Best On-Premises Web Application Firewalls (WAF) of 2025

CacheGuard product line is based on a core product called CacheGuard-OS. Once installed on a bare metal or virtual machine, CacheGuard-OS transforms that machine into a powerful network appliance . The resulted appliance can then be implemented as different types of Gateways to Secure & Optimize your network. See below a brief description of all CacheGuard appliances. - Web Gateway: gain control over the Web traffic in your organization & filter unwanted Web traffic in your organization. - UTM (Unified Threat Management) : secure your networks against all kind of threats coming from the internet with a Firewall, an Antivirus at the Gateway, a VPN server and a Filtering proxy. - WAF (Web Application Firewall): block malicious requests on your critical Web applications and protect your business. The WAF integrates OWASP rules with the possibility to design your own custom rules. In addition, an IP reputation based filtering allows you to block IPs listed in real time blacklists. - WAN Optimizer : prioritize your critical network traffic, save your precious bandwidth and get High Availability for your internet access through multiple ISP.

Enhance the security of web applications against various attacks and vulnerabilities by employing robust security measures and a consistent policy framework through our SaaS-based Web Application Firewall (WAF), which is designed for rapid deployment and effortless scalability in any environment. Streamline application security by integrating protective features directly into the development workflow, supported by essential security capabilities, centralized management, and comprehensive monitoring. The F5 Distributed Cloud WAF simplifies the challenges of maintaining secure applications across multiple cloud platforms, on-premises infrastructures, and edge environments. By providing the programmability essential for DevOps alongside the oversight required by SecOps, it facilitates quicker and safer application delivery and release processes. Additionally, users can enhance their understanding of security events, including WAF signature activations, denial-of-service incidents, ongoing automated threats, and all interactions with clients, while also gaining insight into application performance, complete with user-friendly drill-down options. This holistic approach ensures that security is not just an afterthought but an integral part of the development lifecycle.

Achieve thorough security for both on-premises and multi-cloud environments utilizing an integrated firewall solution tailored for cloud protection. The frictionless, cloud-based Advanced Threat Protection system identifies and neutralizes sophisticated threats such as zero-day vulnerabilities and ransomware attacks. With access to a global threat intelligence network powered by millions of data points, you can swiftly defend against emerging threats. Modern cyber risks like ransomware, advanced persistent threats, and targeted assaults necessitate increasingly advanced defensive strategies that provide precise threat identification alongside prompt action. The Barracuda CloudGen Firewall delivers a complete suite of next-generation firewall technologies, ensuring immediate protection against a wide array of network dangers, vulnerabilities, and exploits, including SQL injections, cross-site scripting, denial of service attacks, trojans, viruses, worms, spyware, and beyond. This robust solution not only enhances security but also streamlines compliance with industry regulations, making it an essential component for any organization aiming to safeguard its digital assets.

Fortinet stands out as a prominent global entity in the realm of cybersecurity, recognized for its all-encompassing and cohesive strategy aimed at protecting digital infrastructures, devices, and applications. Established in the year 2000, the company offers an extensive array of products and services, which encompass firewalls, endpoint security, intrusion prevention systems, and secure access solutions. Central to its offerings is the Fortinet Security Fabric, a holistic platform that effectively melds various security tools to provide enhanced visibility, automation, and real-time intelligence regarding threats across the entire network. With a reputation for reliability among businesses, governmental bodies, and service providers across the globe, Fortinet places a strong emphasis on innovation, scalability, and performance, thereby ensuring a resilient defense against the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. Moreover, Fortinet’s commitment to facilitating digital transformation and maintaining business continuity further underscores its role as a pivotal player in the cybersecurity industry.

The premier hybrid and multi-cloud platform offers an advanced suite of security features including next-gen WAF, API Security, RASP, Enhanced Rate Limiting, Bot Defense, and DDoS protection, specifically engineered to address the limitations of outdated WAF systems. Traditional WAF solutions were not built to handle the complexities of modern web applications that operate in cloud, on-premise, or hybrid settings. Our cutting-edge web application firewall (NGWAF) and runtime application self-protection (RASP) solutions enhance security measures while ensuring reliability and maintaining high performance, all with the most competitive total cost of ownership (TCO) in the market. This innovative approach not only meets the demands of today's digital landscape but also prepares organizations for future challenges in web application security.

High-performance advanced load balancing solution that enables your applications to be highly available, accelerated, and secure. Ensure efficient and reliable application delivery across multiple datacenters and cloud. Minimize latency and downtime, and enhance end-user experience. Complete full-proxy Layer 4 load balancer and Layer 7 load balancer with flexible aFleX® scripting and customizable server health checks. Increase application security with advanced SSL/TLS offload, single sign-on (SSO), DDoS protection and Web Application Firewall (WAF) capabilities.

