Cloud Web Application and API Protection Reviews and Ratings
What is Cloud Web Application and API Protection?
Gartner defines cloud web application and API protection (WAAP) as a category of security solutions designed to protect web applications and APIs from different types of attacks, irrespective of the hosting location. Typically delivered as a service, cloud WAAP is a consolidation of multiple capabilities offered as a series of security modules and designed to protect against a broad range of runtime attacks. Core capabilities are web application firewalls (WAFs), distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation, protection against advanced API attacks and automated (bot) traffic management. A cloud WAAP solution must incorporate all four core capabilities within the same offering.
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Imperva Cloud WAF provides advanced protection against sophisticated web application threats while ensuring seamless business operations with near-zero false positives. Leveraging advanced traffic profiling at the network edge, Imperva accurately distinguishes between legitimate and malicious requests in real-time, automatically blocking threats such as OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, DDoS, and botnet attacks before they reach your applications. Designed to stop attacks without disrupting user experiences, Imperva Cloud WAF deploys out-of-the-box in blocking mode, minimizing manual interventions while maintaining a low false positive rate. The solution scales effortlessly to secure applications hosted on-premises or in the cloud, integrating with key security tools such as SIEMs and Imperva Attack Analytics. Its automation capabilities through Terraform ensure quick policy updates, while daily threat intelligence from Imperva Research Labs keeps your defenses ahead of emerging risks.
Fastly Next-Gen WAF is a software designed to provide web application security through the detection and mitigation of threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other automated attacks. The software leverages a combination of rule-based and behavioral analysis techniques to identify potentially harmful requests and prevent unauthorized access or data breaches. It integrates with content delivery platforms to offer real-time protection and adapts to evolving threat landscapes without requiring significant manual intervention. Fastly Next-Gen WAF addresses business challenges related to application uptime, data integrity, and regulatory compliance, aiming to reduce risks associated with web vulnerabilities and application-level threats for organizations managing online services.
Cloudflare Application Services is a software designed to enhance the performance, security, and reliability of web applications. The software offers integrated solutions such as application firewall, load balancing, distributed denial-of-service protection, caching, and traffic acceleration. It works by managing and optimizing the delivery of web content, mitigating security threats, and ensuring uptime for online applications. By providing tools for analytics, monitoring, and automated threat management, the software addresses business challenges related to maintaining application availability, safeguarding against cyber risks, and improving user experience for global web traffic.
App & API Protector is a cloud-delivered security service that defends web applications and APIs from modern threats while simplifying operations. It provides multi-layered protection — including web application firewall, DDoS mitigation, bot management, and API security — to prevent data loss, compliance violations, downtime, and reputational risk. Delivered through Akamai’s globally distributed platform, it safeguards applications wherever they run: at the edge, in the cloud, on premises, or in CDN-agnostic environments. Using AI-enhanced detection and adaptive automation, the service continuously evolves to counter new attack patterns and reduce operational overhead. Available in flexible and fully managed service options, App & API Protector helps organizations ensure availability, integrity, and regulatory compliance while extending seamlessly into Akamai’s Zero Trust and AI Security portfolio for unified visibility and control.
AWS WAF is a web application firewall software designed to help organizations protect their web applications from common internet threats. The software enables users to create security rules that allow, block, or monitor web requests based on specific criteria such as IP addresses, HTTP headers, and body data. AWS WAF provides features for filtering traffic, preventing attacks including SQL injection and cross site scripting, and managing bot traffic. It integrates with other AWS services to enhance security posture, offers real time visibility into web traffic, and automates responses to detected threats. The software addresses the challenge of securing web applications against evolving cyber risks and helps organizations maintain compliance with security standards.
FortiWeb Web Application Firewall is a software designed to protect web applications from vulnerabilities and malicious attacks. It provides features such as threat detection, application-layer security, advanced machine learning for threat analysis, and integration with security information and event management systems. The software enables organizations to address business challenges related to unauthorized access, data breaches, and compliance requirements by monitoring and filtering traffic to web applications. FortiWeb Web Application Firewall assists in preventing exploits, mitigating risks from known and unknown threats, and automating security policies for web-based environments.
