


NGINX App Protect and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway are contenders in the application security and traffic management sector. While Azure Application Gateway has an edge due to its seamless integration with other Azure services and ease of use, NGINX App Protect is appreciated for its robust security features.
Features: NGINX App Protect provides security headers, proxy capabilities, and a command-line interface. Its reverse proxy capabilities, auto-learning, and bot protection are highly valued. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is noted for comprehensive traffic management, ease of use, and effective web application firewall (WAF). Its seamless integration with Azure services, scalability, and straightforward configuration are significant advantages.
Room for Improvement: NGINX App Protect needs enhancements in flexibility, pricing structures, and integration with current security solutions. It also faces scalability challenges and lacks certain automation features. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway requires better flexibility, scalability, and security features. Simplifying the configuration process and enhancing performance and third-party feature integration would be beneficial.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NGINX App Protect often demands on-premises deployment, limiting its versatility compared to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's support for public and hybrid clouds. Feedback on NGINX support varies, whereas Microsoft Azure benefits from a robust support network but is sometimes criticized for slow responses and complex initial configurations.
Pricing and ROI: NGINX App Protect is viewed as pricey with a complex pricing model based on instances but offers decent ROI with significant initial investment. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, while also expensive, provides a flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model without steep licensing fees. Users report favorable ROI, particularly those heavily integrated with Azure, though initial costs are noted as high.
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.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway significantly impacts our cost savings while maintaining higher performance.
If we can use a shared resource, then the return on investment is really nice.
We have seen a return on investment in terms of time-saving and cost-saving by not creating our own infrastructure.
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.
I would say they provide the best support for Application Gateway because they own the product, so their support is top-notch.
There is room for improvement, specifically in paid support, by providing more direct contact.
I would rate Microsoft support as good because they have a very skilled technical support team in the background
They were quick and efficient when we had issues.
I would rate the customer support a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10.
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.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a very scalable product.
It has the autoscaling feature, so there is not much concern around performance; it can scale significantly.
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is a scalable solution.
The scalability of NGINX App Protect is good and open source at its best.
The stability of Cloudflare Web Application Firewall deserves a perfect 10 out of 10.
We have been using it for the past two to three years, and there have been good results with no problems so far.
The stability is good, and except for a few instances, I don't see the non-availability of Azure Cloud services.
It is a quality solution, and I would rate its stability as eight out of ten.
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.
One feature I mentioned is the support for non-HTTPS protocols such as TCP, which could allow one endpoint for all kinds of protocols.
There is room for improvement in terms of support, such as assigning agents directly for more straightforward engagement.
In future releases of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would like to see more AI functionalities and a better dashboard as well as some customizations.
There was more information from F5 regarding hardware requirements and specifications to deploy the service.
The GUI and web GUI configuration could be improved to be easier to manage and use.
I think NGINX App Protect could be improved by having it come out of the box with NGINX.
We would prefer to have it cheaper, but it is still expensive.
Azure solutions are quite expensive.
When it comes to pricing for Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, I would rate it a seven out of ten.
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.
We are using it for some of the security features for our applications, particularly for securing traffic in transit with SSL.
The Web Application Firewall (WAF) in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has been very effective in protecting applications from security threats.
The gateway's Web Application Firewall feature enhances security as it is the first entry point to your network from the outside world.
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.
Detecting bots and blocking IPs have proven effective for securing applications.
It is stable, affordable, and easy to manage.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure Application Gateway | 4.9% |
| Cloudflare Web Application Firewall | 5.4% |
| NGINX App Protect | 2.2% |
| Other | 87.5% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 16 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 6 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 22 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 24 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 9 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 12 |
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.
Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.
To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.
NGINX App Protect application security solution combines the efficacy of advanced F5 web application firewall (WAF) technology with the agility and performance of NGINX Plus. The solution runs natively on NGINX Plus and addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing modern DevOps environments:
NGINX App Protect offers:
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