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F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) vs Radware DDoS Protection Service comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 30, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
Cloudflare enhances performance, reduces operational costs, and boosts revenue, with reported benefits of $903,000 over three years.
Sentiment score
7.4
Organizations see positive ROI from F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager, particularly when integrated with other F5 tools, despite eventual cost increases.
Sentiment score
6.4
Radware DDoS Protection prevents attacks and reduces downtime risk, offering 20% ROI and safeguarding companies' financial and reputational integrity.
WordPress security can be tricky, and that's where Cloudflare can be absolutely helpful for small businesses.
We have had ROI with the tool's use since it never gave us downtime and made us lose millions.
For the small project I was working on, using the basic tier provided a huge improvement at zero cost.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Cloudflare's service is praised for responsiveness, but some users face delays, often relying on extensive documentation for solutions.
Sentiment score
6.5
F5 BIG-IP AFM support is responsive yet inconsistent, praised for professionalism but needing improvement in communication accuracy and knowledge levels.
Sentiment score
6.9
Radware DDoS Protection is praised for efficient 24/7 support, direct technical communication, and prompt resolution with management involvement.
This would help us address issues promptly, especially during unforeseen events like DDoS attacks.
We'd like a dedicated account manager.
You can get a support engineer with the best qualifications.
The customer service is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten.
Providing assistance almost instantly when needed.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Cloudflare's scalable architecture is praised for efficient traffic handling, seamless expansion, and meeting diverse enterprise needs globally.
Sentiment score
7.2
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager is praised for its scalability, adaptability, and efficient performance across physical and virtual environments.
Sentiment score
7.6
Radware DDoS Protection offers scalable, flexible solutions for various sectors, excelling in cloud environments but facing some availability challenges.
I would rate the solution's scalability a ten out of ten since I didn't encounter any issues with it.
I rate its scalability a ten out of ten because I had no issues with it.
I rate the scalability a ten out of ten.
Scalability is well-supported by Radware.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Users praise Cloudflare for improved reliability, effective DDoS protection, and excellent DNS services despite initial configuration needs.
Sentiment score
8.4
F5 BIG-IP AFM is highly stable, reliable, well-supported, and offers clear logging with strong performance, rated 8-9/10.
Sentiment score
8.6
Radware DDoS Protection Service is reliable, consistent, and stable, quickly recovering from power interruptions with effective user support.
For DDoS protection, I would not recommend Cloudflare.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.
The service is very stable with no impacts during high-traffic periods.
 

Room For Improvement

Cloudflare users seek better analytics, integration, support, pricing clarity, and enhanced features like caching and multi-user access.
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager requires enhancements in interface, features, automation, support, pricing, setup, and zero-day attack prevention.
Radware DDoS Protection needs better scalability, AI, user-friendliness, customization, cost-effectiveness, and SIEM integration, plus enhanced Layer 7 protection.
There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features.
Despite these challenges, overall, Cloudflare remains the preferred solution compared to Azure, AWS CloudFront, and Google Cloud Armor.
the ability to integrate with the on-site active directory instead of just AD through Azure AD
Having advanced technology similar to other vendors like Palo Alto for zero-day attack prevention would be valuable.
I suggest improvements to the user interface to make it easier to use and to find the necessary data for analysis.
 

Setup Cost

Cloudflare offers flexible pricing plans from free to $1,500 monthly, ideal for businesses of different sizes and traffic needs.
F5 BIG-IP AFM is valuable for its features and unified platform, despite being pricier than some competitors.
Radware DDoS Protection offers flexible pricing for enterprises, with robust protection and discounts for long-term contracts despite high costs.
That's where Cloudflare shines for smaller businesses – it's ten times cheaper than Akamai.
I find it to be cheap.
It's cost-effective, but I think they should have a custom pricing model for enterprise customers based on the features you use.
If considering a one-stop solution that provides load balancing, DNS security, AAA authentication, and firewalling on the same hardware, the cost is reasonable.
Radware pricing is on the high end, suitable more for larger organizations.
 

