CoreOS Clair vs NGINX App Protect comparison

Red Hat and F5 are both solutions in the Container Security category. Red Hat is ranked #29 with an average rating of 9.0, while F5 is ranked #27 with an average rating of 8.5. Red Hat holds a 0.7% mindshare in Container Security, compared to F5’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of F5 users who would recommend it.

CoreOS Clair

Read 2 CoreOS Clair reviews

599 Views
593 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

NGINX App Protect

Read 24 NGINX App Protect reviews

2,198 Views
374 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

CoreOS Clair

NGINX App Protect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

CoreOS Clair and NGINX App Protect are both prominent solutions in their respective fields of vulnerability scanning and application protection. Users report greater satisfaction with NGINX App Protect's features, despite higher pricing, due to its robust capabilities and perceived value.

Features: CoreOS Clair is valued for its effective vulnerability scanning, integration with CI/CD pipelines, and comprehensive vulnerability management. NGINX App Protect is praised for its comprehensive security features, including WAF capabilities, advanced threat protection, and a broad range of security options.

Room for Improvement: CoreOS Clair users suggest enhancements in documentation, user experience, and interface intuitiveness. NGINX App Protect users recommend improvements in configuration complexity, support for broader environments, and easier user configuration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CoreOS Clair is known for its straightforward deployment and solid customer service. NGINX App Protect's deployment is more complex, but its customer service is highly rated for responsiveness and effectiveness.

Pricing and ROI: CoreOS Clair is noted for its reasonable setup cost and positive ROI. NGINX App Protect is more expensive but users feel it delivers good ROI due to its extensive feature set and comprehensive protection capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed CoreOS Clair vs. NGINX App Protect Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

CoreOS Clair vs. NGINX App Protect

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,114 peers since 2012

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

CoreOS Clair

Ranking in Container Security

29th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NGINX App Protect

Ranking in Container Security

27th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (15th), API Security (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of CoreOS Clair is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX App Protect is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
NGINX App Protect	0.4%
CoreOS Clair	0.7%
Other	98.9%

Container Security

Featured Reviews

Felipe Giffu

Red Hat Solution Architect at Seprol Computadores e Sistemas

An operational system, similar to Linux where you can run your applications inside containers

With CoreOS, you can run your applications inside containers. For example, if you have an application that needs to run on Linux, you can create and install a container. However, it's important to note that you don't install CoreOS inside a container; CoreOS is the host operating system that manages containers. When you mentioned using Nacula as part of your CI/CD pipeline, it means your application is deployed and managed automatically through the CI/CD process. Containers are used to deploy your application within this pipeline, but CoreOS does not run inside these containers. Instead, CoreOS is the base operating system that supports and manages these containers.

Read full review

Jean-Marc Porchet

Project Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Blocking IPs and detecting bots enhances security for medical websites

I was researching products like NGINX App Protect and F5 Advanced WAF for long-term options. I have some use for such a solution, but probably not before next year Detecting bots and blocking IPs have proven effective for securing applications. We were able to block groups of IP addresses that…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"CoreOS Clair's best feature is detection accuracy."

"With CoreOS, you can run your applications inside containers. For example, if you have an application that needs to run on Linux, you can create and install a container. However, it's important to note that you don't install CoreOS inside a container; CoreOS is the host operating system that manages containers."

"We were looking for a product that is capable of complete automation and a container based solution. It's working."

"It is a very good tool for load balancing."

"I would say that the most valuable feature is the ability to operate in a DevOps environment and to be configured through API and pipeline by the developers themselves."

"Overall, I rate NGINX App Protect between eight and nine."

"The tool is not complex and is very user-friendly."

"The most valuable feature is that I can establish different services from the firewall."

"The most valuable feature is that there is a link in the system that will help to analyze the security of an application when something abnormal is found."

"The most valuable feature of NGINX App Protect is the reverse proxy."

More NGINX App Protect pros

Cons

"An area for improvement is that CoreOS Clair doesn't provide information about the location of vulnerabilities it detects."

"It can be improved in its support response. They usually take up to seven days to resolve the issue."

"It's challenging if you need to go for a high throughput."

"As far as scalability, it takes a long time for deployment."

"Currently, the policies have to be handled manually, and you have to create from scratch, which can be a bit time-consuming, in a large environment."

"NGINX App Protect would be improved with integration with Shape and F5 WAF, which would make it easy for users to manage all their web application security with a single solution."

