Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs NGINX App Protect comparison

Microsoft and F5 are both solutions in the Web Application Firewall (WAF) category. Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.2, while F5 is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.8. Additionally, 78% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of F5 users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

NGINX App Protect and Microsoft Azure Application Gateway are contenders in the application security and traffic management sector. While Azure Application Gateway has an edge due to its seamless integration with other Azure services and ease of use, NGINX App Protect is appreciated for its robust security features.

Features: NGINX App Protect provides security headers, proxy capabilities, and a command-line interface. Its reverse proxy capabilities, auto-learning, and bot protection are highly valued. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is noted for comprehensive traffic management, ease of use, and effective web application firewall (WAF). Its seamless integration with Azure services, scalability, and straightforward configuration are significant advantages.

Room for Improvement: NGINX App Protect needs enhancements in flexibility, pricing structures, and integration with current security solutions. It also faces scalability challenges and lacks certain automation features. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway requires better flexibility, scalability, and security features. Simplifying the configuration process and enhancing performance and third-party feature integration would be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NGINX App Protect often demands on-premises deployment, limiting its versatility compared to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's support for public and hybrid clouds. Feedback on NGINX support varies, whereas Microsoft Azure benefits from a robust support network but is sometimes criticized for slow responses and complex initial configurations.

Pricing and ROI: NGINX App Protect is viewed as pricey with a complex pricing model based on instances but offers decent ROI with significant initial investment. Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, while also expensive, provides a flexible pay-as-you-go pricing model without steep licensing fees. Users report favorable ROI, particularly those heavily integrated with Azure, though initial costs are noted as high.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. NGINX App Protect Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. NGINX App Protect

January 2025

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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

Cloudflare

Featured Reviews

Spencer Malmad

Owner at Tech Exchange

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.

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Sooryanarayan Hegde

Technical Architect at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Easy management and configuration, affordable, and has good features

We use all the features. It is very useful. Using WAF, we can control the WAF rules based on our application requirements. We can control what rules should be used and what should be disabled. The role of the tool is limited to HTTP traffic. It does exactly what it must do. It's a regional service. We know how to use it for DR scenarios. WAF has been the most valuable in protecting applications. We use at least three instances in the back end to give the best performance for our applications. The management and configuration of the solution is quite easy. All certificate renewals are automatically taken care of by Key Vault.

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Saurav Kumar

Senior security architecture at National Payment Corporation Of India

Offers protection to users from external threats

NGINX App Protect secures our company's application, and it has helped me a lot, considering that we have critical infrastructure in India where we see how lots of attacks come onto our organization's servers. The tool offers protection against multiple threats present in India's IT ecosystem. The tool helps our company to make our payments secure, meaning it has the ability to provide a secure payment environment in India. Speaking about the improvements in our company's application performance since implementing NGINX App Protect, the gRPC support for the solution is very low. My company is not getting any proper documentation on how to deploy gRPC over NGINX App Protect. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. People can use the product as their company's base server, WAF, or for its proxy manager, depending on the business requirements. My company follows PCI DSS compliance because we operate in a payment-related industry. Right now, my company follows all the standards, so we comply with all the requirements and policies. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

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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

"It is easier to configure and develop documentation to see how we have configured firewalls."

"The solution is stable, and the DNS servers are simple to use."

"Its most significant benefit to date is the speed with which it refreshes DNS records on the internet once you change it. If you are changing a website or registering a new record, it is very quick."

"It is a stable solution. I rate the stability a ten out of ten...I rate the scalability a ten out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of Cloudflare DNS is security."

"From what I've seen so far, there are no negatives to report as of yet"

"The tool is user-friendly."

"The solution is very good at mitigating threats."

More Cloudflare pros

"The simplicity of the solution and its ability to integrate easily with others are its most valuable aspects."

"The security feature in all the layers of the application is the most valuable."

"Load balancing and web application firewall features are the most valuable."

"This is a SaaS product, so it is always up to date."

"It is a scalable solution...The installation phase of Microsoft Azure Application Gateway is very easy."

"I rate Microsoft Azure Application Gateway's scalability a ten out of ten. My company has more than 1000 users who use it daily."

"The solution provides great automation and it is easy to upgrade service."

"The pricing is quite good."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pros

"It's very easy to deploy."

"The stability of the product is very impressive since it handles 60,000 to 70,000 requests or transactions per second."

"WAF is useful to track mitigation, inclusion, prevention, and the parametric firewall."

"The tool's most valuable feature is the OWASP certification. Additionally, the tool's ability to enforce strong passwords and OTP within minutes is impressive. With its analytics and recommendations, it is a very good solution."

"The most valuable feature of NGINX App Protect is its open source."

"The most valuable feature of NGINX App Protect is its flexibility."

"The policies are flexible based on the technologies you use."

"It is a stable solution."

More NGINX App Protect pros

Cons

"They lack a good way to manage DNS as a company, since everything is relegated to single account logins until you get to the higher levels. They have come out with a paid feature to remedy this, but I have not had a chance to fully review it yet to know if it fixes the access problem."

