CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Cloudflare vs F5

Cloudflare sells one platform for apps, agents and workforce. F5 sells the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), which F5 describes as keeping applications and APIs fast, available, and secure across complex environments. CISO Tribune files both under WAF and WAAP. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Cloudflare
  • F5
Cloudflare vs F5: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
CloudflareCloudflare sells one platform for apps, agents and workforce.cloudflare.comF5F5 sells the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), which F5 describes as keeping applications and APIs fast, available, and secure across complex environments.f5.com
What it sells
  • DDoS Protection[11][12][13][25][26]DDoS protection backed by 500 Tbps of network capacity.
  • Magic Transit[12][13]DDoS protection for networks at layers 3 and 4.
  • Spectrum[12][13]DDoS protection for TCP/UDP applications.
  • Bot Management[11][21][22][25]Custom machine learning models for each bot management customer.
  • RealtimeKit[24]A toolkit for real-time audio and video communication.
  • F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP)[1]A platform that keeps applications and APIs fast, available, and secure across complex environments.
  • F5 Insight for ADSP[9]Observability and fleet management for ops teams.
  • F5 AI Security Platform[10]A platform that covers AI application security and AI workforce security.
  • F5 Distributed Cloud App Connect[12]Connects applications, clusters, and services across clouds, data centers, and remote sites.
  • BIG-IP Container Ingress Services[14]Lets teams manage BIG-IP from Kubernetes or OpenShift.
Categories
Headquarters
San Francisco, United States[3][28]Seattle, United States[3]
Founded
2009[4]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Public (NYSE: NET)[2][10][19][20][28][31][32]Public (NASDAQ: FFIV)[2][4][5][7][17]
Named customers
  • Canva[5]
  • Discord[6]
  • Shopify[7]
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory[8]
Not stated on its pages
Recent news
  • October 9, 2026Cloudflare announced that the Deno team is joining the company, with the stated aim of simplifying self-hosting of Workers and Durable Objects.[18]
  • August 6, 2026Cloudflare reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $696.1 million, up 36% year over year.[9]
  • June 4, 2026Cloudflare acquired VoidZero, the open source company behind the Vite JavaScript build tooling ecosystem.[10]
  • May 7, 2026Cloudflare reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $639.8 million, up 34% year over year.[2]
  • April 14, 2026Cloudflare announced Cloudflare Mesh, a private networking solution built for AI agents.[32]
  • June 22, 2026F5 introduced its AI Security Platform and announced the acquisition of SurePath AI as part of the launch.[17]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen November 3, 2026[20]
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen November 4, 2026[5]
Who it fits
From its own pages, Cloudflare sells to organizations from startups to the world's largest enterprises. Cloudflare describes its security platform as serving organizations from startup to enterprise. Cloudflare addresses developers building frontend applications, from static sites to complex web apps. Cloudflare works with managed service partners that serve small to midsize organizations. Cloudflare works with global partners serving the Large Enterprise segment.From its own pages, F5 sells mainly to organisations that run applications across multiple clouds, on-premises data centers, and edge sites. F5 addresses DevOps teams and ops teams that want network observability and control over their applications. F5 sells its Diameter products to service providers and mobile operators. F5 names customers such as a medical organization, a European asset manager, and a national public safety technology agency. F5 positions its AI security offerings for organisations that need to govern workforce AI usage across users, agents, and third-party services.
Last verified
October 10, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Cloudflare and F5 are both filed under WAF and WAAP.
  • Both are headquartered in the United States.
  • Both are public companies.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Cloudflare's primary category is DDoS protection; F5's is WAF and WAAP.
  • Cloudflare is also filed under SASE and SSE and DNS security. F5 is also filed under API security.
  • Cloudflare lists DDoS Protection, Magic Transit, Spectrum, Bot Management and RealtimeKit. F5 lists F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), F5 Insight for ADSP, F5 AI Security Platform, F5 Distributed Cloud App Connect and BIG-IP Container Ingress Services.
  • Cloudflare is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. F5 is headquartered in Seattle, United States.
  • Cloudflare was founded in 2009.
  • Cloudflare is a public company listed on NYSE as NET. F5 is a public company listed on NASDAQ as FFIV.
  • Cloudflare publicly names Canva, Discord, Shopify and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

What it sells: Cloudflare

What DDoS Protection does[11][12][13][25][26]
Cloudflare says its DDoS protection absorbs the largest attacks with 500 Tbps of network capacity. Cloudflare offers 24/7 email and phone support, including an Under Attack hotline.
What Spectrum does[12][13]
Cloudflare Spectrum provides DDoS protection for TCP/UDP applications. Spectrum covers applications built with any protocols, including custom protocols.
What Bot Management does[11][21][22][25]
Cloudflare built a platform to deploy custom machine learning models for every bot management customer. Super Bot Fight Mode includes bot protection for Pro, Business and all Enterprise customers.
What RealtimeKit does[24]
RealtimeKit handles WebRTC complexities, connection management and global routing. RealtimeKit Agents supports building voice bots, interactive assistants and automated support systems.

