Imperva Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway comparison

Imperva and Microsoft are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Imperva is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.8, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.4. Imperva holds a 5.8% mindshare in WAF, compared to Microsoft’s 8.2% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Imperva users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 79% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Imperva Web Application Fir...

Read 52 Imperva Web Application Firewall reviews

4,789 Views
2,294 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Application...

Read 48 Microsoft Azure Application Gateway reviews

7,699 Views
4,669 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

Imperva Web Application Fir...

Microsoft Azure Application...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Imperva Web Application Firewall and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway compete in the web application security market. Imperva seems to have the upper hand in providing robust security features, while Azure Application Gateway stands out for its ease of integration and scalability within Azure's cloud platform.

Features: Imperva Web Application Firewall provides strong security features such as correlated attack validation, threat radar, profiling policies, and DDoS protection. These tools ensure comprehensive security with effective customization. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway focuses on ease of use, comprehensive cloud integration, and traffic management features. It allows organizations to manage their traffic efficiently while offering scalability through Azure's cloud services.

Room for Improvement: Imperva needs enhancements in GUI, policy management, and cloud component integration to improve user experience. Users find policy management complex and request better traffic visibility. Azure Application Gateway could improve its interface, flexibility in configuring rules, and provide more detailed documentation for configuration and updates. Performance during updates and limitations on request size and protocol support also need improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Imperva Web Application Firewall supports on-premises, private, public, and hybrid cloud deployments but needs improved support response times and localization. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is primarily cloud-based, integrating seamlessly with Azure services, contributing to ease of deployment although the initial setup may appear complex. Enhanced support could benefit users.

Pricing and ROI: Imperva's pricing is considered high but offers strong ROI, particularly in banking. Its licensing model is complex. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway offers a pay-as-you-go model which adjusts based on usage, although some users find it expensive. Both provide meaningful ROI, but their pricing approaches differ significantly.

To learn more, read our detailed Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

June 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

Imperva Web Application Fir...

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure Application...

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

3rd

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Imperva Web Application Firewall is 5.8%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is 8.2%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Featured Reviews

Mitesh D Patel

Senior Technical Consultant- Cyber Security at Ivalue Infosolution

Effectively defends against threats like cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and others

It does bring value. For example, consider a BFSI customer. Their application is critical and represents their brand. Without a WAF, an attack could take their application down, harming their reputation. It leads to hampering the customer's workflow. With an Imperva WAF, they protect against attacks like DDoS or SQL injection, ensuring their application remains available and customers are happy. That's the main benefit for both the customer and the organization. The impact depends on the customer's use case. If their business primarily operates online, a CDN is beneficial for traffic optimization. Moreover, the integration options depend on the specific use case of our customers. Generally, integration capabilities are good with SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) parts.

Read full review

Bonieber Orofeo

IT Manager at Chong Hua Hospital

Application gateway optimizes performance and simplifies cloud transitions

There are a lot of things I appreciate about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is beneficial for us as it helps in publishing our website, providing us comfort when it comes to the availability of our applications. The autoscaling feature in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is very obvious, and I have no issues with it; it is well planned and organized. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway impacts our cost savings while maintaining higher performance. The Web Application Firewall (WAF) in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has been very effective in protecting applications from security threats. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway helps us manage our AI-driven applications by enabling faster transactions, improving our work.

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

"Configuration for different application sources is most valuable. We can segregate the traffic that an application is carrying and identify the sizing in Imperva."

"Imperva monitors all traffic, even customer access, to the web application. Then, Imperva uses features like signatures to identify attacks like cross-site scripting or SQL injection."

"Very intuitive and granular configuration - It does not require much time, or advanced knowledge, for configuration and maintenance."

"The most valuable features of Imperva Web Application Firewall are the monitoring of databases and the dashboards are easy to understand."

"Imperva Web Application Firewall is a highly stable solution and is very mature."

"It is easy to use and has good security."

"The solution is very scalable. It is one of the most important features. You can also expand resources and features as well."

"We can prevent attacks or issues even before they happen."

More Imperva Web Application Firewall pros

"The solution has built-in rules that reduce alerts and are easy to configure."