"The integration of LLMs on the dashboard is something that is needed in the tool."

"The solution could be more user-friendly."

"The timing aspect can lead to it being considered overpriced. This is a particular concern we have with Cloudflare, as they may struggle with accurately detecting the client."

"It should have easier documentation for the configuration. It's very technical and people who aren't technical should also be able to do the configuration."

"It would be beneficial for us if Cloudflare could offer a scrubbing solution. This would involve taking a snapshot of my website and keeping it live during a DDoS attack, ensuring uninterrupted service for our users. DDoS attacks are typically short in duration, and having Cloudflare maintain the site's availability from its secure network would enhance the overall user experience. I would appreciate it if Cloudflare could consider implementing this feature. Many organizations already utilize similar capabilities in their CDN platforms, where a static snapshot of the web page is displayed during DDoS attacks. In terms of features, Cloudflare needs to enhance its resilience and stay more focused on adopting new technologies. For instance, solutions like F5 XC Box, Access Solution, and Distributed Cloud Solution have impressive features, and Cloudflare should strive to match and exceed those capabilities. There's a need for improvement in areas like AI-based DDoS attacks and Layer 7 WAF features. Cloudflare should prioritize enhancements in areas such as behavioral DDoS and protection against SQL injection attacks, considering the prevalent trend of public exposure to the internet for business reasons. Overall, Cloudflare needs to invest more in advancing its feature set."

"I think the APIs are a little bit hard for us to work with. The APIs could be more open so that we could integrate better with our SolarWinds or our monitoring solution."

"Cloudflare should add more documentation and pricing to the cloud version."

More Cloudflare cons

"Implementing and standardizing the solution across the IT landscape in a heterogeneous environment is painful."

"The solution is easy to use overall, but the dashboard could be updated with a better layout and graphical design so that we can see the data a bit easier. Microsoft could also add more documentation. The documentation Microsoft provides doesn't tell us about resource requirements. We found that the instances we had weren't sufficient to support the firewall, so we had to increase them."

"It could be easier to change servicing."

"The solution could improve by increasing the performance when doing updates. For example, if I change the certificate it can take 30 minutes. Other vendors do not have this type of problem."

"The monitoring on the solution could be better."

"Application Gateway’s limitation is that the private and the public endpoint cannot use the same port."

"The solution can sometimes feel a little cumbersome unless you're a professional infrastructure person."

"Microsoft needs to work on their documentation."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway cons

"The price of NGINX App Protect could improve."

"I encountered issues with NGINX App Protect while trying to upgrade custom rules."

"As far as scalability, it takes a long time for deployment."

"The setup of NGINX App Protect is complex. The full process took one week to complete. Additionally, we had to change the network infrastructure platform which took one month."

"It's challenging if you need to go for a high throughput."

"Currently, the policies have to be handled manually, and you have to create from scratch, which can be a bit time-consuming, in a large environment."

"Setting policies and parameters through the UI should be more automated because the process is manual, where we can only edit one rule at a time."

"The solution needs to be improved in the e-commerce portal."

More NGINX App Protect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of licensing costs, we don't pay for licensing for Cloudflare. We only establish communication, then for peering, Cloudflare takes care of the cross-connection in different data centers."

"Cloudflare's pricing is not much higher and is good for middle-level organizations."

"When you compare Cloudflare DNS to other solutions, such as Akamai, the price is reasonable."

"A free version of the solution is available."

"So far I use free tier and happy with it. You can subscribe to business package if needed."

"I give the price a five out of ten."

"The price is reasonable."

"The product's pricing is cheap."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

"We use the tool's basic subscription. Its licensing costs are monthly."

"Between v1 and v2, there is a lot of change in the pricing. It is very costly compared to AWS."

"There is a need to pay a fixed price per month to use the product. There are no additional payments to be made to Microsoft apart from the charges paid towards the monthly licensing costs attached to the solution."

"Every solution comes with a license and cost. Microsoft provides the license and the total cost is for the maintenance every year."

"The pricing is based on how much you use the solution."

"The cost is not an issue."

"The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"There is some additional cost, such as extended support."

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway pricing and cost advice

"There are no additional fees."

"NGINX is not expensive."

"The price of NGINX App Protect is not much different from the products that fall under the leader category of Gartner Magic Quadrant."

"Really understand the licensing model, because we underestimated that."

"The pricing is reasonable because NGINX operates on an instance basis."

"The product's price is high."

"NGINX App Protect is expensive."

"The solution's price is reasonable."

More NGINX App Protect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

25%

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

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...

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How does AWS WAF compare to Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon’s Web Service Web Application Firewall or Microsoft...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway?

Application Gateway automatically redirects unwanted users and takes care of the security aspect. It also handles the...

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What do you like most about NGINX App Protect?

It's very easy to deploy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NGINX App Protect?

The product's price is high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NGINX App Protect?

The product's price is high, making it an area of concern where improvements are required. The tool's licensing model...

