AWS WAF vs Fastly comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Fastly are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.1, while Fastly is ranked #21 with an average rating of 8.7. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 4.6% mindshare in WAF, compared to Fastly’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Fastly users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Fastly and AWS WAF are prominent competitors in the web application protection sector. Fastly leads with rapid deployment and pricing flexibility, while AWS WAF is preferred for its extensive integration within the AWS ecosystem.

Features: Fastly provides instant cache purging, dynamic content delivery, and scalable edge computing. AWS WAF excels in integration with AWS services, custom rule creation, and automatic traffic monitoring.

Room for Improvement: Fastly could improve cloud integration and expand security features. Reducing AWS WAF's learning curve, enhancing CDN features, and improving customer-facing interfaces would upgrade AWS WAF.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fastly ensures easy deployment across platforms with strong customer support for onboarding. AWS WAF offers straightforward deployment leveraging AWS infrastructure but involves a steeper learning journey.

Pricing and ROI: Fastly offers flexible pricing, appealing to businesses of all sizes with cost-effective content delivery. AWS WAF requires a higher setup cost but yields significant ROI, particularly for AWS-integrated businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS WAF vs. Fastly Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS WAF vs. Fastly

April 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 Web Application ...

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is 4.5%, down from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS WAF is 4.6%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fastly is 1.7%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall	4.5%
AWS WAF	4.6%
Fastly	1.7%
Other	89.2%

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Featured Reviews

Dean Barisic

CTO at PlayNirvana

Advanced security reporting has protected high-traffic betting platforms from constant attacks

I don't see room for improvement to Cloudflare Web Application Firewall. One thing I don't know much about because we have a dedicated IT team for that, and I'm not involved with Cloudflare much anymore. But if I were to compare them to F5, I would like to see more features that F5 offers. F5 has an option to bring the whole infrastructure, the whole WAF and all their packages, Bot Management, and everything else on your infrastructure. You need to install certain services from their side, and then you can choose if you would like requests to hit your servers immediately or if requests need to be proxied through F5 backbone. That would be a nice addition because we have 90% of the traffic as legit traffic coming from whitelisted servers. If it comes from whitelisted servers, I don't need to go every request through the backbone; I could easily just IP whitelist everything. Then I could maybe have Bot Management on my infrastructure that drastically reduces the price of Cloudflare. I would like to see Push CDN more improved in the next release of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall. And maybe something similar to Pushpin that Fastly has, which is an option where you can push messages that then can be scaled globally over the network. From our perspective, if we have a listener that listens for stock updates, I would just need to have one processor that pushes those updates to the Cloudflare API, and then Cloudflare would broadcast that message to all listeners. Cloudflare will check the order of the message, and if you, as a customer, are not connected or have some kind of network issue, when you reconnect, you will receive the latest state and missing updates.

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Azam S M

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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Pranay Jain

Senior software developer at Simplifyvms

Edge caching has transformed response times and delivers faster candidate data globally

Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal users. A more user-friendly, UI-based configuration could simplify the experience, alongside better templates for common use cases and dashboard improvements, as the current dashboard feels complex for beginners, and pricing can be hard to predict for smaller companies. I chose 8 out of 10 because it has excellent performance and low latency delivery, making it suitable for larger applications, with strong Edge Caching and instant purging capabilities. However, VCL complexity and pricing predictability, especially for smaller companies, along with a user-friendly dashboard are areas impacting my score.

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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 Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's most valuable feature is its ease of configuration."

"The most valuable part of the solution for us overall is exactly that it is a Software-as-a-Service product."

"In general, it's a very good product: the solution is very stable, the performance is great, the product offers very good scalability, the pricing is very reasonable, the installation is very straightforward and quite simple, and technical support has a very fast response time and is helpful."

"Very glad the WAF rulesets works out of box, and requires very little tuning or maintenance."

"The rate limiting features and customizations in terms of URL match and applying policies are valuable to me."

"We extensively use the solution every day. The solution is very stable; we haven’t seen any glitches."

"It is a SaaS solution unlike much of the competition."

"I'm highly satisfied. It's remarkably user-friendly, enabling me to quickly identify issues, and deploy solutions, and it offers the necessary features."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pros

"As a basic WAF, it's better than having nothing, so if you need something simple out of the box with default features, AWS WAF is good."

