# F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 225 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF holds a standing named it neither first nor as an alternative; these are the first choices those answers made. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/f5-big-ip-advanced-waf/alternatives/

## Named instead, most often (every category and segment added)

- Cloudflare WAF: 133
- Akamai App & API Protector: 7
- Imperva Cloud WAF: 7
- Sucuri WAF: 6
- AWS WAF: 5
- ModSecurity: 4

## Web application firewalls

**Small business**: 84 of 84 answers did not name F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF.

- Cloudflare WAF: first choice in 68 of those 84
- Sucuri WAF: first choice in 6 of those 84
- AWS WAF: first choice in 2 of those 84
- Akamai App & API Protector: first choice in 1 of those 84
- Barracuda WAF: first choice in 1 of those 84
- Cloudflare Application Security: first choice in 1 of those 84
- Cloudflare's Pro/Business plans: first choice in 1 of those 84
- Imperva Cloud WAF: first choice in 1 of those 84

**Mid-market**: 75 of 84 answers did not name F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF (F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF is #9 of 11 at 0%).

- Cloudflare WAF: first choice in 37 of those 75
- ModSecurity: first choice in 4 of those 75
- AWS WAF: first choice in 2 of those 75
- Barracuda Web Application Firewall: first choice in 2 of those 75
- OWASP Core Rule Set: first choice in 2 of those 75
- Barracuda WAF: first choice in 1 of those 75
- BunkerWeb: first choice in 1 of those 75
- Check Point CloudGuard: first choice in 1 of those 75

**Enterprise**: 66 of 84 answers did not name F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF (F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF is #4 of 9 at 4%).

- Cloudflare WAF: first choice in 28 of those 66
- Akamai App & API Protector: first choice in 6 of those 66
- Imperva Cloud WAF: first choice in 6 of those 66
- Fastly Next-Gen WAF: first choice in 2 of those 66
- AWS WAF: first choice in 1 of those 66
- Akamai Adaptive Application Firewall: first choice in 1 of those 66
- Akamai App & API Protector / WAAP: first choice in 1 of those 66
- Cloudflare One: first choice in 1 of those 66

Published under CC BY 4.0. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.