

Cloudflare and Imperva compete in the CDN and security services industry. Based on the features and pricing, Cloudflare has the upper hand due to its cost-effectiveness and simplicity.
Features: Cloudflare offers features like speed improvements with its CDN, automatic caching, flexible SSL, and robust security including DDoS protection and a web application firewall. Its ease of use and free tier make it highly accessible. Imperva is noted for advanced security features such as WAF, DDoS protection, and detailed analytics, providing deep customization and data insights for enterprise environments.
Room for Improvement: Cloudflare requires improvements in technical support, with users reporting slow response times, and enhancements in CDN speed. It also necessitates additional server filtering if its IP is exposed. Imperva has a steep learning curve, with user feedback highlighting the need for advanced analytics and easier configuration. Its high pricing might deter smaller enterprises.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cloudflare's public cloud deployment highlights ease and accessibility, though support is limited for free-tier users. Imperva supports hybrid and on-premises setups appealing to enterprises, with premium customer support praised for responsiveness despite high costs.
Pricing and ROI: Cloudflare's pricing includes a free plan for small businesses, with Pro and Business plans for growing needs, generally offering favorable ROI. Imperva, known for premium pricing, offers high-level security features for larger enterprises, justifying costs with robust protection.
For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.
In terms of return on investment with Cloudflare, it costs my time to set them up, but basically once they're set up, it's done.
The return on investment for me is significant as time is the critical aspect.
They know how much money they are losing while the system is down, so by increasing the possibility of not having a down website or web application, return on investment can be calculated easily.
I was able to save over seven million dollars last year as return on investment in the company.
I have seen a return on investment with Imperva Application Security Platform, as it is generally associated with time savings, because the review of alerts and the visibility it gives saves us significant operational time.
Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.
I would rate the technical support with Cloudflare as excellent every time I've had to call them.
We use other solutions where support is available through Slack channels and is more interactive, with someone responding within a couple of minutes or seconds.
I would rate the technical support of Imperva DDoS as ten.
They need to work faster on the response time because of issues of urgent replies.
Responsive support addressing urgent needs.
It is a SaaS tool, but the fact that they have workloads deployed across the world proves that it is a highly scalable tool.
The tool offers very good performance, even during high-traffic periods.
Cloudflare's scalability is quite good; it is very easy to scale whenever we want to include multiple domains.
99% of customers are using the cloud version of Imperva DDoS protection, so they just purchase the new license and scale as needed.
I have not even needed support after deployment, since it has remained stable.
It is easy to always scale to add more users.
The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.
Cloudflare's reliability and uptime has met my expectations; it has been quite good in general.
It is also a stable product without much glitch or downtime.
One notable drawback is that, unlike Fortinet, which offers fast track labs and continuous enablement, Imperva Application Security Platform lacks lab access and fast track labs for enablement and product advertising.
The stability of Imperva DDoS is very good, as it seems they have a lot of servers around the world.
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.
There are some performance considerations when it comes to dynamic content that involves fetching data from databases or using APIs.
What Cloudflare is doing internally is that it is stepping ahead in areas like detection and protection.
To convince my clients, a purely on-prem solution would be ideal since they are financial institutions.
Maybe Imperva DDoS could use endpoints to get information about the attacks before they commence from the endpoint level or establish cooperation with endpoint vendors to share this information.
Regarding return on investment, ROI, I can say it is noticeable with Imperva Application Security Platform.
I find it to be cheap.
I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.
The tool is a premium product, so it is very expensive.
I would rate the pricing of Imperva DDoS as five, where one is very cheap and ten is very expensive.
We have noticed faster response times and fewer security alerts because after doing some custom policy tuning, everything seemed to be aligned and we have fewer attacks to monitor and fewer alerts to monitor.
The pricing is not transparent to me; it's what the vendors give, or whatever the channel partner offers that you can negotiate on.
Techniques like minification and image compression reduce the size of assets, leading to better performance and faster user load times.
The solution has been able to compare it to the market, and I think the product has taken great strides in automating quite a bit of things, and they use a lot of AI.
Most of our DNS records that are presented to the internet are proxied whenever possible, providing another layer of defense from our perspective.
The API security feature is particularly valuable because most attackers do not try to come in from where it is expected.
If someone attempts to access the server, the WAF blocks that SSRF alert, or RCE, Remote Code Execution alert, blocking immediately based on the signature, not only by the payload or the IP address.
It reduces the DDoS attacks and reduces the attacks from threat actors, including SQL Injection and zero-day attacks, by using dynamic application profiling from Imperva.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | 14.9% |
| Imperva Application Security Platform | 8.3% |
| Other | 76.8% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 46 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 11 |
| Large Enterprise | 26 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 88 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 25 |
| Large Enterprise | 67 |
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?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.
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?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.
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