Best WAF for Docker

BunkerWeb is the most Docker-native WAF on this list. It ships as an official Docker image (bunkerity/bunkerweb), runs as a security-focused reverse proxy, and comes with ModSecurity and the OWASP Core Rule Set pre-configured. Configuration is driven by environment variables and Docker labels, which fits Docker Compose and 12-factor workflows, and an optional web UI container manages everything without editing config files. It is free under the AGPLv3 license.

SafeLine deploys with a single Docker Compose command and manages everything through a built-in web dashboard, making it the easiest self-hosted WAF to stand up on Docker. Its semantic-analysis detection engine aims to catch attack variants with fewer false positives than pure signature matching. It is one of the most popular open-source WAFs on GitHub (21k+ stars and 180k+ installs as of 2026) and is licensed under GPL-3.0.

Wallarm is a WAAP platform that ships a Docker image (the Wallarm node) and can run as a reverse-proxy container or as a sidecar next to your application containers. For Docker workloads serving API-heavy traffic, its automatic API discovery and OWASP API Top 10 protection cover threats that traditional signature WAFs miss, with a free tier for smaller deployments.

F5 WAF for NGINX (formerly NGINX App Protect) is the enterprise choice for Docker teams already standardized on NGINX. The current v5 release is a multi-container Docker Compose deployment, pairing an NGINX container with the waf-enforcer and waf-config-mgr containers, and brings F5's 7,800+ attack signatures and ML-based detection with declarative, version-controlled policy. It requires an F5 subscription with a JWT license file.

open-appsec runs as a container add-on to NGINX or Kong and detects attacks with a pre-trained machine-learning engine instead of signatures, so it needs little rule tuning. Backed by Check Point and free to self-host, it is a modern option for Docker teams that want low-maintenance, signature-free protection and a natural alternative as the classic ModSecurity engine winds down.

OWASP Coraza is a memory-safe Go rewrite of ModSecurity that runs the same SecLang rules and the OWASP Core Rule Set. For container stacks it embeds into modern reverse proxies such as Caddy, Traefik, and HAProxy, or runs as middleware in a Go service, making it a clean cloud-native successor to the C-based ModSecurity engine. It is fully open source under Apache 2.0.

Developer-friendly WAF using proprietary SmartParse technology, offering low false positives and seamless DevOps integration for modern application security.

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

Open-source, crowd-powered WAF that combines traditional rule-based filtering with community-driven threat intelligence. Integrates with Nginx, Traefik, HAProxy, and Kubernetes. Compatible with ModSecurity SecLang rules.

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.

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

The original open source WAF engine powering countless applications, offering unmatched flexibility for those willing to manage their own security infrastructure.

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 gateway appliance from IBM providing WAF, API security, and integration capabilities for complex enterprise environments.

A lightweight, open source WAF module for NGINX that uses a scoring-based approach instead of signature matching, blocking attacks by detecting suspicious patterns rather than maintaining a vulnerability database.

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.