F5 DDoS Hybrid Defender [EOL] vs Radware DDoS comparison

F5 and Radware are both solutions in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category. Additionally, 100% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Radware users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 24, 2025

F5 DDoS Hybrid Defender [EOL] and Radware DDoS are competing in the DDoS protection category. Radware DDoS is perceived to have an edge due to its advanced features and higher perceived value.

Features: F5 DDoS Hybrid Defender [EOL] is known for its strong integration capabilities, comprehensive protection against both volumetric and sophisticated DDoS threats, and cost-effectiveness. Radware DDoS stands out with its advanced behavioral analysis, machine-learning capabilities, and adaptive tuning, which enhance threat detection and mitigation.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 DDoS Hybrid Defender [EOL] is noted for its straightforward deployment process and customer support. Radware DDoS offers robust documentation and responsive support despite its more complex implementation.

Pricing and ROI: F5 DDoS Hybrid Defender [EOL] offers a lower setup cost suitable for companies seeking essential protection. Radware DDoS, with a higher price point, justifies the investment with superior threat mitigation capabilities and features enhancing long-term ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

April 2026

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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

M.A. Faisal

General Manager at bKash Limited

Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility

From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.

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reviewer1326957

Head Solutions and Innovations at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Excellent DDoS protection with responsive technical support and a straightforward setup

It handles the whole process with a very smart configuration. Just like other F5 components, it runs on the BIG-IP appliance platform, which is renowned for F5 and can manage, along with other F5 components, what they call BIG-IP, an analytics platform. F5 can be probably be referred to as an application security company. They have very, very extensive knowledge on the standard application patterns and behaviors of different kinds of applications and protocols to which an application communicates with. Due to this, they can mitigate very effectively against DDoS attacks. That's something that you don't just find in the industry. The extent in which the solution is very effective is due to its ability to handle not just the most current signatures for malware, but also issues around emerging signatures. The Hybrid Defender has the ability to add a very rich source of intelligence via the F5 Threat Intelligence Chip Subscription and that provides a lot of intelligence. The intelligence is aggregated by a 24/7 research center in F5. The learnings are downloaded to every client of a F5 DDoS appliance, and that gives everyone all the contextual information they need to know to in order to analyze traffic effectively. F5 doesn't just block, it provides users with contextual information to go by. Most competitor's environments will have their appliance do a hard stop. This means they weigh traffic from real customers and that affects the overall business experience. F5, on the other hand, uses contextual information to be able to specify what is malicious traffic and what is real traffic. That comes from its pool of intelligence, and from its threat intelligence team.

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reviewer2663061

Program Manager at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Advanced protection has optimized web and API performance while reducing infrastructure costs

From the features perspective and functionality-wise, there are areas of Radware DDoS that I would like to see improved or enhanced in the future. Version upgrades are being provided, but they should communicate with clients about these new features being available so clients can test them and deploy them on the disaster recovery system before moving to the live segment. There should be a test report that will provide confidence that the version is stable and everything will work properly. Last time we faced an issue with a version upgrade, and we faced extensive troubleshooting with littile bit more time in the troubleshooting process. It turned out to be a small issue that was resolved by the engineering team. I would like to see improved support from Radware DDoS. Sometimes in support, we have to log the call with their support partners rather than Radware. After ten years of experience, we know exactly what the issue is, and we understand that it cannot be handled by their support channel or partner level. Radware team always asks us to go through the partners, but sometimes we have found that the issue cannot be handled by the partners. After the partners fail to resolve the issue, it goes to the Radware team. At that time, one to two days of required timeline gets increased by one to two days. If Radware came into immediate action and resolved the issue rather than relying on their service partners, it would be better. After ten years, we have the knowledge of troubleshooting, and we understand that the issues we are facing with Radware can only be resolved by their team. However, due to their policy, they insist we move through the partner first, and only after the partner fails do they escalate to Radware. During that troubleshooting period of twenty-four to forty-eight hours, we remain in an unresolved state with the reported issue.

