What's the Difference Between AWS Network Firewall and AWS Shield?

Compare AWS Network Firewall and AWS Shield side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.

View Security category page

Compare side-by-side

Comparisons	AWS Network Firewall	AWS Shield
Category	Security, Network Security	Security, Network / app protection
Description	Network-level protection for VPCs with customizable rules	Managed DDoS protection for web applications
Best for	VPC protection Intrusion prevention Web filtering Outbound traffic control	DDoS protection Application availability Cost protection Attack visibility
Key features	Stateful inspection Intrusion prevention Web filtering Suricata-compatible rules Centralized management	Always-on detection Automatic mitigation DDoS Response Team Cost protection Real-time visibility
Pricing model	Pay per firewall endpoint hour + GB processed	Standard: free; Advanced: $3,000/month
Free tier	No	Yes
Expert take	“Network Firewall provides stateful inspection, intrusion prevention, and web filtering at VPC boundaries. It scales automatically and integrates with Firewall Manager for multi-account deployment.” — Giovanni Lauria, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]	“Shield Standard is automatic and free; it handles most network-layer DDoS. Shield Advanced adds the DDoS Response Team, cost protection (AWS credits back DDoS-induced scaling costs), and application-layer visibility. Worth it for internet-facing production workloads where downtime has real revenue impact.” — Didier Durand, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page	Learn more about AWS Network Firewall »	Learn more about AWS Shield »

When to use AWS Network Firewall or AWS Shield

Use AWS Network Firewall when:

VPC protection
Intrusion prevention
Web filtering
Outbound traffic control

Learn more about AWS Network Firewall »

Use AWS Shield when:

DDoS protection
Application availability
Cost protection
Attack visibility

Learn more about AWS Shield »

Next steps with AWS for Security

Create a free account

Start building with AWS Network Firewall and AWS Shield on the AWS Free Tier.

Get started with AWS Network Firewall

Network-level protection for VPCs with customizable rules

Go to AWS Network Firewall

Get started with AWS Shield

Managed DDoS protection for web applications

Go to AWS Shield

AWS product comparisons

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS?

Both are fully managed relational database services on AWS, but Aurora is a cloud-native engine built for higher performance and availability, while RDS gives you familiar open-source and commercial engines with less operational overhead than self-managed.

What's the difference between Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon RDS?

DynamoDB is a serverless NoSQL database for applications with well-defined access patterns that need consistent single-digit millisecond performance. RDS is a managed relational database for applications that need SQL, joins, and transactional integrity across multiple engines.

What's the difference between Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon Keyspaces?

Both are fully managed, serverless-capable NoSQL databases on AWS. DynamoDB is AWS-native with its own API and data model; Keyspaces is Apache Cassandra-compatible, letting you use existing Cassandra drivers, tools, and expertise.

What are the differences between Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon DocumentDB?

Both are fully managed NoSQL databases on AWS, but they serve different data models. DynamoDB is a key-value store optimized for known access patterns at massive scale; DocumentDB is a document database for flexible JSON schemas with MongoDB compatibility.

What's the difference between Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Neptune?

Both handle semi-structured data, but they're optimized for different query patterns. DocumentDB stores and queries JSON documents; Neptune stores and traverses relationships between entities.

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon RDS?

Both are fully managed relational database services on AWS, but Aurora is a cloud-native engine built for higher performance and availability, while RDS gives you familiar open-source and commercial engines with less operational overhead than self-managed.

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon Neptune?

Both are purpose-built, fully managed AWS databases, but they solve fundamentally different problems. Aurora handles structured relational data with SQL; Neptune handles highly connected data where relationships between entities are the primary query pattern.

What's the difference between Amazon Aurora and Amazon DynamoDB?

Both are fully managed AWS database services, but they serve fundamentally different data models and access patterns. Aurora is a relational database for structured data with relationships; DynamoDB is a NoSQL key-value store built for single-digit millisecond performance at any scale.

What's the difference between Amazon RDS and Amazon Redshift?

Both run SQL queries, but they're optimized for fundamentally different workloads. RDS handles transactional operations (inserts, updates, lookups) for your application. Redshift handles analytical queries (aggregations, scans, joins across billions of rows) for your data team.

Did you find what you were looking for today?

Let us know so we can improve the quality of the content on our pages