Azure Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention comparison

Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

6.7

Microsoft Purview DLP offers cost savings, security enhancements, and reduced onboarding time, though ROI varies among users.

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

Mats Hagberg Olsson

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.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

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

5.1

Microsoft Purview DLP support is inconsistent, with quick responses and clear resources but also delays and monopolistic concerns.

I hardly use Microsoft's paid subscription or maintenance services, however, whenever I send them a note, they have been responsive.

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

I would rate the technical support that Azure provides from Microsoft a seven.

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

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

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

Adolfo Albanell

Owner at ICAL S.A.

Once we got to the Microsoft engineers, the experience was great.

ChrisVinding

Director of Cyber Security

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

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

7.6

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention offers scalable, flexible cloud solutions, but needs improvements in user-friendliness and device-level scalability.

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 policy working and detection technology need enhancements.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

Technical Architect at Quadrasystems.net

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

7.8

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is highly stable, reliable, and responsive, though minor real-time issues and internal connection challenges exist.

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.

Sometimes the solution is not stable when the internal connection is not reliable, so this aspect needs improvement.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

Technical Architect at Quadrasystems.net

Room For Improvement

Azure Web Application Firewall needs improved management, integration, performance, support, and more affordable pricing for enhanced user experience.

Microsoft Purview DLP needs better integration, improved UI, enhanced AI features, cost-effective licensing, and better language support.

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

Implementing a degree of severity ranking is essential.

ChrisVinding

Director of Cyber Security

Endpoint Data Loss Prevention needs to be improved as it is not up to expectations.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

Technical Architect at Quadrasystems.net

Setup Cost

Azure Web Application Firewall offers competitive and cost-effective pricing, especially favored for enterprise agreements and its simplicity.

Microsoft Purview DLP in E5 licenses offers competitive pricing and flexible payment, valued for security features and added services.

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

Mats Hagberg Olsson

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

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

Valuable Features

Azure Web Application Firewall offers strong security, customizable rules, seamless Azure integration, efficient setup, flexible pricing, and effective monitoring.

Microsoft Purview DLP enhances data security with auto-labeling, multi-cloud support, cross-platform protection, and strong compliance features.

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.

Mats Hagberg Olsson

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

The feature I find most valuable that I'm currently using is the quickness of the emails that the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention solution sends to us, where we get notifications that say a user has potentially breached our data guideline rules, and we get those alerts continuously, allowing us to enforce them manually.

ChrisVinding

Director of Cyber Security

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention usually performs well, except for endpoint Data Loss Prevention, which may need improvements.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

Technical Architect at Quadrasystems.net

Categories and Ranking

Azure Web Application Firewall

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

22nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (12th)

Microsoft Purview Data Loss...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (1st)

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 Purview Data Loss Prevention is 2.8%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

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.

Read full review

HosmanRodriguez

Senior Compliance Manager at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees

Nice dashboard, good data loss prevention, and helps with compliance

The data loss prevention is great. It can prevent things like credit card information from being taken. The data protection is excellent. We can use the solution on Windows and iOS. We mostly use it with Office 365 and ingest data sources from Microsoft. The solution is natively integrated and compliant across Azure. It takes into account critical regulations from around the world. We need to comply with various regulations. For our business case, it's very important. If we can prevent information from going out, eventually, when a regulator is asking about our security measures, we can show what we've been doing. It helps us to reduce the likelihood of potential fines. We can educate users on how to handle sensitive data. By showing the records we keep and explaining the technologies implemented, we can provide awareness to our users. The solution offers good visibility into our environment. Our security team can use the product to monitor and track. Its dashboard allows us to show compliance in real-time. We've been able to reduce the time to action on insider threats. Security permissions are always being monitored. In general, it has saved us time and money when dealing with security. It's made us become more efficient. We've increased our compliance capabilities by 25%.

Read full review

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Microsoft Security Suite solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Web Application Firewall?

The integration it has with GitHub is great.

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 Purview Data Loss Prevention?

The most valuable features are identifying sensitive data and issuing alerts.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing is not something I manage directly since I'm the owner operator; my colleagues might be more involved with that aspect as we have other te...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?

Improving Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention would involve recognizing that the whole AI path we are all on is going to help, given the massive amount of data we handle; even if there are true ...

AWS WAF vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Comparisons

Compared 26% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Akamai App and API Protector vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Azure Web Application Firewall Competitors

Symantec Data Loss Prevention vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 11% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 11% of the time

Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 11% of the time

Amazon Macie vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 8% of the time

Trellix DLP vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 7% of the time

More Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention Competitors

Product Reports

Azure Web Application Firewall

August 2025

Download Azure Web Application Firewall product report

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

August 2025

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

Download Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, MS Endpoint DLP, Microsoft Endpoint DLP

Overview

Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides centralized protection of your web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities. Web applications are increasingly targeted by malicious attacks that exploit commonly known vulnerabilities. SQL injection and cross-site scripting are among the most common attacks.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.

Microsoft