AWS Shield vs Fortinet FortiDDoS comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Fortinet are both solutions in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8, while Fortinet is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.9% mindshare in DDOS, compared to Fortinet’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Fortinet users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Fortinet FortiDDoS and AWS Shield compete in the cybersecurity landscape, focusing on DDoS protection. AWS Shield appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced features and perceived value for investment.

Features: Fortinet FortiDDoS is known for real-time attack mitigation, comprehensive reporting tools, and detailed threat analysis. AWS Shield provides scalability, seamless AWS Cloud integration, and robust automated mitigation features.

Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiDDoS could improve with enhanced cloud integration, better scalability options, and more automated processes. AWS Shield could benefit from simplified onboarding for non-AWS users, reduced cost variability, and improved user interface navigation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiDDoS is praised for straightforward deployment and consistent support. AWS Shield is easier for AWS users due to integration but may be challenging for others due to a learning curve.

Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiDDoS offers predictable costs appealing to budget-conscious businesses, while AWS Shield's pay-as-you-go model is tied to usage, offering scalability but with potential cost variability.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Shield vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Shield vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS

August 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 12.4%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Shield is 2.9%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiDDoS is 1.9%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare	12.4%
AWS Shield	2.9%
Fortinet FortiDDoS	1.9%
Other	82.8%

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

Featured Reviews

M.A. Faisal

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.

Read full review

Pranav Telang

DGM at Airtel Digital

Has enabled multi-layered threat mitigation but still lacks deeper visibility for advanced application attacks

AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods. It does not provide inherent protection against more sophisticated layer 7 attacks such as HTTP floods. In such cases, integration with WAF is necessary, which results in additional costs for customers. To protect layer 7, layer 4, and layer 3, customers must implement both solutions. The service also has difficulties with static detection thresholds, which may not be sensitive enough to detect smaller application-specific attacks. While AWS Shield is a key security service, AWS should enhance their expert support with 24/7 response for complex attacks, which is currently limited.

Read full review

Marcos AntonioOliveira

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…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution provides good load balancing and protection against DDoS attacks."

"Using the CDN of Cloudflare improved the speed significantly, reducing the page loading times to appropriate levels."

"Because our website is blazing fast it improves our conversion rates."

"Easier http to https redirect using page rules"

"For businesses that don't have a dedicated security team, I think it's a better product; it's more intuitive for people like us."

"I get a lot of value from Cloudflare's API because it enables you to build a separate environment inside the solution. You can create a domain for performing test requests before you move to the production environment and connect various domains."

"Another reason it's awesome is that you don't need your server to handle every request."

"The UI is good."

More Cloudflare pros

"I am impressed with the product's multiple features like security."

"AWS Shield is aligned with the web application firewall (WAF), and they work seamlessly together, primarily working with Elastic Load Balancer, CloudFront, and Route 53 for CDN and DNS services protection."

"If most of your internet presence from your application side is in AWS, AWS Shield is a great option."

"It is integrated with AWS. So, it gives you a good first step."

"The automatic detection and mitigation of DDoS attacks in the product operates in real-time and provides satisfactory results."

"The product has a good mechanism to analyze trends and trigger events."

"The solution's ease of use is the most valuable feature."

"The product is easy to use."

More AWS Shield pros

"The most valuable feature is the cloud DDoS scrubbing capability."

"The equipment works very well, and I have not encountered any issues with it. It is a good solution for my company."

"The protection resources and the support are valuable features of the solution."

"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."

"It is a user-friendly product in terms of monitoring and updating policies."

"We've been completely satisfied with the product."

"The pricing of this solution is better than that of Cisco and other software on the market, which are very expensive."

"This solution can protect Layer 3, Layer 4 and Layer 7 attacks of applications for us, and this is important."

More Fortinet FortiDDoS pros

Cons

"Cloudflare could offer a better view or maybe dashboards of the main resources used in the client."

"It should confirm audit findings of the assigned area with auditees to ensure that the audit conclusions are based on an accurate understanding of the issues."

