AWS Web Application Firewall vs Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs CrowdSec Web Application Firewall

Model: Pay-per-use (rules + requests)

View full pricing →

Model: Per domain / Per feature tier

Free Tier Available View full pricing →

Model: Open source (MIT) + commercial blocklists and CTI

Free Tier Available View full pricing →

• AWS Managed Rules

  Pre-configured rule groups maintained by AWS and AWS Marketplace sellers for common threats.

• Custom Rules

  Build your own rules using conditions like IP addresses, HTTP headers, URI strings, and more.

• Rate-Based Rules

  Automatically block IPs that exceed defined request thresholds.

• Bot Control

  Managed rule group for detecting and managing bot traffic (additional cost).

• Fraud Control

  Account takeover prevention and creation fraud detection for login/signup pages.

• Firewall Manager Integration

  Centrally configure and manage WAF rules across multiple AWS accounts.

• Managed Rulesets

  Pre-configured rules from Cloudflare and OWASP that are automatically updated to protect against emerging threats.

• Custom Rules

  Create your own firewall rules using Cloudflare's expression language to block, challenge, or allow specific traffic patterns.

• Rate Limiting

  Protect against brute force attacks and API abuse by limiting request rates from specific IPs or patterns.

• Bot Management

  Advanced bot detection and mitigation using machine learning to distinguish good bots from malicious ones.

• API Shield

  Protect API endpoints with schema validation, mutual TLS, and anomaly detection.

• Page Shield

  Monitor and control third-party JavaScript to prevent supply chain attacks and data theft.

• Crowd-Sourced Threat Intelligence

  Network of 200,000+ installations sharing attack signals in real-time. Blocks malicious IPs 7-60 days before other vendors detect them.

• ModSecurity Rule Compatibility

  Load existing ModSecurity SecLang rules directly. Teams migrating from ModSecurity can reuse their rule sets without rewriting.

• Virtual Patching

  Block exploitation attempts at the WAF layer before application patches are deployed. Protect against known CVEs without code changes.

• Advanced Behavior Detection

  Goes beyond single-request analysis. Generates internal events to build complex multi-request scenarios before triggering blocks.

• Proxy Integration

  Native integration with Nginx, Traefik, HAProxy, Apache, and Envoy. No separate appliance needed.

• Kubernetes Ready

  Runs as a sidecar or within ingress controllers. Fits containerized and microservice architectures.

• Console Dashboard

  Web-based management console for monitoring alerts, managing blocklists, and configuring the security engine.

• Community Blocklists

  Free access to crowd-sourced IP blocklists updated in real-time from the CrowdSec network.