AWS WAF vs. Cloudflare

In this article, we’ll discuss the similarities, differences, pros, and cons of AWS WAF and Cloudflare.

How this comparison is grounded (our experience)

This comparison is written from the perspective of teams evaluating AWS WAF vs Cloudflare WAF, based on: 

• Migration patterns we see: We have migrated hundreds of web apps and APIs who moved from AWS WAF and Cloudflare WAF to AppTrana. The “operational realities” below reflect what repeatedly shows up during migrations: false positives, time-to-block-mode, incident handling, and ongoing tuning effort. 
• Public vendor documentation: Feature and limit references are based on publicly available docs and pricing pages. 
• How to validate: For each “field insight,” we include a simple way to validate it in your environment (what to ask vendors, what to measure, what to check in logs). 

What is AWS WAF?

AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based security service. It helps protect web applications from common web-based attacks by filtering and monitoring HTTP and HTTPS traffic.

AWS WAF allows you to define rules and conditions to control access to your web applications and prevent malicious activities. It integrates with other AWS services and provides a scalable and flexible solution for protecting applications deployed on AWS.

What is Cloudflare WAF?

Cloudflare WAF (Web Application Firewall) is a security feature provided by Cloudflare that helps protect websites and web applications from a wide range of cyber threats. It acts as a barrier between web servers and potential attackers, analyzing incoming web traffic and filtering out malicious requests or attacks.

Cloudflare WAF uses a combination of rule-based detection, machine learning, and threat intelligence to identify and block common web application vulnerabilities and known attack patterns. It helps defend against threats like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), remote file inclusion, and more.

What are the advantages of Cloudflare over AWS WAF?

DDoS Mitigation

Although other WAAP providers offer robust DDoS mitigation products, Cloudflare stands out for its remarkable track record in mitigating some of the largest-scale DDoS attacks ever documented. This accomplishment is a testament to Cloudflare’s robust infrastructure, capable of handling massive DDoS attacks across a global array of applications.

Like AppTrana, Cloudflare incorporates a DDoS mitigation system that continually adjusts and adapts to user behaviour, ensuring that rate limits are customized and optimized accordingly. This adaptive approach enhances Cloudflare’s ability to effectively defend against DDoS attacks while maintaining optimal performance and user experience.

With AWS, if you need DDoS mitigation, you will need to subscribe to the AWS Shield service that costs starts at  $3000/month, and you need a yearly billing. Cloudflare’s free, pro, and business plans provide robust security against DDoS attacks and cost a fraction.

Cloudflare provides unmetered DDoS protection that said, their rate-limiting is severely restricted until the business plan where you can only add about five rate-limiting rules. This quickly hits limits especially if you have a big web app or an API host. 

From migrations: DDoS is rarely the problem. “Ops during DDoS” is. 

• What we see: Teams often have a DDoS feature on paper, but still struggle during an event because the runbook, escalation path, and response workflow aren’t practiced. 
• Why it happens: The control blocks traffic, but incident response needs fast rule changes, coordination, and post-incident hardening. 
• How to validate: Ask each vendor: “Show a real incident workflow end-to-end: detection → mitigation change → verification → post-incident RCA.” 

API Security

API security capabilities on AWS are fairly limited, with basic rate limiting available through the API gateway. API discovery is also not available.

Cloudflare provides more robust API protection, and API discovery is also available. There is also broader support for API protocols, including REST, SOAP, JSON, and so on.

From migrations: most API risk is “unknown endpoints” + “auth abuse,” not just OWASP patterns. 

• What we see: Teams discover undocumented endpoints and unexpected traffic patterns during migration/onboarding, especially around mobile, partner integrations, and legacy APIs. 
• Why it happens: API attack surface expands faster than documentation and governance. 
• How to validate: Ask vendors: “How do you discover shadow/undocumented APIs, and how do you control abusive behavior that looks ‘valid’ at L7?” 

