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Azure Web Application Firewall vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service comparison

Microsoft and Barracuda Networks are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Microsoft is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.3, while Barracuda Networks is ranked #19 with an average rating of 10.0. Microsoft holds a 3.0% mindshare in WAF, compared to Barracuda Networks’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of Barracuda Networks users who would recommend it.
Azure Web Application Firewall
Read 16 Azure Web Application Firewall reviews
  • 3,060 Views
  • 2,448 Comparison Views
93% willing to recommend
Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
Read 6 Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service reviews
  • 689 Views
  • 689 Comparison Views
80% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service and Azure Web Application Firewall compete in web application protection. Azure Web Application Firewall holds the upper hand due to its extensive features and integration capabilities.

Features: Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service includes automated threat updates, comprehensive reporting tools, and DDoS protection. Azure Web Application Firewall offers seamless integration with Azure services, advanced threat intelligence, and filtering capabilities to block false positives with custom rules.

Room for Improvement: Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service could enhance its scalability, improve integration with third-party services, and offer more customizable threat rules. Azure Web Application Firewall might simplify its often complex setup process, improve ease of use for non-Azure environments, and possibly reduce its cost to offer better competitive pricing.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service is known for quick deployment and responsive customer service. Azure Web Application Firewall, despite a more complex integration process, benefits from being part of the Azure ecosystem, offering streamlined processes for those environments.

Pricing and ROI: Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service typically offers a lower setup cost with effective support that ensures a quick ROI. Azure Web Application Firewall, though with higher initial costs, provides extensive scalability and features, appealing to organizations invested in Azure's ecosystem for long-term ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service Report (Updated: February 2026).
Buyer's Guide
Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
February 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

Azure Web Application Firewall
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (21st)
Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
Ranking in Web Application Firewall (WAF)
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.4
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category, the mindshare of Azure Web Application Firewall is 3.0%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Azure Web Application Firewall3.0%
Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service0.8%
Other96.2%
Web Application Firewall (WAF)
 

Featured Reviews

RJ
Kevin Rua Jefwa
Global IT Solutions Specialist at RELIEF INTERNATIONAL INC
Offers robust analytics and seamless cloud integration with minor room for user interface improvement
The Microsoft support and the analytics are what I appreciate about Azure Web Application Firewall. It integrates effectively with things such as Sentinel and Defender for Cloud, so mostly it's the analytics and now the AI capabilities that have been introduced with Co-pilot. It helps when looking for threats. It reduces issues significantly because the filtering capabilities are high. Given that it's a cloud solution, we have very minimal downtime, especially because we have Microsoft support. On a scale of one to 10, I would give it an eight.
Read full review
Tarandeep Kaur - PeerSpot reviewer
Tarandeep Kaur
DevOps Manager at Flash.co
Security management has reduced ransomware risk and now protects cloud workloads efficiently
The best features that Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service offers are an intuitive centralized dashboard, allowing us to manage policies, Internet protocol servers, antiviruses, anti-DDoS attacks, and traffic shaping across multiple sites. This feature enables seamless scaling of our environments, especially as we work within Amazon Web Services. Additionally, real-time threat intelligence helps us to detect threats in real-time. Another major feature I love is application control and VPN support, providing granular visibility and protection without needing separate appliances. The centralized dashboard is helping us streamline visibility across our admin panels and provides site-to-site visibility deployed directly to our AWS environment, securing VPC traffic and ensuring the firewall is in place. The real-time threat intelligence is an advanced feature helping us track real-time attacks, such as anti-DDoS attacks, ransomware, or viruses that can compromise system integrity. Through the intuitive centralized dashboard, we can manage policies and set rules, assisting us effectively.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Configuration is much easier than using different platforms."
"It is almost impossible to access these assets from outside, requiring a very skilled attacker to obtain asset tokens of a customer using Azure."
"The integration it has with GitHub is great."
"The return on investment is good."
"The functions of Azure Web Application Firewall that I found most valuable include its cost-effectiveness, and unlike other WAF products I have worked with such as Barracuda, we have flexibility to create rules."
"It's a good option if you want a solution that's ready to go and easy for your team to learn. It's cloud-based, so you don't need to buy or maintain any hardware infrastructure."
"Azure WAF is extremely stable."
"The solution has good dashboards."
More Azure Web Application Firewall pros
"I like its ability to identify known attacks, including DDOS attacks. It's valuable because software must be able to stop known attacks. Application attacks are evolving all the time. When it comes to software-as-a-service, we need to have software that knows about all the latest attacks. It should also protect against major unknown attacks."
"The most valuable features of the solution are it is plug and play, has automated policies, a simple configuration, and is easy to create rules."
"It provides an ease of policy management."
"The product's bot protection feature is valuable for our company."
"Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service has positively impacted our organization by reducing cyber threats like ransomware and phishing by ninety-five percent."
"The solution can be used for threat prevention or as a cloud-to-cloud backup system"
 

