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Fortinet FortiADC vs Imperva Application Security Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.0
Fortinet FortiADC offers reliable web traffic management with strong support, but users find WAF functionality could improve usability.
Sentiment score
6.0
Imperva Application Security Platform offers substantial ROI for frequent attack targets, aiding compliance and cost-efficient protection.
The alert system is efficient, sending alerts within a fraction of a second if any power issues arise.
Senior Network Engineer at SP SYSNET PTE. LTD.
They know how much money they are losing while the system is down, so by increasing the possibility of not having a down website or web application, return on investment can be calculated easily.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Regarding return on investment, ROI, I can say it is noticeable with Imperva Application Security Platform.
Senior Presales Consultant at Techlab security
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Fortinet FortiADC's support experiences vary, with praise for professionalism but issues with response times and license-related impacts.
Sentiment score
6.9
Imperva's customer service is responsive and helpful, though some experience delays and require escalation for complex issues.
The support team is knowledgeable and efficiently assists with automation and configuration problems.
Security Network Architect at Inmac
It varies depending on the engineer assigned; in most cases, we resolve issues on the first attempt.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Fortinet technical support is very good, and they provide us with better support.
Team Lead at Adapt Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd
I would rate the technical support of Imperva DDoS as ten.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
The response is satisfactory, though the gaps in enablement and lab sessions are clear.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
My experience with technical support from Imperva Application Security Platform was good when I reached out to them.
Senior Presales Consultant at Techlab security
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Fortinet FortiADC is scalable with virtual, cloud, and hardware models, but accurate initial sizing is crucial for expansion.
Sentiment score
7.6
Imperva is praised for scalability in cloud environments, though infrastructure compatibility and license costs may pose challenges.
For those opting for a SaaS or cloud solution, there is scalability and flexibility.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
It is scalable for some versions, however, as components reach their end of support, upgrades are necessary to maintain scalability.
Security Network Architect at Inmac
99% of customers are using the cloud version of Imperva DDoS protection, so they just purchase the new license and scale as needed.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I have not even needed support after deployment, since it has remained stable.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Fortinet FortiADC is highly stable and reliable, with responsive support, despite minor bugs occasionally introduced by firmware updates.
Sentiment score
7.9
Imperva Application Security Platform is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and quick resolution of occasional issues.
The support system is reliable when issues like automation or configuration arise.
Security Network Architect at Inmac
Overall, it has been good; in the past it was very good, and now it is still performing well.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
We have two applications in two ESXi hosts that I integrated into our ADC, and I created one virtual IP in the virtual server pool.
Team Lead at Adapt Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd
It is also a stable product without much glitch or downtime.
Senior Presales Consultant at Techlab security
One notable drawback is that, unlike Fortinet, which offers fast track labs and continuous enablement, Imperva Application Security Platform lacks lab access and fast track labs for enablement and product advertising.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
The stability of Imperva DDoS is very good, as it seems they have a lot of servers around the world.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiADC users seek better support, documentation, and features, including load-balancing, security, interface, and resource optimization improvements.
Users seek improved UI, lower pricing, enhanced features, better support, and integrations in Imperva Application Security Platform.
Fortinet has been a pioneer for enterprise solutions, such as firewalls, SASE, ZTNA, and SD-WAN solutions, and they are in a leader quadrant.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
The limitation of managing all components and the differing versions pose challenges.
Security Network Architect at Inmac
If I need design help, they do not assist; they say it is a design issue they cannot support, and I must approach the system integrator.
Senior Network Engineer at SP SYSNET PTE. LTD.
To convince my clients, a purely on-prem solution would be ideal since they are financial institutions.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
Maybe Imperva DDoS could use endpoints to get information about the attacks before they commence from the endpoint level or establish cooperation with endpoint vendors to share this information.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Regarding return on investment, ROI, I can say it is noticeable with Imperva Application Security Platform.
Senior Presales Consultant at Techlab security
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiADC offers competitive, predictable pricing with flexible licensing options, appealing to both small businesses and large enterprises.
Imperva's pricing varies by features and deployment, often seen as complex and costly, impacting adoption in sensitive markets.
This solution is quite expensive compared to Kemp.
Senior Network Engineer at SP SYSNET PTE. LTD.
I would rate the pricing of Imperva DDoS as five, where one is very cheap and ten is very expensive.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiADC offers features like SSL offloading and load balancing, valued for simplicity, scalability, affordability, and integration.
Imperva offers comprehensive web threat protection with an intuitive interface, advanced analytics, and seamless integration for simplified application security.
I use server load balancing and employ layer seven features, which provide more granular traffic shaping and detailed logs.
Senior Network Engineer at SP SYSNET PTE. LTD.
When integrated with FortiAnalyzer, it has much more significance.
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
The implementation process is straightforward, and cluster implementation is also very easy.
Team Lead at Adapt Information Technologies (Pvt) Ltd
I have utilized Imperva's Intelligent Traffic Filtering feature. This feature helps me understand how the attack is progressing and what is happening inside the requests to our website.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I believe the reputational analysis in Imperva Application Security Platform is effective for blocking security threats before impact.
Senior Presales Consultant at Techlab security
The main drawback for signature-based approaches happens when there is a new zero-day attack that is not in the database.
CTO at Malam Engineering PLC
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiADC
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (5th)
Imperva Application Securit...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
135
Ranking in other categories
CDN (3rd), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (3rd), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (4th), Bot Management (1st), API Security (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Fortinet FortiADC and Imperva Application Security Platform aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Fortinet FortiADC is designed for Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) and holds a mindshare of 9.7%, down 9.8% compared to last year.
Imperva Application Security Platform, on the other hand, focuses on Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection, holds 8.5% mindshare, up 7.9% since last year.
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiADC9.7%
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)14.3%
NetScaler12.7%
Other63.3%
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Imperva Application Security Platform8.5%
Cloudflare16.2%
Arbor DDoS8.7%
Other66.6%
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

