Azure Bastion vs Azure Front Door comparison

Azure Bastion and Azure Front Door are both solutions in the Microsoft Security Suite category. Azure Bastion is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.9, while Azure Front Door is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.8. Azure Bastion holds a 1.5% mindshare in Microsoft Security Suite, compared to Azure Front Door’s 2.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Azure Bastion users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Azure Front Door users who would recommend it.

Azure Bastion

Read 9 Azure Bastion reviews

1,548 Views
790 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Azure Front Door

Read 14 Azure Front Door reviews

1,753 Views
1,520 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Azure Bastion

Azure Front Door

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure Bastion and Azure Front Door based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Microsoft Security Suite solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Bastion vs. Azure Front Door Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion vs. Azure Front Door

January 2025

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Helped 839,422 peers since 2012

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

Azure Bastion

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

19th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Monitoring Software (25th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (7th)

Azure Front Door

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

12th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CDN (2nd), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Bastion is 1.5%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Front Door is 2.8%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

Aladin Steiner

Head of Value Stream Azure at SmartIT Services AG

Has good scalability and provides secure access to the virtual machines

The product improved the security posture of our organization. We don’t have open ports and connect them to servers using it. We can carry out two-factor authentication to protect the devices with conditional access features. It would be nice to have a feature to copy and paste the files into servers. I rate the product a nine out of ten.

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Thomas Zebar

Azure Principal Architect at Cloud Computech Consultancy

Provides great security with a good application firewall

The initial setup is straightforward. If you want to use the portal, CLI, or PowerShare, or you want to use automation data for one month, it's straightforward. Even when it comes to operational maintenance, it's pretty easy and straightforward. Microsoft has done a great job on that front. Maintenance generally requires someone who is a cloud administrator or similar to maintain services in general, with Front Door a small piece of a larger maintenance requirement. There's not a lot to manage, the configuration is simple. I encourage people to document the configuration and infrastructure as well as disaster recovery in case anything happens.

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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 significant advantage lies in its runbook features, particularly beneficial for our infrastructure team."

"As an Azure consultant, for me, it is the best way to give the administrator access as you can manage the permission - including who can access Bastion."

"Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers."

"The product's setup is easy."

"The solution's most valuable feature is that it is easy to use...It is modernized, so I can create complex infrastructures."

"The connection to virtual machines is very useful."

"The ability to operate the product with scripting is excellent."

"The interface is available in the edit portal."

More Azure Bastion pros

"The most valuable feature is that you can implement resources globally. It does not depend on location and ability or something like that. This is to connect clients around the world."

"The price is one of the most important aspects of the product. It's quite affordable."

"The most valuable feature is that I can have CDN and load-balancing capabilities in a single service instead of managing two separate tools."

"Has a great application firewall and we like the security."

"I am impressed with the tool's integrations."

"Rules Engine is a valuable feature."

"It inspects the traffic at the network level before it comes into Azure. We can do SSL offloading, and it can detect abnormalities before the traffic comes into the application. It can be used globally and is easy to set up. It is also quite stable and scalable."

"You can assign as many web application firewall policies as you want to the same instance of Front Door."

More Azure Front Door pros

Cons

"There are some challenges because Bastion is more compatible with Edge but not with the other browsers. As an organization, it doesn't make sense that we have to use only Edge. We should be able to access Bastion over Chrome, Mozilla, or Opera. It should be our choice."

"The solution breaks down sometimes."

"You are charged for retrieving your own data."

"While general support is valuable, having a detailed breakdown of the specific issues would contribute to a more streamlined and efficient resolution process."

"The protocol speed could be faster."

"When you have a boot issue on Windows, you cannot use Azure Bastion to fix it. You have to use the Azure console or the VM console, and it is very limited."

"Speaking of AI, having Microsoft Copilot in Azure Bastion would be good."

"We are not able to copy and paste files directly into the server over the patch host. We have to transfer files over to Azure Storage."

"There is room for improvement and they're working on it."

"We should be able to use Front Door defenders with multiple cloud vendors. Currently, they can be used only with the Azure cloud. Azure Front Door should also be able to do global load balancing and provide internal front door services. Microsoft should clearly define what Traffic Manager, Application Gateway, and Azure Front Door products do. These are similar products, and people get confused between these products."

"It lacks sufficient functionality."

"The tool should improve its cost."

"My suggestion for improvement would be to enhance the Data Export feature to include specific tables, particularly the Azure Diagnostics table."

