F5 Rules for AWS WAF vs Symantec Web Application Firewall comparison

F5 and Broadcom are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. F5 is ranked #29 with an average rating of 9.0, while Broadcom is ranked #28 with an average rating of 9.0. Additionally, 100% of F5 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between F5 Rules for AWS WAF and Symantec Web Application Firewall 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 F5 Rules for AWS WAF vs. Symantec Web Application Firewall Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

F5 Rules for AWS WAF vs. Symantec Web Application Firewall

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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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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Vatsal Mehta

Director, Co-Founder & CEO at HEDEHI Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Boosts Security Measures with Easy Deployment and Implementation

Regarding areas for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall, I think they can enhance the features they currently focus on, as there are various types of web applications, and it would be great if they could develop features to cater to all these types. For example, a feature to scan for unauthorized plugins or extensions could let us know if those extensions are authorized, unauthorized, or malicious. There's room for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall by introducing AI into their dashboard so that we can query the dashboard and fetch data insights, similar to querying ChatGPT for answers. They currently have this feature but can make improvements for better querying to get insights.

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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

"It is easier to configure and develop documentation to see how we have configured firewalls."

"Smaller businesses have seen great ROI due to the low investment and strong performance."

"The simplicity of the overall dashboard makes it a great product for a user like me who has less understanding of the internet than a developer or other more technical people. It gives me peace of mind. I also love the easy customization of the Page Rules."

"Cloudflare allows us to self-host services such as Rocket.Chat and Node-RED, in high-availability mode, thanks to round robin DNS which allows us to share one hostname between our two locations."

"The solution is stable, and the DNS servers are simple to use."

"The most valuable feature is its usability."

"The attacker won't have details since my public IP is anonymous. It offers us good privacy."

More Cloudflare 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."

"The solution has an up-to-date data repository to deal with external threats."

"The best feature of Symantec Web Application Firewall is that it is very easy to use, and the deployment and implementation processes are really easy."

"The interface is user-friendly."

"The best feature of Symantec Web Application Firewall is that it is very easy to use, and the deployment and implementation processes are really easy."

"The setup was straightforward."

Cons

"Support response time could be improved."

"The product needs to improve its automation."

"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."

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

"They lack a good way to manage DNS as a company, since everything is relegated to single account logins until you get to the higher levels. They have come out with a paid feature to remedy this, but I have not had a chance to fully review it yet to know if it fixes the access problem."

"It should have easier documentation for the configuration. It's very technical and people who aren't technical should also be able to do the configuration."

"The solution could work at being less expensive. It costs a lot to use it."

"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."

More Cloudflare 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."

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

"Sometimes scanning slows down the endpoints."

"It would be an improvement if the management dashboards were not reliant upon Java."

"I'm not convinced that it's necessary the best solution going forward in the future."

"There's room for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall by introducing AI into their dashboard so that we can query the dashboard and fetch data insights, similar to querying ChatGPT for answers."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

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

"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."

"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."

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

"The price of the solution is expensive."

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

"We are using the free version."

More Cloudflare 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

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

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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

What needs improvement with Symantec Web Application Firewall?

Regarding areas for improvement in Symantec Web Application Firewall, I think they can enhance the features they curr...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Symantec Web Application Firewall?

Our use case for Symantec Web Application Firewall is primarily for security purposes as we develop web application s...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Symantec Web Application Firewall?

I would recommend Symantec Web Application Firewall to other users due to all the benefits I mentioned earlier, such ...

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

More Cloudflare Competitors

No data available

NetScaler vs Symantec Web Application Firewall

Compared 70% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Symantec Web Application Firewall

Compared 30% of the time

More Symantec Web Application Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

January 2026

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Business Rules Management

December 2025

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Web Application Firewall (WAF)

January 2026

Symantec Web Application Firewall report

Download Symantec Web Application Firewall product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

No data available

Symantec WAF, Blue Coat Protecting Web Applications

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

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.

The Symantec Web Application Firewall (WAF) enables you to secure and accelerate your web applications.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

F5 Rules for AWS WAF vs. Symantec Web Application Firewall

December 2025

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

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

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