Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AWS Certificate Manager VS AWS WAF

Compare AWS Certificate Manager VS AWS WAF and see what are their differences

AWS Certificate Manager logo AWS Certificate Manager

AWS Certificate Manager from Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS WAF logo AWS WAF

AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect your web applications from common web exploits.
  • AWS Certificate Manager Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-15
  • AWS WAF Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-02

AWS Certificate Manager features and specs

  • Automated Certificate Management
    AWS Certificate Manager automates the creation, renewal, and deployment of SSL/TLS certificates, reducing manual effort and the risk of human error.
  • Seamless Integration
    AWS Certificate Manager integrates easily with other AWS services such as Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon API Gateway, simplifying the process of securing web applications.
  • Free Public Certificates
    AWS offers free public SSL/TLS certificates through AWS Certificate Manager, allowing users to secure their domains without additional cost.
  • Enhanced Security
    Automated renewal and deployment of certificates help ensure that your applications and services remain secure and compliant with industry standards.
  • Scalability
    AWS Certificate Manager can handle a large number of certificates, making it suitable for enterprises with many domains and subdomains.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Certificate Manager

  • AWS Ecosystem Dependency
    AWS Certificate Manager is deeply integrated with AWS services, which can be a limitation for businesses that utilize multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategies.
  • Limited Customization
    Users have less control over certificate details and configurations compared to managing their own certificates manually or through other certificate authorities.
  • Proprietary Limitations
    AWS Certificate Manager's certificates can only be used with supported AWS services, which restricts their use in non-AWS environments.
  • Region Availability
    Some AWS regions may have limited support or features for AWS Certificate Manager compared to others, which can affect global deployment strategies.
  • Learning Curve
    New users may find it challenging to understand and utilize all the features and integrations provided by AWS Certificate Manager without sufficient AWS knowledge.

AWS WAF features and specs

  • Scalability
    AWS WAF is designed to scale automatically with your application. It can handle high traffic loads without manual intervention, making it suitable for dynamic and unpredictable environments.
  • Ease of Integration
    AWS WAF easily integrates with other AWS services such as CloudFront, Application Load Balancer, and API Gateway, providing a seamless security solution within the AWS ecosystem.
  • Custom Rule Configuration
    Users can define custom rules and policies to suit specific security requirements. AWS WAF provides a flexible rule creation environment, enabling the creation of complex firewall rules.
  • Managed Rules
    AWS WAF offers a set of pre-configured managed rules that provide protection against common threats such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting, which saves time and effort for administrators.
  • Comprehensive Logging and Monitoring
    AWS WAF integrates with AWS CloudWatch and AWS Kinesis Firehose to provide detailed logging and monitoring capabilities. This helps in tracking, analyzing, and reacting to security events in real time.
  • Cost-Effectiveness
    AWS WAF operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing businesses to scale costs with usage. This can be particularly cost-effective for smaller organizations or startups.

Possible disadvantages of AWS WAF

  • Complexity
    While AWS WAF offers powerful features, its setup and configuration can be complex, especially for users who are not familiar with AWS or web security concepts.
  • Initial Learning Curve
    New users may find it challenging to get up to speed with AWS WAF due to the need to understand AWS services and security rules syntax. This initial learning phase can be time-consuming.
  • Rule Processing Latency
    In some cases, the processing of complex rules can introduce latency in response times. This may impact the performance of high-speed applications that require minimal delay.
  • Service Dependency
    AWS WAF is deeply integrated within the AWS ecosystem. As a result, its effectiveness is dependent on the use of other AWS services, which may not be ideal for multi-cloud strategies.
  • Cost for Heavy Usage
    While the pay-as-you-go model can be cost-effective for small-scale operations, businesses with high traffic volumes might find the cumulative costs to be significant.
  • Limited Offline Capabilities
    AWS WAF is designed primarily for protecting online applications. Offline or on-premise applications require different solutions, and AWS WAF may not be well-suited in these scenarios.

AWS Certificate Manager videos

How can I add certificates for websites to the ELB using AWS Certificate Manager?

AWS WAF videos

Protecting Your Web Application Using AWS Managed Rules for AWS WAF - AWS Online Tech Talks

More videos:

  • Review - Amazon AWS WAF (Web application Firewall ) Training
  • Review - AWS WAF REVIEW

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS Certificate Manager and AWS WAF)
Network & Admin
100 100%
0% 0
Web Application Security
0 0%
100% 100
Domain Name Registrar
100 100%
0% 0
Security Monitoring
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, AWS WAF should be more popular than AWS Certificate Manager. It has been mentiond 36 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AWS Certificate Manager mentions (24)

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AWS WAF mentions (36)

  • Understanding AWS Regions and Availability Zones: A Guide for Beginners
    AWS CloudFront is the star of the show here. It caches static content (like media, scripts, and images) to ensure fast, reliable delivery. Other AWS services that run at the edge include Route 53 for DNS routing, Shield and WAF for security, and even Lambda via Lambda@Edge — giving you the ability to run serverless logic closer to the user. - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
  • 🚀🚀Setting Up AWS Firewall Manager Used For Auditing Security Groups in AWS Organization accounts.
    AWS Firewall Manager is a security management service that makes it easier to centrally configure and manage firewall rules across your accounts and applications in AWS Organizations. You can use Firewall Manager to manage AWS WAF, AWS Shield Advanced, VPC, security groups, AWS Network Firewall, and more. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • 12 Practices and Tools to Ensure API Security
    Like Adam said - WAF is Cloudflare's bread-and-butter product offering, but Amazon also offers AWS WAF in case you want to stick to a single-cloud solution. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Block direct access to CloudFront origins with custom headers and AWS WAF
    Amazon Web Application Firewall AWS WAF is a web application firewall that lets you monitor the HTTP(S) requests that are forwarded to your protected web application resources. AWS WAF lets you control access to your content. Based on criteria that you specify, such as the IP addresses that requests originate from or the values of query strings, the service associated with your protected resource responds to... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • AWS Serverless Security: Preventing HTTP Flood DDoS Attack
    AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect your web applications / APIs against common web exploits and bots. Attacks may affect availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. AWS WAF gives you control over how traffic reaches your applications by enabling you to create security rules that control bot traffic and block common attack patterns. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS Certificate Manager and AWS WAF, you can also consider the following products

Google Authenticator - Google Authenticator is a multifactor app for mobile devices.

OpenSSL - OpenSSL is a free and open source software cryptography library that implements both the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, which are primarily used to provide secure communications between web browsers and …

Authy - Best rated Two-Factor Authentication smartphone app for consumers, simplest 2fa Rest API for developers and a strong authentication platform for the enterprise.

Let's Encrypt - Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication - Azure Multi-Factor Authentication helps safeguard access to data and applications while meeting user demand for a simple sign-in process.

Sqreen - Sqreen is a web application security monitoring and protection solution helping companies protect their apps and users from attacks. Get started in minutes.