Azure Firewall vs WAF

Last Updated on August 14, 2025 by Arnav Sharma

Here is the comparison between Azure Firewall and Web Application Firewall:

	Azure Firewall	Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Cloud-native/Specific Design	Designed for Azure Virtual Network resources.	Designed to protect web applications from common exploits.
Firewall Type	Stateful firewall	Application-level firewall
Traffic Inspection	East-west and north-south traffic inspection.	Web application traffic
High Availability	Built-in	Depends on deployment method
Scalability	Unrestricted cloud scalability	Depends on deployment method
Threat Intelligence	Threat intelligence-based filtering and Signature-based IDPS (Premium)	Centralized patching of known vulnerabilities
Offerings/SKUs	Standard, Premium, Basic	Depends on deployment method
Integration with Azure Services	Azure Firewall Manager	Azure Application Gateway, Azure Front Door, Azure CDN
Protection Mechanisms	Signature-based IDPS (Premium SKU)	SQL injection, cross-site scripting
Available in Azure Firewall but not in WAF	Stateful capabilities, Traffic inspection, Signature-based IDPS, Multiple SKUs, Azure Firewall Manager
Available in WAF but not in Azure Firewall		Protection against common web vulnerabilities, Centralized patching, Integration with other Azure services

Let’s break down and explain each term used in the table:

Cloud-native/Specific Design:

• Cloud-native: Refers to applications or services that are designed specifically for a cloud computing architecture. They leverage cloud-specific features and are optimized for dynamic environments.
• Specific Design: The primary purpose or the main design consideration for which a service or product was created.

Firewall Type:

• Stateful firewall: Monitors the state of active connections and makes decisions based on the context. It remembers previous decisions and uses that information to accelerate traffic flow control.
• Application-level firewall: Focuses on filtering traffic for specific applications or services, often examining the payload of packets and making decisions based on content.

Traffic Inspection:

• East-west traffic: Refers to the traffic that moves within the network, typically between servers in the same data center.
• North-south traffic: Refers to the traffic that moves in and out of the network, typically between the data center and external endpoints.
• Web application traffic: Refers to the traffic related to web applications, typically HTTP/HTTPS requests and responses.

High Availability: The ability of a system or service to remain operational and accessible with minimal downtime, even in the event of failures. It often involves redundancy and failover mechanisms.

1. Scalability: The capability of a system to handle an increased load, either by adding resources or optimizing performance.
2. Threat Intelligence:

• Threat intelligence-based filtering: Uses real-time data feeds to block traffic from known malicious sources.
• Signature-based IDPS: Intrusion Detection and Prevention System that detects and prevents attacks based on known patterns or signatures.
• Centralized patching: The ability to apply security patches or updates from a central location, ensuring vulnerabilities are addressed across all applications.

Integration with Azure Services: The ability of the service to work in conjunction with other Azure services, either natively or through additional configuration.

Protection Mechanisms:

• Signature-based IDPS: As mentioned above, it detects and prevents attacks based on known patterns or signatures.
• SQL injection: A code injection technique that attackers use to insert malicious SQL code into a query.
• Cross-site scripting: A type of security vulnerability in web applications where attackers inject client-side scripts into web pages viewed by other users.

Available in Azure Firewall but not in WAF and Available in WAF but not in Azure Firewall: These sections highlight features unique to each service, emphasizing their distinct capabilities.