Best WAF for Google Cloud

Google Cloud Armor is the natural choice for GCP workloads. It integrates natively with Cloud Load Balancing, GKE (via the Gateway API or Ingress), and Cloud CDN, providing WAF and DDoS protection backed by Google's global network. Adaptive Protection uses ML to detect and mitigate L7 DDoS attacks automatically, and its preconfigured WAF rules track the OWASP Core Rule Set 4.x. Cloud Armor Enterprise (previously Managed Protection Plus) is available as an Annual commitment or a Paygo variant. For GCP-native deployments, there is no better-integrated option.

Cloudflare is the strongest third-party choice for GCP teams that want a multi-cloud control plane. Deployed as a reverse proxy via a DNS change, it sits in front of your GCP load balancers and delivers WAF, CDN, unmetered DDoS mitigation, rate limiting, and bot management from a single dashboard. Cloudflare is also a Security Command Center partner, so findings surface inside Google Cloud. It is ideal when you run workloads across GCP and other clouds and want one consistent policy set.

Imperva Cloud WAF is a proven enterprise reverse-proxy WAF that protects any origin, including GCP-hosted applications, without depending on Cloud Armor. It pairs industry-leading threat research with strong bot defense, API security, account takeover protection, and low false positives. For regulated or high-value GCP applications that need capabilities beyond the native option, Imperva is a mature, enterprise-grade pick.

Fastly's Next-Gen WAF (formerly Signal Sciences) is a developer-friendly option that deploys in front of GCP workloads at the edge or via an agent. Its SmartParse detection avoids brittle regex signatures, keeping false positives low, and it exposes rich APIs and observability that fit CI/CD and platform-engineering workflows. A good fit for GCP teams that want fast, tunable protection they can manage as code.

Akamai App and API Protector runs on one of the largest edge networks in the world and fronts GCP-hosted applications for organizations that need massive scale and depth. It combines adaptive WAF rules, DDoS protection, bot management, and API security, making it a fit for large enterprises already standardized on Akamai or requiring global edge capacity in front of GCP.

Fully managed cloud WAF combining automatic policy generation, advanced bot mitigation, and 24/7 expert support with industry-leading DDoS protection.

AI-powered WAF with preemptive zero-day protection, featuring dual machine learning engines and minimal false positives for cloud-native applications.

Enterprise application security platform from F5 Networks combining behavioral analytics, bot defense, API protection, credential stuffing prevention, and L7 DDoS mitigation. The WAF that banks, airlines, and governments have relied on for over two decades.

High-performance WAF built into the world's most widely used open source load balancer. Uses machine learning-powered threat detection instead of regex-based signatures, delivering 98.5% balanced accuracy with sub-millisecond latency. Enterprise product with custom pricing.

Enterprise CNAPP with integrated WAF, API security, and bot management, designed for cloud-native applications across multi-cloud environments.

API-first security platform combining cloud-native WAF, automated security testing, and advanced API abuse detection with real-time blocking capabilities.

AI-powered bot and fraud protection platform that stops advanced bots, credential stuffing, scraping, and L7 DDoS attacks across websites, mobile apps, and APIs. Forrester Leader in Bot Management with 99.99% detection accuracy and sub-2ms latency. Starts at $3,830/month.

AI-powered web application firewall from Fortinet providing advanced threat detection, API protection, and bot mitigation for web applications and APIs, available as hardware appliance, VM, or cloud service.

Lightweight, high-performance WAF running natively inside NGINX Plus. Brings F5's enterprise threat intelligence to DevOps workflows with declarative configuration, Kubernetes-native deployment, and CI/CD integration. Part of the NGINX One platform.

AI-powered API security platform combining WAF/WAAP, automated API discovery, security testing, and bot protection with runtime defense across any environment.

Comprehensive WAF with flexible deployment options from appliances to cloud, featuring strong bot defense, API protection, and deep DevOps integration.

Cloud-native WAAP platform offering fully managed WAF, bot management, and DDoS protection with private cloud deployment options for enhanced data privacy.

Fully managed cloud WAF by Indusface with integrated vulnerability scanning, zero false positive guarantee, and 24/7 SOC support. Deploys in block mode from day one.

Enterprise application firewall integrated into the Citrix NetScaler (now Citrix ADC) application delivery controller, providing positive and negative security models with deep traffic inspection.

Australian-based WAAP platform combining WAF, bot management, DDoS protection, and CDN in a single solution designed for DevOps and security teams.

AI-powered WAF built natively on Kubernetes, combining behavioral threat detection with zero-configuration API protection for cloud-native applications.

API gateway with built-in WAF plugin for enterprise customers. Kong is the most popular open source API gateway (35K+ GitHub stars, 312M+ downloads) built on NGINX, processing 400B+ API calls daily. The WAF plugin is an Enterprise-only add-on that protects API endpoints at the gateway layer.

Enterprise-grade next-gen WAF from Chinese cybersecurity leader NSFOCUS, offering comprehensive web and API protection with flexible cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployment options.

German-made, GDPR-compliant cloud WAF built for critical infrastructure and regulated industries. BSI-qualified, NIS-2 and DORA compliant. Managed WAF service available. Blocks 8M+ malicious L7 requests per customer per year. Data processing exclusively in Germany on request.

Cloud-managed WAF from Qualys that integrates with their vulnerability scanning platform, enabling one-click virtual patching of discovered vulnerabilities. Note — product was decommissioned September 2024.