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AWS Shield vs Imperva Application Security Platform comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Imperva are both solutions in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.7, while Imperva is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 3.5% mindshare in DDOS, compared to Imperva’s 8.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Imperva users who would recommend it.
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Cloudflare
Read 79 Cloudflare reviews
  • 38,688 Views
  • 6,577 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
AWS Shield
Read 11 AWS Shield reviews
  • 2,238 Views
  • 2,238 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Imperva Application Securit...
Read 142 Imperva Application Security Platform reviews
  • 12,925 Views
  • 4,265 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 2026

Imperva and AWS Shield both offer advanced solutions in application security, specifically targeting DDoS protection and web application vulnerabilities. Imperva appears to have a broader set of features, particularly in API security and profiling features, giving it a slight edge in comprehensiveness.

Features: Imperva provides robust features for application security, including advanced DDoS protection, API security, and a flexible deployment model. It's known for ease of use and custom policy profiling. AWS Shield integrates seamlessly with AWS services, offering real-time attack detection, advanced threat intelligence, and a strong focus on DDoS prevention, especially effective for cloud environments.

Room for Improvement: Imperva users point out the need for a more user-friendly GUI, improved policy rule sets, and quicker support response times. AWS Shield's health checks and anomaly detection require enhancements, particularly under complex attack scenarios. It also has limited built-in WAF features, needing AWS WAF for layer 7 protection, which adds to costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Imperva supports diverse deployment models like on-premises and cloud-based environments. While customer service is generally positive, response times can be an issue. AWS Shield offers simple public cloud deployment, but some users face challenges in accessing complex support services, affecting responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Imperva's pricing is on the higher side with a complex model across various features, leading to a significant investment. However, the ROI is seen as high in sectors like banking. AWS Shield provides a scalable usage-based pricing model but incurs additional costs for AWS WAF. Its basic services are more affordable, yet comprehensive protection requires investing in Shield Advanced.

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To learn more, read our detailed AWS Shield vs. Imperva Application Security Platform Report (Updated: April 2026).
Buyer's Guide
AWS Shield vs. Imperva Application Security Platform
April 2026
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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

Cloudflare
Sponsored
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
CDN (1st), WAN Optimization (4th), Managed DNS (1st), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (5th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (17th)
AWS Shield
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Imperva Application Securit...
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
142
Ranking in other categories
CDN (3rd), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (3rd), Bot Management (1st), API Security (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 14.9%, down from 18.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Shield is 3.5%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Imperva Application Security Platform is 8.3%, up from 7.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cloudflare14.9%
Imperva Application Security Platform8.3%
AWS Shield3.5%
Other73.3%
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

