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Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) comparison

Microsoft and Fastly are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.6, while Fastly is ranked #28 with an average rating of 7.5. Microsoft holds a 8.0% mindshare in WAF, compared to Fastly’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 79% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Fastly users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Azure Application...
Read 48 Microsoft Azure Application Gateway reviews
  • 7,132 Views
  • 4,380 Comparison Views
79% willing to recommend
The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (po...
Read 3 The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) reviews
  • 672 Views
  • 348 Comparison Views
50% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Fastly Next-Gen WAF and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway compete in the web application security market. Fastly Next-Gen WAF often has the upper hand due to its ease of use and customer support, while Azure Application Gateway is valued for its integration capabilities.

Features: Fastly Next-Gen WAF is known for its robust threat protection, automation capabilities, and flexible configuration options. Azure Application Gateway provides sophisticated traffic management, built-in firewall features, and scalability with Azure services.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fastly Next-Gen WAF is straightforward in deployment and is supported by high-quality customer service. Azure Application Gateway offers extensive integration supported by Azure's customer service infrastructure, though it may have a steeper learning curve.

Pricing and ROI: Fastly Next-Gen WAF is recognized for its competitive pricing and strong ROI, suitable for businesses seeking minimal upfront costs and efficient performance. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway might have higher initial costs, with its integration and scalability justifying the investment for enterprises.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
June 2025
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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Application...
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
3rd
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) (3rd)
The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (po...
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
28th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is 8.0%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

Bonieber Orofeo - PeerSpot reviewer
Application gateway optimizes performance and simplifies cloud transitions
There are a lot of things I appreciate about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is beneficial for us as it helps in publishing our website, providing us comfort when it comes to the availability of our applications. The autoscaling feature in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is very obvious, and I have no issues with it; it is well planned and organized. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway impacts our cost savings while maintaining higher performance. The Web Application Firewall (WAF) in Microsoft Azure Application Gateway has been very effective in protecting applications from security threats. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway helps us manage our AI-driven applications by enabling faster transactions, improving our work.
Read full review
Archana Heeralal - PeerSpot reviewer
A good solution to implement web application firewall for applications
There are some lags in Signal Sciences for the web application firewalls. Even if we create some custom rules, Signal Sciences cannot capture some of the malicious traffic. There is a little bit of complexity with custom rules that should be removed. Signal Sciences should add a feature called rate limiting with multiple options, wherein I can create a rate limiting based on the cookie request or the IP.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is an easy-to-use solution."
"The production is a valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is its ease of use."
"WAF feature replicates the firewall."
"I like the tool's stability and performance."
"The simplicity of the solution and its ability to integrate easily with others are its most valuable aspects."
"The pricing is quite good."
"Some of the key features of this solution are the low-level maintenance required, floating proxy service, and load balancing."
More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pros
"Fastly (Signal Sciences) integrates and tags the intermittent traffic based on patterns. It generates signals and provides them in a dashboard where we can view them and decide whether to allow or deny traffic. It's a more advanced and easy-to-navigate dashboard."
"When configuring a web application firewall using Signal Sciences, we configure a rule whereby no one except a few people can access the application."
"The product's most valuable feature is its ability to set up the rules easily."
 

Cons

"Needs easier integration with the existing SIAM."
"It does not have the flexibility for using public IPs in version 2."
"The pricing of the solution is a bit high. The solution should offer different pricing systems."
"The solution could improve by increasing the performance when doing updates. For example, if I change the certificate it can take 30 minutes. Other vendors do not have this type of problem."
"The security of the product could be adjusted."
"One of the challenges we faced was the solution does not support any other PCP protocols apart from HTTP and HTTPS."
"It could be easier to change servicing."
"The support provided for the solution has certain shortcomings that need improvement, especially when it comes to the response time from the support team."
More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway cons
"The areas that could be improved in Signal Sciences include the effectiveness of rules, as many didn't function optimally and required custom rule-writing to address bypasses for WAF."
"Even if we create some custom rules, Signal Sciences cannot capture some of the malicious traffic."
"Fastly don't support caching for China users. That's the only feature lacking compared to Akamai."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not expensive."
"I would rate the pricing a three out of ten, with ten being cheap and one being expensive."
"The cost is not an issue."
"The pricing is based on how much you use the solution."
"The solution is fairly priced."
"I rate the pricing seven out of ten because some third-party solutions are even costlier than this."
"The solution is cheaper than Imperva. I rate it four to five out of ten."
"Every solution comes with a license and cost. Microsoft provides the license and the total cost is for the maintenance every year."
More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pricing and cost advice
"The product has an affordable cost."
"Signal Sciences is pretty cheap compared to other solutions."
"The pricing is 50% less than Akamai."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?
We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...
See all answers
How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft Azure Application Gateway web application firewall software was the better fit ...
See all answers
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?
Application Gateway automatically redirects unwanted users and takes care of the security aspect. It also handles the performance side of things, which is why we use it.
See all answers
What do you like most about Signal Sciences?
The product's most valuable feature is its ability to set up the rules easily.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Signal Sciences?
The pricing is 50% less than Akamai.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Signal Sciences?
Fastly don't support caching for China users. That's the only feature lacking compared to Akamai.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

F5 Advanced WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Logo
F5 Advanced WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway
Compared 12% of the time
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Logo
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway
Compared 9% of the time
HAProxy vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Logo
HAProxy vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway
Compared 9% of the time
Cloudflare vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Logo
Cloudflare vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway
Compared 9% of the time
AWS WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Logo
AWS WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway
Compared 8% of the time
More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Competitors
Cloudflare vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Logo
Cloudflare vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
Compared 18% of the time
AWS WAF vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Logo
AWS WAF vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
Compared 15% of the time
Azure Front Door vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Logo
Azure Front Door vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
Compared 10% of the time
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Logo
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
Compared 9% of the time
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Logo
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
Compared 6% of the time
More The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway
June 2025
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway reportDownload Microsoft Azure Application Gateway product report
Buyer's Guide
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
June 2025
The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) reportDownload The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) product report
 

Also Known As

Azure Application Gateway, MS Azure Application Gateway
Signal Sciences Next-Gen WAF, Signal Sciences RASP
 

Overview

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.

Microsoft

The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) provides web application and API protection, RASP, rate limiting, bot protection and DDoS purpose built to eliminate the challenges of legacy WAF.

Fastly
 

Sample Customers

Lilly, AccuWeather, AIRFRANCE, Honeywell
Chef, Adobe, Datadog, Etsy, GrubHub, Vimeo, SendGrid, Under Armour, Duo, AppNexus
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
June 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences)
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. The Fastly Next-Gen WAF (powered by Signal Sciences) and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
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