Barracuda Web Application Firewall vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer comparison

The compared Barracuda Networks and VMware solutions aren't in the same category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #17 in WAF , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 2.0% mindshare in the category. VMware is ranked #11 in ADC , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 5.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of VMware users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Barracuda Web Application Firewall and VMWare Avi Load Balancer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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To learn more, read our detailed Web Application Firewall (WAF) Report (Updated: July 2025).

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Web Application Firewall (WAF)

July 2025

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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:

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare Web Application ...

Mindshare comparison

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)

Featured Reviews

SachidDoshi

Senior Enterprise Security Architect at HGS - Hinduja Global Solutions

Offers a huge signature repository and is superiorly effective in mitigating DDoS attacks

The solution's learning curve can still be further reduced, which presently stands at two or three months. The product has a custom rule set that users can modify and manifest as needed. The vendor can probably shorten the learning curve using cutting-edge technologies like AI. The solution provider can also work around the web applications and identify the toolset that needs to be implemented to deploy the solution in less time. The vendor has launched a SASE product that can function with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall, but many improvements are needed in terms of features, such as the web filtering feature, and CASB has not yet been added.

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Anne-Aimee Wollerich

Cyber Security Consultant at Axle iT

Managing bot traffic effectively enhances usability for non-technical users

Barracuda Web Application Firewall ( /products/barracuda-web-application-firewall-reviews ) lacks some of the more specified and structured features offered by solutions like Tenable. Although Tenable is more expensive and less easily deployable, its features are more deepened and chiseled, particularly for IT personnel. For example, Tenable provides more comprehensive dark web scanning capabilities, which Barracuda could improve upon.

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Richard Polyak

Sr. Architect at NBC Universal

Easy to set up and has good integration into the host environment but needs better third party integration

I'm not sure which version number we are on. It's one of the latest, I assume. We don't run the latest. We usually are either one or two versions behind. It is something we are exploring. We do have use cases and it will compete against our existing product line. That would have to go in the second half of this year. Right now, it's more of a comparison of how we use it right now. We don't use it really in production. We are going to definitely explore it and do our comparison and more in-depth analysis of the product and compare it against our existing product line. I'd advise potential users to do a very in-depth analysis of the products in comparison. And don't just look at the cover of it - really look into the detailed backend support infrastructure and if it can be implemented the way you need it to be. I'd rate the solution five out of ten. It's not a fully mature product.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"I'm highly satisfied. It's remarkably user-friendly, enabling me to quickly identify issues, and deploy solutions, and it offers the necessary features."

"Technical support has a very fast response time and they are helpful."

"The product has improved our security posture by blocking bad actors."

"There is a huge signature repository"

"It is configurable via API."

"The solution protects our application, which runs on the HTTP protocol, from DDoS attacks."

"The Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's most valuable feature is its ease of configuration."

"We like that there's load balancing, firewall capabilities, DDoS protection, et cetera, all covered by Cloudflare."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pros

"One of the strongest points is its robust issue discovery capabilities. Barracuda invests significant efforts in identifying and resolving issues. They have multiple products that work in tandem to perform these checks, which is beneficial because it automates security updates. This is the primary reason I recommend it to my customers."

"It is stable and the performance is good."

"The stability of the product is good. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The installation is straightforward."

"Setup of this solution is straightforward. It's a stable and scalable solution, with good performance and fast technical support."

"The solution has been quite stable. It's reliable."

"The most valuable feature is the rule set."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward, especially if you enlist assistance."

More Barracuda Web Application Firewall pros

"The WAF - the web application firewall itself - is great."

"Its visibility and login mechanism are the best parts. In addition to the great visibility it has a great dashboard and an easy to configure graphic user interface, a beautiful GUI."

"What's most valuable in Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is its deployment capability, the ability to deploy in a dispersed service, with the service engines that can disperse and have a single control plane that can control the load balancing services across any available platform, wherever needed. The analytics of Avi Networks Software Load Balancer and flexibility of deployment are its most valuable features and the reasons why many people buy it."

