F5 Advanced WAF vs Imperva Web Application Firewall comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Aug 3, 2022

We performed a comparison between F5 Advanced WAF and Imperva Web Application Firewall based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of F5 Advanced WAF are divided over whether it is an easy solution to deploy. Some find it to be extremely complex while others find the deployment process to be straightforward.

    Reviewers of Imperva Web Application Firewall find it to be a simple product to deploy. However, one user notes that deployment can sometimes require a high level of customization to ensure that it best meets an organization’s needs.
  • Features: For the most part, reviewers of both products find them to be highly stable and scalable.

    Reviewers say that F5 Advanced WAF’s ease of use is among its most valuable features. However, users feel that its interface could be greatly improved.

    Users of Imperva Web Application Firewall find its security features to be extremely valuable. However, its reporting features could be improved.
  • Pricing: Reviewers are happier with the price of F5 Advanced WAF than they are with the price of Imperva Web Application Firewall.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions note that, for the most part, their technical support teams are excellent.

Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, F5 Advanced WAF seems to be the marginally superior solution. Our reviewers find that Imperva Web Application Firewall‘s cost makes it prohibitive for some organizations to afford.

To learn more, read our detailed F5 Advanced WAF vs. Imperva Web Application Firewall Report (Updated: May 2023).
709,643 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"F5 Advanced WAF secures our connectivity and combines both the main functions of WAF (balancing and web application security).""Customers find the load balancer feature as the most valuable.""The solution uses AI to protect against botnet attacks.""The most valuable feature of F5 Advanced WAF is its grand unity of the implementation, where you have the freedom to configure based on how it affects your use case or your organization. With the default setting of implicit deny, you can gradually start defining and deploying the tool to align with your environment, whether it is outdated, recent, or futuristic. This allows you to customize the solution to protect you from threat actors. You have the ability to define what the advanced threat act should do - whether it should alert, deny, or both - and it will deliver based on your configuration. Unlike other online solutions, F5 Advanced WAF provides flexibility to deliver to your unique environment the way you want.""iRules are quite appealing when it comes to F5.""Provides good protection from attacks.""The most valuable features of F5 Advanced WAF are the balancer and you can change policies very easily.""It's scalable and very easy to manage."

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"One good thing about Imperva Web Application Firewall is it can be on the cloud and also it can be on-premise.""The WAF itself has been very valuable to me because it has such a complete range of features. Another reason why I like it is because it also takes care of the total overview of the traffic over the network.""Configuration for different application sources is most valuable. We can segregate the traffic that an application is carrying and identify the sizing in Imperva.""The features I have found most valuable with Imperva Web Application Firewall are account takeover protection, advanced bot protection, and API security.""Imperva is easy to use and deploy. The UI is excellent.""The solution is scalable.""It has fewer false positives""I am impressed with the product's scalability, availability, easy management, and security. We were able to integrate the product with Azure and Sentinel."

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Cons
"I would like to see a better interface and better documentation compatibility with other products. It's more complicated with OWASP.""The delay times on firmware patches and software updates could be better and improved.""We get false positives sometimes.""The solution could improve by having an independent capture module. It has a built feature that you can deploy the capture on your published website. However, it's not very user-friendly. When you compare this feature to Google Capture or other enterprise captures, they are very simple. It needs a good connection to the F5 Advanced WAF sandbox. When you implement this feature in the data center, you may suffer some complications with connecting to the F5 Advanced WAF sandbox. This should be improved in the future.""F5 Advanced WAF could improve the precision of the scanning. There are many false positives. They should improve their threat database.""The solution should include protection against web page attacks like what is available in FortiWeb.""It's sometimes difficult to customize APIs with F5 Advanced WAF.""The deployment side is quite complex."

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"Imperva Web Application Firewall can improve by providing better features, such as improved prevention of zero-day attacks. Additionally, it should include a VR meta-analysis.""Imperva Web Application Firewall is a good system, but we found that the visibility of the diverse-path server, e.g. where the traffic is coming from, the different IPs, etc., needs improvement.""They recently separated the WAF and the DAM management gateways in order for each of these to be managed from different areas, so I believe it now requires additional investments for what was previously a single complete solution.""Imperva Web Application Firewall could improve the console by making it easier to use.""In the past, I have bugs on the WAF. I've contacted Imperva about them. Future releases should be less buggy.""I don't really use it and therefore can't speak to areas of improvement.""I'd like the option to pick your bot protection.""The Imperva Web Application Firewall automations are good, but there is still room for improvement with them."

