Imperva Web Application Firewall vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks comparison

Imperva and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Imperva is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.8, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6. Imperva holds a 5.8% mindshare in WAF, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Imperva users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

Imperva Web Application Fir...

Read 52 Imperva Web Application Firewall reviews

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97% willing to recommend

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Read 110 Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks reviews

2,222 Views
1,111 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Imperva Web Application Fir...

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on May 25, 2025

Imperva Web Application Firewall and Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks compete in the cloud and application security segments. Prisma Cloud appears to have the upper hand due to its wider range of cloud-native security capabilities and support for multi-cloud environments, which can be more suitable for organizations with complex infrastructure needs.

Features: Imperva Web Application Firewall offers features such as correlated attack validation, threat radar, and virtual patching. Its ease of deployment and API security are notable, along with advanced protection capabilities including signature-based blocking and out-of-the-box detection. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks provides dynamic workload identity, compliance mapping, and runtime monitoring. It excels in integrating security into DevOps processes, with built-in automation for comprehensive cloud-native security across multi and hybrid-cloud environments.

Room for Improvement: Imperva Web Application Firewall could benefit from enhancing its GUI simplicity and improving integration capabilities. Users also report a need for better visibility into real-time traffic and more effective alert systems. Prisma Cloud requires enhancements in its UI, role access customization, and automation capabilities. Improvements in detection speed and better multi-cloud integration are also necessary alongside more granular permission models and performance in rapid updates.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Imperva Web Application Firewall is praised for its versatility in deployment across different cloud infrastructures and generally positive customer service, with room for improvement in localized support. Prisma Cloud is noted for its comprehensive support in public and hybrid cloud deployments, although it occasionally struggles with response times compared to Imperva. Imperva provides more regional support options, whereas Prisma Cloud's main advantage is its deployment flexibility.

Pricing and ROI: Both Imperva Web Application Firewall and Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks are considered premium offerings. Despite perceived high costs, Imperva delivers a high ROI through effective DDoS attack mitigation and application-level security. Prisma Cloud justifies its price with extensive features supporting cloud-native applications. Users find both products complex in terms of licensing but recognize substantial value derivation in protecting diverse cloud environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

June 2025

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Helped 857,162 peers since 2012

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

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

110

Ranking in other categories

Container Security (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (1st), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (2nd)

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 Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 2.1%, down from 2.4% 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

Mohammad Qaw

Senior Security Consultant at helpag

It gives you one console to see all of your assets, review their configurations, and build your processes

Most customers use Prisma Cloud for visibility and compliance. Prisma has so many features, but many organizations do not use them. They primarily use the visibility part to connect all their cloud accounts and hosts for visibility to see if they are missing any security controls or if they have any misconfigurations. You can connect it to cloud environments such as Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, etc., or to an on-prem data center. Prisma Cloud gives you so many options to automate processes related to your daily operations. When it comes to cybersecurity, you can automate things with their existing APIs. They also have out-of-the-box integrations with many solutions. I have not seen any limitations. Everything is customizable. You can do whatever you want, defining the reporting and custom use cases. They recently updated the UI, so it's much better than before.

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

"The solution is scalable."

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

"Imperva Web Application Firewall is stable."

"The features I have found most valuable with Imperva Web Application Firewall are account takeover protection, advanced bot protection, and API security."

"The most valuable features of the Imperva Web Application Firewall are DDoS, malware, and the other malicious threat prevention it provides. Additionally, third-party integration is available. You can forward the log for further analysis."

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

"The solution can be configured in just a couple of minutes."

"I have had a positive experience with Imperva Web Application Firewall's tech support so far. They are knowledgeable and respond on time."

More Imperva Web Application Firewall pros

"We are provided with a single tool to protect all of our cloud resources and applications without having to manage and reconcile compliance reports."

"Prisma Cloud also provides the visibility and control you need, regardless of how complex or distributed your cloud environments become. It helps to simplify that complexity. Now we know what the best practices are, and if something is missing we know."

"The client wasn't using all of the features, but the one that stood out was infrastructure-as-code (IaC). I built IaC use cases and was trying to get them to use it. I also liked cloud workload protection. I worked with the vulnerability management team to develop a process. It's a manual process, so it can be challenging to remediate many image or container issues. It was nice that we could build out a reporting process and download the reports. The reports are solid."

"The UI is very good. We get all the things within a single UI."

"The solution offers very good configuration capabilities."

"The solution's dashboard looks very user-friendly."

"Its ease of integration is valuable because we need to get the solution out of the door quickly, so speed and ease matter."

"This positively affected our confidence in your security and compliance. No matter how complex the environment is, the the seamless integration from the top layer itself give us the immediate visibility on the number of services."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pros

Cons

"Imperva Web Application Firewall can improve by adding more features to the dashboard. increasing the visibility of the real-time events, besides configuring the administration itself."

"The signature updates could be faster. Sometimes we have to upload signatures to the Imperva portal for checking and analysis before we can use them."

"It would be helpful to have a "recommended deployment", or even a list of basic features that should either be used or turned on by default."

