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F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) vs Radware DDoS comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 18, 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
6.5
Cloudflare enhanced speed, security, and data protection, providing significant ROI and improved operations and client satisfaction for businesses.
Sentiment score
7.2
F5 BIG-IP AFM offers ROI and cost efficiency when integrated, but standalone ROI is below average, despite perceived value.
Sentiment score
6.0
Radware DDoS reduces financial losses and downtime, offering 20% ROI by preventing costly cyber attack damages and disruptions.
WordPress security can be tricky, and that's where Cloudflare can be absolutely helpful for small businesses.
For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.
The hybrid approach optimized infrastructure costs and personnel resources.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Cloudflare's customer service is efficient for paying users, but responses can vary in speed and effectiveness for others.
Sentiment score
6.5
F5 BIG-IP AFM support is praised for professionalism but needs faster ticket resolution and improved recommendation accuracy.
Sentiment score
7.1
Radware DDoS is praised for effective 24/7 customer support with knowledgeable staff, surpassing competitors like Check Point and Cisco.
This would help us address issues promptly, especially during unforeseen events like DDoS attacks.
Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.
The key factor is the language in which the support is offered, which, in this case, is in Thai.
The responses are generally fast and effective.
The customer service is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten.
Providing assistance almost instantly when needed.
Ensuring less than one second mitigation for L3/L4 and less than ten seconds for L7.
Before using Radware, I experienced some delays with another product, but with Radware, we have immediate connections with high-level technical support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cloudflare is praised for seamless scalability, managing enterprise-level traffic efficiently and earning high customer satisfaction during peak events.
Sentiment score
7.3
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager offers scalable, efficient management for hybrid setups, supporting organizational growth and cloud migration.
Sentiment score
7.7
Radware DDoS is praised for its scalable, cloud-based solution that efficiently handles high traffic across various industries.
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.
I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.
The solution is highly scalable, allowing me to add or remove nodes and manage traffic without interruption, which is essential for meeting application demands.
In terms of scalability, Radware DDoS excels.
Scalability is well-supported by Radware.
It is scalable and user-friendly.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Cloudflare is widely regarded as stable and reliable, with improvements noted in uptime and performance on higher plans.
Sentiment score
8.4
F5 BIG-IP AFM is lauded for its stability and reliability, with high user ratings and minimal operational issues.
Sentiment score
8.2
Radware DDoS is stable and reliable, highly rated by users for consistent performance and effective support despite rare issues.
For DDoS protection, I would not recommend Cloudflare.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.
The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.
In my opinion, there is no downtime experienced with Radware DDoS Protection Service due to external network redundancy.
 

Room For Improvement

Cloudflare requires improvements in analytics, CDN speed, API, technical support, DNS management, documentation, pricing clarity, and international and reseller support.
F5 BIG-IP AFM is costly, complex, needs dashboard improvements, enhanced features, better integration, and concerns over CPU and support.
Radware DDoS users seek improved scalability, integration, machine learning, and enhanced features, including interface, documentation, and customer support advancements.
There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features.
Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor.
Cloudflare should add more documentation and pricing to the cloud version.
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.
We suggest that clear visibility within a management console could significantly enhance Radware DDoS's usability.
There should be improved bot management integration that mitigates bot-based DDoS attacks completely.
I suggest improvements to the user interface to make it easier to use and to find the necessary data for analysis.
 

Setup Cost

Cloudflare offers cost-effective, scalable plans with no setup fees, starting from free for small businesses to enterprise-level solutions.
F5 BIG-IP AFM is costly but justified by its features, with pricing for licenses and potential extra feature fees.
Radware DDoS pricing is high but offers flexible plans and strong value, suitable for large enterprises seeking long-term security.
That's where Cloudflare shines for smaller businesses – it's ten times cheaper than Akamai.
I find it to be cheap.
I think they should consider reevaluating the pricing for support, as it can be quite high.
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.
Radware pricing is on the high end, suitable more for larger organizations.
I didn't check pricing of other providers in depth but verified with two, and found Radware to be significantly cheaper compared to F5.
We have a premium cost setup to align with a tier four uptime certified data center, storing and protecting critical infrastructure.
 

Valuable Features

Cloudflare enhances security, speed, and SEO with easy-to-use features like CDN, SSL, DDoS protection, and centralized management.
F5 BIG-IP AFM offers robust network security, ease of use, and supports cloud migration with AI-driven features.
Radware DDoS offers comprehensive protection with behavior analysis, automation, user-friendly interface, and adaptable deployment for optimal DDoS management.
The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security.
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.
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.
The support from Radware is also exceptional, as they are always willing to jump on a call to help solve issues and improve our network design.
The ERT feeds, which are based on Radware intelligence services, have been beneficial to my organization because they block a lot of malicious IP addresses and botnets.
The best feature of Radware DDoS Protection Service is the automation.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare
Sponsored
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
CDN (1st), Managed DNS (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (13th)
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall...
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Radware DDoS
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 19.7%, up from 18.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is 1.3%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Radware DDoS is 8.5%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

Carlos Alam Hernandez Baruch - PeerSpot reviewer
Fast and secure deployments simplify operations for government and fintech clients
It is a fast and secure DNS. It is very easy to deploy, and my customers are happy with this tool. Additionally, the CDN performance in Mexico is excellent, providing fast service and tools. It offers reliability during high-traffic periods, ensuring no impact on the environment. It helps my clients avoid using on-premise boxes, simplifying operations as they only use the prices on Cloudflare.
Pawel Augustyn - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides outstanding resource management and application security across multiple geographies
The most valuable features for me are stability, availability, and security, along with the ability to manage multiple features to secure my applications. The solution also monitors and blocks unconventional requests and maintains security efficiently. The scalability feature also allows me to manage and allocate resources dynamically without disrupting production traffic.
Tanuj-Garg - PeerSpot reviewer
Multi-layered defense ensures robust protection and optimized resources
Radware DDoS Protection Service is valued for its multi-layered defense protection, always-on and on-demand service, zero-day protection with adaptive behavioral-based mitigation, DNS and infrastructure protection, and SSL attack mitigation. The solution's multi-layer protection covers volumetric, protocol-based, and application layer attacks. They offer a very effective response against DNS attacks. Regarding behavior-based detection technology, in terms of real-time detection, it has been able to reduce false positives. We have pretty good experience with them. The geolocation is pretty good for an organization such as ours. We can block anything from certain regions, like North Korea or China, etc, cetera. It works alongside machine learning. They can update policies globally in less than ten seconds, which really helps with false positives. During a DDoS attack, it ensures legitimate users are not affected. We're working on a hybrid solution, so we have Defence Pro devices on our side and unlimited mitigation capabilities on the cloud.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
16%
Performing Arts
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Non Profit
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...
What do you like most about Cloudflare?
Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
The standard license is reasonably priced, but additional features like the WAF can be more expensive. There are plen...
What needs improvement with F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
The appliance and features could be enhanced further, especially in terms of security. Some features like the WAF ( /...
What do you like most about Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The most important part is that Radware DDoS integrates seamlessly and provides anomaly identification, real-time not...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
For Radware Cloud DDoS Protection, the pricing model can vary based on a number of factors such as the scale of the b...
What needs improvement with Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The time it takes to upload a site to the cloud is critical when under attack. If a site is down, a quick response to...
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS
F5 AFM, F5 Advanced Firewall Manager
Radware DDoS Protection Service, Radware DefensePro, Radware DefenseFlow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Myntex, APAC retailers
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) vs. Radware DDoS and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.