Google Cloud Armor Vs Cloudflare WAF
February 13, 2025
What is Google Armor WAF?
Google Cloud Armor is a web application firewall (WAF) service from Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that safeguards web applications against DDoS attacks and security threats. It integrates seamlessly with the Google Cloud HTTP Load Balancer, providing protection for Google Cloud applications against internet-based attacks.
GCP Cloud Armor WAF offers pre-configured and customizable WAF rules to protect against common security risks, such as those listed in the OWASP Top 10, and allows users to filter traffic based on various attributes.
What is Cloudflare WAF?
Cloudflare WAF is a cloud-based web application security solution that protects websites and applications from online threats. It analyses incoming traffic, using predefined rules to detect and block malicious requests before they reach the origin server.
Additionally, Cloudflare WAF allows for customization, enabling users to create tailored rules to meet the specific security needs of their site or application.
What are the Advantages of Cloudflare WAF – Google Armor vs Cloudflare
API Security
Google Cloud Armor offers basic API security features, such as rate limiting through its API gateway, but lacks advanced capabilities like API discovery. In contrast, Cloudflare provides more comprehensive API protection, including API discovery, and supports a wider range of API protocols, such as REST, SOAP, and JSON, ensuring stronger and more versatile security.
Request Inspection Limit
Cloudflare provides a 128KB request inspection size across all plans, with the ability to scale up to 500MB on enterprise plans for deeper inspection of larger, more complex requests. In contrast, Google Cloud Armor WAF offers a default inspection size of 8KB, with the option to increase it to 128KB.
Powerful SaaS Protection
Cloudflare is a strong choice for SaaS, offering essential features like SSL management, vanity domain support, and robust DDoS, WAF, and API security . Its pricing, especially the pro and business plans, are affordable and scale well, making it perfect for both startups and growing businesses.
On the other hand, Google Cloud Armor offers two pricing plans. The Standard Plan is pay-as-you-go, with $0.75 per million WAF requests, $5 per month for policies, and $1 per rule. It has no commitment or data processing fees.
The Managed Protection Plus Plan starts at $3,000 per month, covering WAF requests and policies, with 100 protected resources. Additional resources cost $30 each per month, plus a data processing fee. These plans offer flexibility but are more expensive for larger businesses.
What are the advantages of Google Cloud Armor WAF: Google Armor vs Cloudflare
DDoS Mitigation
Google Cloud Armor offers scalable DDoS protection by leveraging Google’s global network. Its Adaptive Protection feature, available only with the Enterprise plan (~$5,000/month), uses real-time machine learning profiling to detect anomalies and suggest blocking strategies. While effective, its high cost makes it less budget-friendly for many organizations.
Cloudflare, known for mitigating large-scale DDoS attacks, provides adaptive protection that dynamically adjusts rate limits based on traffic patterns. While it offers unmetered DDoS protection at $0.05 per 10,000 requests, its advanced DDoS mitigation features are also limited to higher-tier plans. Given the significant costs associated with both solutions, neither is particularly cost-effective, though Google Armor’s ML-driven detection provides an edge in handling sophisticated DDoS threats.
Bundled CDN
Both Cloudflare and Google Cloud CDN offer bundled CDN but differ in setup, performance optimization, and geographical coverage.
Cloudflare provides an easy setup through DNS changes, with a focus on global reach, offering over 250 points of presence (PoPs), including 20 in China, and performance enhancements like Anycast routing.
Google Cloud CDN, tightly integrated with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), appeals to GCP users and offers performance features like edge caching and HTTP/2 support. While Cloudflare has a broader global network, Google Cloud CDN is optimized for key regions with over 100 PoPs, making it ideal for those already within the GCP ecosystem.
Compliance
Google Cloud Armor can be deployed to meet a variety of global, regional, and industry-specific compliance standards, and with GCP’s extensive global reach, data sovereignty is typically not a concern.
ReCAPTCHA for Bot Management
Google Cloud Armor integrates with reCAPTCHA to provide advanced bot management and fraud detection at the network edge. With sophisticated risk analysis, it effectively mitigates threats such as spam, credential stuffing, account takeovers, and automated account creation.
However, it is important to note that reCAPTCHA’s integration with WAF services is limited to the Standard and Enterprise plans, potentially restricting access for smaller businesses or those on a tighter budget.
Pricing includes 10,000 free assessments, then $8 per 100,000 for Standard and $1 per 1,000 beyond 100,000 for Enterprise, potentially limiting access for smaller businesses.
Hybrid Deployment
In a hybrid deployment, when an application or content source is located outside Google Cloud, such as in another cloud provider’s infrastructure, GCP Cloud Armor WAF can be used to secure the deployment.
