Azure Web Application Firewall vs Cloudflare comparison

Azure Web Application Firewall

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure Web Application Firewall and Cloudflare based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Cloudflare Report (Updated: September 2026).

Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Cloudflare

September 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

3.9

Azure Web Application Firewall offers cost-efficiency through reduced administration, AI enhancements, and competitive pricing compared to leading competitors.

Sentiment score

5.9

Cloudflare increases ROI by enhancing security, reducing costs, and boosting performance, benefiting e-commerce, small businesses, and projects.

Recently, they have been under serious attack with major exploits, such as Log4j, affecting Fortinet and Palo Alto, and even Cisco and VMware.

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

AI-based recommendations save on time and money.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.

Wellington Malagutti

Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

In terms of return on investment with Cloudflare, it costs my time to set them up, but basically once they're set up, it's done.

Herb Angle

Owner at Hga consulting

The return on investment for me is significant as time is the critical aspect.

For more quotes and insights, download the Cloudflare report

Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.1

Microsoft support is generally satisfactory, with users preferring higher-tier options for faster response and clearer communication.

Sentiment score

6.9

Cloudflare's customer service excels for paying users, while others face slow responses and rely on effective self-serve resources.

They are good at troubleshooting and configuring things.

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

I am very satisfied with the response from Microsoft dedicated architects if it happens that I have to call for their support.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

I reached out to their support, and they helped me resolve the issue effectively.

Adolfo Albanell

Owner at ICAL S.A.

Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.

reviewer1245303

Senior Consultant CDN at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

I would rate the technical support with Cloudflare as excellent every time I've had to call them.

Herb Angle

Owner at Hga consulting

We use other solutions where support is available through Slack channels and is more interactive, with someone responding within a couple of minutes or seconds.

M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the Cloudflare report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.6

Azure Web Application Firewall offers flexible, highly-rated scalability, easily adapting to traffic changes and various workload needs across subscriptions.

Sentiment score

8.0

Cloudflare is praised for its high scalability, adaptability, and efficiency in DNS management, content delivery, and security.

Some Azure applications, like the web application firewall, require a certain level of SKU for hosting setup.

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

For our company, Azure Web Application Firewall works effectively for scalability.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

The tool offers very good performance, even during high-traffic periods.

Carlos Alam Hernandez Baruch

Engineer at SITMEXICO

Cloudflare's scalability is quite good; it is very easy to scale whenever we want to include multiple domains.

For more quotes and insights, download the Cloudflare report

Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.1

Azure Web Application Firewall is highly stable, with minimal connectivity or performance issues and consistently earns high reliability ratings.

Sentiment score

7.6

Cloudflare is praised for its reliable DNS services and global uptime, despite occasional downtime and minor implementation challenges.

Very rarely do I see any latency issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.

Carlos Alam Hernandez Baruch

Engineer at SITMEXICO

Cloudflare's reliability and uptime has met my expectations; it has been quite good in general.

For more quotes and insights, download the Cloudflare report

Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Room For Improvement

Azure Web Application Firewall needs better reporting, integration, cost plans, and process streamlining for enhanced management and support.

Cloudflare needs improvements in UI speed, support, customization, security features, documentation, geographical presence, and clearer pricing structures.

Upgrading the platform regularly is necessary for security, however, frequent updates every six months or year from Azure can be a maintenance overhead.

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

The pricing needs improvement, and I think for beginners it will be a little bit complicated, so the ease of use could be enhanced.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

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.

M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

Cloudflare could be improved by introducing a mid-tier pricing option.

Wellington Malagutti

Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Protection against creating duplicated DMARC entries would be beneficial, along with setting permissions to restrict modification of DMARC or SPF records.

Maciej Piaskowy

Senior Security Engineer at ManpowerGroup

For more quotes and insights, download the Cloudflare report

Setup Cost

Azure Web Application Firewall offers scalable pricing, valued functionality, and favorable terms, appealing compared to AWS and GCP.

Cloudflare offers competitive pricing options from a free tier to $1,500 monthly, suitable for varying enterprise needs.

It is even a lower cost compared to AWS and GCP.

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

Sometimes, when opting for a higher SKU, it's not the WAF itself that's costly but the additional requirements.

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

I would place Azure Web Application Firewall at an eight on a scale from one to 10, with one being cheap and 10 being expensive.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

I find it to be cheap.

Carlos Alam Hernandez Baruch

Engineer at SITMEXICO

However, the enterprise price for small projects is a bit high.

Wellington Malagutti

Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall.

For more quotes and insights, download the Cloudflare report

Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Valuable Features

Azure Web Application Firewall offers robust security, seamless Azure integration, automatic rule management, and scalable, user-friendly deployment with minimal downtime.

