Azure DDoS Protection and Mitigation Services vs Gatekeeper: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Azure DDoS Protection and Mitigation Services

Teams already invested in Azure infrastructure will find Azure DDoS Protection and Mitigation Services the path of least friction; it operates at layer 3 and 4 without requiring additional agents or appliances, and the free tier covers standard attacks up to 100 Gbps on public IPs. Microsoft's telemetry across Azure's global network means you're getting attack signatures informed by real traffic patterns across millions of customers. Skip this if you need layer 7 application-layer protection or run a hybrid environment where your critical assets sit outside Azure; the service prioritizes mitigation over forensics, so if attack attribution and deep incident analysis matter more than stopping traffic, a dedicated DDoS vendor will serve you better.

Gatekeeper

Network operators and service providers facing multi-vector DDoS attacks will find Gatekeeper's distributed algorithm approach valuable because it actually scales with your bandwidth requirements instead of hitting throughput walls like centralized scrubbing centers do. The open source model with 1,591 GitHub stars means you're not locked into vendor infrastructure, and deployment across your own edge nodes gives you detection latency measured in milliseconds rather than the round-trip delays of cloud mitigation services. Skip this if your primary concern is stopping Layer 7 application attacks; Gatekeeper prioritizes network-layer volumetric defense, leaving sophisticated HTTP floods to separate WAF tooling.