Azure Web Application Firewall vs F5 Advanced WAF comparison

Microsoft and F5 are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Microsoft is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.3, while F5 is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Microsoft holds a 3.0% mindshare in WAF, compared to F5’s 7.5% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of F5 users who would recommend it.

Azure Web Application Firewall

Read 16 Azure Web Application Firewall reviews

3,060 Views
2,448 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

F5 Advanced WAF

Read 73 F5 Advanced WAF reviews

7,285 Views
6,848 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Azure Web Application Firewall

F5 Advanced WAF

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

F5 Advanced WAF and Azure Web Application Firewall are two solutions competing in the category of web application protection. F5 Advanced WAF is often preferred due to its comprehensive features and versatility, particularly in complex environments, while Azure WAF is favored for its cost-effectiveness and integration within Azure's ecosystem.

Features: F5 Advanced WAF provides robust application security through DDoS prevention, AI-driven threat detection, and granular policy customization. Its versatility and integration with load balancers allow for enhanced security management. On the other hand, Azure Web Application Firewall offers ease of use with seamless integration within Azure, providing effective fundamental security capabilities with less complexity.

Room for Improvement: Suggestions for F5 Advanced WAF include improving user-friendliness, legacy protocol support, and pricing structures. User interface enhancements and more responsive technical support are also desired. Azure WAF could improve by expanding its documentation, adding advanced features to match competitors, and offering more cost-effective plans for smaller enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: F5 Advanced WAF provides flexibility across hybrid and on-premises environments, though its complexity during deployment and variable support levels can be challenging. Azure Web Application Firewall offers easier deployment in cloud settings and benefits from Microsoft's support infrastructure, yet improvements in response time and documentation clarity are necessary.

Pricing and ROI: F5 Advanced WAF is recognized for delivering significant ROI with its comprehensive security features despite high costs. It is justified in security-critical environments. Azure Web Application Firewall's affordable pricing within the Azure ecosystem makes it a practical option for enterprises with existing Azure services. Both solutions offer favorable ROI, yet Azure provides more cost-effective choices for dedicated Azure users.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Advanced WAF Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Advanced WAF

February 2026

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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

3.9

Azure Web Application Firewall offers cost-efficiency through reduced administration, AI enhancements, and competitive pricing compared to leading competitors.

Sentiment score

7.6

F5 Advanced WAF boosts ROI by enhancing security, reducing overhead, and protecting assets in sectors like finance and banking.

Recently, they have been under serious attack with major exploits, such as Log4j, affecting Fortinet and Palo Alto, and even Cisco and VMware.

Mats Hagberg Olsson

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

AI-based recommendations save on time and money.

Mano Senaratne

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Time savings in daily operations come from the automatic learning and signature update reducing the need for constant manual rule management, allowing the security and network teams to spend significantly less time handling false positive application-related escalations.

Kallamuddin Ansari

Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize

Subscription models offer clearer ROI due to a more competitive pricing scheme.

reviewer2641242

Global Channel Alliances Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The amount of attacks it protects against is immense, more than F5 Advanced WAF itself costs.

Kkc Casey

Security Solutions Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 Advanced WAF report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.1

Microsoft support is generally satisfactory, with users preferring higher-tier options for faster response and clearer communication.

Sentiment score

6.9

F5 Advanced WAF's support is professional and helpful, though response times vary based on service level and issue priority.

They are good at troubleshooting and configuring things.

Mano Senaratne

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

I am very satisfied with the response from Microsoft dedicated architects if it happens that I have to call for their support.

Mats Hagberg Olsson

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

I reached out to their support, and they helped me resolve the issue effectively.

Adolfo Albanell

Owner at ICAL S.A.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Both response time and availability need to be improved.

Pawan Thakur

Project Manager at IBM

F5 Advanced WAF provides the insights and notifications I need in terms of reporting and alerting.

Mohamed Fouad

cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK

If there is a bug, the support is usually understanding and resolves issues.

RoiNahari

CEO at CyberApp

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 Advanced WAF report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.6

Azure Web Application Firewall offers flexible, highly-rated scalability, easily adapting to traffic changes and various workload needs across subscriptions.

Sentiment score

7.5

F5 Advanced WAF is adaptable, scalable, and supports diverse business needs with robust load balancing and cloud capabilities.

Some Azure applications, like the web application firewall, require a certain level of SKU for hosting setup.