M.A. Faisal - PeerSpot reviewer
M.A. Faisal
General Manager at bKash Limited
Advanced protection has secured critical web workloads and provides clear traffic visibility
From a security perspective, there remains a security loophole, as some browsers in the market can bypass the Turnstile solution, which requires approximately 40 seconds to do so. From a performance perspective, this is acceptable. We also tried Google reCAPTCHA, and that can also be bypassed. From a security perspective, I would say neither solution is completely secured. Regarding uptime, we have faced a couple of incidents due to Cloudflare in recent years, so I cannot say we receive 100% uptime for our region. We sometimes face challenges, including downtime and other issues. As a result, we are not receiving 100% uptime from Cloudflare's solution. Since most of our customers are in this region, we need alternatives. We need something more competitive than Cloudflare. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, Cloudflare has three points of presence already, and we cannot find any other solution provider in Bangladesh as an alternative, which presents another challenge. Competitor solutions have more attack signatures, which ensure better security compared to Cloudflare's predefined configurations. Customers do not have options to modify any configuration parameters in Cloudflare, whereas other competitor solutions, such as F5 Distributed Cloud, allow customers to tune configurations according to their requirements. Cloudflare could improve in this area. Additionally, regarding visibility, Cloudflare has static visibility, but they could adopt dynamic graph features for their customers.
Read full review
reviewer2767527 - PeerSpot reviewer
reviewer2767527
Lead Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has enabled multi-layered threat mitigation but still lacks deeper visibility for advanced application attacks
AWS Shield has limited coverage as it only protects against common and high-volume network and transport layer attacks, such as SYN floods. It does not provide inherent protection against more sophisticated layer 7 attacks such as HTTP floods. In such cases, integration with WAF is necessary, which results in additional costs for customers. To protect layer 7, layer 4, and layer 3, customers must implement both solutions. The service also has difficulties with static detection thresholds, which may not be sensitive enough to detect smaller application-specific attacks. While AWS Shield is a key security service, AWS should enhance their expert support with 24/7 response for complex attacks, which is currently limited.
Read full review
ST
Stephen Tanimowo
Senior Cybersecurity Consultant at Cyberoutcome Limited
Strong policies and bot defenses have secured critical APIs and have reduced attack noise
From my research regarding the IAM space that Imperva Application Security Platform is trying to look into, I believe they still need to do a lot of modeling and modification to make sure that also helps. There are several competitors in the IAM space, so Imperva would do well if they can do some basic modeling and modifications from my own personal research and my own experience in the IAM space. Alternatively, they could actually just focus on trying to be stronger in the web application space and the database activity monitoring space.The main reason it is not a perfect ten is regarding support. At times, having to reach the support team takes eight hours to ten hours maximum. There are times when clients could have urgent issues to attend to. The support team could do more by having a faster response rate.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Cloudflare is the GUI. You are able to control the solution very well through the interface. There is a lot of functionality that is embedded in the service."
"What I like best about Cloudflare is that my company can use it to trace and manage applications and monitor traffic."
"Cloudflare is easier to manage than the solutions provided by these vendors, and the user experience is much more straightforward and appeals to a lot of developers."
"The attacker won't have details since my public IP is anonymous. It offers us good privacy."
"It's a great product because it's scalable, has great coverage, and is mature with good defenses against DDoS attacks."
"The aggressive caching and DDOS mitigation are the most valuable features offered by Cloudflare."
"DDoS protection is this product’s most valuable feature."
"I rate its stability a ten out of ten."
More Cloudflare pros
"It is integrated with AWS. So, it gives you a good first step."
"If most of your internet presence from your application side is in AWS, AWS Shield is a great option."
"The product has a good mechanism to analyze trends and trigger events."
"It is quite scalable, and we have not faced any issues with its scalability."
"The solution's ease of use is the most valuable feature."
"The product is easy to use."
"I am impressed with the product's multiple features like security."
"The automatic detection and mitigation of DDoS attacks in the product operates in real-time and provides satisfactory results."
More AWS Shield pros
"This product is a reliable defense from malicious attacks on a network environment."
"Data masking is the most valuable feature of this solution."
"It's worth it. It's a fine solution for medium/big companies worried about attacks that happen in the wild."
"Bad-IP blocking and signature-based blocking for web application security."
"The valuable features of Imperva WAF include its effective security breach prevention through automatically updating rules."
"Without tuning, it blocked 88 percent of the vulnerabilities, and when we tuned it, it blocked 98 percent."
"I would say compare it to other solutions in the marketplace feature by feature and see how Incapsula reporting and analytics dashboards compare and bot control compares – their solution for bot control is pretty good – and check those features with other enterprise level solutions, you get a lot for your money."
"Anti-DDoS protection, as well as other protections like SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting, and antiscanner, are valuable to the business due to the daily attacks on our portals that often cannot be seen without a tool like this."
More Imperva Application Security Platform pros
 

