Cloudflare vs Imperva DDoS comparison

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10,188 views|8,825 comparisons
Imperva Logo
4,269 views|3,548 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cloudflare and Imperva DDoS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two CDN solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Cloudflare vs. Imperva DDoS Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The UI is good.""From what I've seen so far, there are no negatives to report as of yet""I like Cloudflare's application gateway and DDoS protection.""When using services like Heroku, Cloudflare is very useful for CNAME flattening. I also use it for their end-to-end SSL with TLS authentication on nginx for securing servers.""Cloudflare has many features.""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.""The solution provides good load balancing and protection against DDoS attacks.""Generally, I am satisfied with this product."

More Cloudflare Pros →

"The solution is very good at intercepting traffic before it gets to our data centers.""Imperva Incapsula has many valuable features. One, it protects the top 10 OWAS vulnerability, the open web application software platform, this is standard. Secondly, it protects against broken authentication. As well, it has remote execution of code.""Setup was straightforward, very simple. I only entered the domain and Incapsula returned the DNS data that I needed to change for the protection to be configured.""There are quite a few useful Imperva Incapsula features. For example, one of them is the reports. The graphics are very good and it's easy to configure. The whole process is very fast and reliable too. They have good tech support as well.""On the activity log, I can see the exact details, the visit, and the threat.""Real-time monitoring is also a great tool, as you may watch several parameters in real time.""Integration with IBM AS/400 and Db2 is okay.""Technical support was very helpful."

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Cons
"It would be good if Cloudflare could have more servers for better traffic routing or an increase in the traffic routed. This is what I'd like to improve in Cloudflare.""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.""Cloudflare could offer a better view or maybe dashboards of the main resources used in the client.""The pricing could be improved.""One area of improvement is in the Access Rules. Hypothetically, if we wanted to block or challenge traffic outside of the United States, the only way to currently do that (as far as I know) is to enter every single country outside of the United States. That could be a labor intensive job. A solution could be to enable users to create a rule where traffic is only allowed within a certain country.""Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to buy Cloudflare in my country.""The reporting can definitely be improved to offer a lot more explanation on something that may have happened or has actually happened.""Cloudflare does not have an on-premise solution. If they had different approaches they could be better suited to accommodate more customers, such as on-premise and hybrid deployments. For example, hybrid deployments would be useful where you could move the traffic from the enterprise to the cloud."

More Cloudflare Cons →

"Some maintenance must be performed by our IT team.""It would be better if we were able to manage and apply changes to multiple websites/web applications, and search WAF logs for multiple websites, via the Incapsula dashboard.""Imperva now offers add-ons to add functionality, but I would like to see these included in the product, even if it would cost more.""It would be beneficial to include vulnerability management in the solution, similar to what they have for their on-premise solution.""I am not sure if this application has a policy where you can create your custom policy and run it as our firewall. We should have some ability to also create some custom policy, then run it as a firewall.""The log analytics interface within Incapsula isn't really good. For example, if you have to get all logs from there, it's a very cumbersome process.""There’s nothing that’s missing in terms of features.""Certificate management could be improved."

More Imperva DDoS Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "So far I use free tier and happy with it. You can subscribe to business package if needed."
  • "I think the pricing is competitive. I think as far as licensing is concerned it's pretty straightforward because it's based on domain. It's just that sometimes domains could be tricky with some customers."
  • "There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
  • "The cost primarily depends on the size of the organization."
  • "We don't have any issues with the price."
  • "The price is reasonable."
  • "The solution is expensive when compared to other products but offers unlimited bandwidth."
  • "It's a premium model. You can start at zero and work your way up to the enterprise model, which has a very high pricing level."
  • More Cloudflare Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "For enterprise contracts you will be in touch with a dedicated account manager who will guide you regarding licensing."
  • "​Although the pricing can be a little high, it is worth the protection and security that it offers.​"
  • "The data packages are higher than our needs so we end up paying for data that we don't use."
  • "The cost is on par with other solutions such as Cloudflare and Akamai."
  • "It is not expensive compared to the other similar solutions in this category."
  • "It is a very expensive solution. The price is very high. A lot of customers tell us that they would love to use Imperva more. I have some customers who have 50 websites, but they have only 10 websites on Imperva because of the price. They would love to have all their websites running through Imperva, but they can't. They have to choose the more critical websites to protect because the price is very high. It is a very good product, but it is too expensive. If you buy a plan for 20 megabytes and you don't consume all of your 20 megabytes, it is okay, but if you consume more, you are charged for the superior traffic."
  • "The cost is somewhere around $10,000 a site. For every site, you pay individually. For every DNS entry, you have you pay."
  • "It is expensive."
  • More Imperva DDoS Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GRE tunnels. We have decreased site load times on Mobile 3G from 8 to 1,6 seconds by… more »
    Top Answer:Smaller businesses have seen great ROI due to the low investment and strong performance.
    Top Answer:Cloudflare's biggest plan for initial businesses is $200 per month, and if you're an enterprise, you'll likely exceed that on either AWS or Cloudflare itself. For comparison, Akamai's minimum billing… more »
    Top Answer:We use Imperva DDoS to stop DDoS attacks and reduce the amount of unwanted queries against web services or web scraping.
    Top Answer:The solution is very affordable. It's based on the traffic utilization, the average traffic utilization, not the DDoS traffic. Therefore, if you're being DDoSed, you don't pay extra for the absorption… more »
    Top Answer:It’s hard to think of an improvement. The three-second service level agreement is already better than the competition. You would ordinarily say something like API protection. However, they've got that… more »
    Ranking
    1st
    out of 34 in CDN
    Views
    10,188
    Comparisons
    8,825
    Reviews
    15
    Average Words per Review
    529
    Rating
    8.3
    5th
    out of 34 in CDN
    Views
    4,269
    Comparisons
    3,548
    Reviews
    5
    Average Words per Review
    443
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Imperva Incapsula
    Learn More
    Overview

