A quick buyer's guide before you compare options.
Choosing a WAF usually comes down to three things: how much OWASP Top 10/zero-day coverage you need, whether you're already on a CDN that bundles one in, and budget — WAF pricing spans an enormous range. Cloudflare WAF starts free with advanced managed rules from $25/month. AWS WAF is pay-as-you-go from around $5/month. Wallarm's free tier scales to roughly $50k/year at enterprise volume for API-aware WAAP coverage. Dedicated appliances like Barracuda WAF start near $1,000/year, and fully managed enterprise platforms like Netskope are custom-quoted. If you just need baseline OWASP protection on one app, start with a CDN-bundled WAF before paying for a dedicated appliance.
Pricing spans free to enterprise. Cloudflare WAF is free with paid rules from $25/month, AWS WAF runs from about $5/month pay-as-you-go, and Wallarm's free tier scales to roughly $50k/year for high-volume enterprise use. Dedicated appliances like Barracuda WAF start near $1,000/year; Netskope and similar enterprise platforms are custom-quoted.
ModSecurity is the standard free, open-source option if you're comfortable managing your own rule sets. If you'd rather have a managed free tier, Cloudflare WAF and SecuPress both offer one with paid upgrades for advanced rules.
Cloudflare WAF is free to start and scales to about $25/month for advanced managed rules, sitting in front of a CDN you're likely already using. Barracuda WAF is a dedicated appliance/service starting around $1,000/year, aimed at teams that want a standalone solution rather than CDN-bundled protection.
Wallarm offers a free tier and scales into the tens of thousands per year (roughly $50k/year at enterprise volume), positioning it for teams that need API-aware WAAP coverage beyond classic page-level OWASP rules.