Mano Senaratne

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

For our company, Azure Web Application Firewall works effectively for scalability.

Kevin Rua Jefwa

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

I can run it in HA mode or even divide the traffic volume to the number of instances that I have based on their resource sizing.

Kkc Casey

Security Solutions Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 Advanced WAF report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.1

Azure Web Application Firewall is highly stable, with minimal connectivity or performance issues and consistently earns high reliability ratings.

Sentiment score

8.4

F5 Advanced WAF is praised for its stability and reliability, handling substantial workloads effectively with minimal bugs.

Very rarely do I see any latency issues.

Mano Senaratne

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

F5 Advanced WAF has been very reliable and consistent for us; in our on-premise enterprise setup, it has been stable and predictable in day-to-day operations without any unexpected crashes or WAF-related downtime in production.

Kallamuddin Ansari

Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize

F5 Advanced WAF is pretty stable.

Kkc Casey

Security Solutions Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 Advanced WAF report

Room For Improvement

Azure Web Application Firewall needs better reporting, integration, cost plans, and process streamlining for enhanced management and support.

F5 Advanced WAF needs a user-friendly interface, better integration, competitive pricing, and improved automation, scalability, and documentation.

Upgrading the platform regularly is necessary for security, however, frequent updates every six months or year from Azure can be a maintenance overhead.

Mano Senaratne

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

The pricing needs improvement, and I think for beginners it will be a little bit complicated, so the ease of use could be enhanced.

Kevin Rua Jefwa

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Deployment training for F5 Advanced WAF is lacking and restricts growth by being inaccessible and costly for partners.

reviewer2641242

Global Channel Alliances Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Overall, these are not blockers, merely enhancement opportunities, and once tuned, F5 Advanced WAF is very stable and reliable; improving usability, reporting, and onboarding would make it even more effective for larger environments.

Kallamuddin Ansari

Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize

There is excellent clarity in the LTM and the WAF.

Pawan Thakur

Project Manager at IBM

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 Advanced WAF report

Setup Cost

Azure Web Application Firewall offers scalable pricing, valued functionality, and favorable terms, appealing compared to AWS and GCP.

F5 Advanced WAF's high cost is justified by its robust features, appealing to enterprises needing comprehensive protection.

It is even a lower cost compared to AWS and GCP.

Mats Hagberg Olsson

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

Sometimes, when opting for a higher SKU, it's not the WAF itself that's costly but the additional requirements.

Mano Senaratne

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

I would place Azure Web Application Firewall at an eight on a scale from one to 10, with one being cheap and 10 being expensive.

Kevin Rua Jefwa

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

Licensing is capacity-driven, so you need careful planning based on traffic volume and use cases, and adding features such as Bot Protection impacts costs; once licensing is clear and sized correctly, there are no surprises.

Kallamuddin Ansari

Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize

Subscription models have competitive pricing, while perpetual licenses involve an upfront higher cost.

reviewer2641242

Global Channel Alliances Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The price is affordable and satisfactory.

RoiNahari

CEO at CyberApp

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 Advanced WAF report

Valuable Features

Azure Web Application Firewall offers robust security, seamless Azure integration, automatic rule management, and scalable, user-friendly deployment with minimal downtime.

F5 Advanced WAF excels in detection, customization, and reporting, providing comprehensive web application security and user-friendly operation.

With Microsoft, everything is within a single suite, making it easier to configure and plan.

Mano Senaratne

Head of Digital Engineering, Management Consultant at Stax Inc.

It is almost impossible to access these assets from outside, requiring a very skilled attacker to obtain asset tokens of a customer using Azure.

Mats Hagberg Olsson

Senior Solutions Architect at EQ2 Technology

It integrates effectively with things such as Sentinel and Defender for Cloud, so mostly it's the analytics and now the AI capabilities that have been introduced with Co-pilot.

Kevin Rua Jefwa

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

For more quotes and insights, download the Azure Web Application Firewall report

The Advanced Attack Signature database is very strong and regularly updated, effectively blocking SQL injections, cross-site scripting, command injections, and file inclusion attacks while allowing selective enabling or disabling of signatures to avoid blocking genuine traffic.

Kallamuddin Ansari

Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize

F5 Advanced WAF offers the best features that are capable of stopping any type of attack, and it is a really reliable and stable product that you can rely on to stop any type of attack.

