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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
7.0
Cloudflare enhances performance, reduces operational costs, and boosts revenue, with reported benefits of $903,000 over three years.
Sentiment score
7.2
F5 BIG-IP AFM offers ROI and cost efficiency when integrated, but standalone ROI is below average, despite perceived value.
Sentiment score
6.4
Radware DDoS Protection offers essential value akin to insurance by preventing costly disruptions and enhancing business security.
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
7.2
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 praised for professionalism but needs faster ticket resolution and improved recommendation accuracy.
Sentiment score
6.9
Radware DDoS Protection offers responsive and effective technical support, though local support improvements are desired by some users.
This would help us address issues promptly, especially during unforeseen events like DDoS attacks.
Cloudflare does not offer hands-on technical support to fix customer problems but rather a self-service model.
We'd like a dedicated account manager.
The responses are generally fast and effective.
The customer service is excellent, and I rate it ten out of ten.
Providing assistance almost instantly when needed.
Before using Radware, I experienced some delays with another product, but with Radware, we have immediate connections with high-level technical support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Cloudflare's scalable architecture is praised for efficient traffic handling, seamless expansion, and meeting diverse enterprise needs globally.
Sentiment score
7.3
F5 BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager offers scalable, efficient management for hybrid setups, supporting organizational growth and cloud migration.
Sentiment score
7.6
Radware DDoS Protection Service is scalable, user-friendly, and effective, despite some licensing flexibility issues in diverse environments.
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.
The solution is highly scalable, allowing me to add or remove nodes and manage traffic without interruption, which is essential for meeting application demands.
Scalability is well-supported by Radware.
It is scalable and user-friendly.
 

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 lauded for its stability and reliability, with high user ratings and minimal operational issues.
Sentiment score
8.6
Radware DDoS Protection is praised for its reliable performance and uptime, despite minor challenges with APSolute Vision stability.
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.
In my opinion, there is no downtime experienced with Radware DDoS Protection Service due to external network redundancy.
 

Room For Improvement

Cloudflare users seek better analytics, integration, support, pricing clarity, and enhanced features like caching and multi-user access.
F5 BIG-IP AFM is costly, complex, needs dashboard improvements, enhanced features, better integration, and concerns over CPU and support.
Radware DDoS Protection needs better scalability, AI integration, user interface, communication, customization, pricing, and IT system integration.
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.
The appliance and features could be enhanced further, especially in terms of security.
I suggest improvements to the user interface to make it easier to use and to find the necessary data for analysis.
I want to improve the blocking time; it should be within 10 seconds because 18 seconds allows multiple transactions in the financial industry.
 

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 costly but justified by its features, with pricing for licenses and potential extra feature fees.
Radware DDoS Protection is costly but valued by large organizations for flexible, customizable pricing and robust long-term security.
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.
The standard license is reasonably priced, but additional features like the WAF can be more expensive.
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.
I didn't check pricing of other providers in depth but verified with two, and found Radware to be significantly cheaper compared to F5.
 

Valuable Features

Cloudflare enhances performance and security with CDN, caching, DDoS protection, easy DNS management, analytics, and intuitive interface.
F5 BIG-IP AFM offers robust network security, ease of use, and supports cloud migration with AI-driven features.
Radware's DDoS Protection offers real-time detection, automated mitigation, customizable deployment, and robust security, enhancing network reliability and uptime.
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 most valuable features for me are stability, availability, and security, along with the ability to manage multiple features to secure my applications.
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.
The best feature of Radware DDoS Protection Service is the automation.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cloudflare
Sponsored
Ranking in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
75
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
25
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
37
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
18%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
19%
Insurance Company
9%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
41%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

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: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.