Valuable Features

Cloudflare enhances performance and security with CDN, caching, DDoS protection, easy DNS management, analytics, and intuitive interface.
F5 BIG-IP AFM effectively offers advanced traffic analysis, DDoS protection, easy deployment, and integrates seamlessly with other security tools.
Radware DDoS Protection offers fast mitigation, real-time monitoring, easy integration, and advanced security features for minimal downtime.
Our scenario consisted of two web servers in different allocations to control access demands, and the load balancer did the job as expected, bringing security and stability to access points.
For me, the valuable feature is DDoS protection.
The most valuable features of the solution are performance and security.
The solution provides behavioral analysis via AI to detect malicious traffic.
The support from Radware is also exceptional, as they are always willing to jump on a call to help solve issues and improve our network design.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare
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Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
CDN (1st), Managed DNS (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (14th)
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall...
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Radware DDoS Protection Ser...
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
2nd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection category, the mindshare of Cloudflare is 19.4%, up from 19.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) is 1.4%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Radware DDoS Protection Service is 8.2%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
 

Featured Reviews

Spencer Malmad - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to set up because you point the DNS to it, and it's working in under 15 minutes
Cloudflare is highly scalable. Cloudflare is a system with a web portal that the end users like me see. It's a console where we can adjust the DNS, caching, and security features all in that console. Cloudflare owns thousands of servers across the world that cache the data. It's a powerful solution. When clients sign up for Cloudflare, they're getting this monster content delivery network, security, and a web application firewall in one. It's all rolled into one, and it's massive. Unless you have your website hosted on a massive hosting provider, there's no way that you can deliver the amount of data that Cloudflare can provide to the end users. If you have static content, there's no way that you can ever match what Cloudflare can do. Obviously, there are competitors to Cloudflare that do the same, but I'm saying other types of solutions. Let's say you go with F5. Great, that's on-prem. That's in your colo. You can't deliver as much data to the internet as you can with a CDN. You don't have to spend $20,000 on a net scaler, F5, or whatever Cisco's selling now. You don't have to buy that. You pay them $50 a month or $150 a month. It's totally worth it because even in five years, you'll never get the performance value, not just the actual ROI. You have to consider how much throughput you can get with Cloudflare.
Richard Polyak - PeerSpot reviewer
Straightforward setup with very good granularity and performance
Our company uses the solution as a data center firewall.  It is hard to determine all users within our infrastructure. It depends on systems we put behind the solution. Its internal but also a data center firewall. Sometimes, there are hooks from the solution to our external infrastructure or…
Ajay Tyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Successfully protects from DDoS attacks
The product is good, but the company could improve its services by appointing customer success managers. This would ensure better interaction with customers and help resolve issues on both customer and supplier ends. Most other security product companies such as Palo Alto and Forcepoint appoint customer success managers to interact with customers and ensure that the product they have purchased is used perfectly. If we are facing any kind of issues in using the product or service, the customer success manager should get things right.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
21%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
19%
Insurance Company
8%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
46%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
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...
What do you like most about Cloudflare?
Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
If considering a one-stop solution that provides load balancing, DNS security, AAA authentication, and firewalling on...
What needs improvement with F5 Advanced Firewall Manager?
F5 should increase its capability to prevent zero-day attacks. Having advanced technology similar to other vendors li...
What do you like most about Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The most important part is that Radware DDoS integrates seamlessly and provides anomaly identification, real-time not...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The pricing is okay, and I do not have any concerns about the price. To someone who is researching DDoS protection so...
What needs improvement with Radware Cloud DDoS Protection Service?
The time it takes to upload a site to the cloud is critical when under attack. If a site is down, a quick response to...
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS
F5 AFM, F5 Advanced Firewall Manager
Radware DefensePro, Radware DefenseFlow
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
City Bank, Ricacorp Properties, Miele, American Systems, Bangladesh Post Office
Myntex, APAC retailers
Find out what your peers are saying about F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) vs. Radware DDoS Protection Service and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.