Mohamed Fouad

cybersecurity Team Leader at EMAK

The perpetual license, despite an initial higher cost, lacks transparency regarding support expiration.

reviewer2641242

Global Channel Alliances Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the F5 Advanced WAF report

Categories and Ranking

Azure Web Application Firewall

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (21st)

F5 Advanced WAF

Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Azure Web Application Firewall is 3.0%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 Advanced WAF is 7.5%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
F5 Advanced WAF	7.5%
Azure Web Application Firewall	3.0%
Other	89.5%

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Featured Reviews

Kevin Rua Jefwa

Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC

Offers robust analytics and seamless cloud integration with minor room for user interface improvement

The Microsoft support and the analytics are what I appreciate about Azure Web Application Firewall. It integrates effectively with things such as Sentinel and Defender for Cloud, so mostly it's the analytics and now the AI capabilities that have been introduced with Co-pilot. It helps when looking for threats. It reduces issues significantly because the filtering capabilities are high. Given that it's a cloud solution, we have very minimal downtime, especially because we have Microsoft support. On a scale of one to 10, I would give it an eight.

Read full review

Kallamuddin Ansari

Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize

Application security has protected critical banking services while policy learning minimizes false blocks

F5 Advanced WAF performs well overall, but I have noticed some points that could enhance the solution. Initially, policy tuning could be simpler, as while the learning engine is powerful, initial tuning still requires experienced engineers, which can be challenging for new teams due to the complexity of options and parameters. A more guided and simple tuning workflow would help reduce the learning curve. Additionally, tighter native integration with SIEM or SOAR tools would simplify correlation and investigations for security teams, although log exports are available. Overall, these are not blockers, merely enhancement opportunities, and once tuned, F5 Advanced WAF is very stable and reliable; improving usability, reporting, and onboarding would make it even more effective for larger environments.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	31

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Web Application Firewall?

I would place Azure Web Application Firewall at an eight on a scale from one to 10, with one being cheap and 10 being expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Web Application Firewall?

The pricing needs improvement, and I think for beginners it will be a little bit complicated, so the ease of use could be enhanced. I've worked with Fortinet and Cisco, and I think the UI is a litt...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Azure Web Application Firewall?

Because we mostly operate in the cloud and because we're a Microsoft environment, it was the best option in the scenario. The options were limited in terms of wanting to be an only Microsoft enviro...

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What do you like most about F5 Advanced WAF?

It's a fairly easy-to-use and user-friendly tool. My administrators and team also like its ability to customize the rules per the requirements.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Advanced WAF?

Regarding the price, I think the cost is a bit higher compared to others. Earlier we were using Radware, and compared to Radware, it is very high. However, it is providing more features than Radwar...

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What needs improvement with F5 Advanced WAF?

In terms of additional features I would like to see from them in the future, I think the GTM is a bit complicated to configure, which I observed. Otherwise, LTM and WAF are straightforward. I faced...

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Comparisons

AWS WAF vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 12% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 11% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Akamai App and API Protector vs Azure Web Application Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Azure Web Application Firewall Competitors

Fortinet FortiWeb vs F5 Advanced WAF

Compared 26% of the time

Imperva Application Security Platform vs F5 Advanced WAF

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs F5 Advanced WAF

Compared 7% of the time

AWS WAF vs F5 Advanced WAF

Compared 5% of the time

Akamai App and API Protector vs F5 Advanced WAF

Compared 2% of the time

More F5 Advanced WAF Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Web Application Firewall

February 2026

Download Azure Web Application Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

F5 Advanced WAF

February 2026

Download F5 Advanced WAF product report

Overview

Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides centralized protection of your web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities. Web applications are increasingly targeted by malicious attacks that exploit commonly known vulnerabilities. SQL injection and cross-site scripting are among the most common attacks.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

F5 Advanced WAF is a web application security solution for financial and government sectors, e-commerce, and public-facing websites. It offers protection against various attacks, including botnets, web scraping, and foreign entities. The solution can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud and is often used with other security tools. Its most valuable features include DDoS and DNS attack protection, SSL uploading, anomaly detection, and the ability to input custom rules.

F5 Advanced WAF has helped organizations to expose more services to the public while providing an extra layer of protection, preventing revenue loss, and securing connectivity.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

MAXIMUS, Vivo, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office, City Bank

Buyer's Guide

Azure Web Application Firewall vs. F5 Advanced WAF

February 2026

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