Best Cloud NGFW Alternatives ranked by AI · updated Aug 2026

βœ… Update queued β€” the AI is re-ranking this list. The page will refresh shortly.

This page is already up to date.

Cloud NGFW is Google Cloud's managed network firewall service for securing VPCs and cloud workloads. It combines hierarchical firewall policies with stateful inspection, intrusion prevention, threat intelligence, and application-aware controls depending on the service tier.

Developer: Google Cloud Price: Usage-based; varies by tier, deployment, and processed traffic 🎯 cloud.google.com/firewall

Top 6 Cloud NGFW alternatives

1 Azure Firewall logo

Azure Firewall

Microsoft

Azure Firewall is a managed, stateful network security service for controlling traffic across Azure virtual networks, hubs, and connected environments. It provides...

Pros

  • Fully managed and deeply integrated with Azure networking
  • Centralized policy management across hub-and-spoke deployments
  • Premium tier supports TLS inspection and intrusion detection features

Cons

  • Primarily suited to Azure-centric environments
  • Can become expensive at high traffic volumes
  • Less feature customization than full virtual NGFW appliances

Usage-based; from $0.395/hour plus data processing

2

AWS Network Firewall

Amazon Web Services

AWS Network Firewall is a managed stateful firewall service for protecting VPCs and AWS network perimeters. It supports layer 3–7 traffic inspection,...

Pros

  • Closest managed-native counterpart for AWS environments
  • Supports Suricata-compatible intrusion prevention rules
  • Integrates with Transit Gateway and centralized AWS architectures

Cons

  • AWS-specific networking concepts add operational complexity
  • Less broad than appliance products for advanced enterprise controls
  • Traffic inspection architecture can require multiple endpoints

Usage-based; from $0.395/firewall-hour plus processing

3

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is a virtual next-generation firewall for securing cloud networks, data centers, and hybrid environments. It provides application identification,...

Pros

  • Broader next-generation inspection than native cloud firewalls
  • Strong application visibility and threat-prevention controls
  • Consistent policies across Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, and private clouds

Cons

  • Requires more deployment and lifecycle management than Azure Firewall
  • Licensing and sizing are more complex
  • Can require separate Panorama management infrastructure

N/A; license, marketplace, and usage-based options

4

FortiGate-VM

Fortinet

FortiGate-VM is Fortinet's virtual next-generation firewall for cloud, virtualized, and hybrid networks. It combines stateful firewalling with application control, intrusion prevention, secure...

Pros

  • Broad security functionality beyond basic network filtering
  • Strong VPN, SD-WAN, and hybrid-network integration
  • Available across major public clouds and virtualization platforms

Cons

  • You manage scaling, upgrades, and high availability
  • Throughput depends heavily on VM size and cloud architecture
  • Licensing is harder to compare than Azure Firewall pricing

N/A; BYOL and usage-based marketplace options

5

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Check Point Software Technologies

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security provides virtualized next-generation firewall protection for public cloud and hybrid environments. It offers threat prevention, application control,...

Pros

  • Strong threat-prevention and centralized security management
  • Supports consistent controls across major cloud providers
  • Useful identity-aware and application-level policy features

Cons

  • More complex to deploy than Azure Firewall
  • Management infrastructure and licensing add overhead
  • Performance depends on instance sizing and architecture

N/A; subscription and marketplace-based pricing

Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual is a virtual next-generation firewall for cloud and data-center deployments. It combines stateful inspection, application visibility,...

Pros

  • Extensive enterprise firewall and intrusion-prevention capabilities
  • Fits organizations already using Cisco security infrastructure
  • Supports hybrid and multicloud deployment models

Cons

  • Higher operational complexity than Azure Firewall
  • Requires careful VM sizing and high-availability design
  • Licensing and feature bundles can be difficult to evaluate

N/A; subscription and marketplace-based pricing

How good are these alternatives?

Your feedback helps us improve the AI rankings.

βœ… Thanks for your feedback!

Know a better alternative? πŸ™Œ

Suggest a product and our AI will verify it's a real alternative to Cloud NGFW before adding it to the list.