"We had to do a lot of digging and back-and-forth with technical support for specific use cases, and it might be helpful to have more screencasts or screenshots for common situations."

"The analytics, basically the dashboard, doesn't have much to it."

"Flexible SSL is nothing more than an illusion of security that you're presenting to your visitors."

"The solution could be more user-friendly."

"However, what I still fail to understand is that why aren't they offering domains themselves."

"I believe they currently have this feature, but there will most likely be integration with APIs so we can control some features through API."

More Cloudflare cons

"AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods."

"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it. It could be improved in terms of architecture requirements and then ongoing support requirements as a secondary component to it. People tend to set up things like this, and they just expect it to work without the care and feeding that needs to go back into it either from an application team or a network environment team."

"AWS Shield Standard requires improvement, particularly regarding its dashboard since it currently provides limited coverage against comprehensive DDoS attacks."

"The product needs to improve its logs and reports to make it read better."

"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it."

"The time taken to detect anomalies must be reduced."

"The product should give users more flexibility to customize their security policies according to their requirements."

"The product is expensive."

More AWS Shield cons

"The tool needs to focus more on the area of application traffic management, where it currently has some shortcomings."

"All those thresholds that need to be configured should be included in the default so that user will not forget or misconfigure."

"The initial setup is complex. It is always complex."

"The solution can be a little more user-friendly and it can be more affordable."

"I find that there have been issues in the past year with the solution hanging. It freezes often."

"There aren't really any aspects of the solution we are unhappy with. It's been a positive experience overall."

"The main improvement would be to change the firewall model, however, currently, everything is fixed and working well."

"The only thing they need to do is to automate it. Today, you must create tools that do not require the use of an expert or anyone with special skills."

More Fortinet FortiDDoS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost primarily depends on the size of the organization."

"The pricing depends on the usage, but the cheapest would be around 5,000 USD a month."

"The solution is expensive when compared to other products but offers unlimited bandwidth."

"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."

"The pricing for the service is reasonable, neither excessively cheap nor prohibitively expensive. It aligns well with the value of their solution."

"We are using the free tier of the solution."

"We don't have any issues with the price."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

"The cost depends on traffic each month, so on average, it costs us between US$200 and US$300 per month."

"The tool is cheap."

"We pay $3000 per month for the solution."

"The tool's pricing is good."

"It depends on your subscription level and the volume that you're spending with AWS. So, it is very relative to the consumption alignment in your subscription level. It is a well-constructed, scalable pricing option, but it is relative to how much you're spending on AWS. Because the more you spend, typically, the more you get off on services like this. I find it to be comparable to other solutions."

"The product’s pricing needs improvement."

"It's quite pricey."

"The solution is reasonably priced."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

17%

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

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...

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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...

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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.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Shield?

The pricing structure for AWS Shield is fair, yet it depends on the specific protections chosen. Enabling Shield Adva...

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What needs improvement with AWS Shield?

Services always benefit from improvements, including AWS Shield. With respect to the Web Application Firewall, curren...

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What is your primary use case for AWS Shield?

What do you use it for? How do you use it?

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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...

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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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiDDoS?

There is a need for more features that protect personal information, especially given the PDP issue in Indonesia.

See all answers

Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 31% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

Compared 3% of the time

Fastly vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

More Cloudflare Competitors

Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield

Compared 30% of the time

Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield

Compared 9% of the time

Cloudflare One vs AWS Shield

Compared 8% of the time

Radware DDoS vs AWS Shield

Compared 8% of the time

SiteLock vs AWS Shield

Compared 2% of the time

More AWS Shield Competitors

Radware DDoS vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 14% of the time

Arbor DDoS vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 14% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 8% of the time

VMware NSX vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 7% of the time

A10 Thunder TPS vs Fortinet FortiDDoS

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiDDoS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

August 2026

Download Cloudflare product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS Shield

August 2026

Download AWS Shield product report

Buyer's Guide

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

August 2026

Download Fortinet FortiDDoS product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

No data available

Fortinet DDoS, FortiDDos

Overview

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?

CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

AWS Shield offers robust DDoS protection with seamless integration into AWS services, providing users with enhanced security without impacting performance. Its intuitive dashboard and integration with tools like WAF and CloudWatch make it a go-to for many organizations seeking reliable protection.

AWS Shield provides real-time attack visibility and transparency, excelling in DDoS protection while maintaining application and network layer security. The Advanced tier offers automated threat detection, tailored defense strategies, and a responsive DDoS team. However, challenges include high costs, limited customization, and a need for better traffic insights. Organizations must often rely on additional AWS services for comprehensive network security. The solution is primarily used to protect against DDoS attacks and secure web applications, offering Layer 3 and 4 security. While the Standard tier offers basic security at no cost, the Advanced tier provides enhanced protection against severe attacks such as SYN floods, albeit with a monthly fee.

What are AWS Shield's most important features?

Ease of Use: Simple integration and intuitive monitoring dashboard.
Real-Time Attack Visibility: Immediate insights into attack metrics without performance impact.
Seamless AWS Integration: Works smoothly with WAF and CloudWatch for comprehensive protection.
Advanced Defense Strategies: Customizable strategies with automatic threat detection.

What benefits or ROI should users consider?

Enhanced Security: Robust DDoS mitigation for continuous protection.
Performance Maintenance: Protects services during high-traffic events without degradation.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Intuitive dashboard for easy attack tracking and management.
Cost-Effective Tiered Offerings: The choice between no-cost basic or feature-rich advanced options.

In industries like finance and e-commerce, AWS Shield's capabilities ensure continual uptime and protection against potential DDoS threats, vital during high-traffic periods. Its use in media and entertainment allows secure streaming and content delivery, while health sectors benefit from secure and reliable patient data access and protection.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Fortinet FortiDDoS provides comprehensive protection against DDoS attacks across layers 3 to 7. It efficiently minimizes false positives and is valued for real-time attack monitoring, cloud DDoS scrubbing, and multi-layer security, leveraging purpose-built ASICs for high performance.

Fortinet FortiDDoS is favored for its robust defense capabilities in DDoS detection and mitigation, supporting sophisticated security infrastructures. Its purpose-built ASICs ensure effective performance without reliance on signature-based detection. While it offers strong features like attack monitoring and cloud scrubbing, users identify challenges with its complex setup and web interface. Additionally, the need for simplified features, enhanced application traffic management, and better alerts is crucial especially when handling sensitive data. Priced competitively, it presents scalability concerns particularly in on-premises environments.

What are Fortinet FortiDDoS's key features?

DDoS Detection: Protects infrastructure from layers 3 to 7 with minimal false positives.
Real-Time Monitoring: Enables instant attack detection and response.
Cloud Scrubbing: Offers cloud-based DDoS mitigation to cleanse traffic.
Purpose-Built ASICs: Ensures performance without reliance on signatures.
Multi-Layer Protection: Comprehensive security across different network layers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiDDoS?

Enhanced Security: Protects against a wide range of DDoS threats.
Performance Optimization: Improves network traffic management.
Cost Efficiency: Competitive pricing with powerful capabilities.
Effective Mitigation: Reduces risks with real-time threats monitoring.
User Data Protection: Safeguards personal and sensitive information.

Fortinet FortiDDoS is widely used in internet datacenters with multiple upstreams to protect infrastructure and customers from potential threats. Companies deploy Fortinet appliances for managing network traffic and ensuring optimal performance. They rely on it for safeguarding web pages, web services, and networks while benefiting from ease of troubleshooting and effective VPN connections, critical for application-based attack defense.

Fortinet

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

netflix, dow jones, mapbox, pearson, rovio, youview, moviestar planet, asurion, payplug, hour of code

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data

Buyer's Guide

AWS Shield vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS

August 2026

Free Report: AWS Shield vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Shield vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

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See our AWS Shield vs. Fortinet FortiDDoS report.

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