


Imperva Application Security Platform and F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager compete in the application and network security category. Imperva seems to have the upper hand in automated attack prevention and traffic filtering, while F5 excels in integration capabilities and network protection modules.
Features: Imperva Application Security Platform offers profiling policies, intelligent traffic filtering, and frequent updates via a cloud model. It provides inline protection from DDoS and other threats with a simplistic configuration. F5 BIG-IP AFM features robust network protection modules, load balancing, DNS security, and firewall functions, showcasing strong integration capabilities and a comprehensive security platform.
Room for Improvement: Imperva users seek enhanced analytics, better certificate management, and cost reduction, and they face challenges with the configuration interface and reporting features. F5 BIG-IP AFM requires better geolocation updates, easier configuration logic, and improved integration with cloud services. The complexity of AFM's deployment logic and pricing are additional concerns.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Imperva supports deployment in public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, praised for its simplicity. Its technical support is well-rated, though some users have noted issues with timeliness and first-level support. F5 BIG-IP AFM is mainly an on-premises solution that lacks automated deployment processes, receiving mixed feedback on its technical support efficiency.
Pricing and ROI: Imperva's pricing is high for small companies but is seen as justified by its features and ROI in sectors like banking, offering reduced management overhead. F5 BIG-IP AFM is considered pricey as well, but the ability to combine multiple security features helps justify costs, especially for complete network security solutions.
For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.
In terms of return on investment with Cloudflare, it costs my time to set them up, but basically once they're set up, it's done.
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.
Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.
I would rate the technical support with Cloudflare as excellent every time I've had to call them.
We use other solutions where support is available through Slack channels and is more interactive, with someone responding within a couple of minutes or seconds.
The responses are generally fast and effective.
The customer service is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten.
I rate the technical support by F5 a ten from one to ten.
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.
It is a SaaS tool, but the fact that they have workloads deployed across the world proves that it is a highly scalable tool.
The tool offers very good performance, even during high-traffic periods.
The solution is highly scalable, allowing me to add or remove nodes and manage traffic without interruption, which is essential for meeting application demands.
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 service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.
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.
Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor.
Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements.
There are some performance considerations when it comes to dynamic content that involves fetching data from databases or using APIs.
Having advanced technology similar to other vendors like Palo Alto for zero-day attack prevention would be valuable.
The appliance and features could be enhanced further, especially in terms of security.
I would assess the importance of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM)'s integration with cloud services as significant.
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.
I find it to be cheap.
I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.
The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive.
The standard license is reasonably priced, but additional features like the WAF can be more expensive.
If considering a one-stop solution that provides load balancing, DNS security, AAA authentication, and firewalling on the same hardware, the cost is reasonable.
I would rate the pricing of Imperva DDoS as five, where one is very cheap and ten is very expensive.
Techniques like minification and image compression reduce the size of assets, leading to better performance and faster user load times.
The solution has been able to compare it to the market, and I think the product has taken great strides in automating quite a bit of things, and they use a lot of AI.
Most of our DNS records that are presented to the internet are proxied whenever possible, providing another layer of defense from our perspective.
The solution provides behavioral analysis via AI to detect malicious traffic.
The most valuable features for me are stability, availability, and security, along with the ability to manage multiple features to secure my applications.
I think the DDoS features are valuable in F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM), and I recommend it usually for certain types of companies.
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 (%) |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | 16.2% |
| Imperva Application Security Platform | 8.5% |
| F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) | 1.2% |
| Other | 74.1% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 46 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 8 |
| Large Enterprise | 26 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 9 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 5 |
| Large Enterprise | 14 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 84 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 25 |
| Large Enterprise | 62 |
Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.
Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.
What are Cloudflare's key features?Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is a high-performance, full-proxy network security solution designed to protect networks and data centers against incoming threats that enter the network. Built on F5’s industry-leading BIG-IP hardware and software platforms, BIG-IP AFM provides a scalable platform that delivers the flexible performance and control needed to mitigate aggressive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and protocol attacks before they overwhelm and degrade applications and infrastructure availability.
For service providers, BIG-IP AFM IPS does even more, protecting the network edge and performing traffic inspection and protocol adherence for prevalent service provider protocols such as SS7, Diameter, HTTP/2, GTP, SCTP and SIP traffic coming into the network over UDP, TCP, and SCTP.
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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