What it sells: F5

What F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP) does[1]
F5 offers ADSP through term subscriptions, the Flex Consumption Plan (FCP), and perpetual licensing. F5 says its security offering covers sensitive data, apps, and APIs on a single platform.
What F5 Insight for ADSP does[9]
F5 Insight for ADSP enables ops teams to find answers more quickly, optimize deployments, and execute updates faster. Guided workflows distribute and install software patches, updates, and upgrades across an entire fleet in parallel. Deployment is possible in AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and others, and in on-prem or fully air-gapped environments.
What F5 AI Security Platform does[10]
The F5 AI Security Platform helps teams operationalize AI governance with customizable policy enforcement and auditability for every model, user, and agent action. A continuous loop of testing and runtime protection secures deployed AI systems. Workforce AI usage is discovered, classified, and governed across users, agents, and third-party services.
What F5 Distributed Cloud App Connect does[12]
F5 Distributed Cloud App Connect securely connects applications, clusters, and services across any cloud provider, on-premises data center, or remote site. DevOps teams get network observability and control.
What BIG-IP Container Ingress Services does[14]
BIG-IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) lets users manage an F5 BIG-IP device from Kubernetes or OpenShift using either environment's native CLI/API. CIS watches the Kubernetes API for specially formatted resources and updates the BIG-IP system configuration accordingly. F5 describes Container Ingress Services as free and open-source.

Questions about Cloudflare and F5

What do Cloudflare and F5 sell?
Cloudflare sells DDoS Protection, Magic Transit, Spectrum, Bot Management and RealtimeKit. F5 sells F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), F5 Insight for ADSP, F5 AI Security Platform, F5 Distributed Cloud App Connect and BIG-IP Container Ingress Services.
Are Cloudflare and F5 in the same category?
They share WAF and WAAP. Cloudflare's primary category is DDoS protection and F5's is WAF and WAAP.
Where are Cloudflare and F5 headquartered?
Cloudflare is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. F5 is headquartered in Seattle, United States.
When were Cloudflare and F5 founded?
Cloudflare was founded in 2009.
Who owns Cloudflare and F5?
Cloudflare is a public company listed on NYSE as NET. F5 is a public company listed on NASDAQ as FFIV.
Which customers do Cloudflare and F5 name?
Cloudflare publicly names Canva, Discord, Shopify and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Who are Cloudflare and F5 sold to?
From its own pages, Cloudflare sells to organizations from startups to the world's largest enterprises. From its own pages, F5 sells mainly to organisations that run applications across multiple clouds, on-premises data centers, and edge sites.
What have Cloudflare and F5 announced recently?
October 9, 2026: Cloudflare announced that the Deno team is joining the company, with the stated aim of simplifying self-hosting of Workers and Durable Objects. June 22, 2026: F5 introduced its AI Security Platform and announced the acquisition of SurePath AI as part of the launch.

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare sells one platform for apps, agents and workforce. Cloudflare describes one network for workloads and security, close to users and close to data. Cloudflare says security, connectivity and code run in 335+ cities around the world, within 50ms of 95% of the world's population. Cloudflare says DDoS protection, WAF, bot management and Zero Trust controls are built into the network and run on every request from day one. Cloudflare says every site gets the same DDoS mitigation, the same global CDN and the same network at every tier.[1][11][21]

On DDoS defense, Cloudflare says its DDoS protection absorbs the largest attacks with 500 Tbps of network capacity. Cloudflare Spectrum provides DDoS protection for TCP/UDP applications. Spectrum covers applications built with any protocols, including custom protocols. Magic Transit protects networks, data centers and infrastructure against layer 3 and 4 DDoS attacks. Cloudflare says Anycast absorbs and auto-routes traffic, with mitigations that trigger in seconds and no manual tuning. Cloudflare offers 24/7 email and phone support, including an Under Attack hotline.[12][13][21]

For application security, Cloudflare says customers can deploy WAF, rate-limiting, mTLS and Bot Management with a single DNS change, with no agents and no appliances. Cloudflare says one API and dashboard covers edge rules, logs and analytics, and integrates with CI/CD for policy-as-code. Cloudflare says schema validation and mTLS protect REST/GraphQL traffic and enforce client identity, with no SDK required. Cloudflare offers free, auto-renewed certificates and modern transport. Cloudflare provides real-time dashboards plus raw logs to R2/S3/SIEM. Cloudflare says it can detect Magecart-style client-side tampering before customers' card data leaks. Cloudflare says its security platform protects 20% of the Internet.[21]

On bot defense, Cloudflare built a platform to deploy custom machine learning models for every bot management customer. Cloudflare says Super Bot Fight Mode includes bot protection for Pro, Business and all Enterprise customers, and Enterprise Bot Management is the other bot option named.[22]

For workforce security, Cloudflare says internal apps and developer tools can be protected with identity-based access, device posture checks and single sign-on, with no VPN required. Cloudflare says its Zero Trust platform connects and secures users, devices and data, with the first 50 employees free and a flat per-user rate beyond that.[11][21]

