# ModSecurity alternatives: what AI models name instead, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition. 238 of the 252 answers in the 1 category where ModSecurity 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/modsecurity/alternatives/

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

- Cloudflare WAF: 140
- Akamai App & API Protector: 13
- Imperva Cloud WAF: 11
- Sucuri WAF: 6
- AWS WAF: 5
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: 3

## Web application firewalls

**Small business**: 79 of 84 answers did not name ModSecurity (ModSecurity is #9 of 9 at 0%).

- Cloudflare WAF: first choice in 63 of those 79
- Sucuri WAF: first choice in 6 of those 79
- AWS WAF: first choice in 2 of those 79
- Akamai App & API Protector: first choice in 1 of those 79
- Barracuda WAF: first choice in 1 of those 79
- Cloudflare Application Security: first choice in 1 of those 79
- Cloudflare's Pro/Business plans: first choice in 1 of those 79
- Imperva Cloud WAF: first choice in 1 of those 79

**Mid-market**: 75 of 84 answers did not name ModSecurity (ModSecurity is #2 of 11 at 8%).

- Cloudflare WAF: first choice in 40 of those 75
- AWS WAF: first choice in 2 of those 75
- Barracuda Web Application Firewall: first choice in 2 of those 75
- Barracuda WAF: first choice in 1 of those 75
- Check Point CloudGuard: first choice in 1 of those 75
- Check Point CloudGuard WAF: first choice in 1 of those 75
- Cloudflare Business Plan: first choice in 1 of those 75
- Cloudflare's free tier WAF: first choice in 1 of those 75

**Enterprise**: 84 of 84 answers did not name ModSecurity.

- Cloudflare WAF: first choice in 37 of those 84
- Akamai App & API Protector: first choice in 12 of those 84
- Imperva Cloud WAF: first choice in 10 of those 84
- F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF: first choice in 3 of those 84
- Fastly Next-Gen WAF: first choice in 3 of those 84
- Imperva Web Application Firewall: first choice in 2 of those 84
- AWS WAF: first choice in 1 of those 84
- Akamai Adaptive Application Firewall: first choice in 1 of those 84

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