ops at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Amazon CloudFront's pricing is mixed, appreciated for flexibility and free tier, but criticized for complexity and high costs.
AWS WAF pricing is seen as affordable but can be costly in high-demand scenarios like DDoS attacks.
Due to our status as an AWS shop, AWS WAF is cost-effective for us, and we benefit from discounts due to our extensive use of AWS services.
Security Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The licensing cost for AWS WAF is just pay-as-you-go; it is a service-based model.
Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC
 

Valuable Features

Amazon CloudFront delivers fast, secure content through global caching, easy integration, and seamless AWS service compatibility, enhancing performance.
AWS WAF enhances security with configurable rules, seamless AWS integration, scalability, and ease of deployment for threat protection.
It drastically reduces latency, which is very useful for web performance and user experience.
Cloud Support Engineer at Operisoft Technologies
I would assess the impact of Amazon CloudFront's integration with services such as EC2, S3, and Lambda on my content customization as quite significant.
Head of Data & Content at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
The biggest benefit of AWS WAF for us is to filter malicious requests, so we can protect our environment and application from malicious actors.
Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC
It has also helped to improve the posture of our application, prevent all DDoS attacks, and unnecessary traffic and SQL injection that is reducing the performance of our application.
Dev Ops Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The specific outcomes showing how AWS WAF has helped our organization include improving our security posture by reducing the attack surface and reducing malicious attacks.
Senior Cloud Security at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon CloudFront
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
CDN (3rd)
AWS WAF
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Amazon CloudFront and AWS WAF aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Amazon CloudFront is designed for CDN and holds a mindshare of 5.3%, down 7.4% compared to last year.
AWS WAF, on the other hand, focuses on Web Application Firewall (WAF), holds 4.2% mindshare, down 7.3% since last year.
CDN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Amazon CloudFront5.3%
Cloudflare15.0%
Akamai11.6%
Other68.1%
CDN
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS WAF4.2%
Imperva Application Security Platform7.6%
Cloudflare5.2%
Other83.0%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

Nicolas Forgues - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Data & Content at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Improved web performance has boosted content customization and currently delivers faster user experiences
From my perspective, I see some weaknesses in Amazon CloudFront; I would rate the product something around nine out of ten, but there are disadvantages compared to its competitors. Talking specifically about Amazon CloudFront, I think they could have some additional features in the future, and I believe they may lack certain functionalities.
Azam S M - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Lead at Danat Fz LLC
Has successfully filtered malicious traffic and allowed country-specific access controls
For improvement in AWS WAF, we can have better monitoring. One of the things that should be improved in AWS WAF is the monitoring; we need to identify the requests and where they are coming from. If it's a bot, we should differentiate the requests, whether they are automated or not. The way we see it now is just mentioned as a percentage from bots and actual users, which should include proper graphs and detailed information. We also need a feature where we can filter specific requests. If there are scripts in the requests, we should be able to filter those requests to see if there are any scripts running from them.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

How do I choose between AWS Global Accelerator and Amazon CloudFront?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Global Accelerator or Amazon CloudFront global content delivery network was the better fit for us. We decided to go w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudFront?
I find Amazon's pricing good, rating it eight out of ten and considering it affordable and rightly placed, not expensive.
What needs improvement with Amazon CloudFront?
Honestly, Amazon CloudFront does its job really well, but it doesn’t always feel easy to work with. The setup can be a bit confusing at first—there are a lot of settings, and it’s not always clear ...
What are the limitations of AWS WAF vs alternative WAFs?
Hi Varun, I have had experienced with several WAF deployments and deep technical assessments of the following: 1. Imperva WAF 2. F5 WAF 3. Polarisec Cloud WAF Typical limitations on cloud WAF is t...
How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft Azure Application Gateway web application firewall software was the better fit ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS WAF?
AWS WAF is affordable; it depends on the number of rules you apply. The licensing cost for AWS WAF is just pay-as-you-go; it is a service-based model.
 

Also Known As

No data available
AWS Web Application Firewall
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Unilever, Spotify, Pinterest, MLB Advanced Media, Foursquare, PBS, Airbnb, Netflix, WIX, Comcast, Automobili Lamborghini, Rovio, Discovery Communications
eVitamins, 9Splay, Senao International
Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare, Imperva, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in CDN. Updated: August 2026.
910,350 professionals have used our research since 2012.