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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

"What I like best about Cloudflare is that my company can use it to trace and manage applications and monitor traffic."

"For businesses that don't have a dedicated security team, I think it's a better product; it's more intuitive for people like us."

"The most valuable feature is its usability."

"If someone is looking for a secure and optimized wrapper over an open website, I would suggest CloudFlare services."

"The solution is a great fit for customers who want unlimited bandwidth."

"Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. You don't necessarily need a certificate if you have a connection between your website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host."

"We're using dynamic components to build flexible pages to create and manage Git merge requests for code and reviews."

"The solution offers the flexibility to control configuration rules."

More Cloudflare pros

"The user interface was recently changed in one of the latest versions, but we find it to be very good. The change was an improvement."

"The user interface was recently changed in one of the latest versions, but we find it to be very good."

"F5, on the other hand, uses contextual information to be able to specify what is malicious traffic and what is real traffic."

"Most competitor's environments will have their appliance do a hard stop. This means they weigh traffic from real customers and that affects the overall business experience. F5, on the other hand, uses contextual information to be able to specify what is malicious traffic and what is real traffic. That comes from its pool of intelligence, and from its threat intelligence team."

"It offers valuable insights into ongoing and past attacks, aiding in post-incident analysis and continuous improvement of our cybersecurity strategy."

"All of our traffic has to pass through the appliance, so we can very quickly mitigate the attack."

"I would recommend Radware DDoS to other users because in security, there are many layers of protection, and this is one of the most exposed regarding the internet."

"The initial setup is simple, the deployment should take no more than one or two days, and the support from Radware is very helpful."

"Radware DDoS's behavior-based detection technology is the best thing I have, as I do not need to worry about any new forms of attack that are not pre-configured for filtering because it can create its own signatures based on the quota values I set for each protocol."

"Their tech support is fantastic."

"DDoS Protection Service provides excellent defense in the cloud, and the implementation and migration are very straightforward."

"The initial setup is easy."

More Radware DDoS pros

Cons

"If they improve on the placement of their data centers, it would be better."

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

"Access to the solution's dashboards is not intended for a service company. You are practically blind, and to validate a problem, you must view the customer's screen."

"Honestly the product has not really improved the way of my organisation."

"We are a product integrator and reseller, and we would like to have a better partner relationship, similar to a channel sales relationship. Sometimes we are on our own or get diverted by Cloudflare because they have direct sales, which competes with us and makes it difficult to build a relationship with this company since we want to be an MSP or a managed service provider for the solution."

"There should at least be a read-only view of the data so that resellers can properly support the clients."

"If they improve on the placement of their data centers, it would be better. I'm living in a remote area. I would like to connect to them without any kind of lag."

"Support response time could be improved."

More Cloudflare cons

"The solution needs better stability when it's utilized with virtual solutions."

"We've seen the rise of smaller entities, and their requirements grow by the day. Having the ability to give them appliances that fit their needs in terms of that small or medium-sized segment and the pricing they can handle would be something that's great to see."

"The solution needs better stability when it's utilized with virtual solutions."

"It could incorporate more intelligence for reacting with web site visitors."

"The different solutions for Radware DDoS are expensive. Better pricing is needed."

"The dashboard could be updated."

"They need to increase the limit of devices that we can manage."

"The speed and quality of Radware DDoS's support should be improved."

"I want to improve the blocking time; it should be within 10 seconds because 18 seconds allows multiple transactions in the financial industry."

"The product is good, but the company could improve its services by appointing customer success managers. This would ensure better interaction with customers and help resolve issues on both customer and supplier ends."

"I would like to see more graphics within the dashboard. Right now, you are required to buy tools in order to have graphical representation for your monitoring."

More Radware DDoS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We don't have any issues with the price."

"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."

"The product's pricing is minimal compared to other products."

"We are using the free version."

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

"The solution is expensive when compared to other products but offers unlimited bandwidth."