See all answers

Comparisons

Quad9 vs Cloudflare

Compared 49% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Azure DNS vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

Akamai vs Cloudflare

Compared 4% of the time

AWS Shield vs Cloudflare

Compared 1% of the time

More Cloudflare Competitors

F5 Advanced WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 14% of the time

Cloudflare Web Application Firewall vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 11% of the time

AWS WAF vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 10% of the time

HAProxy vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 9% of the time

Fortinet FortiWeb vs Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Application Gateway Competitors

Fortinet FortiWeb vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 15% of the time

AWS WAF vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 10% of the time

F5 Advanced WAF vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 10% of the time

Azure Front Door vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 9% of the time

Haltdos Enterprise WAF vs NGINX App Protect

Compared 3% of the time

More NGINX App Protect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

January 2025

Download Cloudflare product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway

December 2024

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway report

Download Microsoft Azure Application Gateway product report

Buyer's Guide

NGINX App Protect

December 2024

Download NGINX App Protect product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

Azure Application Gateway, MS Azure Application Gateway

NGINX WAF, NGINX Web Application Firewall

Learn More

Cloudflare

Microsoft

Overview

Cloudflare is a highly-regarded Content Delivery Network (CDN) and a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) protection solution. The robust global connectivity cloud platform that is Cloudflare ensures users are able to connect to the Internet quickly, securely, and reliably. Cloudflare is one of the world's largest networks in the marketplace today. Using Cloudflare, businesses, educational entities, NGOs, vloggers, bloggers, and anyone else with an internet presence can experience more secure, faster websites and applications.

Currently, there are millions of Internet locations on Cloudflare, and the Cloudflare network
continues to grow every day by the thousands. The solution is able to fulfill the requests for
millions of websites seamlessly and serves on average 45 million HTTP requests per second.

Cloudflare has safe, secure data centers in close to 300 cities worldwide to ensure every
client request is filled as quickly as possible. It is Cloudflare’s edge network that makes this
possible by keeping content and other services as close to each client as possible, so the
information requests are always only seconds away.

Many organizations that work in democracy, civil society, human rights, or the arts are able to
access Cloudflare's highest levels of protection for free via Project Galileo. Additionally, official
election websites can be secured from hacking and fraud through Cloudflare’s Project
Athenian, also at no additional cost.

Cloudflare can also help organizations of all sizes develop a robust zero-trust strategy to
ensure the highest levels of productivity and profitability. Employees, stakeholders, and end users have a greater level of satisfaction and overall improved user experience, which can, in
turn, result in higher revenues and overall ROI. Zero-trust and BYOD (bring your own device)
access ensure end users and employees always have the best resources and technology
available to them at all times.

Cloudflare benefits

Cloudflare has many benefits. Some of its most valuable benefits include:

- Faster load times

- Robust DNS security

- Intuitive cloud Web Application Firewall (WAF)

- Free universal SSL

- Image enhancement

- Automatic browser caching

- Next-generation cloud load balancer

- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

- Rate limiting

- Minification

- Zero-trust capabilities

- Cost-effective

- Reduced carbon footprint

Reviews from real users

“Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare
comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and
an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. If you have a connection between your
website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host, you don't necessarily need a
certificate.” Spencer M., Owner at Tech Exchange

“What I like best about Cloudflare is that my company can use it to trace and manage
applications and monitor traffic. The solution tells you if there's a spike in traffic. Cloudflare
also sends you a link to check your equipment and deployment and track it through peering,
so it's a valuable tool.” Daniel P., Network Engineer at Ufinet

“The most valuable feature of Cloudflare is the GUI. You are able to control the solution very
well through the interface. There is a lot of functionality that is embedded in the service.” PeerSpot user, Competence Center Manager at a tech services company

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables you to manage traffic to your web applications. Traditional load balancers operate at the transport layer (OSI layer 4 - TCP and UDP) and route traffic based on source IP address and port, to a destination IP address and port.

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

NGINX App Protect application security solution combines the efficacy of advanced F5 web application firewall (WAF) technology with the agility and performance of NGINX Plus. The solution runs natively on NGINX Plus and addresses some of the most difficult challenges facing modern DevOps environments:

Integrating security controls directly into the development automation pipeline
Applying and managing security for modern and distributed application environments such as containers and microservices
Providing the right level of security controls without impacting release and go-to-market velocity
Complying with security and regulatory requirements

NGINX App Protect offers:

Expanded security beyond basic signatures to ensure adequate controls
F5 app‑security technology for efficacy superior to ModSecurity and other WAFs
Confidently run in “blocking” mode in production with proven F5 expertise
High‑confidence signatures for extremely low false positives
Increases visibility, integrating with third‑party analytics solutions
Integrates security and WAF natively into the CI/CD pipeline
Deploys as a lightweight software package that is agnostic of underlying infrastructure
Facilitates declarative policies for “security as code” and integration with DevOps tools
Decreases developer burden and provides feedback loop for quick security remediation
Accelerates time to market and reduces costs with DevSecOps‑automated security

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

Lilly, AccuWeather, AIRFRANCE, Honeywell

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. NGINX App Protect

January 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. NGINX App Protect

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Application Gateway vs. NGINX App Protect and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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