# Web application firewalls for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "web application firewall" and as "WAF and bot protection service", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/web-application-firewalls/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/network/web-application-firewalls/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Cloudflare WAF leads with 79% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 57 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Cloudflare WAF](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-waf/index.md) | 79% | 4% | 75 |
| 2 | [Sucuri WAF](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/sucuri-waf/index.md) | 11% | 0% | 39 |
| 3 | [AWS WAF](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-waf/index.md) | 2% | 21% | 58 |
| 4 | [Indusface AppTrana](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/indusface-apptrana/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 10 |
| 7 | [Akamai App & API Protector](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akamai-app-api-protector/index.md) | 2% | 50% | 18 |
| 8 | [Imperva Cloud WAF](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/imperva-cloud-waf/index.md) | 2% | 64% | 28 |
| 9 | [Azure WAF](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-waf/index.md) | 0% | 20% | 15 |
| 21 | [Fastly Next-Gen WAF](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fastly-next-gen-waf/index.md) | 0% | 36% | 11 |
| 75 | [ModSecurity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/modsecurity/index.md) | 0% | 68% | 19 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 75 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives Azure WAF, Barracuda Web Application Firewall, Prophaze WAF, Sucuri WAF
- GPT-5.4 mini: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives AWS WAF
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives Fastly Next-Gen WAF, Indusface AppTrana, Sucuri WAF
- Perplexity Sonar: Barracuda WAF, Cloudflare WAF
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives AWS WAF, Azure WAF, Sucuri WAF
- Mistral Small: Cloudflare WAF, Sucuri WAF; alternatives Google Cloud Armor, open-appsec
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives Sucuri WAF
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives AWS WAF
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives AWS WAF, Sucuri WAF
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives AWS WAF, F5 Essential App Protect, Imperva Cloud WAF, Sucuri WAF
- MiniMax M2.5: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives Azure WAF, F5 Essential App Protect, Sucuri WAF
- GPT-6 Luna: Cloudflare WAF; alternatives AWS WAF
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Cloudflare WAF, Sucuri WAF; alternatives AWS WAF

## Sources the answers cite

73 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- comparitech.com: 39 answers, 41 citations
- mgsoftware.nl: 36 answers, 36 citations
- radware.com: 33 answers, 62 citations
- geekflare.com: 31 answers, 40 citations
- cyberpress.org: 30 answers, 32 citations
- wafplanet.com: 28 answers, 58 citations
- indusface.com: 28 answers, 39 citations
- g2.com: 24 answers, 33 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://comparitech.com/net-admin/best-web-application-firewall (39 answers)
- https://mgsoftware.nl/en/tools/best-web-application-firewalls (36 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/waf-solutions-by-business-size (30 answers)
- https://softwaretestinghelp.com/web-application-firewall-waf (22 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/guides/best-web-application-firewall (21 answers)
- https://indusface.com/blog/best-cloud-waap-waf-software (21 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/web-application-firewall-waf/small-business (18 answers)
- https://radware.com/cyberpedia/application-security/most-reliable-web-application-firewalls (18 answers)
- https://geekflare.com/de/cybersecurity/best-web-application-firewall (16 answers)
- https://openappsec.io/post/best-waf-solutions-in-2024-2025-real-world-comparison (16 answers)

## Warned against

- ModSecurity: 13 of 19 labels negative. "Why to avoid: While it's free and widely deployed, ModSecurity requires significant security expertise to configure, tune, and maintain." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Akamai App & API Protector: 9 of 18 labels negative. "Imperva (for very large enterprises) and Akamai ... high costs and steep learning curves, making them impractical for small businesses" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Imperva Cloud WAF: 18 of 28 labels negative. "Solutions like Imperva (for very large enterprises) and Akamai are powerful but are designed for high-traffic, complex environments... making them impractical for small businesses" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- AWS WAF: 12 of 58 labels negative. "The pay-as-you-go model lacks affordability for small clients... rule structure is very complicated and very hard to maintain" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Cloudflare WAF at 83%.

- Cloudflare WAF: 93% to 83%, −10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 63, unchanged.
- Sucuri WAF: 4% to 11%, +7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 2 of 63, unchanged.
- AWS WAF: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 4 → 6 of 63.
- Azure WAF: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 7 of 63.
- Fastly Next-Gen WAF: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 6 → 14 of 63.
- Akamai App & API Protector: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 61 → 60 of 63.
- ModSecurity: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 58 → 62 of 63.
- Imperva Cloud WAF: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 60 → 63 of 63.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.