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Check Point WAF (formerly CloudGuard WAF) vs Varonis Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 2026

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
6.2
Check Point WAF boosts cost savings, efficiency, and security, enhancing ROI through reduced ownership costs and streamlined operations.
Sentiment score
5.5
Varonis Platform offers significant ROI by reducing manual efforts, enhancing compliance, and improving security operations for organizations.
When we are attacked, we can understand how important the solution is.
Cyber security manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
When you migrate to the cloud, it feels like saving 90% of your time.
Manager, Managed Security Services at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Most of the operations happen in the background, so I do not spend much time on it.
Principal Cybersecurity Specialist at Unitel S.A.
Varonis Platform has definitely reduced the risk of data breaches at many client sites and has definitely lowered manual effort; manual effort has decreased by seventy percent due to automating data classification and permission reviews.
Global Leadership Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
I definitely say that we have had time savings by using the DataVantage module and also time savings using the AD module when we are dealing with different incidents.
cybersecurity architect at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
I have seen a return on investment mainly through time savings and improved security for sensitive data, making it a valuable investment.
Technical Consultant at Satcom Infotech Pvt Ltd
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Check Point WAF support is responsive and knowledgeable but occasionally delayed, needing improvement in service proficiency and availability.
Sentiment score
7.0
Varonis Platform offers highly rated customer service with responsive technical support, though some users report occasional delays.
They need to increase the number of people for 24/7 support.
Principal Cybersecurity Specialist at Unitel S.A.
They were responsive even before we committed to buying their solution.
Infrastructure Manager at FPMH
I also received full technical support, especially during the implementation.
Cyber security manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The customer support is above par; it is what I think other organizations should look at to be comparable to.
cybersecurity architect at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
They respond quickly to anything we need, which is not common among platforms.
Database and crm dynamics engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
I would rate the customer support for Varonis Platform at nine out of ten.
Technical Consultant at Satcom Infotech Pvt Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Check Point WAF excels with scalable, cloud-native design, seamless AWS integration, and adaptable SaaS deployment for multi-cloud support.
Sentiment score
6.2
Varonis Platform offers scalable SaaS deployment, efficiently managing data growth for large enterprises, supporting hybrid setups and extensive data.
If I need to scale, I open a Whatsapp group with the director and the team, and we quickly proceed to do so.
Cyber security manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
They have sufficient resources, and there are no challenges from a scalability perspective.
Project Manager at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Check Point CloudGuard WAF's scalability is very good.
Sr. VP of Creative & Development at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
Varonis Platform is highly rated for scalability.
Technical Consultant at Satcom Infotech Pvt Ltd
Varonis Platform is highly scalable and designed to support large enterprise environments, which could have millions of files, thousands of users, and multiple data types.
Global Leadership Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Varonis's scalability as eight to eight point five out of ten.
Cyber Security Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Check Point WAF is praised for its exceptional stability and reliability, with users rating it highly for performance and robustness.
Sentiment score
7.2
Varonis Platform is stable and reliable for enterprises, despite occasional performance issues with new plugins and large data sets.
It is very stable.
Team Leader, Cloudops & Cloud Architect at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
It is very stable, never crashing or giving me an error that I can see.
Sysadmin at a government with 501-1,000 employees
I did not have any issues in the last three years during which I had more than ten critical services running on CloudGuard.
Information Technology - Infrastructure and Security at Cyprus Development Bank
It is a mature product with a long track record, widely adopted, and very reliable.
Global Leadership Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Check Point WAF requires improvements in customization, integration, pricing, and support, with users desiring simplified setup and enhanced features.
Varonis Platform needs interface improvements, simplified licensing, faster large dataset handling, cloud integration, better updates, troubleshooting, and pricing.
The provider could improve by providing better guidance and support during the configuration process.
Infrastructure Manager at FPMH
Future releases should include better bot mitigation, behavioral anomaly detection, compliance templates, advanced threat intel integration, and streamlined multi-cloud support to boost protection and usability.
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
A machine learning-based adaptive mode could help the WAF learn over time and auto-tune policies.
Technical Support Executive at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety.
Cyber Security Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
A phishing email module would be great; I look forward to when that comes out.
cybersecurity architect at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Enhancing tighter integration with third-party solutions, such as SIEM or SOAR platforms, for smoother incident response workflows.
Technical Consultant at Satcom Infotech Pvt Ltd
 

Setup Cost

Check Point WAF is seen as costly but justified by its robust features, flexible licensing, and ease of renewal.
Varonis Platform pricing is high, ideal for large enterprises, with separate module licenses and options for purchase or subscription.
It is more expensive than f5, where we purchased everything as bundles, and Check Point costs more, but it is worth the money.
Cyber security manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is less costly than Cloudflare, Fortinet, and other vendors.
Project Manager at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I know that its price is relatively expensive compared to other products but it gives benefits that are worth it.
Ciso at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Varonis is known for its high licensing cost, which can include the cost of multiple servers required for its operations, called collectors.
Cyber Security Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Varonis Platform has been good, with competitive costs.
Technical Consultant at Satcom Infotech Pvt Ltd
 

