Compare cloud-native firewall services across AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI.
Last verified: May 2026
Showing 20 of 20 features.
| Feature | AWS | Azure | GCP | OCI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Service Name Core Features | AWS Network Firewall | Azure Firewall | Cloud NGFW (Cloud Firewall) | OCI Network Firewall |
Firewall Type Core Features | Managed stateful network firewall with IDS/IPS | Managed stateful firewall with threat intelligence | Distributed cloud-native next-gen firewall | Managed next-generation firewall powered by Palo Alto |
Throughput Core Features | Up to 100 Gbps per firewall endpoint | Standard: 30 Gbps; Premium: 100 Gbps | Scales automatically with no fixed throughput cap | Up to 4 Gbps per firewall instance |
Deployment Model Core Features | Dedicated firewall endpoints in VPC subnets per AZ | Deployed in hub VNet; spoke traffic via UDRs | Distributed enforcement at VPC level; no choke point | Deployed in VCN subnet with route table steering |
Pricing Core Features | Per firewall endpoint per hour + data processing per GB | Per deployment per hour + data processing per GB | Per GB inspected + per hour for endpoints | Per firewall instance per hour + data processing |
High Availability Core Features | Multi-AZ endpoints with automatic failover | Built-in HA across availability zones | Globally distributed; no single point of failure | Deploy across fault domains; manual multi-AD setup |
Rule Types Rule Management | Stateless 5-tuple, stateful domain/Suricata rules | Network rules, application rules, NAT rules, DNAT | Hierarchical firewall policies with priority-based rules | L3-L7 rules including application identification |
Protocol Support Rule Management | TCP, UDP, ICMP, plus HTTP/TLS domain filtering | TCP, UDP, ICMP, HTTP/S, MSSQL, FTP | TCP, UDP, ICMP, ESP, AH, GRE, SCTP | TCP, UDP, ICMP with deep packet inspection |
Domain Filtering Rule Management | HTTP host header and TLS SNI-based domain rules | FQDN filtering with wildcard support in application rules | FQDN objects with Cloud DNS integration | URL filtering with custom URL lists and categories |
Rule Capacity Rule Management | Up to 30K stateful rules per firewall policy | Up to 20K network rules, 20K application rules | Up to 500 rules per policy; hierarchical inheritance | Configurable rule sets based on instance sizing |
IP Group / Address Lists Rule Management | IP sets referenced in rule groups for reuse | IP Groups with up to 5000 IPs or prefixes | Address groups shared across firewall policies | Address lists and service lists for rule references |
IDS/IPS Security | Suricata-compatible IDS/IPS with custom and managed rules | Premium tier includes IDPS with signature-based detection | Integrated IPS powered by Palo Alto Networks threat intelligence | IDS/IPS included with Palo Alto NGFW engine |
TLS Inspection Security | TLS decryption and inspection for outbound traffic | Premium tier supports TLS inspection with PKI integration | TLS inspection with Certificate Authority Service | SSL decryption with certificate management |
Threat Intelligence Security | AWS managed threat intelligence rule groups | Microsoft Threat Intelligence feed with alert/deny modes | Palo Alto Networks threat intelligence signatures | Palo Alto threat intelligence with auto-updates |
Logging & Analytics Security | Flow logs to S3, CloudWatch, or Kinesis Data Firehose | Structured logs in Log Analytics; Workbook dashboards | Cloud Logging with Security Command Center integration | OCI Logging with Threat Intelligence integration |
Policy Hierarchy Operations | Firewall policies shareable across accounts via Firewall Manager | Azure Firewall Policy with rule collection groups; Firewall Manager | Organization, folder, and project-level hierarchical policies | Policies scoped to compartments with inheritance |
Terraform Support Operations | aws_networkfirewall_firewall, _rule_group, _policy | azurerm_firewall, azurerm_firewall_policy | google_compute_network_firewall_policy, _rule | oci_network_firewall_network_firewall, _policy |
Centralized Management Operations | AWS Firewall Manager for multi-account governance | Azure Firewall Manager for hub-and-spoke management | Organization-level firewall policies with admin override | OCI Security Zones and Cloud Guard integration |
Monitoring Operations | CloudWatch metrics: packets dropped, passed, latency | Azure Monitor metrics: data processed, SNAT port util, health | Cloud Monitoring: rule hit counts, dropped packets, latency | OCI Monitoring: connections, bytes, threat events |
Hybrid Integration Operations | Inspect traffic from VPN/Direct Connect via Transit Gateway | Inspect on-prem traffic via ExpressRoute/VPN through hub | Inspect hybrid traffic via Cloud VPN or Interconnect routes | Inspect on-prem traffic via FastConnect/IPSec via DRG |
Cloud-native firewall services provide network security filtering without managing virtual appliances. AWS Network Firewall, Azure Firewall, GCP Cloud NGFW (powered by Palo Alto), and OCI Network Firewall each offer different rule paradigms, inspection capabilities, and pricing models. Some provide stateful L3/L4 filtering, others include L7 application-aware inspection, IDPS, TLS decryption, and URL filtering. This comparison helps you evaluate cloud-native firewall capabilities across providers, understand feature gaps, and plan multi-cloud network security architectures.
Your team is choosing a centralized firewall for a hub VNet handling 30 TB/month of inspected traffic. AWS Network Firewall: $0.395/hr × 730 + $0.065/GB × 30,000 = $288 + $1,950 = $2,238/month. Azure Firewall Premium: $1.75/hr × 730 + $0.016/GB × 30,000 = $1,278 + $480 = $1,758/month. Azure wins on cost AND offers IDPS + TLS inspection (AWS Network Firewall has IDPS but no TLS inspection). Plus Azure Firewall integrates with Azure Sentinel for SIEM correlation. Decision: Azure Firewall Premium.
Cloud-native firewalls are simpler but less feature-rich than 3rd-party NGFWs (Palo Alto, Fortinet, Check Point) deployed as VMs. For organizations with existing 3rd-party expertise, NVAs in the cloud are often more powerful. For teams with no NGFW expertise, cloud-native firewalls are dramatically easier to operate.
TLS inspection is a feature available in Azure Firewall Premium and GCP Cloud NGFW Enterprise but NOT in the AWS or OCI native firewalls. If TLS inspection is a hard requirement (compliance, threat detection), only those two clouds offer it natively — others require 3rd-party NVAs.
Azure Firewall's per-GB rate ($0.016/GB) is dramatically lower than AWS Network Firewall ($0.065/GB). For high-throughput workloads (>10 TB/month), Azure is significantly cheaper. AWS is competitive at lower throughput because the per-endpoint hourly rate dominates at small scale.
The compare tool maintains a feature matrix across 25+ firewall dimensions per cloud: stateless vs stateful rules, L7 application-aware filtering, IDPS support, TLS inspection, URL/domain filtering, web category filtering, signature update frequency, rule capacity limits, throughput limits, pricing model (per-endpoint + per-GB), HA architecture, and IaC support.
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