More Imperva Web Application Firewall Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I don't have any issue with the pricing of this solution."
  • "There is an annual subscription for this solution."
  • "The price of the solution is reasonable when compared with other products, such as FortiWeb. I am very satisfied with the price."
  • "Pricing for this solution is higher than average."
  • "There is a perpetual license that comes with your hardware. There is also an additional fee for support."
  • "F5 Advanced WAF pricing structure should be adjusted to meet the need of small to medium-sized companies."
  • "F5 Advanced WAF technical support comes at a cost, and it's expensive."
  • "As far as the pricing of F5 Advanced WAF I would rate it a four out of five depending on what features I am looking for. Imperva is more expensive."
  • More F5 Advanced WAF Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There are a couple of different licensing models."
  • "The price of Imperva Web Application Firewalls is expensive compared to others."
  • "Licensing can range from one to twenty thousand dollars annually. Additionally, some features, including software support, require an annual subscription as well."
  • "Imperva Web Application Firewall price is higher compared to other solutions. However, everything is included in the price."
  • "We sell three-year licenses for Imperva Web Application Firewall to our customers. The price is a little expensive."
  • "The solution's pricing is an issue."
  • "The pricing is somewhat expensive. It is actually a huge investment when compared to other countries."
  • "The tool is expensive."
  • More Imperva Web Application Firewall Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Customers find the load balancer feature as the most valuable.
    Top Answer:F5 Advanced WAF is not a cost-effective solution. Although they are attempting to reduce prices with their VE and cloud options, they are more expensive than other solutions. The solution is more… more »
    Top Answer:The tool needs to improve its pricing.
    Top Answer:For ADC, any ADC can do a good job. But in case if you want to add WAF functionality to the same ADC hardware you have to look for other ADC's like F5, Imperva, Radware, Fortinet, etc. 
    Top Answer:You can have a look to Imperva Cloud WAF, the anti-DDoS mitigation is under 1s and works very well. I observed a lot of DDoS attacks that were well managed (even not seen by the customer) by Imperva… more »
    Ranking
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    12,895
    Comparisons
    10,273
    Reviews
    25
    Average Words per Review
    422
    Rating
    8.4
    Views
    9,543
    Comparisons
    7,742
    Reviews
    17
    Average Words per Review
    361
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    F5 Advanced WAF is a web application security solution for financial and government sectors, e-commerce, and public-facing websites. It offers protection against various attacks, including botnets, web scraping, and foreign entities. The solution can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud and is often used with other security tools. Its most valuable features include DDoS and DNS attack protection, SSL uploading, anomaly detection, and the ability to input custom rules. 

    F5 Advanced WAF has helped organizations to expose more services to the public while providing an extra layer of protection, preventing revenue loss, and securing connectivity.

    Imperva Web Application Firewall is a versatile solution that protects web applications and databases from various attacks, including DDoS, cross-site scripting, and SQL injection attacks. It offers data security, availability, and access control and can be deployed on-premises or on the cloud. 

    The solution has good security against web attacks and offers advanced bot protection, API security, and mitigation features. Imperva WAF is easy to configure and deploy; it has good customer service and an excellent user interface.

    Offer
    Learn more about F5 Advanced WAF
    Learn more about Imperva Web Application Firewall
    Sample Customers
    MAXIMUS, Vivo, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office, City Bank
    BlueCross BlueShield, eHarmony, EMF Broadcasting, GE Healthcare, Metro Bank, The Motley Fool, Siemens
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm37%
    Computer Software Company26%
    Non Tech Company7%
    Media Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company31%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    Insurance Company13%
    Energy/Utilities Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Insurance Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise48%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise65%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business54%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise64%
    Buyer's Guide
    F5 Advanced WAF vs. Imperva Web Application Firewall
    May 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about F5 Advanced WAF vs. Imperva Web Application Firewall and other solutions. Updated: May 2023.
    709,643 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    F5 Advanced WAF is ranked 4th in Web Application Firewall (WAF) with 31 reviews while Imperva Web Application Firewall is ranked 6th in Web Application Firewall (WAF) with 21 reviews. F5 Advanced WAF is rated 8.4, while Imperva Web Application Firewall is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of F5 Advanced WAF writes "Flexible configuration, reliable, and highly professional support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Imperva Web Application Firewall writes "Simple to maintain, easy to configure, and easy to scale". F5 Advanced WAF is most compared with Fortinet FortiWeb, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, AWS WAF, NGINX App Protect and Barracuda Web Application Firewall, whereas Imperva Web Application Firewall is most compared with AWS WAF, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, Fortinet FortiWeb, Azure Front Door and Imperva DDoS. See our F5 Advanced WAF vs. Imperva Web Application Firewall report.

    See our list of best Web Application Firewall (WAF) vendors.

    We monitor all Web Application Firewall (WAF) 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.