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waf pricing 2026: list rates, quote-only vendors, and real bills

Side-by-side WAF pricing taken straight from each vendor's own pricing page. AWS WAF starts at $5/web-ACL, Cloudflare WAF is free on the entry plan, Cloud Armor charges $5/policy. Seven of the fourteen named vendors refuse to publish list pricing and are honestly labelled quote-only, not guessed at.

Last verified June 2026

Starting list rate per vendor, sorted cheapest first
Verified June 2026
6 of 14 vendors publish a list rate. Cheapest published entry point is Cloudflare WAF at $0 (free tier). 7 vendors refuse to publish any rate and are shown below as quote-only. Spread above $0 to the dearest published starting line is openx.
Cloudflare WAF$0 (free tier)AWS WAF$5.00 per web-ACL per monthAzure WAF (Front Door)$5.00 per policy per month (Front Door Premium managed rules)Google Cloud Armor$5.00 per policy per month (Standard)Sucuri WAF$9.99 per month (Basic Firewall + CDN)Fortinet FortiWeb Cloud$0.03 per hour per app, approx $21.90 per app per monthAkamai App & API ProtectorQuote requiredImperva Cloud WAFQuote requiredF5 Distributed Cloud WAAPQuote requiredFastly Next-Gen WAFQuote requiredBarracuda WAF-as-a-ServiceQuote requiredRadware Cloud WAFQuote requiredWallarm API & App SecurityQuote requiredStackPath WAFRetired June 2024
Published rateFree tierQuote-only vendorSources: each vendor's own pricing page, see deep-dive pages for live URL.
Direct answer
How much does a WAF cost in 2026?
The cheapest published entry point is Cloudflare's Free plan ($0/month, basic managed WAF rules) followed by AWS WAF at $5 per web-ACL per month plus $0.60 per million requests and Google Cloud Armor at $5 per policy per month. Mid-market deployments with bot management on typically run $500 to $5,000 per month across the published-rate vendors. Quote-only vendors (Akamai, Imperva, F5, Fastly, Barracuda, Radware, Wallarm) publish no list rate and we refuse to invent one. See the quote-only-vendors page for the discovery-call framework.
Source: Vendor pricing pages, retrieved 19 June 2026

Vendor matrix

Fourteen vendors compared. Six publish a list rate that lets you assemble a real bill: AWS WAF, Cloudflare WAF, Azure WAF, Google Cloud Armor, Sucuri, and Fortinet FortiWeb Cloud (per-hour-per-app via AWS Marketplace). The remaining seven are quote-only. StackPath shut down in June 2024 and is included as a retired entry for buyers still searching for it.

WAF pricing matrix
14 vendors. Published rates only. Quote-only labels are honest.
VendorModelCheapest published rateBot mgmtStatus
AWS WAFPer web-ACL + per rule + per million requests$5.00 per web-ACL per monthAdd-onActive
Cloudflare WAFFlat monthly plan, WAF included on every paid tierFree plan, WAF rules includedAdd-onActive
Akamai App & API ProtectorQuote only, annual contractQuote onlyAdd-onQuote only
Imperva Cloud WAFQuote only, per-site or per-applicationQuote onlyAdd-onQuote only
F5 Distributed Cloud WAAPQuote only, per-app or per-bandwidth subscriptionQuote onlyAdd-onQuote only
Fastly Next-Gen WAFThree security packages, all priced quote-onlyQuote onlyAdd-onQuote only
Azure WAF (Front Door)Per policy + per rule + per million requests$5.00 per policy per month (Front Door Premium managed rules)Add-onActive
Google Cloud ArmorStandard (per policy + per rule + per request) or Enterprise subscription$5.00 per policy per month (Standard)Add-onActive
Barracuda WAF-as-a-ServicePer-app subscription, quoted via Build and PriceQuote onlyAdd-onQuote only
Radware Cloud WAFQuote only, per-application subscriptionQuote onlyAdd-onQuote only
Wallarm API & App SecurityQuote only, subscription tied to API calls + applicationsQuote onlyAdd-onQuote only
Sucuri WAFAnnual plan, WAF + CDN bundled$9.99 per month (Basic Firewall + CDN)NoActive
StackPath WAFDiscontinued, all services shut down June 2024Quote onlyNoRetired
Fortinet FortiWeb CloudAWS Marketplace per-hour per app + per-GB traffic$0.03 per hour per app, approx $21.90 per app per monthAdd-onActive
Source: each vendor's own pricing page, verified June 2026.