Valuable Features

Check Point WAF offers AI-driven protection with easy deployment, low false positives, scalability, and integration with Azure, enhancing security.
Varonis Platform enhances data security and compliance with data classification, threat detection, and seamless integration with major platforms.
Upon implementation and evaluation with third-party penetration testing, it meets rigorous security standards required for dealing with financial institutions.
Infrastructure Manager at FPMH
It can protect against zero-day attacks and hidden anomalies.
Amministratore Della Sicurezza Di Rete at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution preemptively blocks zero-day attacks and detects hidden anomalies effectively.
Information Technology - Infrastructure and Security at Cyprus Development Bank
Varonis is excellent for scanning unstructured data sources like file shares, OneDrive, SharePoint, Azure Blob Storage, and S3s.
Cyber Security Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Varonis Platform is agent-based and AI-driven for detection and response, identifying data based on its content and context.
Technical Consultant at Satcom Infotech Pvt Ltd
Varonis Platform helped us quickly identify stale data, permissioned folders, and unusual access patterns, significantly improving our data governance and security posture.
Sr Investigation Specialist at Ifood
 

Categories and Ranking

Check Point WAF (formerly C...
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (5th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (5th), DevSecOps (2nd)
Varonis Platform
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (16th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (6th), Data Governance (5th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (1st), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Compliance Management (8th), Ransomware Protection (7th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (6th), Insider Risk Management (1st), AI Security (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category, the mindshare of Check Point WAF (formerly CloudGuard WAF) is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 4.3%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Check Point WAF (formerly CloudGuard WAF)0.7%
Varonis Platform4.3%
Other95.0%
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
 

Featured Reviews

Krishnakumar Mahadevan - PeerSpot reviewer
CISO at Spink Solutions Private Limited
Cloud security has strengthened risk posture and improved advanced threat visibility
There are some API gateway and API securities I mentioned. If these are incorporated with AI-related features, particularly those seven key vulnerabilities I mentioned—token theft and tool poisoning—that would be beneficial. AI-related features are not included yet in Check Point CloudGuard WAF. However, they are present in FortiGate. That is the advantage of FortiGate now. FortiGate is stopping all AI-related vulnerabilities now. FortiGate has this capability. It is unfortunate that even Palo Alto also lacks one or two of these features. Check Point Quantum is very good, without a doubt. However, their capabilities are not in comparison with Palo Alto. There are some features, but there are some gaps in comparison with Palo Alto.
TarunKumar11 - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Leadership Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Data governance has strengthened and automation now reduces risk and manual compliance work
Varonis Platform offers key features including data discovery, data classification, data analysis, governance, user and entity behavior analysis, also known as UEBA, which helps in ransomware detection, insider threat detection, and compliance reporting. It does a lot of automation from a remediation standpoint, as well as investigation and forensics. The number one feature that makes the biggest difference for my clients is visibility into unstructured data; that is the most difficult for organizations to achieve. They do not have a good understanding of where sensitive data resides, who has access to this data, whether this access is appropriate, and how data is being used. Varonis Platform provides visibility, governance, threat detection, and automated remediation around data. Varonis Platform is a great data discovery platform that provides visibility into sensitive data estimates and how it is being used. Clients have been able to reduce excessive permissions, strengthen their compliance posture, detect insider threats, and ransomware activity, which would otherwise be difficult and manual. Varonis Platform is deployed in my clients' organizations in a combination of all types. Many clients use Varonis Platform in a largely SaaS-based model since it is a data security platform consumed in this way, and many organizations still operate hybrid environments. As far as Varonis Platform is in a position to get the data source and identify systems, it can discover and classify more secure data. Deployment in most of our clients is cloud-based, connecting to Microsoft 365, AWS, or other SaaS applications such as Salesforce. In other environments, it is a hybrid deployment with SaaS and on-premises, including file servers, NAS devices, and AD servers.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CloudGuard for Application Security?
It is a little bit expensive, but the pricing model is acceptable, though a reduction would make it more competitive with leaders such as Palo Alto.
What needs improvement with CloudGuard for Application Security?
The false positive rate is a concern, but I could recommend improvements where false positives have to be minimized better. This all depends on how the rules are customized and configured, and it c...
What is your primary use case for CloudGuard for Application Security?
The main purpose is to have network security through machine learning, which can offer threat detection and intelligence for my endpoints, and I am looking for application security. I am looking fo...
What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?
Varonis Platform could be improved because when I used it, we had a significant issue related to the large volume of data on that file share. Although Varonis Platform helped us gain more visibilit...
What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?
My main use case for Varonis Platform is to monitor access to sensitive data across file shares, Microsoft 365, and SharePoint. The main objective is to identify overexposed data, reduce access ris...
What advice do you have for others considering Varonis Platform?
Varonis Platform receives a rating of seven out of ten. I chose seven out of ten because the user experience was easy, we could apply it and gain more visibility, but the performance of the solutio...
 

Also Known As

Check Point CloudGuard Application Security, CloudGuard Application Security, CloudGuard AppSec, Check Point CloudGuard Code Security
SlashNext Complete
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Orange España, Paschoalotto
Nottingham Building Society
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Forcepoint, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Data Loss Prevention (DLP). Updated: July 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.