Cons

"The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Cloudflare are a bit on the higher side overall."
"It should be easier to collect the logs with companies like Sumo. However, based on my discussions with the salespeople, I understand that's how they make their money. With the enterprise product, they want people doing those kinds of enterprise features to do the logging. They want them to pay a lot of money, and that's where I have an issue with them. That should be a default. You should be able to get the log no matter what. The logging should be universal."
"Access to the solution's dashboards is not intended for a service company. You are practically blind, and to validate a problem, you must view the customer's screen."
"An integrated SSO feature would be useful for Cloudflare DNS."
"Latencies are always a problem."
"The product support needs to be accessible from more places, a wider area of coverage."
"Cloudflare does not have an on-premise solution. If they had different approaches they could be better suited to accommodate more customers, such as on-premise and hybrid deployments. For example, hybrid deployments would be useful where you could move the traffic from the enterprise to the cloud."
"Areas like how assessment, discovery, and payload are dealt with and how it all comes into your organization can be considered when trying to make suggestions to Cloudflare for improvements."
More Cloudflare cons
"We end up having to pay extra for features that AWS adds that we don't need."
"The product needs to improve its logs and reports to make it read better."
"Perhaps the time required to detect anomalies can be reduced. Presently, it takes some time to determine whether a situation is normal or abnormal."
"The time taken to detect anomalies must be reduced."
"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it. It could be improved in terms of architecture requirements and then ongoing support requirements as a secondary component to it. People tend to set up things like this, and they just expect it to work without the care and feeding that needs to go back into it either from an application team or a network environment team."
"AWS Shield Standard requires improvement, particularly regarding its dashboard since it currently provides limited coverage against comprehensive DDoS attacks."
"The management of it is a bit hard. If you don't engineer it on the front side, it is hard to go back in and change it."
"The product should give users more flexibility to customize their security policies according to their requirements."
More AWS Shield cons
"Although we're only using it for the accelerator part, the purging of files and the way this feature functions could use improvement."
"Another area that could do with improvement is certificate management. I do not like the way that Incapsula handles certificates very much."
"In the past, I have bugs on the WAF. I've contacted Imperva about them. Future releases should be less buggy."
"I'd like the option to pick your bot protection."
"Their customer service sometimes has different responses for similar requests. We sometimes need to explain the issue many times before they understand."
"It's quite expensive."
"It would be nice to have more security control over mobile applications so I would suggest adding more mobile security features. It would also be beneficial to see improvements in regards to interface bandwidth performance, CPU time, and RAM size. Learning capability of the device is quite weak."
"The log analytics interface within Incapsula isn't really good. For example, if you have to get all logs from there, it's a very cumbersome process."
More Imperva Application Security Platform cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When you compare Cloudflare DNS to other solutions, such as Akamai, the price is reasonable."
"The pricing depends on the usage, but the cheapest would be around 5,000 USD a month."
"I believe their performance has improved, but I'd like to refrain from discussing the pricing aspect related to the cloud. The pricing, in my opinion, could be simplified, and I think they should consider reevaluating the pricing for support, as it can be quite high. At times, this cost can make it challenging to choose CARFAGuard or opt for the support."
"It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."
"I think the pricing is competitive. I think as far as licensing is concerned it's pretty straightforward because it's based on domain. It's just that sometimes domains could be tricky with some customers."
"Cloudflare's pricing is not much higher and is good for middle-level organizations."
"The product's pricing is minimal compared to other products."
"We don't have any issues with the price."
More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice
"It depends on your subscription level and the volume that you're spending with AWS. So, it is very relative to the consumption alignment in your subscription level. It is a well-constructed, scalable pricing option, but it is relative to how much you're spending on AWS. Because the more you spend, typically, the more you get off on services like this. I find it to be comparable to other solutions."
"The cost depends on traffic each month, so on average, it costs us between US$200 and US$300 per month."
"We pay $3000 per month for the solution."
"The tool's pricing is good."
"The tool is cheap."
"Imperva Web Application Firewall's pricing is expensive."
"It is expensive."
"​Although the pricing can be a little high, it is worth the protection and security that it offers.​"
"We have an issue with Imperva Incapsula in the Iraqi market because of the high price."
"Imperva Web Application Firewall is expensive."
"We are satisfied with the pricing."
"Everybody complains about the price of this solution."
"The cost of this solution depends on the platform."
More Imperva Application Security Platform pricing and cost advice
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise26
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business88
Midsize Enterprise25
Large Enterprise66
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...
See all answers
Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?
Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare?
The tool's pricing is moderate. I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expens...
See all answers
What do you like most about AWS Shield?
We have integrated the tool with Active Directory. The most important feature is that it's transparent and doesn't de...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Shield?
The pricing structure for AWS Shield is fair, yet it depends on the specific protections chosen. Enabling Shield Adva...
See all answers
What needs improvement with AWS Shield?
Services always benefit from improvements, including AWS Shield. With respect to the Web Application Firewall, curren...
See all answers
Which Web Application Firewall (WAF) would you recommend? R&S or Imperva?
Imperva is a strong choice, given their security focus and ongoing R&D into the product in areas such as bot mana...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Imperva DDoS?
The pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Imperva DDoS are reasonable for the amount of technical capabilities provi...
See all answers
What needs improvement with Imperva DDoS?
I would like to see improvements in the pooling of threats and attacks, possibly to enlarge the scale of indicators o...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare Logo
Quad9 vs Cloudflare
Compared 40% of the time
Akamai vs Cloudflare Logo
Akamai vs Cloudflare
Compared 4% of the time
Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare Logo
Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare
Compared 2% of the time
Fastly vs Cloudflare Logo
Fastly vs Cloudflare
Compared 2% of the time
Azure DNS vs Cloudflare Logo
Azure DNS vs Cloudflare
Compared 2% of the time
More Cloudflare Competitors
Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield Logo
Azure DDoS Protection vs AWS Shield
Compared 15% of the time
Cloudflare One vs AWS Shield Logo
Cloudflare One vs AWS Shield
Compared 12% of the time
Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield Logo
Akamai App and API Protector vs AWS Shield
Compared 10% of the time
Radware DDoS vs AWS Shield Logo
Radware DDoS vs AWS Shield
Compared 10% of the time
Prolexic vs AWS Shield Logo
Prolexic vs AWS Shield
Compared 5% of the time
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Fortinet FortiWeb vs Imperva Application Security Platform Logo
Fortinet FortiWeb vs Imperva Application Security Platform
Compared 5% of the time
Akamai vs Imperva Application Security Platform Logo
Akamai vs Imperva Application Security Platform
Compared 5% of the time
AWS WAF vs Imperva Application Security Platform Logo
AWS WAF vs Imperva Application Security Platform
Compared 3% of the time
F5 Advanced WAF vs Imperva Application Security Platform Logo
F5 Advanced WAF vs Imperva Application Security Platform
Compared 3% of the time
Fastly vs Imperva Application Security Platform Logo
Fastly vs Imperva Application Security Platform
Compared 2% of the time
More Imperva Application Security Platform Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cloudflare
April 2026
Cloudflare reportDownload Cloudflare product report
Buyer's Guide
AWS Shield
April 2026
AWS Shield reportDownload AWS Shield product report
Buyer's Guide
Imperva Application Security Platform
April 2026
Imperva Application Security Platform reportDownload Imperva Application Security Platform product report
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS
No data available
Imperva Bot Management, Imperva Web Application Firewall, Imperva API Security
 

