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Azure Front Door vs NGINX App Protect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.9
Azure Front Door offers ROI through cost reduction, quick setup, and simplified management, prompting proactive adoption amid system phase-out.
Sentiment score
6.2
Investments in NGINX App Protect yield positive returns with immediate security benefits, especially during remote work transitions and CICD integration.
Azure Front Door offers a quick return on investment once it is set up.
Co-Founder at arpa
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Azure Front Door's customer service is mixed; some praise responsiveness and documentation, others find problem-solving quality inconsistent.
Sentiment score
6.1
NGINX App Protect support is generally praised for responsiveness, with occasional delays and high costs as minor concerns.
I am able to set up a critical call with Microsoft, and they respond quickly to tickets with the highest severity.
Co-Founder at arpa
They were quick and efficient when we had issues.
Project Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the customer support a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Azure Front Door offers scalable, reliable global capabilities, highly rated by users, though it may become costly with extensive use.
Sentiment score
6.3
NGINX App Protect's scalability is praised by some for flexibility but criticized by others for deployment and configuration challenges.
Scaling can be done anytime as needed.
Co-Founder at arpa
I find that Front Door can become expensive for large-scale projects with more transactions and users.
Azure Consultant at cloudshift
The scalability of NGINX App Protect is good and open source at its best.
Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Azure Front Door is praised for stability and performance, with minor DNS issues and advantages in updates via Azure Portal.
Sentiment score
8.4
NGINX App Protect is praised for stability, speed, and flexibility, outperforming competitors, but noted for potential improvements.
I rate Azure Front Door's stability a nine because it is easy to make updates through Azure Portal.
Co-Founder at arpa
It is a quality solution, and I would rate its stability as eight out of ten.
IT Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Front Door needs improvements in multi-cloud support, pricing, user interface, DDoS protection, and enhanced functionalities as per feedback.
NGINX App Protect needs better configuration flexibility, automation, and support, with improvements in throughput, licensing, and communication from F5.
It relies on the WAF module where users must configure rate-limiting rules, as it does not automatically sense malicious spikes in traffic.
Architect at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
If I could use Azure Front Door with private IP addresses, it would be more beneficial.
Azure Consultant at cloudshift
The only significant adjustment required is with URL set parameters that need to be passed for an existing domain.
Co-Founder at arpa
There was more information from F5 regarding hardware requirements and specifications to deploy the service.
IT Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The GUI and web GUI configuration could be improved to be easier to manage and use.
Dev Ops Engineer at adesso AG
I think NGINX App Protect could be improved by having it come out of the box with NGINX.
Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Azure Front Door offers flexible, tiered pricing praised for balancing cost and features, though premium levels may seem expensive.
NGINX App Protect pricing is expensive but some find it reasonable, with flexible subscription options and competitive licensing costs.
Azure Front Door is cheaper for small projects, companies, or applications compared to using separate tools.
Azure Consultant at cloudshift
 

Valuable Features

Azure Front Door enhances security, performance, and global reach with features like SSL offloading, load-balancing, and traffic analytics.
NGINX App Protect provides security, flexibility, automation, and integration with DevOps, featuring WAF, traffic management, and container support.
Azure Front Door includes a built-in web application firewall, which performs signature-based checks of the request payload, offering protection against common attacks or malicious requests.
Co-Founder at arpa
Azure Front Door provides DDoS protection and features related to WAF.
Azure Consultant at cloudshift
The most valuable feature is the ability to operate in a DevOps environment and to be configured through API and pipeline by the developers themselves.
IT Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Detecting bots and blocking IPs have proven effective for securing applications.
Project Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
It is stable, affordable, and easy to manage.
Dev Ops Engineer at adesso AG
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Front Door
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
13th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
CDN (4th), Microsoft Security Suite (18th)
NGINX App Protect
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Container Security (27th), API Security (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Azure Front Door is 3.5%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NGINX App Protect is 2.1%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Azure Front Door3.5%
NGINX App Protect2.1%
Other94.4%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2226693 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Optimizing global application performance with robust security measures and advanced traffic management
DDoS capabilities in Azure Front Door could certainly be improved. Although Microsoft states it comes with basic DDoS protections out of the box, I find it often ineffectual in mitigating thousands of requests from a single source in a short span of time. User then have to rely on the WAF module where users must configure rate-limiting rules, as it does not automatically sense malicious spikes in traffic. I believe Front Door should have an out-of-the-box premium DDoS protection that can automatically detect and block malicious traffic. I would appreciate improvements in the turnaround time for support, especially since issues with Azure Front Door are usually critical for businesses. If there is an issue, it often results in downtime for line of business applications. I have faced this situation multiple times as one of the largest financial institutions in India is hosted there, adhering to strict SLAs that require prompt responses.
JP
Project Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Blocking IPs and detecting bots enhances security for medical websites
I was researching products like NGINX App Protect and F5 Advanced WAF for long-term options. I have some use for such a solution, but probably not before next year Detecting bots and blocking IPs have proven effective for securing applications. We were able to block groups of IP addresses that…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Front Door?
I am not sure about the pricing but believe Azure Front Door might require a higher cost due to its entry point nature.
What needs improvement with Azure Front Door?
DDoS capabilities in Azure Front Door could certainly be improved. Although Microsoft states it comes with basic DDoS protections out of the box, I find it often ineffectual in mitigating thousands...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX App Protect?
I don't know the pricing yet because in my other project, I was not part of the buying side and I was just starting to look at options.
What needs improvement with NGINX App Protect?
It would be better if it were easier to implement and if there was more information from F5 regarding hardware requirements and specifications to deploy the service, to avoid disruptions after impl...
 

Also Known As

Azure Front-Door
NGINX WAF, NGINX Web Application Firewall
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Front Door vs. NGINX App Protect and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.