"I find Application Gateway’s WAF module valuable because it helps prevent layer 7 attacks."

"Azure Application Gateway's most valuable feature is ease of use. The configuration is straightforward. It isn't difficult to adjust the size of your instances in the settings. You can do that with a few clicks, and the configuration file is the same way. You can also set rules and policies with minimal time and effort."

"Some of the key features of this solution are the low-level maintenance required, floating proxy service, and load balancing."

"We use the product in front-end and back-end applications to do the load balancing smartly."

"The health probe is pretty good for your backend health. It tells you whether it's communicating and talking to the endpoint correctly. It is quite useful."

"It is a scalable solution...The installation phase of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is very easy."

"It does an excellent job of load balancing."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pros

Cons

"It is complicated to integrate the solution's on-cloud version with other platforms."

"Sometimes our web application firewall will slow down."

"In the past, I have bugs on the WAF. I've contacted Imperva about them. Future releases should be less buggy."

"The only disadvantage of Imperva is that it is a pretty costly solution."

"The initial setup could be simplified. Every time you have to install the solution you have to get in touch with support or somebody that can to do that for you."

"The product's customization capabilities are a bit problematic, requiring support cases for backend modifications."

"I am looking for more data enrichment. We should have the ability to add our own custom data to the system, to the live traffic."

"It's a complicated tool to keep."

More Imperva Web Application Firewall cons

"The solution could improve by increasing the performance when doing updates. For example, if I change the certificate it can take 30 minutes. Other vendors do not have this type of problem."

"The product could be easier to use and implement."

"The solution doesn’t support wildcard-based and regular expression-based rules."

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's first deployment is complex. It needs to improve its pricing."

"We have encountered some issues with automatic redirection and cancellation, leading to 502 and 504 gateway errors. So, I experienced some trouble with containers."

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway could improve by allowing features to use more third-party tools."

"The pricing of the solution could be improved. Right now, it's a bit expensive."

"For the first-time user, it is difficult to understand so the user-interface needs to be improved."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Imperva Web Application Firewall price is higher compared to other solutions. However, everything is included in the price."

"There are some licenses that you have to buy to use some features. Its price could be better. Price is always important because, at the end of the day, customers have a budget. If you can meet the budget, you can sell, and if you don't, you cannot sell."

"The cost of this solution depends on the platform."

"Licensing can range from one to twenty thousand dollars annually. Additionally, some features, including software support, require an annual subscription as well."

"The tool is expensive."

"It's an excellent product, but it can be very costly."

"The price of this solution is a little bit high compared to competitors."

"Imperva Web Application Firewall's pricing is expensive."

More Imperva Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is expensive."

"I rate the pricing seven out of ten because some third-party solutions are even costlier than this."

"The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being cheap and one being expensive."

"The solution is reasonably priced compared to other solutions."

"The solution's pricing is not complex. It is not expensive from our point of view."

"There is some additional cost, such as extended support."

"The solution is fairly priced."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

My recommendation is Imperva.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

DDoS solutions: Any other solutions to consider aside from Radware DDoS Protection Service and F5 Silverline DDoS Protection?

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 Imperv...

See all answers

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...

See all answers

How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft Azure Application Gateway web application firewall software was the better fit ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Application Gateway automatically redirects unwanted users and takes care of the security aspect. It also handles the performance side of things, which is why we use it.

See all answers

Comparisons

F5 Advanced WAF vs Imperva Web Application Firewall

Compared 12% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Imperva Web Application Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

AWS WAF vs Imperva Web Application Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Imperva Web Application Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Imperva Web Application Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

More Imperva Web Application Firewall Competitors

F5 Advanced WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 12% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

HAProxy vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

Cloudflare vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 9% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 7% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Imperva Web Application Firewall

June 2025

Download Imperva Web Application Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

May 2025

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Download Microsoft Azure Application Gateway product report

Also Known As

No data available

Azure Application Gateway, MS Azure Application Gateway

Overview

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.

Imperva

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

BlueCross BlueShield, eHarmony, EMF Broadcasting, GE Healthcare, Metro Bank, The Motley Fool, Siemens

Lilly, AccuWeather, AIRFRANCE, Honeywell

Buyer's Guide

Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

June 2025

Free Report: Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

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