Best Web Application Firewalls in 2026: Starting Prices
Eight WAFs compared on what one site pays. Four publish a price; four sell on quote.
Sucuri's Basic Firewall is the lowest published managed price: $9.99 a month for one site on monthly billing. AWS WAF bills per web ACL, per rule and per request, and our scenario comes to $19 a month. Cloudflare Pro costs $20 a month on annual billing with the WAF included. ModSecurity has no license fee, but you pay for the server and the rule tuning. Akamai, Imperva, Fastly and F5 sell on quote.
Key facts8 tools compared: ModSecurity, Sucuri Website Firewall, AWS WAF, Cloudflare WAF (Pro plan)…
- 8 tools compared: ModSecurity, Sucuri Website Firewall, AWS WAF, Cloudflare WAF (Pro plan), Akamai App and API Protector, Imperva Cloud WAF, Fastly Next-Gen WAF, F5 Distributed Cloud WAF
- Sucuri Website Firewall (best for: Small sites that want a managed cloud firewall for one domain at a flat monthly fee): Basic Firewall $9.99/mo for one site, billed monthly. Pro Firewall $19.98/mo.
- AWS WAF (best for: Sites already on AWS that want to pay per rule and per request, not a flat fee): $5 per web ACL per month, $1 per rule or managed rule group per month, $0.60 per million requests.
- Cloudflare WAF (Pro plan) (best for: Sites that want one flat monthly price for a managed WAF and bot protection): Pro $20/mo billed annually ($25 monthly), WAF included with 20 custom rules.
Buyers asking for a web application firewall usually want one number, and the vendors make that hard. Some charge a flat fee per site. Some meter web ACLs, rules and requests. Some charge nothing and hand you the server bill.
This page prices eight products on one scenario so the figures compare line by line.
Toolradar data: Toolradar's October 2026 CDN ranking evaluated 34 tools and lists no standalone WAF among its ranked products, so every price below comes from a vendor page.
Our API security roundup covers the scanners and proxies that sit next to a WAF.
Top Picks
Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.
The free engine with no license fee. The server, the rule upkeep and the false-positive work make up the real bill.
Free under Apache-2.0. You pay for the reverse proxy server and the rule tuning.
Teams with an engineer who can run Apache, IIS or Nginx and tune rules by hand
The lowest published managed price here, for one site, with no quote needed.
Basic Firewall $9.99/mo for one site, billed monthly. Pro Firewall $19.98/mo.
Small sites that want a managed cloud firewall for one domain at a flat monthly fee
Cheap at low volume, but every rule and request is billed. At our scenario it is the second-cheapest of the paid options.
$5 per web ACL per month, $1 per rule or managed rule group per month, $0.60 per million requests.
Sites already on AWS that want to pay per rule and per request, not a flat fee
| Tool | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| ModSecurity | Free under Apache-2.0. You pay for the reverse proxy server and the rule tuning. | Teams with an engineer who can run Apache, IIS or Nginx and tune rules by hand |
| Sucuri Website Firewall | Basic Firewall $9.99/mo for one site, billed monthly. Pro Firewall $19.98/mo. | Small sites that want a managed cloud firewall for one domain at a flat monthly fee |
| AWS WAF | $5 per web ACL per month, $1 per rule or managed rule group per month, $0.60 per million requests. | Sites already on AWS that want to pay per rule and per request, not a flat fee |
| Cloudflare WAF (Pro plan) | Pro $20/mo billed annually ($25 monthly), WAF included with 20 custom rules. | Sites that want one flat monthly price for a managed WAF and bot protection |
| Akamai App and API Protector | Contact sales. No list price on the product page. A free trial is offered. | Large sites and APIs that want an enterprise WAF and will negotiate a contract |
| Imperva Cloud WAF | Contact sales. No list price on the product page. A free trial and a demo are offered. | Sites that want a managed cloud WAF and are ready to take a demo before a quote |
| Fastly Next-Gen WAF | Contact sales for pricing. Security Core, Security Core Plus and Security Total also show Contact sales. | Sites already buying Fastly's CDN that want the WAF from the same vendor |
| F5 Distributed Cloud WAF | Contact sales. Annual subscriptions (Essentials, Enterprise) with no prices shown. Also in AWS Marketplace. | Enterprises that want an annual WAF subscription or want to buy through AWS Marketplace |
Pricing read from each vendor's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026. 4 of 8 sell by quote only and publish no price; those entries say so rather than estimating. 2 of 8 publish prices for some plans and quote the rest.
ModSecurity
The free engine with no license fee. The server, the rule upkeep and the false-positive work make up the real bill.