Threat Intelligence and Scale

Cloudflare has achieved substantial adoption of its WAAP (Web Application and API Protection) and CDN (Content Delivery Network) products, with 10% of internet traffic flowing through its services as of March 2023. This demonstrates users’ significant trust and reliance on Cloudflare’s offerings.

Handling over 2 trillion requests daily, Cloudflare’s sheer processing volume is noteworthy. This extensive data processing capability contributes to the exceptional quality of Cloudflare’s threat intelligence, positioning the company among the industry leaders in terms of security insights and analysis.

AWS offers a versatile security foundation designed for seamless integration within its ecosystem. However, specialized WAAP providers focus exclusively on edge security and global threat mitigation. Because their primary business is threat intelligence, specialized providers often offer more granular controls and more expansive, real-time datasets derived from traffic outside of the AWS environment

What are the advantages of AWS WAF over Cloudflare?

Flexibility in Rules

AWS has a vibrant partner ecosystem where many leading WAF providers, such as F5 and Fortinet, provide rulesets for protection against OWASP vulnerabilities and so on.

These rulesets provide enhanced protection beyond the default rulesets offered by AWS. Using these rulesets incurs a nominal subscription fee, and you will also be billed based on the traffic that is inspected using these rulesets.

This, to an extent, circumvents the threat intelligence shortcoming with AWS. That said, this only holds true for known vulnerabilities, and it is challenging to protect against zero-day and unknown vulnerabilities with the self-service capability on AWS.

From migrations: rule flexibility is useful, but it increases ‘ownership load.’ 

• What we see: Teams like flexible rules, but later discover they’ve created a second operational system: tuning, regression checks, change approvals, and rollbacks. 
• Why it happens: Flexibility shifts effort from vendor to customer. 
• How to validate: Ask: “Who owns rule tuning after go-live, and what is the typical weekly time spent per application?” 

Billing and Vendor Management

The other advantage of using AWS is that you don’t have to manage a separate vendor for WAF, and you get a unified bill. Renewals, billing, and all the related paperwork become very easy.

That said, the disadvantage is that you will have a tougher time deciphering the costs incurred only for WAF.

Managed WAAP: The Outcome-Based Alternative to DIY WAFs 

AWS WAF and Cloudflare WAF are capable DIY platforms. They can work well when you have the time and security engineering capacity to own ongoing tuning, false positives, and incident response after go live. 

Managed WAAP is a different operating model. The provider does not just give you controls and dashboards. They also own the operational work required to keep protection effective in production, with defined workflows and response timelines. 

Why DIY WAF deployments often stall in monitoring 

Across migrations we have supported, a common pattern is long-running monitoring or log-only posture. The reason is not lack of features. It is lack of confidence and time to tune false positives safely on production traffic. When a WAF stays in log-only mode, it can help with investigation, but it does not reduce risk in real time. 

What a managed WAAP model should change in practice

A true managed model should make it clear who owns what after go live. 

• Getting to stable block mode without breaking business-critical flows 
• Ongoing false positive monitoring and remediation with clear response timelines 
• 24×7 monitoring and response for DDoS, bots, and emerging attack patterns 
• Post-incident hardening, including RCA and preventive rule updates 
• Application-specific mitigations when code fixes take time, for example virtual patching 
• Regular reporting and reviews so protection does not drift over time 

DIY is often the right choice if 

• You have dedicated AppSec or DevSecOps capacity for continuous tuning and incident handling 
• You prefer maximum platform control and are comfortable owning day-to-day operation 
• You want to assemble multiple services and workflows internally 

Here are two anonymized migration snapshots from customers who moved off AWS WAF and Cloudflare WAF, and what changed after the switch. 