Alert Logic is the only managed detection and response (MDR) provider that delivers comprehensive coverage for public clouds, SaaS, on-premises, and hybrid environments. Our cloud-native technology and white-glove team of security experts protect your organization 24/7 and ensure you have the most effective response to resolve whatever threats may come.

open-appsec is an open-source initiative that builds on machine learning to provide pre-emptive web app & API threat protection against OWASP-Top-10 and zero-day attacks. It can be deployed as add-on to Kubernetes Ingress, NGINX, Envoy and API Gateways. The open-appsec engine learns how users normally interact with your web application. It then uses this information to automatically detect requests that fall outside of normal operations, and sends those requests for further analysis to decide whether the request is malicious or not. open-appsec uses two machine learning models: 1. A supervised model that was trained offline based on millions of requests, both malicious and benign. 2. An unsupervised model that is being built in real time in the protected environment. This model uses traffic patterns specific to the environment. open-oppsec simplifies maintenance as there is no threat signature upkeep and exception handling, like common in many WAF solutions.

BIG-IP Next WAF offers a containerized solution for ongoing protection of web applications, delivering exceptional security alongside easy management. Its advanced features facilitate the quick identification and resolution of threats, streamlining configuration workflows to save time and reduce the initial tuning process, allowing for a swift transition to blocking mode. Enhance your ability to detect and respond to threats with intuitive incident dashboards that span multiple policies. Ensure uniform application security policies across various environments, whether in data centers, at the edge, or within the public cloud. Additional licenses can be effortlessly acquired through a straightforward platform process to broaden your security coverage. Protect against prevalent attack vectors, such as known vulnerabilities (CVEs), while automatically countering active attack campaigns through intelligent updates from F5’s expert threat researchers. Gain critical contextual awareness by pinpointing and blocking sources of known malicious IP addresses, ultimately reinforcing your web application's defenses. With BIG-IP Next WAF, you can achieve a comprehensive approach to web application security that adapts to evolving threats and simplifies management tasks.

Safeguard your applications from harmful and unwanted online traffic through a cloud-based, PCI-compliant global web application firewall solution. By integrating threat intelligence with uniform rule application, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Web Application Firewall enhances protection and secures servers that face the internet. Embrace an edge security approach using a web application firewall that consolidates threat insights from various sources, such as WebRoot BrightCloud®, along with over 250 predefined rules tailored for OWASP, specific applications, and compliance needs. Ensure that your applications, whether hosted on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, on-premises, or across multicloud platforms, are shielded with access restrictions based on geolocation, IP whitelisting and blacklisting, along with HTTP URL and header controls. Additionally, detect and thwart harmful bot traffic using a sophisticated array of verification techniques, which includes JavaScript checks, CAPTCHA challenges, device fingerprinting, and algorithms that discern human interactions from automated processes. This comprehensive approach not only enhances security but also provides peace of mind for organizations operating in dynamic digital environments.

Protect your applications with our adaptable Web Application Firewall (WAF), an essential element of a robust security strategy. You can implement it as an independent tool, integrate it with our ADS series for enhanced security measures, or use its cloud-based deployment for exceptional versatility. Safeguard your APIs from various threats while also detecting and blocking bots attempting to access your web applications. Additionally, our WAF analyzes user behavior to pinpoint and eliminate harmful traffic. Its cloud deployment makes it simpler to scale and manage, providing a significant advantage. It also offers the ability to virtually patch vulnerabilities in web applications without necessitating updates to the application itself. Experience the strength of advanced web application security through our innovative WAF, crafted to protect your applications against emerging threats. Our solution leverages semantic analysis, intelligent analytics, threat intelligence, and smart patching techniques to detect and mitigate a wide spectrum of web attacks, including all OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities, DDoS attacks, and more, ensuring your digital assets remain secure in an ever-evolving landscape. Furthermore, investing in our WAF not only enhances your security posture but also provides peace of mind as you navigate the complexities of online threats.

BunkerWeb represents a cutting-edge, open-source Web Application Firewall (WAF) designed for modern web security needs. As a fully functional web server built on NGINX, it ensures that your web services are inherently "secure by default." This tool integrates effortlessly into various environments, including Linux, Docker, Swarm, and Kubernetes, and offers complete configurability through an intuitive web interface for those who prefer it over command-line options. In essence, it simplifies the complexities of cybersecurity, making it accessible for all users. Additionally, BunkerWeb includes essential security features in its core system, while also allowing for easy enhancement through a flexible plugin architecture, ensuring that it can adapt to a wide range of security requirements.