


Imperva Application Security Platform and F5 Advanced WAF both compete in the web application security category. Based on data comparisons, Imperva seems to have the upper hand due to its ease of deployment and comprehensive protection features, which contribute to high user satisfaction.
Features: Imperva is valued for its ease of deployment, protection against DDoS and application-layer attacks, and user behavior analytics. These features enhance its overall security offering. F5 Advanced WAF provides exceptional threat detection, behavioral analysis, and granular policy control, which are crucial for robust application protection.
Room for Improvement: Imperva could improve its analytics depth, enhance bot protection, and expand traffic monitoring visibility. It also faces mixed reviews on support and pricing complexities. F5 Advanced WAF could enhance its user interface, simplify deployment processes, and offer better API integration.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Imperva is praised for quick deployment and integration across cloud environments, with generally positive customer service. F5 Advanced WAF, while stable in various environments, presents a more challenging setup process requiring substantial expertise. Technical support is comprehensive, although some users find it complex and slow.
Pricing and ROI: Imperva's pricing is often viewed as expensive, but its ROI is appreciated for mitigating frequent DDoS risks. F5 Advanced WAF is also considered costly due to licensing and features, yet it offers a high ROI for enterprises with extensive security needs.
My experience with the pricing or licensing of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall is that many features can be accessed for free, so the pricing is definitely reasonable.
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.
Subscription models offer clearer ROI due to a more competitive pricing scheme.
The amount of attacks it protects against is immense, more than F5 Advanced WAF itself costs.
They know how much money they are losing while the system is down, so by increasing the possibility of not having a down website or web application, return on investment can be calculated easily.
Regarding return on investment, ROI, I can say it is noticeable with Imperva Application Security Platform.
I would rate the technical support with Cloudflare as excellent every time I've had to contact them.
The technical support of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall rates between five and seven at maximum.
Both response time and availability need to be improved.
If there is a bug, the support is usually understanding and resolves issues.
I have interacted with F5's support, and while I have no major complaints, they could improve.
I would rate the technical support of Imperva DDoS as ten.
The response is satisfactory, though the gaps in enablement and lab sessions are clear.
My experience with technical support from Imperva Application Security Platform was good when I reached out to them.
The scalability of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall rates between 8 to 9, as it depends upon the use cases and what exactly the client needs.
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.
99% of customers are using the cloud version of Imperva DDoS protection, so they just purchase the new license and scale as needed.
I have not even needed support after deployment, since it has remained stable.
The stability of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall deserves a perfect 10 out of 10.
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.
F5 Advanced WAF is pretty stable.
It is also a stable product without much glitch or downtime.
One notable drawback is that, unlike Fortinet, which offers fast track labs and continuous enablement, Imperva Application Security Platform lacks lab access and fast track labs for enablement and product advertising.
The stability of Imperva DDoS is very good, as it seems they have a lot of servers around the world.
The product can improve by having more multitenancy capability, which is currently not available.
I think they're doing a good job with DNS and as support for any domains that I create or that my clients create, it's mandatory for me to ensure they have Cloudflare as their DNS provider.
And maybe something similar to Pushpin that Fastly has, which is an option where you can push messages that then can be scaled globally over the network.
Deployment training for F5 Advanced WAF is lacking and restricts growth by being inaccessible and costly for partners.
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.
There is excellent clarity in the LTM and the WAF.
To convince my clients, a purely on-prem solution would be ideal since they are financial institutions.
Maybe Imperva DDoS could use endpoints to get information about the attacks before they commence from the endpoint level or establish cooperation with endpoint vendors to share this information.
Regarding return on investment, ROI, I can say it is noticeable with Imperva Application Security Platform.
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.
Subscription models have competitive pricing, while perpetual licenses involve an upfront higher cost.
The price is affordable and satisfactory.
I would rate the pricing of Imperva DDoS as five, where one is very cheap and ten is very expensive.
The custom rules and the geo-redundant geographical rule feature, which allows me to implement geographical rules for customers, add significant value.
The best features of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall are multiple, including the WAF, rate limiter, and bot attack protection.
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's advanced reporting and analytics tools add a layer that we're able to visualize and see before it actually hits the local firewall.
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.
The perpetual license, despite an initial higher cost, lacks transparency regarding support expiration.
It contains the logic of both negative and positive security combined.
I have utilized Imperva's Intelligent Traffic Filtering feature. This feature helps me understand how the attack is progressing and what is happening inside the requests to our website.
I believe the reputational analysis in Imperva Application Security Platform is effective for blocking security threats before impact.
The main drawback for signature-based approaches happens when there is a new zero-day attack that is not in the database.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| F5 Advanced WAF | 7.1% |
| Imperva Application Security Platform | 8.1% |
| Cloudflare Web Application Firewall | 5.4% |
| Other | 79.4% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 16 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 6 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 26 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 15 |
| Large Enterprise | 31 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 84 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 25 |
| Large Enterprise | 62 |
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall's intuitive dashboard enables users to build powerful rules through easy clicks and also provides Terraform integration. Every request to the WAF is inspected against the rule engine and the threat intelligence curated from protecting over 27 Million websites. Suspicious requests can be blocked, challenged or logged as per the needs of the user while legitimate requests are routed to the destination, agnostic of whether it lives on-premise or in the cloud. Analytics and Cloudflare Logs enable visibility into actionable metrics for the user.
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.
Imperva Application Security Platform delivers comprehensive and continuous web threat protection. Renowned for its ease of use, it shields web applications and databases from various cyber threats while integrating seamlessly with cloud and on-premises environments.
Imperva Application Security Platform protects web environments by offering advanced security measures against threats like DDoS attacks, SQL injections, and cross-site scripting. As a robust web application firewall, it provides extensive monitoring and bot management capabilities. The platform integrates content delivery networks for enhanced performance and scalability, while real-time traffic analysis ensures consistent protection. Despite its strengths, improvements can be made in policy management and customization options. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and more competitive pricing models. The inclusion of AI for enhanced analytics is also anticipated.
What are the key features of Imperva Application Security Platform?Imperva Application Security Platform is implemented in industries needing strong database and application protection. Companies use it to enforce geolocation restrictions and manage bots, benefiting sectors like finance and e-commerce where data security and threat monitoring are critical. Its ability to protect and ensure data accessibility makes it integral to business operations prioritizing cyber resilience.
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