"The product's user interface is an area with shortcomings as it can be quite confusing for users, making it an area where improvements are required."

"The setup of NGINX App Protect is complex. The full process took one week to complete. Additionally, we had to change the network infrastructure platform which took one month."

"The price of NGINX App Protect could improve."

"Areas for improvement would be if NGINX could scan for vulnerabilities and learn and update the signatures of DoS attacks."

More NGINX App Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"CoreOS Clair is open-source and free of charge."

"The price of NGINX App Protect is approximately $3,000 annually. All of our licenses are observed by a managed service partner."

"There is a license needed to use NGINX App Protect."

"NGINX is not expensive."

"There are no additional fees."

"NGINX App Protect is expensive."

"Really understand the licensing model, because we underestimated that."

"Our licensing costs are about $40,000 a year."

"The product's price is high."

More NGINX App Protect pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Container Security solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Performing Arts

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CoreOS Clair?

If you work with CoreOS or OpenShift, you don't need to pay for CoreOS separately. When you pay for OpenShift, you get CoreOS included, so you don't need to pay for the operating system separately....

See all answers

What needs improvement with CoreOS Clair?

It can be improved in its support response. They usually take up to seven days to resolve the issue.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for CoreOS Clair?

We use the tool to manage and secure the event file system. CoreOS Clair is an operational system that is very similar to Linux and offers benefits to other Linux operating systems. One major advan...

See all answers

What do you like most about NGINX App Protect?

It's very easy to deploy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX App Protect?

I don't know the pricing yet because in my other project, I was not part of the buying side and I was just starting to look at options.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NGINX App Protect?

It would be better if it were easier to implement and if there was more information from F5 regarding hardware requirements and specifications to deploy the service, to avoid disruptions after impl...

See all answers

Comparisons

JFrog Xray vs CoreOS Clair

Compared 18% of the time

Trivy vs CoreOS Clair

Compared 14% of the time

Snyk vs CoreOS Clair

Compared 14% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs CoreOS Clair

Compared 11% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs CoreOS Clair

Compared 10% of the time

More CoreOS Clair Competitors

Azure Front Door vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 8% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 7% of the time

AWS WAF vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 7% of the time

More NGINX App Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Container Security

January 2026

Download CoreOS Clair product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX App Protect

January 2026

Download NGINX App Protect product report

Also Known As

No data available

NGINX WAF, NGINX Web Application Firewall

Overview

Clair is an open source project for the static analysis of vulnerabilities in appc and docker containers.

Vulnerability data is continuously imported from a known set of sources and correlated with the indexed contents of container images in order to produce lists of vulnerabilities that threaten a container. When vulnerability data changes upstream, the previous state and new state of the vulnerability along with the images they affect can be sent via webhook to a configured endpoint. All major components can be customized programmatically at compile-time without forking the project.

Red Hat

NGINX App Protect application security solution combines the efficacy of advanced F5 web application firewall (WAF) technology with the agility and performance of NGINX Plus. The solution runs natively on NGINX Plus and addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing modern DevOps environments:

Integrating security controls directly into the development automation pipeline
Applying and managing security for modern and distributed application environments such as containers and microservices
Providing the right level of security controls without impacting release and go-to-market velocity
Complying with security and regulatory requirements

NGINX App Protect offers:

Expanded security beyond basic signatures to ensure adequate controls
F5 app‑security technology for efficacy superior to ModSecurity and other WAFs
Confidently run in “blocking” mode in production with proven F5 expertise
High‑confidence signatures for extremely low false positives
Increases visibility, integrating with third‑party analytics solutions
Integrates security and WAF natively into the CI/CD pipeline
Deploys as a lightweight software package that is agnostic of underlying infrastructure
Facilitates declarative policies for “security as code” and integration with DevOps tools
Decreases developer burden and provides feedback loop for quick security remediation
Accelerates time to market and reduces costs with DevSecOps‑automated security

Sample Customers

eBay, Veritas, Verizon, SalesForce

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

CoreOS Clair vs. NGINX App Protect

December 2025

Free Report: CoreOS Clair vs. NGINX App Protect

Find out what your peers are saying about CoreOS Clair vs. NGINX App Protect and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our CoreOS Clair vs. NGINX App Protect report.

See our list of best Container Security vendors.

We monitor all Container Security reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.