Cloudflare WAF vs Fortinet FortiWeb: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Cloudflare WAF is a commercial cloud web application and api protection tool by Cloudflare, Inc.. Fortinet FortiWeb is a commercial cloud web application and api protection tool by Fortinet. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best cloud web application and api protection fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, integrations, company size fit, here is our conclusion:
Startups and SMBs with limited security ops capacity should pick Cloudflare WAF for its zero-trust integration with your existing DNS and CDN layers, eliminating the need for separate appliance management. The platform handles NIST PR.PS and PR.IR through managed rulesets and DDoS mitigation without requiring full-time WAF tuning; you're inheriting Cloudflare's threat intelligence across their 280+ million daily requests. Skip this if you need granular application layer control or extensive custom rule development; the managed approach trades flexibility for speed-to-protection.
Mid-market and enterprise teams protecting APIs alongside traditional web applications should start with FortiWeb; its machine learning-driven API discovery and automated policy generation handle the schema chaos that manual WAF rules can't touch. The hybrid deployment model and integrated FortiGate/FortiSandbox ecosystem mean you're not bolting on a standalone tool to your existing Fortinet stack. Skip this if you need SIEM-grade forensics or post-incident recovery workflows; FortiWeb is built for continuous monitoring and threat detection, not investigation depth.
