SASECompare
Home/Comparisons/Firewall as a Service (FWaaS)

Firewall as a Service (FWaaS)

LIVE

Does the platform deliver full L3-L7 firewall capabilities from the cloud?

FWaaS is a foundational SASE component. Enterprises migrating from on-prem firewalls need to know if the cloud-delivered firewall matches their existing policy granularity. We tested 5 critical FWaaS capabilities.

6checks
9vendors
Information sourced from publicly available documentation. Vendor capabilities change frequently. Always verify with the vendor before making purchasing decisions. Not affiliated with any vendor. See our terms & disclaimer. Vendors: to report inaccuracies, email [email protected].
Vendors (9/9)Click a card to toggle a vendor
YESSupported
PARTIALLimited
NONot supported
TBDResearch pending

Every answer is backed by public evidence. Click any result to read the finding and open its source links.

01

Full L3-L7 application-aware firewall?

02

IPS/IDS with real-time detection?

03

Behavioral / anomaly-based threat detection?

04

DNS security and tunneling prevention?

05

Firewall policies follow users across locations?

06

Custom firewall rules with full criteria?

Share
Did we get something wrong?Let us know

Need this analysis tailored to your environment?

Get a custom report with deeper analysis, weighted scoring based on your priorities, and vendor recommendations specific to your deployment.

Request Custom Report

Get notified when we publish new comparisons

No spam. Just new research drops and major updates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which SASE vendor is best for firewall as a service (fwaas)?
Based on 6 checks across 9 vendors, Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler lead with 6 of 6 researched capabilities fully supported (YES). Cloudflare scored lowest with 3 YES answers. Results are based on publicly available documentation. Always verify with the vendor before purchasing.
Beyond signatures, does the inline firewall/IPS detect anomalous, evasive, or zero-day threats using behavioral or ML analysis in the real-time data path (not just post-hoc log analytics)?
Cato Networks, Check Point, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler fully support this. Cisco, Versa Networks offer partial support. Cloudflare does not support this. Signature-only IPS misses novel and evasive attacks. Inline behavioral and ML detection is what catches zero-day exploits and evasive C2 that signatures alone do not
Can it enforce real-time, signature-based inline IPS/IDS with block and alert actions against known and emerging vulnerability exploits?
Cato Networks, Check Point, Cisco, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks, Zscaler fully support this. Cloudflare offers partial support. Intrusion prevention is table stakes for replacing on-prem firewalls. Without IPS, your FWaaS has a massive blind spot
Does the platform support DNS security filtering, DNS-over-HTTPS inspection, and DNS tunneling prevention?
Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler fully support this. Cato Networks, Check Point, Cisco, Cloudflare, Netskope, Versa Networks offer partial support. DNS is the #1 exfiltration channel. Attackers tunnel data out via DNS queries. If your FWaaS doesn't inspect DNS, it's leaking data
Does the FWaaS support full L3-L7 application-aware firewall policies with deep packet inspection?
Cato Networks, Check Point, Cisco, Cloudflare, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks, Zscaler fully support this. A cloud firewall that only does L3/L4 filtering is just an ACL. Real FWaaS needs application-level awareness to replace on-prem NGFW
Can firewall policies follow users across locations (office, home, roaming) without policy gaps?
Cato Networks, Check Point, Cisco, Cloudflare, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks, Zscaler fully support this. Remote workers need the same protection as office workers. If policies only apply when connected to a VPN, roaming users are exposed
How is the Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) comparison tested?
We test 6 specific scenarios across Cato Networks, Check Point, Cisco, Cloudflare, Fortinet, Netskope, Palo Alto Networks, Versa Networks, Zscaler. All answers are sourced from publicly available vendor documentation, knowledge base articles, and verified user reports. YES means confirmed working with documentation, PARTIAL means it works with significant limitations, NO means confirmed not supported.

Methodology

All answers are sourced from publicly available vendor documentation, knowledge base articles, press releases, and verified user reports. We do not rely on vendor marketing claims.

YES means the feature is confirmed working with documentation. PARTIAL means it works with significant caveats or limitations. NO means it is confirmed not supported. TBD means research is still in progress.

Click any cell in the matrix to see the detailed evidence and source link.

Feedback

Help me make this better

This is a one-person project. Your input directly shapes what gets added, fixed, or prioritized next.