"There could be improvements regarding its pricing for large-scale projects."

"The product needs to improve its latency."

More Azure Front Door cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is a lower decision point than high-quality security for our organization. Better security comes at a cost, but it's worth it, and that's what we tell our customers."

"Azure Bastion's pricing is good."

"It does not save money for us."

"The tool is cheaply priced. I would say that the product is free to use."

"The pricing of the solution is good."

"The product is expensive."

"Considering the standard licensing of the tool, even though we have not checked the billing as of now, it might not be very costly."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"It is on a pay-as-you-go basis."

"The transition to the premium tier has led to increased costs, making it more expensive than the classic tier."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Bastion?

Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Bastion?

The tool is cheaply priced. I would say that the product is free to use.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Bastion?

I think the tool is pretty good. It is like having a tool that just works. If there are better tools that Azure comes up with, then that is a separate thing. In the current scenario, Azure Bastion ...

See all answers

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...

See all answers

What do you like most about Azure Front Door?

Rules Engine is a valuable feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Front Door?

It's a matter of value versus price. If we add more features and raise the price, it must remain justifiable. If we maintain the current set of reasonable features and keep the pricing competitive,...

See all answers

Comparisons

Azure Firewall vs Azure Bastion

Compared 31% of the time

Azure Web Application Firewall vs Azure Bastion

Compared 15% of the time

TeamViewer Remote Management vs Azure Bastion

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Azure Bastion

Compared 8% of the time

Zabbix vs Azure Bastion

Compared 7% of the time

More Azure Bastion Competitors

Cloudflare vs Azure Front Door

Compared 20% of the time

Amazon CloudFront vs Azure Front Door

Compared 17% of the time

Akamai vs Azure Front Door

Compared 13% of the time

AWS Global Accelerator vs Azure Front Door

Compared 12% of the time

More Azure Front Door Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion

March 2025

Download Azure Bastion product report

Buyer's Guide

Azure Front Door

March 2025

Download Azure Front Door product report

Also Known As

No data available

Azure Front-Door

Overview

Azure Bastion is a service you deploy that lets you connect to a virtual machine using your browser and the Azure portal. The Azure Bastion service is a fully platform-managed PaaS service that you provision inside your virtual network. It provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to your virtual machines directly from the Azure portal over TLS. When you connect via Azure Bastion, your virtual machines do not need a public IP address, agent, or special client software.

Microsoft

Azure Front Door is employed for securing external traffic, global load balancing, integrating web application firewalls, enabling disaster recovery, and enhancing application accessibility.

Organizations leverage Azure Front Door to support data publishing, act as a CDN, and ensure low latency for global users. Clients use it to protect numerous internet-accessible applications, integrate with DNS, and implement custom routes. Favored for caching web content and securely, efficiently distributing traffic to backend services, Azure Front Door offers SSL offloading, traffic inspection, and global scalability. Users value its affordability, ease of implementation, and web application firewall. Azure Front Door provides rich security features, traffic management, and URL rewriting. Load-balancing capabilities enhance performance with additional content security policies and bot protection. Integrations, including with GitOps, along with combined CDN and load-balancing, are also highlighted.

What are the most important features?

SSL Offloading: Reduces the burden on backend services
Traffic Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting incoming traffic
Global Scalability: Ensures performance for users worldwide
Web Application Firewall: Provides in-depth security features
Load Balancing: Distributes traffic to improve performance
URL Rewriting: Customizes URL paths for better navigation
Bot Protection: Shields applications from automated threats
Integrations: Supports technologies like GitOps
Combined CDN and Load-Balancing: Streamlines content delivery and traffic management

What are the benefits or ROI of using this service?

Affordability: Provides cost-effective solutions for web traffic management
Ease of Implementation: Streamlines setup processes for quick deployment
Enhanced Security: Offers robust protection for web applications
Improved Performance: Optimizes traffic distribution and latency
Scalability: Supports growing application demands with global reach

Azure Front Door finds usage across multiple industries due to its versatile applications. E-commerce companies benefit from improved global accessibility and speed, while financial institutions leverage its security features for protecting sensitive data. Media and entertainment sectors use its CDN capabilities for seamless content delivery, and healthcare providers rely on its compliance and protection standards for patient data security.

Microsoft

Buyer's Guide

Azure Bastion vs. Azure Front Door

January 2025

Free Report: Azure Bastion vs. Azure Front Door

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Bastion vs. Azure Front Door and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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