"This is not a product that you need to install. You just use it."

"The most valuable feature is the capability to limit access based on geographical location by restricting specific IP addresses."

"One of the most valuable features of AWS WAF is its ability to filter web app traffic, allowing us to specify conditions such as IP addresses and HTTP headers."

"We can host any DB or application on the solution."

"The web solution effectively protects from vulnerabilities and cyber attacks."

"Its best feature is that it is on the cloud and does not require local hardware resources."

"The most valuable features of AWS WAF are its cloud-native and on-demand."

More AWS WAF pros

"The product helps our organization to access sites located in different regions quickly."

"In summary, this solution is easy to manage, quick to deploy, and all of my customers are happy."

"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."

"Initially, we faced load time issues, but after deploying Fastly and optimizing our queries, we achieved a response time cut to less than 1 millisecond from an initial 3 to 4 seconds."

"Compute@Edge features are valuable to me."

"Rate limiting is a good feature that protects from volumetric attacks."

"Support is good; the product works as advertised. We have a Slack connection with them. So we can basically ask for help, live, engage, and ring when they respond. Very quickly."

"Fastly provides CDN, WAF, image optimization, and IP restriction."

More Fastly pros

Cons

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall should include port forwarding features."

"The user interface is very simple and straightforward, but users need knowledge about DNS to accomplish tasks."

"We have noticed some latency when the call goes through the firewall. That could be improved."

"Support can be challenging at times."

"We don't even use Cloudflare Bot Management because it's too expensive; you need to pay per request, and it's much cheaper to get one or two additional machines."

"The ModSecurity core rules need to be updated."

"The reporting could be improved if it were more granular."

"A key challenge arises when dealing with numerous integrations with HVAC systems. Depending on the specifics, there might be some configuration mismatches, which necessitate specific support."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall cons

"One area for improvement in AWS WAF could be the limitation on the number of rules, particularly those from third-party sources, within the free tier."

"On the UI side, I would like it if they could bring back the conditions view which had geo match, IP sets and etc."

"Technical support for AWS WAF could still be improved, e.g. support could be faster, more knowledgeable, and friendlier."

"We need more support as we go global."

"Whenever there is an issue, it is just not that simple to resolve, especially if you don't have premium support."

"They should work to define more threats, add more security, and make it more compliant with more security companies."

"In a future release I would like to see automation. There's no interaction between the applications and that makes it tedious. We have to do the preparation all over again for each of our other applications."

"It is sometimes a lot of work going through the rules and making sure you have everything covered for a use case. It is just the way rules are set and maintained in this solution. Some UI changes will probably be helpful. It is not easy to find the documentation of new features. Documentation not being updated is a common problem with all services, including this one. You have different versions of the console, and the options shown in the documentation are not there. For a new feature, there is probably an announcement about being released, but when it comes out, there is no actual documentation about how to use it. This makes you either go to technical support or community, which probably doesn't have an idea either. The documentation on the cloud should be the latest one. Finding information about a specific event can be a bit challenging. For this solution, not much documentation is available in the community. It could be because it is a new tool. Whenever there is an issue, it is just not that simple to resolve, especially if you don't have premium support. You have pretty much nowhere to look around, and you just need to poke around to try and make it work right."

More AWS WAF cons

"It is missing a "staging" platform to deploy a test configuration with all of the real settings, which would allow us to properly test before putting it into production."

"Fastly's customer service area needs improvement."

"The solution's pricing could be better."

"Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal users."

"What I don't like about Fastly is that they charge a heavy price."

"The product should provide improved bot detection and management."

"Stronger analytics would be helpful, like showing configurations that haven't served a certain amount of traffic in a while. With many properties, things can get lost track of - duplicates or unused configurations not properly decommissioned."

"We are not getting quick responses from Fastly technical support engineers. Sometimes they depend on their D3 developers."

More Fastly cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cloudflare offers different types of subscriptions for businesses, enterprises, and personal users, and the pricing is negotiable."

"The annual licensing fee is $10,000 USD."

"The solution is expensive."

"The pricing model is very straightforward compared to the competition. You just pay per month for the product and usage."