AppTrana WAAP platform is trusted by 5000+ customers across 95 countries to protect websites and APIs from OWASP Top 10 threats, Zero-day vulnerabilities, DDoS and Bot attacks.
AppTrana WAAP bundles products for external attack surface discovery (website & API discovery), VAPT (DAST Scanner and Manual Penetration Testing), Web Application Firewall, DDoS & Bot mitigation, API Security and a threat intelligence engine in a single unified platform.
With AppTrana IT teams could discover external attack surface, scan the apps for vulnerabilities, protect them with WAAP and monitor anomalies in real-time with managed services.
AppTrana's key differentiator includes SwyftComply, an autonomous patching capability that lets security and compliance teams generate a clean, zero-vulnerability report in 72 hours.
AppTrana's plans include managed services that help security and IT teams in false positive testing, DDoS & Bot monitoring, latency monitoring and autonomous patching.
NetScaler is a software that provides application delivery, load balancing, and security solutions for data centers and cloud environments. The software is designed to optimize the performance and availability of business applications by managing and distributing network traffic across multiple servers. NetScaler offers features such as application acceleration, SSL offloading, web application firewall, content switching, and advanced analytics for monitoring application health and user experience. The software addresses business challenges related to application performance, scalability, and security by enabling efficient traffic management, protecting against cyber threats, and ensuring uninterrupted application access for users. NetScaler supports integration with various cloud platforms and on-premises infrastructure, facilitating flexible deployment options for different IT environments.
F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF delivers next-generation protection for web applications and APIs by combining machine learning, threat intelligence, and behavioral analytics. It defends against zero-day attacks, credential theft, bot attacks, and L7 DoS, while securing GraphQL, REST/JSON, XML, and GWT APIs. Advanced WAF also encrypts sensitive data in the browser to prevent in-browser malware and man-in-the-browser attacks. With declarative, API-driven configuration, DevOps teams can automate security as code. Deployment options include hardware, virtual edition, and cloud environments, offering flexible protection wherever your apps run. A dedicated dashboard supports OWASP Top 10 compliance, and guided policy building helps you apply granular security policies for microservices and APIs.
Check Point CloudGuard WAF is a software that provides web application firewall protection designed to secure web applications and APIs against threats such as cross-site scripting, SQL injection, and other malicious attacks. The software offers automated threat intelligence, detection of vulnerabilities, and protection for web-facing assets in cloud environments and on-premises. CloudGuard WAF aims to ensure compliance with security standards by enabling policy customization and application-specific rules. It can be integrated into existing cloud infrastructure, providing continuous monitoring, real-time alerting, and analytics on web application traffic. The software addresses the business problem of reducing risks associated with exposure of web applications to cyber threats and aids organizations in maintaining the security and integrity of sensitive data processed by their applications.
Radware Cloud Application Protection Services is a software that provides security solutions focused on safeguarding web applications and APIs from cyber threats. The software offers features such as automated protection against distributed denial of service attacks, vulnerability detection, and real-time traffic monitoring. It utilizes machine learning and behavioral analysis to identify and mitigate risks, supporting both on-premise and cloud-based application environments. The software assists organizations in maintaining continuous availability and integrity of their web assets by ensuring compliance with security standards and addressing various attack vectors such as data breaches and malicious bot activity. The product aims to solve business challenges related to secure application delivery, threat prevention, and risk management in digital operations.
Azure Web Application Firewall is a software designed to protect web applications from common threats and vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other web exploits. It provides centralized protection for applications deployed on Azure services by inspecting incoming HTTP and HTTPS requests and filtering out malicious traffic. The software enables customizable security policies, integrates with Azure Application Gateway and Azure Front Door, and supports real-time monitoring and logging. By addressing the need for automated threat detection and mitigation, it helps organizations safeguard their web applications and ensure compliance with security standards.