"The product's pricing is cheap."

"For Cloudflare, I recommend it heavily for small businesses with revenue under a couple of million dollars. Onboarding is easy, and they even have a free plan. This makes it simple for businesses in the $100,000-$500,000 range to try it out and see its value, allowing them to scale up their infrastructure as needed."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"The pricing is okay, and I do not have any concerns about the price."

"The pricing is based on the amount of network traffic and the number of packets being inspected."

"The NetFlow security could be improved too."

"I didn't check pricing of other providers in depth but verified with two, and found Radware to be significantly cheaper compared to F5."

"The initial cost is over $100,000 for one appliance."

"The price was well over six figures."

"Radware's Cloud DDoS Protection Service stands out for its competitive pricing, making it a strong contender in our decision."

"Licensing of Radware is quite simple and straightforward, while Arbor DDos is a bit complicated."

More Radware DDoS pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	26

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	25
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	23

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare?

The tool's pricing is moderate. I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expens...

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What do you like most about Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?

The most important part is that Radware DDoS integrates seamlessly and provides anomaly identification, real-time not...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?

For Radware Cloud DDoS Protection, the pricing model can vary based on a number of factors such as the scale of the b...

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What needs improvement with Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?

The time it takes to upload a site to the cloud is critical when under attack. If a site is down, a quick response to...

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Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 39% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Cloudflare

Compared 3% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 2% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs Cloudflare

Compared 1% of the time

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F5 Shape Security vs F5 DDoS Hybrid Defender [EOL]

Compared 45% of the time

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Arbor DDoS vs Radware DDoS

Compared 14% of the time

Cisco Secure DDoS Protection vs Radware DDoS

Compared 7% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs Radware DDoS

Compared 6% of the time

Corero vs Radware DDoS

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiDDoS vs Radware DDoS

Compared 5% of the time

More Radware DDoS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

May 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection

April 2026

Download F5 DDoS Hybrid Defender [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Radware DDoS

April 2026

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Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

No data available

Radware DDoS Protection Service, Radware DefensePro, Radware DefenseFlow

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

At F5, we give our customers the freedom to securely deliver every app, anywhere—with confidence. All F5 products are highly programmable and integrate into any environment, whether on premises or in any cloud. To date, 48 of the Fortune 50 companies rely on F5 to deliver apps that customers and employees can securely access at any time, on any device, from any location.

Radware DDoS provides robust multi-layer protection against distributed denial of service attacks, featuring real-time monitoring and anomaly detection. Its scalable cloud-based and on-site deployment options ensure effective safeguarding of critical infrastructure.

Offering comprehensive defense, Radware DDoS includes features like data scrubbing, signature updates, and SSL-based mitigation. Integrated platforms and a user-friendly interface streamline its deployment. With advanced reporting, analytics, and behavioral analysis powered by machine learning, users experience fewer false positives. Despite these strengths, users highlight the need for improved scalability, seamless deployment, and enhanced machine learning capabilities. Better documentation, pricing, and customer service remain areas of improvement.

What features does Radware DDoS offer?

Data Scrubbing: Filters malicious data from incoming traffic.
Signature Updates: Keeps threat signatures current.
SSL-Based Mitigation: Protects against SSL attacks.
Auto Mitigation: Quickly responds to detected threats.
Multi-Layer Protection: Defends across several attack vectors.

What benefits should users expect?

Scalable Protection: Adaptable to increasing demands.
Proactive Notifications: Alerts in real-time to threats.
Live Attack Insights: Provides real-time analytics.
Enhanced Security: Shields diverse sectors.
Reduced False Positives: Enabled by machine learning.

In industries like banking, telecom, and government, organizations employ Radware DDoS to protect networks from DDoS attacks. It ensures server, web service, and mail security while enabling traffic monitoring and unauthorized access blocking. Its cloud-based options serve entities seeking infrastructure security and network traffic analysis.

Radware

Sample Customers

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

City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office

Myntex, APAC retailers

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April 2026

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