"The friendly user interface is valuable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution for my organization is its UI since it allows us to see the clusters while providing a very specific and good overall understanding."

"The interface and software features are the most valuable aspects of this solution."

"The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management."

"The solution is stable."

Cons

"There could be an option to duplicate the cluster to maintain the consistency of rules."

"The product can improve by having more multitenancy capability, which is currently not available."

"The dashboard could be more user-friendly."

"It would be ideal if the solution offered better log integration and more integration with different platforms."

"The solution's learning curve can still be further reduced"

"The accuracy of the Cloudflare Web Application Firewall could be improved by reducing the number of false-negative alerts."

"The notification part could be improved. It's very much connected to Web Application Firewall, rate-limiting, and DDoS protection."

"The platform's control features related to real-time authentication and response time need improvement."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall cons

"The incident reporting needs to be improved."

"It is not stable nor mature."

"This product could easily progress to be among the industry leaders. I think they need to improve enterprise level automation. It integrates with a small number of vulnerability scanners, so report results should be imported manually; same for SIEM integration."

"As a service, Barracuda needs to host in Saudi Arabia, as they currently don't have this functionality."

"Barracuda Web Application Firewall’s scalability needs improvement."

"They should improve their features, so they easily compare to the competition."

"The reporting aspect of the solution needs improvement. I don't find that it's very good. They could do some work on it to make it much better. It's not that the reporting isn't secure. It's just that I would prefer to store my reports for an extended period of time. Right now, that's not possible and I'd prefer it if that could change. I also would say that the reports themselves are expensive."

"I would like to see an improved capacity to store logs so that they will be available for a longer time."

More Barracuda Web Application Firewall cons

"The network analytics and monitoring features are not effective."

"One struggle with Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is its integration with other VMware products. Integration could be improved in the solution so that you have a more unified control plane with it and other data center security and networking products that VMware sells. There has been a bit of a lag on the roadmap of new features that have come out there recently, but better interoperability with the hyperscale environments such as the AWS, Azure, GCPs of the world, and simpler deployment and interoperability with those existing tools, are areas that are receiving attention and could use additional attention today. These are the areas for improvement in Avi Networks Software Load Balancer."

"IDS and IPS sites need to be more progressive."

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"It doesn't match the development structure or user community of our existing product. It pales in comparison to that."

"I did not go with it because their APM module is a different product altogether. It's a common thing that companies do. They sell something and then they add on top of it as a different product. It is a type of marketing strategy. But when it comes to the overall management, it takes a lot of time to really look into it."

"Avi Networks Software Load Balancer needs to improve its documentation."

"In terms of improvement, the pricing and documentation need improvement. We have had problems getting the documents."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The annual licensing fee is $10,000 USD."

"It is not too pricey."

"Cloudflare offers different types of subscriptions for businesses, enterprises, and personal users, and the pricing is negotiable."

"It starts at $20 and can easily go up to $200 monthly"

"The solution's pricing option needs to be more transparent for enterprise clients."

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is more affordable than other solutions."

"What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing? I believe the pricing is not the best, but it's reasonable and acceptable. We also use the McAfee system in parallel. In terms of pricing, its okay - not great, but not bad either. It falls in the middle, which is acceptable. In terms of support licensing, last time, we were searching for a solution, and we considered products from resellers rather than directly from the cloud provider. However, the pricing we encountered was exceptionally high. As a result, we are inclined to select support from the reseller."

"The pricing model is very straightforward compared to the competition. You just pay per month for the product and usage."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The price of the solution is a little expensive. There is a license for this solution and it can be purchased every one, two, or five years."

"The Barracuda Web Application Firewall is quite expensive."

"The product pricing was competitive for the value it offers regarding security features."

"The price is reasonable, more so than other products."

"The product is inexpensive."

"The pricing is less compared to other web applications."

"Cost is a bit on the higher side. Big companies can afford it."

More Barracuda Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

"The tool is expensive."

