Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs F5 Rules for AWS WAF comparison

Cloudflare and F5 are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Cloudflare is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5, while F5 is ranked #29 with an average rating of 9.0. Additionally, 95% of Cloudflare users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of F5 users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cloudflare Web Application Firewall and F5 Rules for AWS WAF based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Rules for AWS WAF Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Rules for AWS WAF

December 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

Featured Reviews

Herb Angle

Owner at Hga consulting

Has helped manage client domains with streamlined access control and threat visibility

I don't know what areas could be improved with Cloudflare WAF; Cloudflare is constantly improving and adding features to their feature set. They're doing a good job, and as far as DNS and support for any domains that I create or my clients create, it's mandatory for me to make sure that they have Cloudflare as their DNS provider. The Cloudflare load balancing capability hasn't really helped in enhancing my website's uptime and resiliency because we don't really get that much traffic; it's mostly remote users, and web hosting is done by a web hosting service. It doesn't pay to try to host your own website.

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Avinash Udawant

IT Manager at Amla Commerce

Effectively protects clients from automated threats and ensures global security

I cannot say much about areas of improvement for Cloudflare Web Application Firewall because I haven't gone through deep understanding of it, as I am still learning. However, they need to improve their support because getting a response for basic requests took around 48 hours, which is too long. If I took 48 hours to answer a request at my company, it would be a tough time to see or address the issue, and it would be frustrating.

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reviewer2783919

Associate Vice President at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Managed security rules have protected our public e‑commerce sites and simplified ongoing defense

I advise anyone looking for a great tool to secure their public-facing applications to start using F5 Rules for AWS WAF. These are managed rule sets, so you do not need to worry about continuous improvements or ensuring your application is secure; F5 Rules for AWS WAF will take care of that and is always making the necessary improvements in these rule sets to ensure security. I am very impressed with the rule sets and the continuous engineering from their security team to ensure the required rule set availability. I really appreciate the fantastic job they are doing. F5 Rules for AWS WAF can be integrated with AWS CloudFront, Application Load Balancer, Lambda, and API Gateway. I am satisfied with all these services as they are our intermediary points for services exposed to the public or globally. I gave this product a rating of ten out of ten.

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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 get a lot of value from Cloudflare's API because it enables you to build a separate environment inside the solution. You can create a domain for performing test requests before you move to the production environment and connect various domains."

"Its ease of integration with Office 365 and the fact that it's a good product compared to what I had before"

"It is a fast and secure DNS."

"The most valuable feature is its usability."

"Cloudflare has many features."

"Generally, I am satisfied with this product."

"Cloudflare makes it easier for me to handle and set up DNS for multiple users and multiple clients, and basically go in and access their account, make the changes they need, and it's a one-stop shop."

"Centralized, full-featured DNS."

More Cloudflare pros

"It is a SaaS solution unlike much of the competition."

"The stability of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall deserves a perfect 10 out of 10."

"Cloudflare has positively impacted my organization by making it easier for me to handle and set up DNS for multiple clients; I can easily go in and access their accounts, make changes they need, and it's a one-stop shop."

"The setup process is very simple for me."

"The product has a valuable security control functionality."

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

"Some of the most valuable features of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall include its DNS zone setup and the zero trust policy."

"The security features are valuable. The particular feature we use is called OWASP."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pros

"I advise anyone looking for a great tool to secure their public-facing applications to start using F5 Rules for AWS WAF."

"F5 Rules for AWS WAF has positively impacted our organization for security through the implementation of traffic rules in our application."

Cons

"Support response time could be improved."

"In the last two years, there has been a certain amount of downtime when using the VDM."

"Areas like how assessment, discovery, and payload are dealt with and how it all comes into your organization can be considered when trying to make suggestions to Cloudflare for improvements."

"There could be more courses with engineers. I like e-learning, however, having a specialist in a classroom is more comfortable for me."

"Cloudflare could be improved by introducing a mid-tier pricing option."

"There are some issues with the CDN services."

"Eventually, things go sideways and require fixes when it would have been easier to prevent the issue initially."

"One area of improvement is in the Access Rules. Hypothetically, if we wanted to block or challenge traffic outside of the United States, the only way to currently do that (as far as I know) is to enter every single country outside of the United States. That could be a labor intensive job. A solution could be to enable users to create a rule where traffic is only allowed within a certain country."