- Pricing
- Free under Apache-2.0. You pay for the reverse proxy server and the rule tuning.
Best for: Teams with an engineer who can run Apache, IIS or Nginx and tune rules by hand
Pros
- No license fee and no per-request meter, so the bill does not move with traffic
- Runs on Apache, IIS and Nginx, so it fits the web server you already operate
- The source is public, so your team can read every rule that blocks a request
Cons
- The engine is the free part. Rule updates, tuning and false positives are your work.
- A false positive blocks a real customer until someone adds an exception
Sucuri Website Firewall
The lowest published managed price here, for one site, with no quote needed.
- Pricing
- Basic Firewall $9.99/mo for one site, billed monthly. Pro Firewall $19.98/mo.
Best for: Small sites that want a managed cloud firewall for one domain at a flat monthly fee
Pros
- The price is printed for one site, so the budget line is known before any call
- The page describes a cloud-based WAF that actively blocks malicious traffic
- Pro is the next step at $19.98 a month for one site
Cons
- Multi-site and custom plans are priced on request, so a group of sites needs a quote
- The plan table does not show rule counts or request limits per plan
AWS WAF
Cheap at low volume, but every rule and request is billed. At our scenario it is the second-cheapest of the paid options.
- Pricing
- $5 per web ACL per month, $1 per rule or managed rule group per month, $0.60 per million requests.
Best for: Sites already on AWS that want to pay per rule and per request, not a flat fee
Pros
- Each charge is published, so you can model the bill before launch
- Our scenario works out to $228 a year, so you can check the annual bill line by line
- Managed rule groups let you buy protection by the group rather than writing each rule
Cons
- Bot Control is extra at $10 a month, plus a per-request charge above 10 million requests
- Each unused rule still bills a monthly fee, so a cluttered rule set raises the bill
Cloudflare WAF (Pro plan)
The flat-fee pick on annual billing: the WAF, managed rulesets and 20 custom rules.
- Pricing
- Pro $20/mo billed annually ($25 monthly), WAF included with 20 custom rules.
Best for: Sites that want one flat monthly price for a managed WAF and bot protection
Pros
- The Pro page names three managed rulesets: OWASP Core, Cloudflare Managed and Exposed Credentials Check
- The plans table lists 225 Cloudflare Rules on Pro, a different count from the 20 WAF custom rules
- Business is $200 a month billed annually, the next tier up from Pro
Cons
- The plans table does not say whether the price is per site or per account
- Monthly billing is the dearer option, so an annual term is the cheaper way in
Akamai App and API Protector
An enterprise WAF sold on quote. The product page offers a free trial and a new-customer promotion, not a price.
- Pricing
- Contact sales. No list price on the product page. A free trial is offered.
Best for: Large sites and APIs that want an enterprise WAF and will negotiate a contract
Pros
- A free trial is on the product page, so the rules can be tested before a contract
- The product covers APIs as well as web apps, which the product name spells out
- A new-customer offer of up to 9 months free appears on the page
Cons
- Without a list price you cannot compare the bill before a sales call
- The terms behind the 9 months free offer are not on the page, so ask for them in writing
Imperva Cloud WAF
A managed cloud WAF with a free trial and a demo, and no published price.
- Pricing
- Contact sales. No list price on the product page. A free trial and a demo are offered.
Best for: Sites that want a managed cloud WAF and are ready to take a demo before a quote
Pros
- The free trial lets you test rules before you sign
- A demo is offered alongside the trial, so a buyer can see the product before any quote
- The cloud WAF has its own product page, so the feature list is easy to check
Cons
- No price to compare before the demo, so the budget is a guess until a rep quotes
- Plan names and rule allowances are not on the product page
Fastly Next-Gen WAF
A WAF sold on quote. The dollar figures on its pricing page belong to network, compute and DDoS packages.
- Pricing
- Contact sales for pricing. Security Core, Security Core Plus and Security Total also show Contact sales.
Best for: Sites already buying Fastly's CDN that want the WAF from the same vendor
Pros
- One vendor for the CDN and the WAF if you already buy Fastly's edge
- The WAF is sold in named bundles: Security Core, Security Core Plus and Security Total
- Every bundle is quote-only, so ask for all of them in a single quote to compare
Cons
- No WAF price is printed, so comparing with a self-serve plan needs a quote first
- The dollar figures on the page are for other packages, and they are easy to mistake for a WAF price
F5 Distributed Cloud WAF
An enterprise WAF in two annual packages, Essentials and Enterprise, with no prices shown.