"The licensing costs for Avi Networks Software Load Balancer are really variable. The product can be sold from a bandwidth utilization perspective. It can be sold from a per CPU perspective, depending on if you're looking at on-premises or hyperscale environments. Licensing costs vary quite a bit if you're familiar with the AWS Calculator, where you can see that it can widely vary per licensing model. On a scale of one to five, with one being not very good value for the money and five being great, I would rate the pricing for Avi Networks Software Load Balancer a five because its pricing is extremely competitive. Not all features are included with the license, for example, there's single licensing."

"With Avi Networks, you can buy a 10-Gig license and, if your primary data center goes down, in the flick of a switch you can move that license to your backup data center and it will generate the traffic... there are a lot of cost-effective measures."

"I rate the solution price a four to five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high, since it is an affordable tool."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

23%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The product has a valuable security control functionality.

See all answers

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

The price of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

I cannot say much about areas of improvement for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall because I haven't gone through d...

See all answers

What do you like most about Barracuda Web Application Firewall?

It significantly improved our overall web security posture, addressing intrusions and enhancing control over web URLs...

See all answers

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

Our primary use case was to track the traffic on websites or webshops to identify potential malicious actors, such as...

See all answers

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

The pricing for Barracuda is quite high compared to other OEMs. Each transaction requires my purchase team to negotia...

See all answers

What do you like most about Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?

The solution has simplified our network infrastructure management.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?

The tool is expensive. It is not cheap. The product must be cheaper.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Avi Networks Software Load Balancer?

The network analytics and monitoring features are not effective. The product does not provide deep troubleshooting fe...

See all answers

Comparisons

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 13% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

AWS WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall Competitors

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Barracuda Web Application Firewall

Compared 24% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs Barracuda Web Application Firewall

Compared 18% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Barracuda Web Application Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

NetScaler vs Barracuda Web Application Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs Barracuda Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

More Barracuda Web Application Firewall Competitors

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 28% of the time

NetScaler vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 21% of the time

HAProxy vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 17% of the time

NGINX Plus vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 11% of the time

Kemp LoadMaster vs VMWare Avi Load Balancer

Compared 7% of the time

More VMWare Avi Load Balancer Competitors

Product Reports

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Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

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Barracuda Web Application Firewall

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VMWare Avi Load Balancer

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Also Known As

Cloudflare WAF

No data available

Avi Software Load Balancer

Overview

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's intuitive dashboard enables users to build powerful rules through easy clicks and also provides Terraform integration. Every request to the WAF is inspected against the rule engine and the threat intelligence curated from protecting over 27 Million websites. Suspicious requests can be blocked, challenged or logged as per the needs of the user while legitimate requests are routed to the destination, agnostic of whether it lives on-premise or in the cloud. Analytics and Cloudflare Logs enable visibility into actionable metrics for the user.

Cloudflare

Barracuda Web Application Firewall is a game-changing cloud-connected security solution that enables organizations to safeguard both their applications and their data from an ever-growing array of advanced cyber threats. It offers protection from cyber attacks that target not only data and applications stored on the cloud but also those that are housed on web servers. 43% of the time a breach takes place via a compromised application. Barracuda Web Application Firewall prevents these types of breaches from occurring.

Barracuda Web Application Firewall denies hackers the ability to penetrate your system by using a number of techniques to keep your organization safely insulated. The first method of protection consists of two parts. The first part involves a thorough scanning of all inbound web traffic. This solution monitors everything that comes into the system. It employs IP reputation intelligence, which filters all incoming data. If the source of the data has a bad reputation, it is blocked by the firewall. Administrators now have a way of locking out many common threats that could otherwise compromise sensitive networks. These scans can also allow administrators to protect their systems from within as DLP (Data Loss Prevention) protocols. If any sensitive data attempts to leave, administrators will automatically be alerted and the data will be blocked from exiting.

Barracuda Web Application Firewall can also be set up to apply the AAA (Authentication, Authorization & Accounting) framework to an organization’s network. If an intruder manages to get past the authentication stage, the authorization protocols kick in. After the authorization stage comes accounting, which works by tracking and logging users’ activities so that administrators will be in a position to prevent long-term damage from being done. This three-step process can be implemented without requiring administrators to make changes to their applications.

