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Azure Bastion vs Azure Firewall 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
6.8
Azure Bastion offers significant savings and seamless infrastructure automation, though some users don't see specific cost or time benefits.
Sentiment score
1.0
Azure Firewall offers cost-effective security, appealing to smaller businesses; larger enterprises might prefer alternatives like Fortinet or Palo Alto.
We have noticed savings of approximately twenty percent by using Azure Bastion compared to VM pricing.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Azure Bastion's customer service is efficient and patient, with positive ratings, though some improvements are needed in data transfer.
Sentiment score
4.4
Azure Firewall support receives mixed reviews, with praise for expertise but criticism for inconsistent response times and delays.
Support is satisfactory but with room for improvement, primarily concerning data transfer issues.
We usually get backup within two hours.
Microsoft provides excellent customer support, especially with premium support plans.
Nevertheless, the final support from Microsoft remains effective.
With Azure products, customer support is really good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Azure Bastion offers scalability for extensive use but lacks customization, meeting diverse organizational needs with varying user exploration.
Sentiment score
7.3
Azure Firewall offers strong scalability with automatic scaling, but some users note limitations in handling high bandwidth demands.
It is designed to provide access over a private network without hitting the internet.
Based on my experience, I would rate it nine out of ten for scalability.
Azure Firewall is highly scalable, and I would give it a scalability rating of nine out of ten.
When we started deploying the solution, it was not a mature product at times.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Azure Bastion is praised for stability and performance, with minimal issues, especially in North America, ensuring long-term reliability.
Sentiment score
8.6
Azure Firewall is praised for its reliability and stability, generally receiving high ratings despite minor past incidents.
The stability of Azure Firewall is excellent.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Bastion users face data retrieval costs, limited functionality, browser issues, and call for improved protocol speed and AI support.
Azure Firewall needs enhanced security, usability, flexibility, better pricing, support, threat intelligence, documentation, and improved Azure integration.
I would like to see integrated AI features with Azure Bastion, especially for connectivity issues.
A storage solution must be created to transfer data, and this requires additional permissions like ACL or NFS.
It would be nice to have the capability to cut and paste across desktops, similar to old-fashioned Remote Desktop emulation.
Improvement in reporting and better visibility into network traffic would also be beneficial.
It lacks some functionalities when compared to competitors like Check Point and Fortinet, such as WAF or load balancing.
Azure Firewall could improve its reporting capabilities.
 

Setup Cost

Azure Bastion's pricing reflects its high-quality security, starting at $150/month, suitable for enterprises despite competitive alternatives.
Azure Firewall offers flexible pricing appealing to enterprises, balancing cost-efficiency with seamless Azure ecosystem integration despite potential premium costs.
Microsoft's pricing is on the higher side and could be more competitive.
The price is not necessarily cheaper, but it is acceptable.
Azure Firewall is quite expensive, with a high cost.
Azure Firewall is subscription-based, which is advantageous as there is no need for upfront payment.
I would rate the pricing of Azure Firewall around a seven, with one being high and ten being low.
 

Valuable Features

Azure Bastion offers secure VM access with Azure AD integration, avoiding public IPs, supporting scripting, and infrastructure as code.
Azure Firewall provides scalable security with IPS, threat intelligence, malware protection, automation, and integrates with Azure Monitor for management.
Azure Bastion eliminates the need for a jump server by providing secure access to servers without hitting the public network.
The security is the main reason we use Azure Bastion because it is integrated with Azure Active Directory, ensuring that access is secure.
We use Azure AD integration to specify who has access and what they can do.
We have to combine multiple features and multiple products, and then we can say that this is more cost-effective and works properly to ensure the security posture of our cloud deployments.
The premium version includes all traditional firewall features, reducing the need for separate compute resources.
We created rules in the firewall to ensure that the traffic would be diverted to the right endpoint and made sure only specific application VMs could reach the database server.
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Bastion
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
19th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (24th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (6th)
Azure Firewall
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
11th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Bastion is 1.3%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Firewall is 3.5%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Azure Firewall3.5%
Azure Bastion1.3%
Other95.2%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Aladin Steiner - PeerSpot reviewer
Has good scalability and provides secure access to the virtual machines
The product improved the security posture of our organization. We don’t have open ports and connect them to servers using it. We can carry out two-factor authentication to protect the devices with conditional access features. It would be nice to have a feature to copy and paste the files into servers. I rate the product a nine out of ten.
Rashedul Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless integration enhances security while reducing manual effort
We didn't use TLS termination or malware filtering extensively because those are part of the premium features for Azure Firewall. At this point, I cannot see much improvement needed for Azure Firewall, because it served my purpose; having used it for four months, I am satisfied with the features and performance that I needed for my project. Features that integrate AI functionalities into Azure Firewall could be added, which can also address costing issues. We have features that we require, but they are in the premium offerings. If some features with limitations, for example, limited users, could be made available in the standard Azure Firewall, it would be easier for beginners choosing Azure Firewall at a very first level to test those features without needing to upgrade to premium.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise21
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Bastion?
Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Bastion?
Microsoft's pricing is on the higher side and could be more competitive. Startups and small organizations often prefer AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) or GCP due to their lower costs, while la...
What needs improvement with Azure Bastion?
Azure Bastion does its job. However, it would be nice to have the capability to cut and paste across desktops, similar to old-fashioned Remote ( /products/remote-reviews ) Desktop emulation. I am u...
What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?
Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include int...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigate VM integrates well and has excellent centralized reporting. It is very easy to...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Bastion vs. Azure Firewall and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.