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Arbor DDoS vs Cloudflare vs Fortinet FortiDDoS 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Arbor DDoS is 6.6%, down from 12.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudflare is 13.2%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiDDoS is 2.1%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cloudflare13.2%
Arbor DDoS6.6%
Fortinet FortiDDoS2.1%
Other78.1%
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

DO
CTO at UkrNet
Customer interface and support have impressed while artificial intelligence features drive confidence
Arbor DDoS has some difficult pricing rules. For many different small features, we have to pay additional fees for every small feature. If we compare it, it is slightly high and not very affordable. If I compare it to automobiles, when you buy Volkswagen and then consider Skoda, for the cheapest way, you would buy Skoda. But if you want similar features to Volkswagen, you have to pay a little bit more than for Volkswagen. As I mentioned, a good way would be to buy some package of features at small prices. That is one of my recommendations for the company. I would like to see a roadmap for one or two years, and it is tough to predict what will happen in that timeframe without a clearer description.
M.A. Faisal - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager at bKash Limited
Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility
From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.
MO
IT Analyst at Evapco, Inc.
Reliable protection and smooth setup enhance company security
Currently, I have two firewalls, with one located in Sorocaba, model 90D, and the other in São Paulo, model 30D. They are connected by VPN. I use the firewalls for VPN and final protection for my company, and my equipment is maintained by an internet company called Multiprox The equipment works…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's an excellent product DDoS protection against attacks."
"Arbor DDoS offers security features that automatically detect and prevent DDoS attacks."
"Arbor is a great network service solution."
"Don't worry that it is complex because, out-of-the-box, it protects you from the basics."
"We also use it by serving our customers' cloud signaling services with on-premise APS devices."
"They have done a considerable amount of development in the last few years when it comes to features."
"Inside this product, there are many different configurations for protection, and we have one of the best experiences with it, specifically with the Atlas product."
"Arbor DDoS has given us a very good ROI."
"The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security."
"Cloudflare's DNS services deliver the best performance in terms of speed and reliability."
"CloudFlare's caching brings the load speed down from 4.32 seconds to 2.45 seconds."
"Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications."
"Cloudflare is very straightforward."
"Cloudflare has many features."
"Generally, I am satisfied with this product."
"The simplicity of the overall dashboard makes it a great product for a user like me who has less understanding of the internet than a developer or other more technical people. It gives me peace of mind. I also love the easy customization of the Page Rules."
"Among its key features: Detects and mitigates DDoS attacks at L3 to L7; negligible to zero false-positives; Generates and sends reports without the need for an expensive third-party solution."
"Packet inspection has been effective for mitigating DDoS attacks."
"The product's initial setup phase was really easy."
"I find this product the best on-premises (in-line) DDoS mitigation solution that suits my current and future requirements."
"We've been completely satisfied with the product."
"The solution already has security profiles and it can protect from DDoS attacks and other kinds of attacks."
"The protection resources and the support are valuable features of the solution."
"The equipment works very well, and I have not encountered any issues with it. It is a good solution for my company."
 