GANESAN K - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Has supported load balancing for medical applications and could benefit from more custom configuration options
Some customers need custom management for handling their applications across the servers. Instead of having a predefined solution, if we had space for custom-based algorithms to load balance the traffic, it would be better. We have faced such cases with A10, where we can leverage many custom scripts and do much more. Even though A10 primarily focuses on SMBs, they have also ventured into the enterprise market. Fortinet has been a pioneer for enterprise solutions, such as firewalls, SASE, ZTNA, and SD-WAN solutions, and they are in a leader quadrant. Therefore, they should have more options. From a pricing perspective, it is expensive.
reviewer1247523 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Solution ensures website availability and proactive threat mitigation
Over the seven years, the most valuable features of Imperva DDoS that I have found are related to DDoS attacks, which are a group of attacks, and not all of them can be resolved on the endpoint level before the website. Using the web firewall before the website is a common use case to protect against malicious requests to the website. I have utilized Imperva's Intelligent Traffic Filtering feature. This feature helps me understand how the attack is progressing and what is happening inside the requests to our website. It allows me to granularly grant or deny access to certain parts of our website. This helps when we know our customers and the types of requests that can be sent from them, enabling us to block some malicious requests. Imperva DDoS has User Behavior Analytics and Threat Intelligence on its board, and this helps us to be protected proactively. Imperva DDoS connects to its database of threats, storing whole information about attacks all over the world in one simple engine. Everyone can use this feature, which can connect to this engine and get information about what is going on at the world level. That is the way to be protected at the company's level. The integration capabilities of Imperva DDoS are very easy and simple. We can run it in 2 hours.
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Comparison Review

it_user68487 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Expert with 51-200 employees
Nov 6, 2013
CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Web Application Firewall
CloudFlare vs Incapsula: Round 2 Web Application Firewall Comparative Penetration Testing Analysis Report v1.0 Summary This document contains the results of a second comparative penetration test conducted by a team of security specialists at Zero Science Lab against two cloud-based Web…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business84
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

Is Citrix ADC (formerly Netscaler) the best ADC to use and if not why?
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.
Do you recommend Fortinet FortiADC?
I recommend Fortinet FortiADC. My experience with Fortinet has been very positive. Our company has been using it for around five years. We mainly use FortiADC for the load balancing of application ...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiADC?
The user interface is very easy and integrates with Sandbox easily.
Which Web Application Firewall (WAF) would you recommend? R&S or Imperva?
Imperva is a strong choice, given their security focus and ongoing R&D into the product in areas such as bot management.
What do you like most about Imperva Incapsula?
We use Imperva DDoS to stop DDoS attacks and reduce the amount of unwanted queries against web services or web scraping.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Imperva DDoS?
The pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Imperva DDoS are reasonable for the amount of technical capabilities provided. I would rate the pricing of Imperva DDoS as five, where one is very cheap a...
 

Also Known As

FortiADC Application Delivery Controller, FortiADC
Imperva Bot Management, Imperva Web Application Firewall, Imperva API Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Hitachi, BNZ, Bitstamp, Moz, InnoGames, BTCChina, Wix, LivePerson, Zillow and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about F5, NetScaler, HAProxy and others in Application Delivery Controllers (ADC). Updated: February 2026.
883,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.