Key Features

Some of Barracuda Web Application Firewall’s key features include:

The ability to employ adaptive profiling. Administrators will have an easier time enforcing security policies once this feature is enabled. It takes data from safe sources and builds profiles that can be used to create whitelisting protocols that prevent unsafe actions from occurring on the system.
The ability to assess threats in real time. Barracuda Web Application Firewall uses machine learning to detect new threats and attacks as they emerge.
The ability to manage the Barracuda Web Application Firewall system from a single interface. Administrators can manage their Barracuda Web Application Firewall configurations from one centralized location.

Reviews from Real Users

Barracuda Web Application Firewall stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. One of the main ones is the robustness of the solution. Users are given access to a vast variety of security features in a single product.

PeerSpot user Muhammed S., a Presales Solutions Architect at Hilal Computers, notes this when he writes, "The solution offers multiple security features. There are machine learning features and great URL encryption. It also offers multi-protocol support against DDoS attacks."

Other reviewers note that Barracuda Web Application Firewall is user-friendly, easy to set up, stable, and reliable.

Barracuda Networks

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is an application delivery controller (ADC) platform. The solution provides scalable application delivery across any infrastructure and allows your organization to deliver multi-cloud application services, such as load balancing, autoscaling, application security, container networking, and web application firewall. It is designed with 100% software load balancing to ensure a fast and secure application experience. Additionally, Avi Networks Software Load Balancer offers elasticity and delivers intelligence across any environment.

The Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is unique because

It can scale from 0 to 1 million SSL transactions per second in minutes.
It can achieve 90% faster provisioning and 50% lower TCO than a traditional appliance-based approach.

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer Product Highlights

Troubleshoots application issues in less than a minute.
Alerts you of potential risks with SSL certificates and TLS versions used.
End-to-end timing for each transaction to help solve end-user experience issues.

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer Features

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Automated application delivery
Seamless integration with the CI/CD
Built-in analytics
End-to-end visibility
Actionable insights
Security
“Network DVR”-like capability to record and replay specific transactions
Google-like search filters transactions based on device, location, errors, etc.

Avi Networks Software Load Balancer Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Avi Networks Software Load Balancer. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Multi-cloud application services: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer provides consistent, enterprise-grade application services, including load balancing, WAF, and container networking across heterogeneous environments. The multi-cloud application services can be deployed on bare metal, VMs, or containers in any data center or public cloud environments.

Faster application provisioning: With this solution, you gain automation with 100% REST APIs and self-service like public cloud.

Better business decisions: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer uses analytics to deliver application insights and help you drive more intelligent decisions.

Containerized applications: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is a proven solution to deploy container-based workloads in production environments using Kubernetes/OpenShift/Tanzu clusters. It includes multi-cluster, multi-site support for containerized applications.

Lower TCO: The solution is 100% software, and does not require any proprietary hardware. In addition, because it offers on-demand autoscaling, there is no over-provisioning. Lastly, point-and-click application troubleshooting means there is no need for a black box.

Software-defined architecture: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer is designed with a software-defined architecture with a centralized control plane (Avi Controller) and distributed data plane (Avi Service Engine). Because of this, elastic autoscaling is made easy.

Better end-user visibility: The solution gives you granular visibility into end-user experiences and server response in real time. It also empowers application owners with end-user stats to optimize and improve apps.

Application health score: Avi Networks Software Load Balancer summarizes analytics information into a helpful health score that provides a quick snapshot of the overall applications. The health score it provides is determined by server response time, resource usage, anomalous traffic, and security posture.

VMware

Sample Customers

crunchbase, udacity, marketo, okcupid, zendesk

Oracle, CBS, Pioneer, Hyundai, Publix, Barnes Noble, Calzedonia, Nordstrom, Samsung, Nascar

Palo Alto Networks, DGDean, Swisslos

Buyer's Guide

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

July 2025

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