Barracuda Application Protection is an integrated platform that brings a comprehensive set of interoperable capabilities together to ensure complete application security. It offers security against multiple web and API attack vectors, including unlimited full-spectrum DDoS Protection, Advanced Bot Protection, Client-Side Protection, an additional containerized deployment model and built-in Zero Trust access for additional security
01 Graphical workflow technology- Logical approach with workflow
02 Strengthen security - OWASP TOP 10, Securing WebSocket traffic
03 Detecting malicious bots -Bot mitigation, L7 DoS protection
04 Avoiding false positives
05 Adapt to IP Reputation
06 Customize dashboards
07 Automated scalability in the cloud: Infrastructure, configuration orchestration
F5 Distributed Cloud WAF is a SaaS-delivered next-generation web application firewall that protects your apps across clouds, on-premises, and edge locations. It combines signature-based threat detection with AI/ML behavioral analysis to block OWASP Top 10 risks, bots, Layer 7 DDoS, and automated attacks. A powerful policy engine enables micro-segmentation using IP reputation, TLS fingerprints, and ASN allow/deny lists. Automatic signature tuning reduces false positives, while a natural-language AI assistant helps you write and refine security policies. Deployment is simple via UI or API, with full observability through a centralized dashboard. You can self-manage your WAF or use F5’s SOC-backed managed service, giving you consistent, scalable protection for distributed applications.
Prophaze WAF is a Native Cloud Web Application Firewall that intelligently tracks down the malicious request into your clients’ Web APIs. It uses multiple attack detection algorithms (with AI) to monitor all the incoming requests and will pass only legitimate requests to the backend apps.
Wallarm API Security Platform is a software designed to safeguard APIs and web applications from a range of security threats. The software provides automated threat detection, vulnerability scanning, and real-time traffic analysis to identify and mitigate risks such as API abuse, injection attacks, and unauthorized access. Wallarm API Security Platform uses machine learning to adapt to changing attack patterns and enables users to manage security policies through a centralized dashboard. The software aims to address business challenges related to securing API endpoints, minimizing downtime due to cyber incidents, and ensuring compliance with security standards. It supports integration with DevOps workflows and cloud environments, offering compatibility with various architectures to enhance overall API resilience and reduce operational risks.
F5 WAF for NGINX is a lightweight, high-performance web application firewall built into NGINX Plus or NGINX Ingress Controller to protect modern web apps and APIs. It delivers advanced Layer 7 security with over 7,500 signatures, bot and threat campaign protection, and deep protocol support including gRPC bi-directional streaming. It masks sensitive data like PII with built-in Data Guard and helps meet regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS. This platform-agnostic security integrates seamlessly across distributed and hybrid environments—edge load balancers, microservices, Kubernetes, or per-service proxies. With declarative policy via REST API or CI/CD integration, teams can shift-left security as code. Centralized management and real-time insight are provided through NGINX Instance Manager or the NGINX One Console, enabling high-scale policy control with low latency.
Google Cloud Armor is a software that helps organizations protect their applications and services from online threats such as distributed denial-of-service attacks, cross-site scripting, and SQL injection. The software offers customizable security policies, access control, and real-time threat detection, enabling users to define rules that filter incoming web requests based on various attributes. It integrates with Google Cloud services and provides adaptive protections using threat intelligence. Google Cloud Armor is designed to support organizations in managing security for their web-based applications and maintaining the availability and integrity of their online resources.
Features of Cloud Web Application and API Protection
Updated May 2025Mandatory Features:
Bot management: This component focuses on detecting and managing automated and malicious bot traffic campaigns targeting a web application with attacks such as credential stuffing, inventory hoarding and data theft.
Web application firewall (WAF): WAF is a core feature in any cloud WAAP solution. WAFs act as a first line of defense for web applications and APIs. They typically incorporate a list of rules tailored to detect a wide range of application layer attacks, including the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10 security risk list. In addition to WAF rules and policies, many WAF/WAAP vendors also use machine learning (ML) to detect new and emerging attacks.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation: DDoS mitigation focuses on maintaining availability of web applications and APIs. DDoS mitigation products operate in-line. They are positioned in front of a web application and aim to absorb DDoS attacks targeting that application or API.
API protection: A set of capabilities focusing on discovering and protecting APIs. Capabilities range from protecting APIs in development to detecting and stopping runtime attacks.
Delivery: The cloud WAAP solution must be cloud-delivered and offered as a service. All mandatory capabilities should be delivered inherently through the platform, without dependence on third-party integrations or external services to provide full cloud WAAP functionality. This is also applicable to vendors that provide distributed cloud WAAP services.