- Pricing
- Contact sales. Annual subscriptions (Essentials, Enterprise) with no prices shown. Also in AWS Marketplace.
Best for: Enterprises that want an annual WAF subscription or want to buy through AWS Marketplace
Pros
- Essentials and Enterprise are compared feature by feature on one page
- AWS Marketplace offers annual and pay-as-you-go terms, according to the vendor page
- Both packages are sold as annual subscriptions, so the term is known before a quote
Cons
- No price on the page, so the cost is only known after a quote
- Budget planning has to wait for a sales conversation
What it is
A web application firewall (WAF) inspects each HTTP request to a site or API and blocks the ones that match an attack rule, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting. You can buy one as a managed service on a flat fee, as a metered cloud product, or as an open-source engine you run yourself.
Toolradar has profiles for Cloudflare, Akamai, Imperva and Fastly for readers who want the wider edge market.
Why it matters
The pricing model matters more than the brand. Sucuri's Basic plan and Cloudflare Pro are flat monthly fees, so the bill stays put as traffic grows. AWS WAF charges per rule and per million requests, so its bill climbs with rule count and volume.
ModSecurity moves the cost onto your server and onto whoever tunes the rules. The four enterprise vendors quote a price after a sales call, so they cannot be compared on cost until someone asks. Feed the WAF logs into a SIEM if you want blocked-request history beside the rest of your security data.
Key features to look for
Pricing
Methodology: we priced each product on its own vendor page, fetched on 10 October 2026. Every vendor is judged on one scenario: a single site with 10 custom rules, one managed rule group and 5 million requests a month. Vendors that publish no list price are labelled Contact sales and stay out of the cost ranking.
Azure publishes WAF figures only for its classic Front Door tier, so it is left out.
The arithmetic is the same for every unit-priced product. AWS WAF is $5 for the web ACL, $10 for ten rules, $1 for the managed group and $3 for requests, so $19 a month, or $228 a year.
Cloudflare Pro is $240 a year on annual billing and $300 on monthly billing. Sucuri Basic is $119.88 a year.
At 10 rules and one managed group, AWS WAF passes the annual Cloudflare Pro price above roughly 6.7 million requests a month.
Cloudflare's plans table lists the WAF on the Free plan at $0, but its Free plan page does not repeat that, so this page does not rank the free tier.
Price sources: Cloudflare plans, Cloudflare Pro, AWS WAF pricing, Sucuri pricing, Akamai App and API Protector, Imperva Cloud WAF, Fastly pricing, F5 Distributed Cloud pricing and ModSecurity. Checked 10 October 2026.
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| ModSecurity | Free | Apache-2.0 license; you pay for the server and rule tuning |
| Sucuri Basic Firewall | $9.99/mo | One site, billed monthly; $119.88 a year |
| Sucuri Pro Firewall | $19.98/mo | One site, billed monthly |
| AWS WAF web ACL | $5/mo | Per web ACL per month; the first line on the bill |
| AWS WAF rule | $1/mo | Per rule and per managed rule group, per month |
| AWS WAF requests | $0.60 per million | Per million web requests; Bot Control is extra |
| AWS WAF scenario | $19/mo | 1 ACL, 10 rules, 1 managed group, 5 million requests |
| Cloudflare Pro | $20/mo annual | Or $25 monthly; WAF with 20 custom rules and managed rulesets |
| Cloudflare Business | $200/mo annual | Or $250 monthly; the next tier up from Pro |
| Akamai App and API Protector | Contact sales | No list price; free trial offered |
| Imperva Cloud WAF | Contact sales | No list price; free trial and demo offered |
| Fastly Next-Gen WAF | Contact sales | Security bundles also quote-only |
| F5 Distributed Cloud WAF | Contact sales | Essentials and Enterprise annual packages |
The bottom line
For one site on a flat budget, Sucuri's Basic Firewall is the lowest published managed price here. If your rule count and traffic are growing, AWS WAF gives you a line-item bill that sits just under Cloudflare Pro at our scenario and rises with volume.
Cloudflare Pro is the flat-fee pick once you need managed rulesets, on annual billing. Choose ModSecurity only if your team can own the tuning. For the scanners that test a site for the weaknesses a WAF should block, see the vulnerability scanners roundup.
Cite this: Cyberpresso, "Best Web Application Firewalls in 2026: Starting Prices", October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest web application firewall in 2026?
How much does AWS WAF cost per month?
Is there a free web application firewall?
Is Cloudflare WAF worth it for a flat budget?
Which web application firewall vendors publish prices?
When does AWS WAF cost more than Cloudflare Pro?
Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.
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