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

Compare AWS Network Firewall and AWS WAF 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 WAF
Category	Security, Network Security	Security, Network / app protection
Description	Network-level protection for VPCs with customizable rules	Web application firewall that helps protect your web applications from common web exploits.
Best for	VPC protection Intrusion prevention Web filtering Outbound traffic control	Bot control SQL injection protection XSS protection Rate limiting IP reputation
Key features	Stateful inspection Intrusion prevention Web filtering Suricata-compatible rules Centralized management	Managed rules Custom rules Bot Control Account takeover prevention Fraud Control
Pricing model	Pay per firewall endpoint hour + GB processed	Pay per web ACL + rules + requests
Free tier	No	No
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]	“Start with AWS Managed Rules for the Core Rule Set and Known Bad Inputs; they cover OWASP Top 10 without custom logic. Add rate-based rules for DDoS at the application layer, and Bot Control to block scrapers and credential stuffers. Always deploy in Count mode first before switching to Block.” — Oleksii Bebych, re:Post Top Contributor [profile]
Product page	Learn more about AWS Network Firewall »	Learn more about AWS WAF »

When to use AWS Network Firewall or AWS WAF

Use AWS Network Firewall when:

VPC protection
Intrusion prevention
Web filtering
Outbound traffic control

Learn more about AWS Network Firewall »

Use AWS WAF when:

Bot control
SQL injection protection
XSS protection
Rate limiting
IP reputation

Learn more about AWS WAF »

Next steps with AWS for Security

Create a free account

Start building with AWS Network Firewall and AWS WAF 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 WAF

Web application firewall that helps protect your web applications from common web exploits.

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