Migration snapshot 1: Fintech unicorn with 6,000+ APIs (migrated from AWS WAF) 

• Before: API-first platform scaling fast; wanted low-latency protection and zero tolerance for false positives.  
• Trigger: API DDoS + bot abuse and the need to discover/protect shadow or undocumented endpoints as the API estate grew.  
• Migration friction: Endpoint-sensitive rate limiting and controlling abusive traffic patterns without impacting legitimate API flows.  
• What changed: 6,000+ API endpoints discovered/protected (including shadow), AI + custom rules tailored to API behavior, schema/positive security controls, 24×7 monitoring, plus 72-hour remediation SLA.  
• Reported outcomes: 800M+ API attacks blocked per quarter and 600M+ DDoS mitigated per quarter; reduced AWS costs; “zero false positives” posture.  

Read the full case study. 

Migration snapshot 2: D2C brand on a bundled Cloudflare WAF plan (migrated from Cloudflare) 

• Before: Salesforce bundled Cloudflare Add-On WAF; new attacks required manual custom rules; false positives and performance delays were recurring issues.  
• Trigger: Needed faster threat response and reduced operational load (not just a feature set).  
• Migration friction: Balancing protection vs site responsiveness while reducing false positives and rule maintenance overhead.  
• What changed: Expert-managed custom rules, 24×7 security management, real-time mitigation for DDoS/bot/zero-day patterns, and autonomous vulnerability patching within 72 hours (per the case study).  
• Reported outcomes: “100% uptime & faster page loads,” reduced false positives, and “zero critical vulnerabilities left unattended” (as stated).  

Read the full case study. 

Based on the patterns above, here are the AppTrana capabilities that map to the most common gaps teams report when running AWS WAF or Cloudflare WAF in production. 

AppTrana comes with managed SOC where OWASP protection with 300+ policies is enabled in block mode on day 1 post which the solution experts apply subsequent rulesets that tend to have a higher false positive rate by monitoring the application for 14 days, doing extensive false-positive testing, and ensure that the WAF is in block mode all the time. 

AppTrana is the only WAAP platform with a record of 100% apps deployed in block mode with an SLA that guarantees zero false positives. Here are the other benefits of using AppTrana.

Behavioral DDoS and Bot Protection 

Defining rate limits shouldn’t be a guessing game. AppTrana’s AI-driven behavioral models analyze your traffic, tracking metrics across IP, URI, and geography, to recommend precise “Alert” and “Block” thresholds that adapt as you grow. 

While Cloudflare offers a similar model, they strictly cap the number of rate-limiting rules unless you’re on an Enterprise plan. Similarly, AWS lacks unmetered DDoS protection, leaving you vulnerable to scaling costs. AppTrana removes these barriers, providing unlimited rule scalability and enterprise-grade bot defense without the “top-tier” price tag. 

Virtual Patching, Latency Monitoring, and Application Specific Rules

Even in case of critical and high vulnerabilities, custom rules or application-specific virtual patches can block attacks at the WAF without a single line of code change.

Further, AppTrana’s SwyftComply ensures autonomous remediation of these vulnerabilities with a 72-hour SLA. 

This is a great opportunity to reduce the window of vulnerability while the dev/QA cycles can catch up and patch the vulnerability on code later.

The other problem that WAFs can sometimes add is latency, as WAFs inspect every request that passes through them. A managed service that continuously monitors applications for latency is a great value add that can prevent a bad customer experience.

24X7 Support

Attacks on websites, including DDoS, bot, Zero-Day, and OWASP Top 10 vulnerability attacks, are increasing in frequency. Just on the AppTrana network, we see a 30% Q-o-Q jump on these attacks, as stated in our State of Application Security Report.

During these attacks, support can serve as your extended Security Operations Center (SOC) team by configuring custom rules, updating blacklisting policies, and so on.

However, 24X7 support is only available for subscribers of AWS Shield Advanced, which starts at $3000/month on annual subscription

With AppTrana, even on the $99 plan, you get 24X7 phone, email, and chat support.

Bundled DAST Scanner and Penetration Testing

AppTrana is the only WAAP provider that bundles DAST scanner and penetration testing by certified security researchers.