Cloudflare also serves developers who build applications. Cloudflare says customers can bring any JavaScript framework or build tool, connect a git repository and deploy a project to a single Worker serving both front-end and back-end. Cloudflare supports Next.js, Hono, React Router, TanStack, Remix, Astro, Nuxt and RedwoodJS. Cloudflare says it charges only for compute, not wall time, even during long agent workflows or hibernating WebSockets. RealtimeKit handles WebRTC complexities, connection management and global routing. RealtimeKit Agents supports building voice bots, interactive assistants and automated support systems.[11][23][24]

Among customers, Shopify powers commerce for millions of merchants and businesses. Shopify uses the Cloudflare WAF, Bot Management, DDoS Protection and Gateway. Cloudflare says the log-only rules in that setup let Shopify preview the impact of security changes before they reach production. Cloudflare works with partners as well: it expanded its worldwide reseller partnership with Rackspace Technology to include managed services offerings. Cloudflare says the Rackspace service includes onboarding support for Cloudflare Managed DNS, Content Delivery Network, Advanced DDoS Protection and Web Application Firewall.[11][25][26][27]

Cloudflare, Inc says its suite of products protects and accelerates any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Cloudflare is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Dubai, Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Cloudflare Radar is powered by data from Cloudflare's global network and from aggregated and anonymized data from Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 public DNS Resolver.[1][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][23][27]

Cloudflare on the record

Sources

Cloudflare full record

  1. [1]cloudflare.comCloudflare · cloudflare.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Cloudflare announces first quarter 2026 financial resultsCloudflare · cloudflare.com · published May 7, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]About overviewCloudflare · cloudflare.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Technologys promise def con china 1 0 highlightsCloudflare · blog.cloudflare.com · published June 5, 2019 · Tier A
  5. [5]CanvaCloudflare · cloudflare.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]DiscordCloudflare · cloudflare.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]ShopifyCloudflare · cloudflare.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Lawrence berkeley national laboratoryCloudflare · cloudflare.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cloudflare announces second quarter 2026 financial resultsCloudflare · cloudflare.com · published August 6, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Cloudflare acquires voidzero to build the future of the ai native webCloudflare · cloudflare.com · published June 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Cloudflare: Build for the agent eraCloudflare · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Cloudflare DDoS Protection & Mitigation SolutionsCloudflare · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Magic Transit - Unmatched DDoS Protection for NetworksCloudflare · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]US Privacy Law Compliance FAQs | CloudflareCloudflare · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Cloudflare Stream - All-in-one Video PlatformCloudflare · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Cloudflare Artifacts - Versioned Git-compatible storage for agentsCloudflare · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Cloudflare AI Search - Automatic RAG infrastructure and queryingCloudflare · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Posts tagged "Acquisitions" — Cloudflare BlogCloudflare Blog · published October 9, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]Cloudflare Application Security and Performance Reviews 2026 - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  20. [20]Cloudflare Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  21. [21]Web Security Platform - WAF, DDoS Protection, Bot ManagementCloudflare · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  22. [22]Building unique, per-customer defenses against advanced bot threats in the AI era | Cloudflare BlogCloudflare Blog · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  23. [23]Frontend Development PlatformCloudflare · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  24. [24]Cloudflare RealtimeKit - Voice, Video & Multimodal AppsCloudflare · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  25. [25]Shopify & Cloudflare | Customer StoryCloudflare · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  26. [26]Cloudflare and Rackspace Technology Expand Partnership with Managed Services | Cloudflare BlogCloudflare Blog · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  27. [27]Cloudflare Partner Program Now Supports SASE & Zero Trust Managed Services | Cloudflare BlogCloudflare Blog · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  28. [28]About | Cloudflare RadarCloudflare Radar · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  29. [29]Cloudflare to Acquire Replicate to Build the Most Seamless AI Cloud for DevelopersCloudflare · published November 17, 2025 · Tier A
  30. [30]Cloudflare Acquires Astro to Accelerate the Future of High-Performance Web DevelopmentCloudflare · published January 16, 2026 · Tier A
  31. [31]Cloudflare Strengthens Content Offering to AI Companies with Acquisition of Human NativeCloudflare · published January 15, 2026 · Tier A
  32. [32]Cloudflare Launches Mesh to Secure the AI Agent LifecycleCloudflare · published April 14, 2026 · Tier A

F5 full record

  1. [1]f5.comF5 · f5.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Earnings q3 fy26F5 · f5.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]otcmarkets.comF5, Inc. via SEC EDGAR (Form 10-K) · otcmarkets.com · published November 25, 2025 · Tier A
  4. [4]Enterprise Application Security and Delivery Solutions | F5F5 · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]F5 Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier C
  6. [6]Bot and Risk Management | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Hybrid Multicloud App Security & Delivery for the AI Era | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Unified Management and Automation | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Operational Intelligence and Response for F5 ADSP | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]F5 AI Security Platform | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Hybrid Multicloud Network Management Platform | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Distributed application delivery solutions | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]F5 Distributed Cloud Synthetic Monitoring | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]BIG-IP Container Ingress Services | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]BIG-IP Diameter Traffic Manager | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]NFV Packaged Solutions | F5F5 · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]F5 launches AI Security Platform to put security leaders in control of enterprise AI riskF5 · published June 22, 2026 · Tier A

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