Realistic-workload cost comparison

Below: estimated monthly WAF cost across the published-rate vendors for a fixed workload (illustrative example, not a real company). Move the sliders to fit your own profile. Quote-only vendors return Quote only, never an invented number.

Cost estimator
Estimate monthly WAF spend across published-rate vendors

Inputs feed each vendor's published rate card. Quote-only vendors return Quote only, never an invented number.

VendorEstimated monthly costBreakdown
Sucuri WAF$19.98Pro Firewall $19.98/mo per site x 1
Fortinet FortiWeb Cloud$21.90$0.03/hr x 730hr x 1 app(s) = $21.90. Add $0.40/GB traffic on top, depends on workload.
Google Cloud Armor$90.00Standard global: $5/policy + 10 rules x $1 + 100M x $0.75, x 1 policy(ies)
Azure WAF (Front Door)$125Front Door Premium managed: $5/policy + $20/mo + 100M x $1, x 1 app(s)
AWS WAF$185$5/web-ACL + 10 rules x $1 + 100M x $0.60 + Bot Control $10/web-ACL + per-request rule-group fee, x 1 app(s)
Cloudflare WAFQuote onlyBot Management is an Enterprise add-on, quote only. Refusing to invent a rate.
Akamai App & API ProtectorQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor
Imperva Cloud WAFQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor
F5 Distributed Cloud WAAPQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor
Fastly Next-Gen WAFQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor
Barracuda WAF-as-a-ServiceQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor
Radware Cloud WAFQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor
Wallarm API & App SecurityQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor
StackPath WAFQuote onlyQuote only, contact vendor

Illustrative estimate, not a quote. Real bills include log ingestion, egress, professional services and contract discounts. See /hidden-costs.

What this site does differently

Why we built this

WAF is one of the most opaque pricing categories in security software. AWS and Cloudflare publish per-request and per-rule pricing but bury the real bill behind bot-management add-ons and Enterprise tiers. Imperva and F5 are quote-only with no list pricing. Akamai routes everything through sales. Fortinet FortiWeb Cloud changes its per-app price depending on which marketplace listing you land on. Buyers comparing three or four vendors have to assemble pricing from PDFs, partner forums, Reddit threads, and account-rep emails. This site does that assembly once, in public, with sources.

Quote-only vendor flag
Seven of the fourteen vendors in this matrix (Akamai, Imperva, F5, Fastly, Barracuda, Radware, Wallarm) publish no list pricing. We label them quote-only and refuse to fabricate a rate. The quote-only reference page collects what is known from anonymised buyer-shared quotes, with dates.

Common questions

Direct answer
Which WAF is cheapest?
Cloudflare's Free plan at $0/month includes basic managed WAF rules and is the cheapest legitimate entry point. For sites needing custom rules or higher rate limits, AWS WAF at $5/web-ACL + $0.60 per million requests is typically the cheapest published rate at small to mid traffic volume.
Source: Vendor pricing pages, retrieved 19 June 2026
Direct answer
Why won't Imperva publish pricing?
Imperva, like Akamai, F5, and Radware, sells through a sales-led enterprise motion with quotes scoped to per-site or per-application bandwidth tiers and a separate Advanced Bot Protection line. Public list pricing would expose the spread between accounts and remove the rep's negotiating room. We document anonymised buyer-shared quote bands on the quote-only vendors page.
Direct answer
What is AWS WAF Bot Control and why does it cost so much?
Bot Control is a managed rule group billed at $10 per web-ACL per month plus a per-request fee on top of the standard $0.60 per million. At 100M requests a month with Bot Control on, the rule-group request fee alone can run an order of magnitude above the $5 web-ACL line. See the AWS WAF deep-dive page for the worked example.
Source: aws.amazon.com/waf/pricing, retrieved 19 June 2026

Related independent pricing references

wafpricing.com is part of a network of independent pricing sites for security and infrastructure products. Same methodology, no cross-vendor revenue.

Last verified June 2026