Similarly, Cloudflare’s global network sits between end users and customers’ infrastructure, offering protection and accelerating traffic. It can be deployed in front of any network infrastructure, including hybrid and multi-cloud environments, providing a unified solution for securing and optimizing both on-premises and cloud-based applications.
An Alternative to Both Cloudflare and Google Armor WAF
Both Google Cloud and Cloudflare offer strong DDoS mitigation services, but it’s essential to note that their managed service support is limited to enterprise plans or available as an additional feature. This means, during a large-scale DDoS attack, you may need to handle the mitigation process internally.
AppTrana stands out with its dedicated managed service team, providing complete support, including DDoS monitoring, virtual patching, and false positive testing. The managed services team acts as an extension of your SOC, collaborating with your application team to improve DDoS defence and optimize incident response.
AppTrana’s Premium Plan includes DDoS monitoring, whereas Cloudflare requires an enterprise plan for similar services, with costs ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 per month.
Cloudflare’s chat support starts at $250 per month, but lower-tier plans don’t offer any support options. In comparison, AppTrana’s $99 plan gives you 24/7 access to phone, email, and chat support.
Similarly, Google Cloud Armor DDoS protection limits access to DDoS bill protection and response team services to its Enterprise plan, which requires a 12-month commitment and a fee of $3,000 per month per billing account.
Other Key Benefits of AppTrana WAAP
SwyftComply
AppTrana offers the unique advantage of virtually patching open vulnerabilities within 72 hours, ensuring your systems remain secure and compliance requirements are met without hassle. No other product provides this level of fast, autonomous patching, providing businesses with a smooth path to meet compliance requirements efficiently. Learn more about this in our in-depth look at SwyftComply.
Unmetered DDoS Protection
AppTrana offers unmetered DDoS protection across all its plans with no extra charges, ensuring consistent and predictable security.
In comparison, Google Cloud Armor does not provide unmetered DDoS protection, while Cloudflare offers it as an add-on, charging $0.05 per 10,000 clean requests. If an attack generates 1 million requests and Cloudflare blocks 900,000, the customer is charged only for the remaining 100,000 clean requests. AppTrana’s approach eliminates such variable costs, providing reliable protection without unexpected expenses.
Zero False Positive Guarantee
Each month, 200-300 zero-day vulnerabilities are discovered, and most WAF vendors release patches or rule updates to address them. However, the responsibility of testing these rules for false positives falls on your team. Many avoid applying patches on time to prevent breaking existing code, leaving applications exposed to attacks.
AppTrana WAAP eliminates false positives with dedicated researchers who test extensively and apply rules automatically, unlike WAAP solutions that only send patch notifications.
Positive Security Model for APIs
The automation of positive security models on AppTrana WAAP adds significant value to API security. It involves steps like API discovery, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and the creation of a positive security policy.
This benefits teams lacking Swagger or Postman documentation. With AppTrana’s API discovery feature, Swagger files are automatically retrieved, and the managed services team also assists in creating Postman files for crucial open APIs, offering complete security coverage.
Feature Comparison Table: Google Armor vs Cloudflare WAF
Here is a detailed feature comparison table for GCP Cloud Armor, AppTrana, and Cloudflare:
| WAF Feature | Google Armor | AppTrana | Cloudflare |
| Gartner Peer Insights Rating | 4.4 | 4.9 | 4.5 |
| Gartner Peer Insights Customer Recommendation Rating | 100% | 100% | 93% |
| DDoS Monitoring | Enterprise Only | Available | Enterprise Only |
| False Positive Monitoring | Not Available | Available | Not Available
|
| Virtual Patching | Not Available | Starts at $99 | Enterprise Only |
| Payload Inspection Size | 8KB (option to increase to 128KB) | 134MB | 128KB, up to 500MB for enterprise plan |
| NTLM Support | No | Yes | No |
| Bot Protection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Response Timeout | – | Default: 300 seconds
Max: 300 seconds |
Default: 100 seconds Enterprise: 6000 seconds |
| Managed Services | Enterprise Only | Available | Enterprise only |
| DAST Scanner | Not Available | Bundled in all plans | Not Available |
| Asset Discovery | Not Available | Bundled in all plans | Not Available |
| Penetration Testing | Not Available | Bundled in the premium plan | Not Available |
| Malware Protection | Not Available | Available | Available |
| API discovery | Not Available | Available | Available |
| API Security | Basic | Available | Available |
| API Scanning | Not Available | Available | Not Available |
| API Pen Testing | Not Available | Available | Not Available |
| Workflow based bot mitigation | Not Available | Available | Enterprise only |
| Origin Protection | Available | Bundled in all plans | Limited |
| SwyftComply | Not Available | Available | Not Available |
| Browser Protection | Not Available | Available | Available |
| Custom Error Page | Not Available | Available | Available |
| DNSSEC | Available | Available | Available |
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