AWS WAF Alternatives
10 firewall & ddos protection tools that compete with AWS WAF, ranked by community rating. Side-by-side comparisons included for every pick.
- 1
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
- 2
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.
- 3
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
- 4
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
- 5
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
- 6
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.
- 7
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
- 8
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
- 9
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
- 10
Nexusguard specializes in DDoS mitigation for ISPs, hosting providers, and telcos. 20Tbps scrubbing capacity, cloud-based mitigation, and network intelligence.
Best for: ISPs, hosting providers, and telecommunications companies needing network-level DDoS protection at scale
Why compare AWS WAF with these tools?
Every tool on this page shares AWS WAF's core firewall & ddos protection use case, so switching is usually straightforward. Click any “AWS WAFvs X” link to see pricing, feature, and rating differences side-by-side.
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