Cequence API Security vs Cloudflare API Shield: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Cequence API Security

Teams managing sprawling API ecosystems without visibility into shadow or third-party APIs should start with Cequence API Security; its automated discovery and ML-based risk categorization catches what manual inventories miss, and native integration with CI/CD pipelines means you can shift left without rearchitecting your pipeline. The platform maps to NIST ID.AM and DE.CM, giving you both asset visibility and continuous monitoring from day one. Skip this if your organization has fewer than 50 APIs or you need a WAF replacement; Cequence assumes you're already past the "do we have APIs" phase and moving toward "which ones are actually exposed.

Cloudflare API Shield

Mid-market and enterprise security teams with distributed APIs will get immediate value from Cloudflare API Shield because shadow API discovery removes the guesswork about what you're actually protecting. The platform's ML-driven endpoint detection finds undocumented APIs that manual inventory never catches, and OWASP Top 10 API coverage plus schema validation enforces a positive security model without requiring teams to maintain separate API gateway tooling. Not ideal for organizations still mapping their API surface or those needing deep integration with non-Cloudflare infrastructure; you'll get the most ROI when APIs already route through Cloudflare's network.