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

"I would like to improve the tool's turnaround time in terms of support."

"I don't really use it and therefore can't speak to areas of improvement."

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

"Some of the features should be included in the next release is a file integrating monitoring tool. This feature should be improved."

More Imperva Web Application Firewall cons

"The UI could be improved."

"The pricing for the solution needs improvement."

"It does not provide runtime security or protection for Windows Server. It is currently lacking in terms of Windows environment."

"Sometimes, on the Azure side, there are issues. Some errors aren't being found on Prisma Cloud."

"Prisma Cloud lags behind in terms of security automation capabilities."

"For some custom policies, we need more features."

"Support is an area that needs improvement."

"While Prisma provides a lot of visibility, it also creates a ton of work. Most customers that implement Prisma Cloud have thousands of alerts that are urgent."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Imperva Web Application Firewall is expensive."

"The tool is expensive."

"It is a very affordable solution."

"Everybody complains about the price of this solution."

"The price is high compared to other solutions like FortiWeb."

"We sell three-year licenses for Imperva Web Application Firewall to our customers. The price is a little expensive."

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

More Imperva Web Application Firewall pricing and cost advice

"One thing we're very pleased about is how the licensing model for Prisma is based on work resources. You buy a certain amount of work resources and then, as they enable new capabilities within Prisma, it just takes those work resource units and applies them to new features. This enables us to test and use the new features without having to go back and ask for and procure a whole new product, which could require going through weeks, and maybe months, of a procurement process."

"The purchasing process was easy and quick. It is a very economical solution."

"Although the cost can be high, the value is worth the price tag."

"I find the pricing to be expensive."

"The product is very expensive, but the cost is a necessary evil; I don't know how we could have any kind of cloud presence without this type of monitoring. The pricing is calculated by module and resource usage. Ultimately, it saves us money in the amount of time we would spend uncovering what it uncovers, and we might not make the required discoveries without it anyway. Prisma offers incredible value, though I wish it were cheaper."

"I wouldn't mind if it were cheaper. We are spending a fair amount of money on Prisma Cloud."

"We are encountering some resistance in the African market regarding the cost of Prisma Cloud."

"If you pay for three years of Palo Alto, it's better. If you're planning on doing this, it's obviously not going to be for one year, so it's better if you go with a three-year license... The only challenge we have is with the public cloud vendor pricing. The biggest lesson I have learned is around the issues related to pricing for public cloud. So when you are doing your segmentation and design, it is extremely important that you work with someone who knows and understands what kinds of needs you will have in the future and how what you are doing will affect you in terms of costs."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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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

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Educational Organization

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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 is your primary use case for Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?

Prisma Cloud helps support DevSecOps methodologies, making those responsibilities easier to manage.

See all answers

What Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform do you recommend?

We like Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, since it offers us incredible visibility into our entire cloud system. We are able to easily see where our container vulnerabilities lie and and where cl...

See all answers

What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?

Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

AWS WAF vs Imperva Web Application Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudflare vs Imperva Web Application Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

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Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Imperva Web Application Firewall

June 2025

Download Imperva Web Application Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

May 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks report

Download Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks product report

Also Known As

No data available

Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto

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

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks delivers comprehensive security for cloud environments, focusing on workload protection, identity creation, and seamless AWS integration. Its cloud visibility and control, combined with thorough vulnerability scanning, help maintain robust security across multi-cloud platforms.

Prisma Cloud provides essential capabilities for cloud security posture management, container security, and compliance monitoring. Enterprises utilize it to secure cloud configurations, detect vulnerabilities, and ensure regulatory compliance, spanning AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Its runtime management, identity-based micro-segmentation, and threat detection enhance cybersecurity. Despite needing improvements in documentation, integration complexities, UI, and the need for role-based access control refinement, it remains pivotal for securing assets across cloud infrastructures, particularly with its capabilities for vulnerability scanning and CI/CD pipeline integration.

What are the key features?

Workload Identity Creation: Establishes identities for cloud workloads, enhancing security through precise access management.
Dynamic Workload Protection: Protects applications dynamically, securing resources during runtime.
Integration with AWS Products: Seamlessly integrates with AWS services, maximizing the efficiency of cloud operations.
Automated Forensics: Provides detailed insights through automated investigations and runtime mapping between containers.
Application Dependency Map: Enables compliance and asset management through comprehensive inventory functionality.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Proactive Threat Prevention: Enhances security measures with advanced threat detection and prevention.
Cloud Visibility and Control: Offers control across multi-cloud environments, ensuring users maintain a strong security posture.
Prevention Capabilities: Users value its ability to prevent vulnerabilities and threats effectively.
Integration Capabilities: Supports seamless integration into existing cloud infrastructures and CI/CD pipelines.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, Prisma Cloud is implemented to strengthen cybersecurity measures, facilitate regulatory compliance, and enhance governance. Organizations leverage its features to secure sensitive data, monitor configurations, and integrate security processes within CI/CD workflows, ensuring robust protection across complex cloud infrastructures.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

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

Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America

Buyer's Guide

Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

June 2025

Free Report: Imperva Web Application Firewall vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

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