The advantages of this bundle are twofold:

1. The cost saved by eliminating other subscriptions
2. A unified dashboard from where you can see how many open vulnerabilities are currently protected by the WAF rules and how many custom rules will be required to protect the remaining open vulnerabilities.

Ultimately, it all comes down to cost vs. value, and AppTrana trumps both Cloudflare and AWS WAF on this.

Payload Inspection & Latency 

Most cloud WAFs impose a strict 64KB or 128KB limit on payload inspection to prevent latency spikes during deep packet inspection. However, modern API calls and file uploads often exceed these limits, creating a “blind spot” where attackers can hide malicious code. 

Unlike standard DIY WAFs that rely on fixed infrastructure limits, AppTrana utilizes a tiered inspection architecture. This allows the system to perform full-body inspection on significantly larger payloads without compromising the 100% uptime and low-latency performance required by high-scale environments like the Fintech case study mentioned above. 

How to Validate AWS WAF vs Cloudflare WAF in Your Environment 

Feature lists do not tell you how a WAF will behave on your application once it is live. Use the questions below to validate operational reality: 

1. Time to block mode: For an application like ours, what is the typical timeline to go from monitoring to stable block mode, and what tuning steps are involved? 
2. False positive ownership + SLA: Who investigates and fixes false positives after go live, and what is the SLA for business-critical paths (login, checkout, search, APIs)? 
3. Rule changes and rollback: Show the full workflow for rule changes, including approval, testing, rollout, and rollback. 
4. DDoS and bot incident response: During an active event, who takes action and how fast? Walk us through detection to mitigation to verification. 
5. Post-incident hardening: After an attack is blocked, do you provide RCA and update protections to prevent repeats? What is the typical turnaround time? 
6. API discovery: How do you discover undocumented or shadow APIs, and how do you keep discovery current as APIs change? 
7. API abuse beyond OWASP: How do you stop abuse that looks legitimate at Layer 7 (credential stuffing, scraping, auth abuse, business logic abuse)? 
8. Operational effort and scope: What is the expected weekly effort per application, and which tasks are on our team versus the vendor (tuning, monitoring, rule updates, reporting, performance impact)? 

AWS WAF vs Cloudflare vs AppTrana: Which Option Is Better for Whom? 

There is no universal “best” choice. The right option depends on your architecture, internal capacity, and how much operational ownership you want to carry after go-live. 

AWS WAF is usually a better fit if: 

• Most applications run on AWS and you want native integration with AWS services 
• You prefer a single vendor relationship and unified cloud billing 
• You have AppSec or DevSecOps capacity to tune rules and manage ongoing operations 
• You are comfortable assembling add-ons and partner rule sets as needed 

Cloudflare WAF is usually a better fit if: 

• You want an edge-first approach and already use Cloudflare for CDN, DNS, or performance 
• You need quick coverage across multi-cloud origins and distributed applications 
• You have the bandwidth to manage tuning, custom rules, and ongoing policy changes 
• You are willing to align support expectations with your plan tier 

 AppTrana is usually a better fit if: 

• Security bandwidth is limited and you want the provider to own tuning and false positives 
• You need predictable progress to block mode and consistent enforcement over time 
• Uptime and customer experience matter as much as security controls 
• You want 24×7 response and post-incident hardening without building a SOC function 
• You want vulnerability visibility paired with application-specific mitigations to reduce exposure windows 

Feature Comparison Table: AWS WAF vs Cloudflare

Here is a detailed feature comparison table for AWS WAF, Cloudflare, and AppTrana

See AI-powered AppTrana WAAP in action:

Full Disclosure: This guide was compiled by the Indusface team. Our goal is to provide an objective comparison based on the real-world migration challenges we see when moving customers from DIY setups to managed security. 

Stay tuned for more relevant and interesting security articles. Follow Indusface on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.