Cisco Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) vs VIRTIS: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Cisco Web Application and API Protection (WAAP)

Mid-market and enterprise teams defending modern application architectures will see the fastest ROI from Cisco Web Application and API Protection because its bot management engine catches credential-stuffing and scraping attacks that signature-based WAFs routinely miss. The machine learning detection covers Cisco's actual NIST PR.PS and PR.IR implementations across web, mobile, and API surfaces simultaneously, eliminating the need to stitch together separate tools. Skip this if your primary concern is post-breach forensics or compliance log retention; Cisco prioritizes prevention and real-time threat response over extended visibility into what happened after an attack succeeded.

VIRTIS

Mid-market and enterprise teams defending APIs and web applications against coordinated attacks will get the most from VIRTIS. The platform bundles WAF, DDoS, bot management, and API security in a cloud-native stack that doesn't require you to stitch together separate vendors, and its continuous monitoring capabilities (DE.CM) catch account takeovers and anomalies in real time. Skip this if your priority is vulnerability remediation over prevention; VIRTIS is built to stop threats in flight, not patch them upstream.