"It is not too pricey."

"The solution's pricing option needs to be more transparent for enterprise clients."

"It starts at $20 and can easily go up to $200 monthly"

"What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I believe the pricing is not the best, but it's reasonable and acceptable. We also use the McAfee system in parallel. In terms of pricing, its okay - not great, but not bad either. It falls in the middle, which is acceptable. In terms of support licensing, last time, we were searching for a solution, and we considered products from resellers rather than directly from the cloud provider. However, the pricing we encountered was exceptionally high. As a result, we are inclined to select support from the reseller."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

"Its price is fair. There is a very fair amount that they charge. It has a pay-as-you-go model, so it pretty much depends on how much a user uses it. As per the cloud norms, the more you use, the more you pay. I would rate it a five out of ten in terms of pricing."

"You need an additional AWS subscription for this product if you are buying a managed tool."

"The solution is affordable."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven or eight out of ten."

"AWS WAF has reasonable pricing."

"It has a variable pricing scheme."

"AWS WAF is pay-as-you-go, I only pay for what I'm using. There is no subscription or any payment upfront, I can terminate use at any time. Which is an advantage."

"We are kind of doing a POC comparison to see what works best. Pricing-wise, AWS is one of the most attractive ones. It is fairly cheap, and we like the pricing part. We're trying to see what makes more sense operation-wise, license-wise, and pricing-wise."

More AWS WAF pricing and cost advice

"Fastly is less expensive than one of its competitors."

"The solution is cheaper than other products in the market."

"The pricing has been very competitive."

"In my opinion, Fastly is priced competitively."

"It is an expensive solution."

"You need to pay a premium price for the tool."

"I've generally found Fastly to be very competitive in pricing, especially around Compute@Edge."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	27

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The price of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

I don't see room for improvement to Cloudflare Web Application Firewall. One thing I don't know much about because we...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

We are using Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's advanced reporting and analytics tools with their Zero Trust, so e...

See all answers

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. Im...

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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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fastly?

The pricing of Fastly can be hard to predict because it is primarily usage-based with minimal setup costs and flexibl...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fastly?

Fastly can be improved in certain areas such as VCL, which is powerful but has a steep learning curve for normal user...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Fastly?

Fastly serves as an Edge Cloud platform and CDN that we use for real-time Edge Caching and instant caching purging, a...

See all answers

Comparisons

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Check Point WAF (formerly CloudGuard WAF) vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Web Application Firewall vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall Competitors

Imperva Application Security Platform vs AWS WAF

Compared 7% of the time

Check Point WAF (formerly CloudGuard WAF) vs AWS WAF

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Web Application Firewall vs AWS WAF

Compared 4% of the time

Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS WAF

Compared 4% of the time

Radware Cloud WAF Service vs AWS WAF

Compared 3% of the time

More AWS WAF Competitors

Cloudflare vs Fastly

Compared 19% of the time

Akamai vs Fastly

Compared 16% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Fastly

Compared 10% of the time

Uplynk vs Fastly

Compared 5% of the time

Radware DDoS vs Fastly

Compared 2% of the time

More Fastly Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

May 2026

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall report

Download Cloudflare Web Application Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS WAF

May 2026

Download AWS WAF product report

Buyer's Guide

Fastly

May 2026

Download Fastly product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare WAF

AWS Web Application Firewall

No data available

Overview

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall integrates DDoS protection, load balancing, and firewall capabilities. Its ease of use, configurability, and robust security measures make it a versatile choice for protecting web applications.

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall provides a comprehensive defense against threats with advanced reporting and robust security measures. It includes DNS integration, rate limiting, and extensive rule sets, all within a SaaS model that allows API configurability. Users value its caching, scalability, and pricing, although enhancements are needed in rate-limiting and third-party integration. Improvements in customer support, especially in India, real-time controls, and user documentation are also desired. Users seek a more intuitive dashboard, better log management, and improved alert systems, along with multitenancy capabilities and enhanced reporting.

What are the key features of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

DDoS Protection: Shields applications from denial-of-service attacks
Load Balancing: Ensures efficient traffic distribution
DNS Integration: Enhances domain name system security
Rate Limiting: Controls traffic flow and reduces abuse
Extensive Rule Sets: Offers customizable security rules

What benefits and ROI can users find in reviews?

