Azure Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection comparison

Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection

February 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

6.6

Microsoft Purview enhances ROI via security improvements, process automation, and compliance, despite challenges in quantifying exact returns.

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.

Purview can do a quick scan, and it doesn't use human resources, so it gets time to do things that we need humans to focus on.

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

The E5 license comes with different solutions like data discovery classification, CASB, DLP solutions, and Defender for Cloud.

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

The cost of data loss and your data going to a competitor is potentially massive.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

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

4.3

Mixed reviews on Microsoft Purview support highlight slow responses and untrained staff, with recent community engagement improvements noted.

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.

Sometimes, I get a fast and knowledgeable response, while other times, I've experienced delays and received no resolution.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

It's hard to be an ambassador for a product when you know it will be hard to get support.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

After our issues are reported, it takes a long time to find a resolution.

SantoshDeshpande

Director Security Architecture at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

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

6.3

Microsoft Purview Information Protection is scalable, integrates well, but faces challenges in data ingestion, policy updates, and document classification.

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

It can be scaled across different departments organization-wide very quickly and easily.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

It can handle large collections of data without issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

Scalability can be improved by reducing these intervals.

Ayse Kocak

Information Technology Senior Expert at Garanti Teknoloji

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

7.1

Microsoft Purview Information Protection is generally stable, with reliable performance and occasional issues, especially with large data volumes.

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.

Once implemented, I haven't had issues with its consistency.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

The product is stable, and whatever it does, it does better than any other thing.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Since identity is where everything is based, if that goes down, you're screwed.

reviewer2778771

Director, Network & Cloud Infrastructure at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees

Room For Improvement

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

Microsoft Purview Information Protection needs improvements in integration, affordability, data protection, AI, automation, reliability, and cloud storage scanning.

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

Effectiveness in Microsoft Purview Information Protection means enforcing the policy and making sure it works consistently across non-Microsoft products as well.

SantoshDeshpande

Director Security Architecture at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

A lot of functionality in Microsoft Purview Information Protection is not exposed in an API officially yet, which has made a lot of implementation work difficult because we have to do click ops instead of DevOps.

Jp Bourget

CEO at Blue Cycle

Having a roadmap or updates about new releases would be helpful for demonstrating to clients.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

Setup Cost

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

Microsoft Purview Information Protection offers competitive, bundled pricing with E3 and E5 licenses, appealing for integrated security solutions.

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 talked to people who had compared it to other products on the market, and they're spending five figures to get started.

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

The E5 license covers most of the solutions for different technologies, so that way, it is good and more affordable compared to any other solution.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Our focus is on helping customers maximize their software investment.

JohnAssouline

Business Development Manager, Transformational Services at Dell Technologies

Valuable Features

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

Microsoft Purview Information Protection enhances security with sensitivity labels, multi-platform encryption, data classification, compliance features, and user education.

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

Microsoft Copilot is an advantage because it's enterprise-grade AI.

JohnAssouline

Business Development Manager, Transformational Services at Dell Technologies

It's paramount to have a single solution for information protection.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

Regardless of the education, the employee might share the information anyway, so the AI shouldn't be the first point of failure. It should be a human making good decisions.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

Categories and Ranking

Azure Web Application Firewall

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

20th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (11th)

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Governance (7th), Data Privacy Management Software (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Web Application Firewall is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is 2.0%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Purview Information Protection	2.0%
Azure Web Application Firewall	2.0%
Other	96.0%

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

Offers robust analytics and seamless cloud integration with minor room for user interface improvement

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

The Microsoft support and the analytics are what I appreciate about Azure Web Application Firewall. 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. It helps when looking for threats. It reduces issues significantly because the filtering capabilities are high. Given that it's a cloud solution, we have very minimal downtime, especially because we have Microsoft support. On a scale of one to 10, I would give it an eight.

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Achieve comprehensive data protection with reliable performance and room for enhanced discovery accuracy

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

The product is still in a growing phase. I could see that many use cases in their product are not capable enough in terms of detecting or protecting. Compared to other products, they are in the middle of bringing their solution up to the mark, so it is not a full-grown solution. They have to get more accurate results in terms of data discovery and classification. The second thing is their support; support from Microsoft takes a lot of time to get a response from their support team. The third thing is their OCR capability is not that great in terms of identifying the documents. We would love to see response times of less than 24 hours. Additionally, there is no way to check the policy's current status in terms of whether it got synced or not. You have to wait and test the use cases after 24 hours or after 48 hours, and once it starts working, then it appears the policy got implemented.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

10%

Retailer

Manufacturing 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	5
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

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...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

It is reasonable from what I can say right now because we are using most of the Microsoft tools right now. We are using the managed SQL server of Microsoft. We are using Microsoft Purview Informati...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

One thing I personally felt is, let's take a use case where I want to know how many crimes Mr. Donald Trump has made in this organization. That kind of information we don't have in our systems. I'm...

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

We are more focused on data quality and master data management perspective. From that angle, things are quite easy and good. In terms of AI integration or integrating with a third-party tool like I...

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Product Reports

Azure Web Application Firewall

March 2026

Download Azure Web Application Firewall product report

Microsoft Purview Information Protection

March 2026

Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Download Microsoft Purview Information Protection product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Information Protection

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

Implement Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) to help you discover, classify, and protect sensitive information wherever it lives or travels.

MIP capabilities are included with Microsoft 365 Compliance and give you the tools to know your data, protect your data, and prevent data loss.

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

Microsoft