Cloudflare enhances website security and performance through automatic features, robust caching, and optimized content delivery, improving user experience.

With Microsoft, everything is within a single suite, making it easier to configure and plan.

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

It is almost impossible to access these assets from outside, requiring a very skilled attacker to obtain asset tokens of a customer using Azure.

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

It integrates effectively with things such as Sentinel and Defender for Cloud, so mostly it's the analytics and now the AI capabilities that have been introduced with Co-pilot.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

Most of our DNS records that are presented to the internet are proxied whenever possible, providing another layer of defense from our perspective.

Maciej Piaskowy

Senior Security Engineer at ManpowerGroup

Cloudflare has positively impacted our organization by giving us flexibility to manage the DNS part, being quite fast, and allowing us to manage everything from a single dashboard.

For more quotes and insights, download the Cloudflare report

Senior Network and Security Expert at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Cloudflare has recently implemented AI Crawl Control. From their panel, we can control which AI to allow on our domain and which AI to block.

Jignesh Lapkamna

IT Manager at a consumer goods company with 51-200 employees

Categories and Ranking

Azure Web Application Firewall

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

17th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (18th)

Cloudflare

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

9th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CDN (1st), WAN Optimization (3rd), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (2nd), Managed DNS (1st), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (5th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (15th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Azure Web Application Firewall is 1.6%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cloudflare is 5.0%, down from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cloudflare	5.0%
Azure Web Application Firewall	1.6%
Other	93.4%

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Featured Reviews

Comprehensive suite simplifies configuration while frequent updates require management

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

Mainly, it comes with the complete suite of Microsoft services. I can use it in conjunction with the best options and other features that come with it. Configuration is much easier than using different platforms. For example, if I have hosted the application in AWS and am using the Application Firewall from Azure, there are certain additional steps to follow when configuring them. With Microsoft, everything is within a single suite, making it easier to configure and plan. Azure continually upgrades platforms and sends us messages to upgrade to the next version, simplifying the process. Later, it's much easier if I want to upgrade the software platform, scale it, or move it to a different application host as the whole suite comes together. The return on investment is good. If I am doing applications for clients, I can invoice them for better costs. Most applications that I run and use have a better return on investment.

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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.

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See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

Questions from the Community

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

I would place Azure Web Application Firewall at an eight on a scale from one to 10, with one being cheap and 10 being expensive.

What needs improvement with Azure Web Application Firewall?

The pricing needs improvement, and I think for beginners it will be a little bit complicated, so the ease of use could be enhanced. I've worked with Fortinet and Cisco, and I think the UI is a litt...

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

Because we mostly operate in the cloud and because we're a Microsoft environment, it was the best option in the scenario. The options were limited in terms of wanting to be an only Microsoft enviro...

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 GRE tunnels. We have decreased site load times on Mobile 3G from 8 to 1,6 seconds ...

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 that offers great redundancy and advanced security with built-in unmetered and ...

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.

AWS WAF vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Comparisons

Compared 9% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Azure Firewall vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

More Azure Web Application Firewall Competitors

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 27% 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

Product Reports

Azure Web Application Firewall

October 2026

Download Azure Web Application Firewall product report

Download Cloudflare product report

October 2026

Also Known As

No data available

Cloudflare DNS

Overview

Azure Web Application Firewall provides strong protection, easy setup, and smooth integration with Microsoft services. It excels in request filtering, custom rule creation, and protection against OWASP Top 10 attacks, ensuring scalable and reliable performance for businesses.

Azure Web Application Firewall offers flexible, affordable, and efficient protection against critical security threats like DDoS and SQL injection, with seamless integration with Azure tools, analytics, and AI capabilities. Users appreciate its ability to handle web requests through role-based access, automation features, and custom policies, especially valuable in cloud environments and ecommerce. Despite the need to improve reporting, management, proxy forwarding, and documentation, it remains a reliable choice for securing front-facing applications.

What are the most important features of Azure Web Application Firewall?

Request Filtering: Blocks undesirable web traffic.
Custom Rule Creation: Enables granular control.
OWASP Protection: Shields against top 10 security vulnerabilities.
Seamless Azure Integration: Enhances security management.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in Azure Web Application Firewall reviews?

Scalability: Supports business growth.
Affordability: Cost-effective for businesses.
Reduced Deployment Time: Quick and efficient setup.
Enhanced Security: Protects against various threats.

Azure Web Application Firewall is widely used in ecommerce for securing transactions against cyber threats like phishing and SQL injection. It also supports reverse proxy setups, provides detailed log analytics, and offers layer 7 protection, making it suitable for businesses needing robust security for both front-facing and branch connectivity applications.

Microsoft

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.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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