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Azure Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence 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
3.9
Azure Web Application Firewall offers cost-effective security, outperforming alternatives in threat management and boosting application development and returns.
Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence consolidates security, reduces costs, enhances intelligence, and effectively prevents breaches, offering significant ROI.
Recently, they have been under serious attack with major exploits, such as Log4j, affecting Fortinet and Palo Alto, and even Cisco and VMware.
AI-based recommendations save on time and money.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Azure Web Application Firewall support varies by service level, with mixed reviews on responsiveness, effectiveness, and necessity of premium plans.
Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Defender support varies, with excellent technical help praised but mixed experiences with contact ease and expertise levels.
I hardly use Microsoft's paid subscription or maintenance services, however, whenever I send them a note, they have been responsive.
I would rate the technical support that Azure provides from Microsoft a seven.
I reached out to their support, and they helped me resolve the issue effectively.
Level two support is knowledgeable and knows how the product works, which is very good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Azure Web Application Firewall offers flexible, highly-rated scalability, adapting regionally to traffic, benefiting users with varying and demanding workloads.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence offers scalable security, favored for flexibility, ease of use, and seamless cloud integration despite potential costs.
Some Azure applications, like the web application firewall, require a certain level of SKU for hosting setup.
For our company, Azure Web Application Firewall works effectively for scalability.
If there were some customizations available, I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Azure Web Application Firewall is stable and reliable, with infrequent latency issues typically resolved by restarting the system.
Sentiment score
8.3
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is praised for stability, performance, security features, and resilience, despite occasional outages and delays.
Very rarely do I see any latency issues.
It provides a high level of security and avoids phishing and scam emails.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Web Application Firewall needs improved management, integration, performance, support, and more affordable pricing for enhanced user experience.
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence needs pricing, integration, support, AI, automation, and customization improvements for better affordability and usability.
Upgrading the platform regularly is necessary for security, however, frequent updates every six months or year from Azure can be a maintenance overhead.
The pricing needs improvement, and I think for beginners it will be a little bit complicated, so the ease of use could be enhanced.
Providing code customization would help keep pace with new vulnerabilities and threats.
From the telemetry data standpoint, I would prefer Defender data to be more open in future updates.
 

Setup Cost

Azure Web Application Firewall offers competitive and cost-effective pricing, especially favored for enterprise agreements and its simplicity.
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is cost-effective in E5 bundles but can be complex and costly standalone for SMEs.
It is even a lower cost compared to AWS and GCP.
Sometimes, when opting for a higher SKU, it's not the WAF itself that's costly but the additional requirements.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Azure Web Application Firewall offers strong security, customizable rules, seamless Azure integration, efficient setup, flexible pricing, and effective monitoring.
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence integrates globally informed threat detection with seamless Microsoft product integration for comprehensive, automated protection and analysis.
With Microsoft, everything is within a single suite, making it easier to configure and plan.
It is almost impossible to access these assets from outside, requiring a very skilled attacker to obtain asset tokens of a customer using Azure.
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.
One of the best features is that it provides a certain level of customization, allowing us to set our spam confidence levels.
Our threat detection is enhanced due to the AI agents in Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, which helps in detecting automatically.
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Web Application Firewall
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
22nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (12th)
Microsoft Defender Threat I...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (10th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Web Application Firewall is 1.9%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Mano Senaratne - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive suite simplifies configuration while frequent updates require management
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.
TapabrataSamanta - PeerSpot reviewer
A cost-effective solution for monitoring and security but lacks supports for non-Microsoft products
There are weaknesses, and Microsoft is working on addressing them. Over the past three to four years, the ATP and other components have improved significantly, and the integration has also advanced. We are using third-party services. While we have Microsoft Threat Intelligence, which leverages Microsoft's facilities, we also utilize additional third-party threat intelligence. As of today, we don't completely rely on Microsoft for certain regions. This is an area where Microsoft needs to improve. Consequently, we use Anomali, a third-party threat intelligence provider. We integrate our product's intelligence with Anomali, from which we obtain threat insights. Microsoft products offer significant advantages, especially in the realm of threat intelligence. It works very well with Microsoft products. However, you might need additional services if you have non-Microsoft products in your environment. For instance, if you use Apple or Linux, Microsoft's solutions alone might not be sufficient. If they can work more effectively, especially with zero-day attack speed and other sophisticated threats, it will help us provide our customers with timely newsletters about new attacks.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Web Application Firewall?
As a technical professional, I am not aware of the exact price details, but I know that specific products are more costly than Azure or AWS WAF ( /products/aws-waf-reviews ).
What needs improvement with Azure Web Application Firewall?
Azure Web Application Firewall could improve in logging and troubleshooting processes by making them more streamlined and easier to manage.
What do you like most about Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
It just runs in the background. I don't have to worry about, making sure it's Intelligence. So, you know, this kind of makes it very easy, have to worry about installing. It is easy to use.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
From the telemetry data standpoint, I would prefer Defender data to be more open in future updates.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
We have tried Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. I have expertise with Microsoft Defender products. I am not familiar with Microsoft Defender for IoT because we did not use that in our environ...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.