Cons

"Azure WAF should not be deployed in the middle of the traffic."
"Upgrading the platform regularly is necessary for security, however, frequent updates every six months or year from Azure can be a maintenance overhead."
"I would say that Azure's customer service is not that good...I am not very happy with the support offered."
"The management can be improved."
"From my point of view, there is no need for improvement."
"There is a need to be able to configure the solution more."
"The documentation needs to be improved."
"The support for proxy forwarding could improve."
More Azure Web Application Firewall cons
"We found it a bit slow when accessing it through the web browser. The URL also exposed the user name and the hashed password. When I log into my Barracuda WAF user portal, I could see the username and the hashed password on the URL itself. So, it is not very secure, and it is important to take that off."
"The stability of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The solution can improve by bundling Security Operation Center (SOC) with the WAF-as-a-Service, it would provide a lot more value to customers."
"It's a very specific solution that is only requested for a customer's web code or their global IT policy."
"One significant area for improvement in Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service lies in its market positioning and pricing strategy."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is for this solution is fair and there is a license needed."
"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."
"Azure WAF has price advantages over other WAF solutions. The pricing model is flexible because you pay on a scale based on the level of protection you need."
"The price of the solution depends on your architecture and how you manage it. You can control the cost in Azure quite well. The costs do not directly correlate to expenses in the features we are using."
"The price is reasonable. It is approximately $2,000 US per month."
"We have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft and the pricing is good."
"It's very difficult for me to give an estimate of the cost. All I know is that we sell the box itself as a service."
"I rate the product's price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high. There are no additional costs to be paid apart from the standard licensing fees attached to the solution."
"The product is expensive but it offers flexible pricing. It could be affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
6%
Government
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise12
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Web Application Firewall?
I would place Azure Web Application Firewall at an eight on a scale from one to 10, with one being cheap and 10 being expensive.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Azure Web Application Firewall?
The pricing needs improvement, and I think for beginners it will be a little bit complicated, so the ease of use could be enhanced. I've worked with Fortinet and Cisco, and I think the UI is a litt...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Azure Web Application Firewall?
Because we mostly operate in the cloud and because we're a Microsoft environment, it was the best option in the scenario. The options were limited in terms of wanting to be an only Microsoft enviro...
See all answers
What do you like most about Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service?
It provides an ease of policy management.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service?
I see that cost can be a limitation for small businesses. Additionally, if they can provide more advanced features and customization for specific use cases, that would be beneficial. Apart from tha...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service?
We primarily use Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service for raising security incidents by proactively blocking malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks to reduce breach risk and response time. Apart from that...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Azure Web Application Firewall Logo
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Azure Web Application Firewall
Compared 9% of the time
Azure Front Door vs Azure Web Application Firewall Logo
Azure Front Door vs Azure Web Application Firewall
Compared 8% of the time
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Azure Web Application Firewall Logo
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Azure Web Application Firewall
Compared 5% of the time
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Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service Logo
Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
Compared 36% of the time
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Fortinet FortiWeb vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
Compared 16% of the time
Azure Front Door vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service Logo
Azure Front Door vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
Compared 12% of the time
AWS WAF vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service Logo
AWS WAF vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
Compared 12% of the time
Imperva Application Security Platform vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service Logo
Imperva Application Security Platform vs Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
Compared 11% of the time
More Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Azure Web Application Firewall
February 2026
Azure Web Application Firewall reportDownload Azure Web Application Firewall product report
Buyer's Guide
Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
February 2026
Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service reportDownload Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
Barracuda WAF as a Service
 

Overview

Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) provides centralized protection of your web applications from common exploits and vulnerabilities. Web applications are increasingly targeted by malicious attacks that exploit commonly known vulnerabilities. SQL injection and cross-site scripting are among the most common attacks.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service is a comprehensive solution designed to provide application security, DDoS protection, SSL authentication, protocol support, and application delivery. It is a plug-and-play solution with automated policies, simple configuration, and easy rule creation. 

The solution can be used for threat prevention or as a cloud-to-cloud backup system based on email protection with cloud security. It is also a web application firewall and covers major protection and threat management functions. With Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service, customers can ensure the security of their web code and comply with global IT policies.

Barracuda Networks
 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Salvation Army
Buyer's Guide
Azure Web Application Firewall vs. Barracuda WAF-as-a-Service
February 2026
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