Overview

Cloudflare enhances web performance and security with features like CDN caching and DDoS mitigation while providing easy DNS management and intuitive setup through its user-friendly dashboard.

Cloudflare is recognized for its comprehensive web security and performance solutions. Speed improvements are achieved through caching mechanisms and DDoS protection, combining ease of DNS management with flexible page rules. The robust analytics and threat insight tools provide valuable data, assisted by a user-friendly dashboard allowing quick setup and configuration. An API offers dynamic DNS settings ensuring low latency and high performance across the globe.

What are Cloudflare's key features?
  • CDN Caching: Enhances website speed through content delivery network caching.
  • Web Application Firewall: Protects websites from online threats.
  • DDoS Mitigation: Shields against distributed denial-of-service attacks.
  • DNS Management: Offers easy-to-use and flexible domain management.
  • SSL Certificates: Ensures secure connections between users and servers.
  • Analytics: Provides insights with robust analytics tools.
What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?
  • Enhanced Security: Strengthening web security with DDoS and firewall protection.
  • Speed Improvement: Faster content delivery with CDN caching.
  • Operational Simplicity: Simplifies website optimization through a user-friendly interface.
  • Scalable Solutions: Scales with global reach, lowering latency for improved performance.
  • Cost Efficiency: Offers layers of valuable functionality with pricing options.

Cloudflare finds utility across industries for DNS management and defense mechanisms. Its content delivery network assures fast content distribution and fortified security. Businesses integrate features like web application firewalls, load balancing, end-to-end SSL, and zero trust to protect websites from cyber threats while ensuring resilience and reliable performance.

Cloudflare

AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS. AWS Shield provides always-on detection and automatic inline mitigations that minimize application downtime and latency, so there is no need to engage AWS Support to benefit from DDoS protection.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Imperva Application Security Platform delivers comprehensive and continuous web threat protection. Renowned for its ease of use, it shields web applications and databases from various cyber threats while integrating seamlessly with cloud and on-premises environments.

Imperva Application Security Platform protects web environments by offering advanced security measures against threats like DDoS attacks, SQL injections, and cross-site scripting. As a robust web application firewall, it provides extensive monitoring and bot management capabilities. The platform integrates content delivery networks for enhanced performance and scalability, while real-time traffic analysis ensures consistent protection. Despite its strengths, improvements can be made in policy management and customization options. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and more competitive pricing models. The inclusion of AI for enhanced analytics is also anticipated.

What are the key features of Imperva Application Security Platform?
  • Correlated Attack Validation: Enhances threat assessment by linking related security events.
  • Threat Radar: Offers visibility into potential and ongoing threats.
  • Virtual Patching: Provides protection against vulnerabilities without immediate code changes.
  • IncapRules: Allows creation of custom security policies.
  • DDoS Protection: Defends against large-scale distributed denial-of-service attacks.
  • CDN Integration: Improves content delivery speed and reliability.
What benefits should users look for in reviews?
  • User-Friendly Administration: Simplifies setup and ongoing management tasks.
  • Seamless Integration: Ensures smooth operation with existing infrastructure.
  • Comprehensive Threat Protection: Shields digital assets from a wide range of threats.
  • Hands-On Support: Provides timely and effective customer service assistance.

Imperva Application Security Platform is implemented in industries needing strong database and application protection. Companies use it to enforce geolocation restrictions and manage bots, benefiting sectors like finance and e-commerce where data security and threat monitoring are critical. Its ability to protect and ensure data accessibility makes it integral to business operations prioritizing cyber resilience.

Imperva
 

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
netflix, dow jones, mapbox, pearson, rovio, youview, moviestar planet, asurion, payplug, hour of code
Hitachi, BNZ, Bitstamp, Moz, InnoGames, BTCChina, Wix, LivePerson, Zillow and more.
Buyer's Guide
AWS Shield vs. Imperva Application Security Platform
April 2026
Free Report: AWS Shield vs. Imperva Application Security Platform
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Shield vs. Imperva Application Security Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
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890,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our AWS Shield vs. Imperva Application Security Platform report.

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