Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs NetScaler comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

NetScaler and Cloudflare compete in the web application delivery and security category. Cloudflare appears to have the upper hand due to its ease of configuration and robust security features.

Features: NetScaler offers a flexible deployment model, load balancing, SSL offload, and comprehensive application delivery capabilities tailored for large-scale, secure environments. Cloudflare provides comprehensive security with minimal false positives, ease of configuration, and DDoS protection, making it favorable for seamless security deployment.

Room for Improvement: NetScaler could enhance its feature innovation, ease of use, and multi-tenancy scaling, along with augmented support for scripting and better documentation. Cloudflare might benefit from updated core rule sets, improved documentation for beginners, and expanded integration capabilities to diminish false negatives.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetScaler is noted for its favor in on-premises environments due to its integration capabilities, though it can be complex. Customer service shows variability. In contrast, Cloudflare offers straightforward deployment in public cloud settings and positive customer service feedback, though initial setup guidance could be refined.

Pricing and ROI: NetScaler is generally more expensive with costs for licenses and additional services, yet it is seen to yield significant returns due to its extensive functionalities. Cloudflare's pricing is more accessible and transparent, appealing to those seeking cost-effective, secure solutions, often resulting in favorable ROI perceptions.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. NetScaler Report (Updated: June 2025).

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. NetScaler

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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 ...

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetScaler

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (1st), Network Management Applications (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is 7.4%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetScaler is 3.3%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

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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DEMİRHAN ÇAVUŞOĞLU

Cloud Consultant at Migros Ticaret A.Ş.

A tool for centralized management including inventory and sales tracking

Citrix ADM has the ability to implement policies to tighten security. For instance, you can restrict access to your network from outsiders or lack necessary security measures such as antivirus programs. Additionally, there's the Delivery Controller, which allows for comprehensive monitoring and management tasks such as remote restarts, maintenance, and registration. Another essential component is the Director, which provides detailed insights into sessions, including identifying session failures, connection issues, user lockouts, etc. It presents a list of problems to address, enabling you to click on them and resolve them efficiently.

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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

"We extensively use the solution every day. The solution is very stable; we haven’t seen any glitches."

"Cloudflare is cheaper compared to Azure WAF, which I have considered before."

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

"The rate limiting features and customizations in terms of URL match and applying policies are valuable to me."

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

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

"The setup process is very simple for me."

"Does a good job preventing web application attacks."

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pros

"The MAS integration for HDX Insight has provided teams with significant visibility into network performance of the user's connection."

"Just one solution can handle thousands of users... So, it is a very convenient tool to use."

"It allows students to access required software for their studies."

"I like app flows and custom flows. They integrate with multiple flows."

"I like the solution's simplicity compared to Citrix's on-prem solutions."

"Very stable."

"The most valuable features are the VDA Delivery, Gateway Fort, and the load balancing."

"Load Balancing and SSL offloading are key features."

More NetScaler pros

Cons

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

"They have some limitations with third-party integrations."

"Cloudflare Web Application Firewall should improve visibility for a customer."

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

"Support can be challenging at times."

"They need to improve their support because getting a response for basic requests took around 48 hours, which is too long."

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

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

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall cons

"An area for improvement in Citrix Web App and API Protection is for it to give real-time notifications and alerts. It would be practical if the solution warns you if there's an attack or if the load or traffic volume increases or decreases. An additional feature I'd like to see in Citrix Web App and API Protection is a prediction or artificial intelligence on what is happening, for example, attacks."

"Development team's response time could be better."

"I think the documentation should be improved."

"We would like the licensing model for this product to be improved, as it isn't currently very transparent. There isn't a standard package available, and each extra feature creates an additional cost."

"The technical support could be improved. They do not respond or assist customers in a timely manner."

"Technical support could be improved."

"Finding relevant documentation for learning NetScaler can be challenging, especially for beginners who prefer a web interface over command-line interfaces."

"The customization has always been a key area where some improvements are required. In the beginning, everything was for customizing the outer shell of it. You had to use the command-based utility and you had to do a lot of manual work. They have improved it a little bit and now there are some GUI-based functionalities that can be used. However, more can be done that doesn't require a lot of intervention. Right now there are some features, there are some customizations that can be done, but it's still very tedious, very cumbersome, a lot of work. So that could be simplified."

More NetScaler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"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."

"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 solution is expensive."

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

More Cloudflare Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

"We get value for money. Its price is fair. I don't think it is overpriced."

"The licenses for this product are payable as a yearly subscription, and carry a high price-point. The subscription scheme is quite complicated, and costs will increase with each additional feature that is required, outside of the basic setup."

"You get the value for your money. There aren't any hidden fees."

"Citrix ADM costs us approximately $5000 per month."

"After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive."

"Licensing is adequate. I wanted to have a more prominent license, but until I do they don't give enough support. The additional cost would be too much."

"I do not have any experience with the pricing of the product."

"It's not for startups or SOHO."

More NetScaler pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Application Firewall (WAF) solutions are best for your needs.

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859,957 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

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.

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

The price of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is reasonable.

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 deep understanding of it, as I am still learning. However, they need to improve t...

What do you like most about Citrix ADC?

The most valuable feature for us is the application firewalling in Citrix NetScaler, ensuring only valid traffic enters our environment.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix ADC?

After deployment, Citrix Netscaler shifted to a subscription-based license scheme for support, which is slightly more expensive.

What needs improvement with Citrix ADC?

Citrix NetScaler is a robust product, but mastering it requires significant learning and training due to its complexity. While it could be easier to manage, it is like transitioning from driving a ...

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Comparisons

Compared 16% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 15% of the time

AWS WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Akamai App and API Protector vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

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HAProxy vs NetScaler

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NetScaler

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiADC vs NetScaler

Compared 9% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs NetScaler

Compared 8% of the time

NGINX Plus vs NetScaler

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall

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Cloudflare Web Application Firewall report

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Also Known As

Cloudflare WAF

Citrix ADC, Citrix NetScaler VPX, NetScaler Console, NetScaler Web Application Firewall

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

One platform for a consistent application delivery and security experience because nobody has time to learn multiple systems to manage ADC deployments. NetScaler is built with a single code base using a software-based architecture, so no matter which ADC form factor you choose — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container — the behavior will be the same.

Sample Customers

crunchbase, udacity, marketo, okcupid, zendesk

ABB Schweiz, Aer Lingus, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Amnet Technology Solutions, Aramex International, Ascenty, Atos, Autodesk

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs. NetScaler