    Cloudflare is a highly-regarded Content Delivery Network (CDN) and a Distribution Denial of Service (DDoS) protection solution. The robust global 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 use the solution and 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 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.” A PeerSpot user who is a Competence Center Manager at a tech services company. 

    Imperva DDoS is a solution that offers protection for web applications and websites and all their associated business-critical data from cyberattacks. The cloud-based application delivery service helps improve user experiences by improving their performance. Through its security platform, Imperva DDoS also provides DDoS mitigation, a web application firewall, and a global load balancer, and includes a content delivery network — all designed to maximize performance.

    Imperva DDoS Features

    Imperva DDoS has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • API security
    • Web application firewall
    • Bot management
    • Application delivery
    • Runtime protection (RASP)
    • Discovery and assessment
    • Data protection
    • Data risk analytics
    • Data privacy
    • Application delivery control (ADC)
    • Content delivery network (CDN)
    • DDoS mitigation
    • Global server load-balancing (GSLB)
    • Web application firewall (WAF)
    • Client-side protection
    • Runtime protection

    Imperva DDoS Benefits

    There are several benefits to implementing Imperva DDoS. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Reduce web application risk: Imperva DDoS includes automatic policy creation and fast rule propagation that give your IT and security departments the ability to use third-party code without risk while working at the pace of DevOps.
    • Security from edge to database: Imperva DDoS’s WAF feature secures from edge to database, so the traffic you receive is only the traffic you want.
    • Safeguard sensitive and personal data: Imperva DDoS provides visibility into sensitive and personal data, with the controls to protect that data and the ability to unify management across cloud, on-premises, and in hybrid environments to help accommodate changing threats, new regulations, and challenging audits.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Imperva DDoS users.

    PeerSpot user, Etienne W., CDN & Cybersecurity Engineer - Web performance & security at CDN Tech / Ecritel, says, “It is a good solution that allows us to protect websites. It is stable, scalable, quick and easy to use.” He goes on to explain, “WAF protection works almost out-of-the-box. The Anti-DDoS mitigation in less than 1s, I saw it many times in production, I can say it works. CDN has high performances, and the Smart Caching mode is really "smart" (you can do some efficient caching even if you're not a specialist). Its unique interface for managing security performance and ease of use are the most valuable features of this solution."

    An IT Senior Manager at an outsourcing company mentions, “The most valuable features are DDoS protection. The Incapsula [Imperva DDoS] environment helps us monitor all the web activity. All the web activity is passed through their WAF cloud services, then that can help us to monitor those activities. That can help protect against DDoS hacking.”

    Another PeerSpot reviewer, Ben D., Sales Executive at EVVO LABS, comments, "Imperva Incapsula [DDoS] has many valuable features. One, it protects the top 10 OWASP vulnerability, the open web application software platform, this is standard. Secondly, it protects against broken authentication. As well, it has remote execution of code."

    A Solutions Architect at a financial services firm states, “The solution's most valuable aspect is that it is easy to configure. The solution keeps itself up to date itself and there's no customization that we need to do. It makes it extremely easy and cuts back on the amount of work required, and saves us on man-hours.”

    Sample Customers
    Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.
    Hitachi, BNZ, Bitstamp, Moz, InnoGames, BTCChina, Wix, LivePerson, Zillow and more.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Comms Service Provider23%
    Marketing Services Firm9%
    Engineering Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization37%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Non Tech Company11%
    Insurance Company8%
    Marketing Services Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business64%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise23%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise45%
    Large Enterprise36%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business49%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise38%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise62%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cloudflare vs. Imperva DDoS
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cloudflare vs. Imperva DDoS and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cloudflare is ranked 1st in CDN with 55 reviews while Imperva DDoS is ranked 5th in CDN with 74 reviews. Cloudflare is rated 8.4, while Imperva DDoS is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Cloudflare writes "It's easy to set up because you point the DNS to it, and it's working in under 15 minutes". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Imperva DDoS writes "I like the content monitoring feature which I haven't seen in other WAF solutions". Cloudflare is most compared with Akamai, Azure Front Door, Microsoft Azure Application Gateway, AWS Shield and Arbor DDoS, whereas Imperva DDoS is most compared with Akamai, Arbor DDoS, Radware DefensePro, AWS WAF and Imperva Web Application Firewall. See our Cloudflare vs. Imperva DDoS report.

    See our list of best CDN vendors and best Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Protection vendors.

    We monitor all CDN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.