Scalability: Easily adapts to growing business needs
Pricing: Offers reasonable pricing structure
Caching: Improves application performance and speed
Configurable Security: Provides customizable defense settings
Efficient Management: Simplifies security and application control

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall finds application in industries like banking and retail by acting as a comprehensive security gateway, managing authentication and authorization while protecting web applications from malicious Layer 7 traffic. It also implements load balancing, CDN, and zero-trust policies, supported by advanced reporting, analytics tools, and threat scoring to meet specific industry needs.

Cloudflare

AWS WAF provides configurable rules, integration with AWS services, and scalable protection against web threats like SQL injections and DDoS attacks. Its automation and reliable performance are highly valued by users.

AWS WAF is a web application firewall offering significant security features like geo-restriction, custom rules, and IP filtering. Designed for seamless orchestration within AWS environments, it facilitates easy configuration and threat automation. Users benefit from its security policies, enhancing application performance by protecting against threats such as cross-site scripting. Despite its strengths, there is a call for enhanced user interfaces, better documentation, flexible pricing, and improved support. Expanding features like real-time analysis, bot protection, and AI integration can further elevate its utility.

What are the key features of AWS WAF?

Configurable Rules: Customize rules to suit specific security needs.
Seamless Integration: Works smoothly with AWS services for comprehensive protection.
Scalability: Handles growing security demands efficiently.
Threat Automation: Automates many threat blocking processes reducing manual intervention.
Geo-Restriction: Restricts traffic based on geographic locations enhancing security.
Custom Rules and IP Filtering: Tailors traffic filtering to organizational requirements.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from AWS WAF?

Robust Security: Protects applications against multiple web threats improving safety.
Easy Configuration: Simplifies the process of establishing security protocols.
Performance Reliability: Users experience consistent and dependable service.
Improved Application Performance: Ensures applications run securely and efficiently without unnecessary disruptions.

AWS WAF is extensively used in industries hosting applications on AWS, protecting sensitive data, and monitoring for unauthorized access. Custom and managed rules help cater to infrastructure needs, serving a vital role in maintaining application security across various sectors.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Fastly is a leading provider of content delivery network services that enhances website performance through efficient caching and real-time architecture capabilities.

Fastly integrates CDN technology with advanced web application firewall for comprehensive security. Its global infrastructure supports performance enhancement, rapid deployment, and rollback capabilities. Utilizing the VCL language allows custom caching solutions. Compute@Edge provides extensive architectural flexibility, aiding in HTML manipulation and script execution. Users benefit from its stability and reliability features for seamless network protection, log management, image optimization, and A/B testing. Challenges include limited support in mainland China, inadequate WebSocket protocol implementation, and complex pricing structures.

What are the key features of Fastly?

CDN Integration: Delivers content quickly across global Points of Presence.
Signal Sciences’ WAF: Manages security threats effectively.
VCL Language: Offers customizable caching solutions.
Compute@Edge: Enables flexible architecture for HTML manipulation.
Image Optimization: Enhances performance with dynamic image delivery.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Performance Enhancement: Boosts website speed and response time.
Rapid Deployment: Allows for swift implementation and rollback.
Real-Time Visibility: Provides insights into cached content management.
Security and Stability: Ensures reliability against DDoS attacks and other threats.
Flexibility: Offers diverse network protection and infrastructure capabilities.

Fastly is widely implemented in industries needing robust content delivery and security capabilities. Companies use it as a reverse proxy for media delivery, ensuring availability and optimized performance. Its rapid deployment and rollback features are particularly beneficial in technology sectors requiring agile responses to demand shifts.

Fastly

Sample Customers

crunchbase, udacity, marketo, okcupid, zendesk

eVitamins, 9Splay, Senao International

Twitter, Airbnb, Alaska Airlines, Pinterest, Vimeo, The Guardian, The New York Times, Ticketmaster, The Drupal Association, Opera, about.com, imgur, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, New Relic, shopify, Shazam, Firebase

Buyer's Guide

AWS WAF vs. Fastly

April 2026

Free Report: AWS WAF vs. Fastly

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS WAF vs. Fastly and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.

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