More Cloudflare cons

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

"We have noticed some latency when the call goes through the firewall. That could be improved."

"Their documentation could be better. They don't have documentation that explains everything well. They have documentation for everything you're looking for, but they lack a single piece of documentation to tie everything together. As a new user or beginner, it took us a little bit of time to figure out how to put all these things in place."

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

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

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

"A key challenge arises when dealing with numerous integrations with HVAC systems. Depending on the specifics, there might be some configuration mismatches, which necessitate specific support."

"The dashboard could be more user-friendly."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall cons

"An area for improvement I see is that while everything is in good shape, I demand continuous improvisation of these rule sets."

"It's too early to talk about a return on investment with F5 Rules for AWS WAF."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe their performance has improved, but I'd like to refrain from discussing the pricing aspect related to the cloud. The pricing, in my opinion, could be simplified, and I think they should consider reevaluating the pricing for support, as it can be quite high. At times, this cost can make it challenging to choose CARFAGuard or opt for the support."

"The pricing for the service is reasonable, neither excessively cheap nor prohibitively expensive. It aligns well with the value of their solution."

"There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."

"In terms of licensing costs, we don't pay for licensing for Cloudflare. We only establish communication, then for peering, Cloudflare takes care of the cross-connection in different data centers."

"I think the pricing is competitive. I think as far as licensing is concerned it's pretty straightforward because it's based on domain. It's just that sometimes domains could be tricky with some customers."

"A free version of the solution is available."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"I give the price a five out of ten."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

"It is not too pricey."

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

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

"The solution is expensive."

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

"We pay $210 per month for CloudFlare WAF."

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

"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

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	25

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...

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Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?

Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...

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What do you like most about Cloudflare?

Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.

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What do you like most about Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

The product has a valuable security control functionality.

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

The price of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is reasonable.

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What needs improvement with Cloudflare Web Application Firewall?

I don't really use the rule-based logic feature or utilize the WAF's ability to scale as a cloud-based service. I don...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Rules for AWS WAF?

From the pricing perspective, I found it to be comparable to other marketplace rules available in AWS Marketplace. It...

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What needs improvement with F5 Rules for AWS WAF?

An area for improvement I see is that while everything is in good shape, I demand continuous improvisation of these r...

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What is your primary use case for F5 Rules for AWS WAF?

We are providing support to our end customers who have e-commerce websites that need to be exposed to the public, and...

See all answers

Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 50% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

Compared 3% of the time

Myra Security DDoS Protection vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Azure DNS vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Web Application Firewall vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

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No data available

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Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

Cloudflare WAF

No data available

Overview

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?

CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

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

F5 Rules for AWS WAF provides advanced security measures for web applications on AWS, ensuring robust protection against dynamic threats while optimizing performance.

F5 Rules for AWS WAF integrates seamlessly into AWS environments, delivering powerful security capabilities. Designed to detect and mitigate a wide range of cyber threats, it enhances cyber defenses efficiently. Its rule sets cover multiple threat landscapes, offering a comprehensive approach that aligns with AWS best practices. This integration can help secure businesses from web-based threats while maintaining application performance.

What are the important features of F5 Rules for AWS WAF?

Comprehensive Threat Coverage: Protects against OWASP Top 10 threats and other common vulnerabilities.
Customizable Rules: Offers flexibility to tailor rules according to specific application needs.
Scalability: Efficiently scales with cloud resources to handle varying levels of traffic without compromising security.
Optimized Performance: Ensures minimal latency by optimizing rules for fast processing.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Enhanced Security: Reduces risk of cyber attacks with proactive threat mitigation.
Cost Efficiency: Lowers security-related expenses by reducing potential breach impacts.
Improved Compliance: Assists in meeting regulatory standards by ensuring application security requirements.
User Trust: Increases consumer confidence by demonstrating a commitment to data protection.

F5 Rules for AWS WAF is widely used across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail to protect critical web applications. In finance, it safeguards customer data and transactions. Healthcare organizations use it to comply with stringent data protection regulations. Retail businesses rely on its capabilities to secure e-commerce platforms, ensuring a seamless shopping experience without risks.

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

crunchbase, udacity, marketo, okcupid, zendesk

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Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Rules for AWS WAF

December 2025

Free Report: Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Rules for AWS WAF

Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Rules for AWS WAF and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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