Cloudflare WAF Alternatives

Sucuri

From €20/mo

Website firewall and malware cleanup service

5.0 (261)

Sucuri provides website firewall (cloud proxy WAF), DDoS protection, CDN, and website malware cleanup services. Popular for WordPress sites and small businesses needing website security.

Best for: WordPress site owners who want a WAF plus professional malware cleanup if they get hacked

AWS WAF

From €5/mo

Amazon WAF integrated with CloudFront and ALB

4.9 (8)

AWS WAF is Amazon's web application firewall that can be attached to CloudFront, ALB, or API Gateway. Pay per rule ($1/rule/month) and per million requests ($0.60). Integrates with AWS Shield.

Best for: AWS-invested applications that need WAF tightly integrated with their existing CloudFront or ALB setup

Hetzner DDoS Protection

Free

Hardware-backed DDoS mitigation for high-traffic infrastructure

4.9 (245)

Hetzner's DDoS Protection filters volumetric and application-layer attacks at network edge. Designed for cloud users and hosting providers managing large traffic volumes.

Best for: Organizations running high-traffic applications on Hetzner infrastructure who need native, straightforward DDoS mitigation without multi-vendor complexity.

Gcore

Freemium

Global CDN with 150+ PoPs including Russia and CIS

4.8 (275)

Gcore is a European CDN and cloud provider with 150+ PoPs including strong coverage in Russia, CIS, Middle East, and Africa. CDN, cloud compute, streaming, and DDoS protection.

Best for: Applications needing CDN coverage in CIS, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa beyond Cloudflare's footprint

Radware

From €2000/mo

Behavioral DDoS mitigation with machine learning

4.7 (217)

Radware provides hybrid on-premise and cloud DDoS mitigation with behavioral detection using machine learning. Continuous monitoring, 24/7 SOC, and 10Tbps global scrubbing network.

Best for: Enterprises with complex attack scenarios needing machine learning-based behavioral DDoS detection

F5 BIG-IP

From €1000/mo

Enterprise application delivery controller

4.4 (41)

F5 BIG-IP is the leading enterprise ADC with WAF, load balancing, SSL offloading, and application security. Used by financial services, healthcare, and government agencies.

Best for: Large financial institutions and government agencies needing enterprise-grade application delivery controllers

Cloudflare

Freemium

Global CDN and DDoS protection with object storage

4.4 (122)

Cloudflare provides distributed content delivery, DDoS mitigation, and R2 object storage. Designed for developers and enterprises needing reliable infrastructure with minimal latency.

Best for: Teams building web applications requiring global distribution, DDoS protection, and cost-efficient object storage without egress fees.

Imperva

From €500/mo

Enterprise WAF and DDoS protection

4.0 (66)

Imperva provides enterprise-grade WAF, DDoS protection, bot management, and API security. Used by financial services and Fortune 500. 6Tbps DDoS scrubbing capacity.

Best for: Enterprise companies in financial services needing best-in-class WAF and bot management

ModSecurity

Free

Open source WAF for Nginx and Apache

4.0 (250)

ModSecurity is the leading open source WAF. Runs as a module for Nginx (via libmodsecurity) and Apache. OWASP Core Rule Set included. Self-hosted on any server.

Best for: Security engineers who want a free self-hosted WAF they fully control on their Nginx or Apache servers

StackPath

Freemium

CDN and edge compute platform

3.9 (93)

StackPath provides CDN, WAF, DDoS protection, and edge compute with 50+ PoPs globally. Simple pricing model and strong integration with serverless edge workers.

Best for: Developers wanting CDN, WAF, and edge compute in one platform at predictable pricing