Cloudflare WAF vs ModSecurity
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Cloudflare WAF and ModSecurity.
Cloudflare WAF Web Application Firewall protecting millions of sites | ModSecurity Open source WAF for Nginx and Apache | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.5 (249 reviews) | 4.0 (250 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | freemium | free |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Free |
| Best for | Every website — Cloudflare WAF is the standard baseline for web application firewall protection | Security engineers who want a free self-hosted WAF they fully control on their Nginx or Apache servers |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tierddos protectionapi accesseu datacenterus datacenterapac datacenter | free tieropen sourceself hostable |
| Visit Cloudflare WAF → | Visit ModSecurity → | |
Cloudflare WAF
Pros
- + Free WAF rules on all plans
- + DDoS mitigation up to 142Tbps
- + 300+ PoP global network absorbs attacks
Cons
- - Advanced WAF rules require Pro+ plan
- - Some legitimate traffic can be blocked
ModSecurity
Pros
- + Free and open source
- + OWASP Core Rule Set included
- + Runs on any Nginx or Apache server
Cons
- - Complex to tune — many false positives by default
- - Requires WAF expertise
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