Cons

"Unfortunately, these devices are not scalable and we have to upgrade to the next model in order to increase the threat mitigation capabilities."
"Arbor DDoS has some difficult pricing rules. For many different small features, we have to pay additional fees for every small feature."
"The regional support here in African could improve, such as marketing and account managers."
"I think the diversity of protection is extremely limited. It must be expanded in future upgrades and versions."
"A small improvement could be a better reporting system."
"Arbor's SSL decryption is confusing and needs external cards to be installed in the devices. This is not the best solution from an architectural point of view for protecting HTTPS and every other protocol that is SSL encrypted."
"I would also like more visibility into their bad actor feeds, their fingerprint feeds. We try to be good stewards of the internet, so if there are attacks, or bad actors within our networks, if there were an easier way for us to find them, we could stop them from doing their malicious activity, and at the same time save money."
"I believe that the Arbor Cloud should be available, even if the customer does not have any Arbor appliance on-premise."
"Access to the solution's dashboards is not intended for a service company. You are practically blind, and to validate a problem, you must view the customer's screen."
"I think they have failed with their technical support."
"The solution could use more analytics on the backend to give us more insights into everything. More reports would be helpful."
"I would like to not need a separate server for non-www redirection under the CNAME setup option."
"Cloudflare should add more documentation and pricing to the cloud version."
"Areas like how assessment, discovery, and payload are dealt with and how it all comes into your organization can be considered when trying to make suggestions to Cloudflare for improvements."
"The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall."
"It would be beneficial for us if Cloudflare could offer a scrubbing solution. This would involve taking a snapshot of my website and keeping it live during a DDoS attack, ensuring uninterrupted service for our users. DDoS attacks are typically short in duration, and having Cloudflare maintain the site's availability from its secure network would enhance the overall user experience. I would appreciate it if Cloudflare could consider implementing this feature. Many organizations already utilize similar capabilities in their CDN platforms, where a static snapshot of the web page is displayed during DDoS attacks. In terms of features, Cloudflare needs to enhance its resilience and stay more focused on adopting new technologies. For instance, solutions like F5 XC Box, Access Solution, and Distributed Cloud Solution have impressive features, and Cloudflare should strive to match and exceed those capabilities. There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features. Cloudflare should prioritize enhancements in areas such as behavioral DDoS and protection against SQL injection attacks, considering the prevalent trend of public exposure to the internet for business reasons. Overall, Cloudflare needs to invest more in advancing its feature set."
"I would like to see analytics, big data."
"The main improvement would be to change the firewall model, however, currently, everything is fixed and working well."
"Earlier versions of firmware had bugs that limit my options."
"The web interface could be much better."
"The challenge lies within the customer environment, particularly in Brazil, where companies have stringent security requirements for implementing solutions."
"There aren't really any aspects of the solution we are unhappy with. It's been a positive experience overall."
"Alerts and reporting features must be improved."
"I find that there have been issues in the past year with the solution hanging. It freezes often."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As far as I know, they are the best in this sector, in DDoS protection. They know it, I know, because their service prices are too high. They provide cloud DDoS protection for ISPs, but that is also too expensive."
"The pricing of the solution is cheap."
"Start with a small license. Measure your bandwidth requirements."
"The licensing of a complete Arbor solution, including fire-walling and unified site management, can get expensive."
"I don't know about the pricing details as our company's service provider offers us the solution as an inbuilt feature within the internet bandwidth they provide us."
"You need to find a way to get a good offering from Arbor by negotiating a price. That is the challenge."
"There is room for improvement with the pricing. It is an expensive solution. The issue with the pricing is more the way it is built. Right now we're paying per router, and there's a limitation there. I would like to see bundle-pricing where there is an overall solution cost."
"The price of Arbor DDoS depends on many parameters. It depends on the physical capacity of the environment, and it is not a straight-line price. It's fairly competitive in the market on the price."
"I think the pricing is competitive. I think as far as licensing is concerned it's pretty straightforward because it's based on domain. It's just that sometimes domains could be tricky with some customers."
"The pricing depends on the usage, but the cheapest would be around 5,000 USD a month."
"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."
"We don't have any issues with the price."
"I believe their performance has improved, but I'd like to refrain from discussing the pricing aspect related to the cloud. The pricing, in my opinion, could be simplified, and I think they should consider reevaluating the pricing for support, as it can be quite high. At times, this cost can make it challenging to choose CARFAGuard or opt for the support."
"We are using the free tier of the solution."
"For Cloudflare, I recommend it heavily for small businesses with revenue under a couple of million dollars. Onboarding is easy, and they even have a free plan. This makes it simple for businesses in the $100,000-$500,000 range to try it out and see its value, allowing them to scale up their infrastructure as needed."
"When you compare Cloudflare DNS to other solutions, such as Akamai, the price is reasonable."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"The product’s pricing needs improvement."
"It's quite pricey."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business26
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
I would say if it’s an ISP that will build a scrubbing center, Netscout/Arbor is a good solution. In all other soluti...
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Arbor would be the best bid, apart from Arbor, Palo Alto and Fortinet have good solutions. As this is an ISP, I would...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arbor DDoS?
The prices for Arbor DDoS are expensive. The licensing is subscription-based. From our sales department, they discuss...
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare DNS?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiDDoS?
Fortinet FortiDDoS offers lower costs compared to other solutions. The licensing costs are annually renewed.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiDDoS?
There is a need for more features that protect personal information, especially given the PDP issue in Indonesia.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiDDoS?
I am looking for a UTM for my customers as I am from a system integrator company.
 

Also Known As

Arbor Networks SP, Arbor Networks TMS, Arbor Cloud for ENT
Cloudflare DNS
Fortinet DDoS, FortiDDos
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Xtel Communications
Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Radware, Cloudflare, NETSCOUT and others in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection. Updated: May 2026.
899,204 professionals have used our research since 2012.