{"slug":"fastly-next-gen-waf","name":"Fastly Next-Gen WAF","domain":"fastly.com","verdict":"As of 2026-07-16, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok collectively rank Fastly Next-Gen WAF #2 of 9 for waf (one of 2 leaderboards it appears on). Source: https://modelsagree.com/product/fastly-next-gen-waf (modelsagree.com, CC BY 4.0).","best_rank":2,"categories":2,"brief":{"category":"best-waf","title":"Best WAF","rank":2,"of":9,"top":"Cloudflare WAF","day":"2026-07-17","why":[{"t":"Exceptionally low false positives","m":["Gemini","ChatGPT","Claude"],"q":"exceptionally low false positives that allow immediate out-of-the-box blocking mode"},{"t":"Flexible hybrid and multi-cloud deployment","m":["Gemini","ChatGPT","Claude"],"q":"highly flexible agent deployment across hybrid/multi-cloud environments"},{"t":"Strong API and microservices protection","m":["Grok"],"q":"strong API/microservices protection"},{"t":"Practical security-team usability","m":["ChatGPT","Grok"],"q":"a near-tie with Cloudflare when security-team usability matters most"}],"gap":[{"t":"Accessible pricing across organizational scales","m":["ChatGPT","Claude","Gemini","Grok"],"q":"accessible pricing tiers for all organizational scales"},{"t":"Bundled bot and DDoS protection","m":["ChatGPT","Claude","Grok"],"q":"strong bundled extras (bot management, DDoS, rate limiting)"},{"t":"Massive global threat intelligence","m":["Claude","Gemini"],"q":"massive global threat intelligence from its extensive edge network"}],"fix":[{"t":"Lower-cost self-serve tier","m":["ChatGPT","Claude","Gemini"],"q":"High entry cost with no lower self-serve tier"},{"t":"Simpler distributed agent maintenance","m":["Gemini"],"q":"added deployment pipeline complexity to maintain and upgrade distributed local agents"},{"t":"Larger global network footprint","m":["Grok"],"q":"Smaller global network footprint than Cloudflare/Akamai"}]},"entries":[{"slug":"best-waf","title":"Best WAF","rank":2,"of":9,"score":15,"appearances":4,"modelRanks":{"ChatGPT":2,"Claude":3,"Gemini":1,"Grok":3},"reason":"Uses context-aware SmartParse engine instead of regex signatures, resulting in exceptionally low false positives that allow immediate out-of-the-box blocking mode, alongside highly flexible agent deployment across hybrid/multi-cloud environments.","reasons":[{"model":"Gemini","reason":"Uses context-aware SmartParse engine instead of regex signatures, resulting in exceptionally low false positives that allow immediate out-of-the-box blocking mode, alongside highly flexible agent deployment across hybrid/multi-cloud environments."},{"model":"ChatGPT","reason":"Excellent real-world detection and low false-positive burden, with clear request signals, practical tuning, advanced rate limiting, CVE virtual patches, and unusually flexible edge, cloud, on-premises, and application-agent deployment; a near-tie with Cloudflare when security-team usability matters most."},{"model":"Claude","reason":"Widely regarded as the lowest-false-positive commercial WAF thanks to its SmartParse detection approach rather than brittle regex signatures, which lets teams actually run in full blocking mode; flexible deployment (agent/module on host, Kubernetes sidecar, or Fastly edge) suits hybrid and on-prem estates that CDN-only WAFs can't cover"},{"model":"Grok","reason":"Edge-native real-time behavioral detection, excellent developer/CI-CD integration, minimal latency, and strong API/microservices protection; high real-world visibility and low overhead for DevOps teams."}],"fixes":[{"model":"ChatGPT","fix":"Enterprise-oriented pricing and packaging make it harder to justify for small teams and ordinary low-risk sites."},{"model":"Claude","fix":"Premium enterprise pricing with no self-serve low tier — overkill in cost for small teams, and you're buying detection quality rather than a bundled CDN/bot/DDoS platform unless you also adopt Fastly's edge"},{"model":"Gemini","fix":"High entry cost with no lower self-serve tier and added deployment pipeline complexity to maintain and upgrade distributed local agents."},{"model":"Grok","fix":"Smaller global network footprint than Cloudflare/Akamai; less optimal for ultra-large legacy enterprise estates."}],"updated":"2026-07-16","api":"https://modelsagree.com/api/v1/best/best-waf.json"},{"slug":"best-waf-for-web-application-protection","title":"Best WAF for web application protection","rank":5,"of":8,"score":5,"appearances":3,"modelRanks":{"ChatGPT":3,"Claude":5,"Gemini":5},"reason":"SmartParse contextual detection produces low false-positive rates with little tuning, while flexible edge, cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployment suits complex application estates","reasons":[{"model":"ChatGPT","reason":"SmartParse contextual detection produces low false-positive rates with little tuning, while flexible edge, cloud, on-premises, and hybrid deployment suits complex application estates"},{"model":"Claude","reason":"The former Signal Sciences remains the most developer-friendly WAF with famously low false positives, flexible deployment (agent, edge, or hybrid) that protects east-west and non-CDN traffic, and high real-world blocking-mode adoption"},{"model":"Gemini","reason":"Developer-first agent architecture that integrates smoothly into CI/CD pipelines with extremely low false-positive rates and deployment flexibility."}],"fixes":[{"model":"ChatGPT","fix":"Expand its global security telemetry and integrated bot-management depth to match the two leaders"},{"model":"Claude","fix":"Broader platform breadth and market momentum — needs stronger bundled bot/API security and clearer post-acquisition roadmap to compete for platform-consolidation deals"},{"model":"Gemini","fix":"Enhance native global threat intelligence sharing to match the defensive scale of its larger CDN-centric competitors."}],"updated":"2026-07-14","rank_history":{"days":["2026-06-29","2026-06-30","2026-07-08","2026-07-09","2026-07-10","2026-07-14"],"ranks":[3,4,5,5,3,null]},"reasoning_shift":[{"model":"ChatGPT","from":"2026-07-09","to":"2026-07-10","added":[{"t":"SmartParse contextual detection","q":"SmartParse contextual detection"},{"t":"global security telemetry","q":"global security telemetry"},{"t":"match the two leaders","q":"match the two leaders"}],"dropped":[{"t":"Developer-friendly Signal Sciences lineage","q":"Developer-friendly Signal Sciences lineage"},{"t":"strong API and app-layer protection","q":"strong API and app-layer protection"},{"t":"DDoS and broader WAAP depth","q":"DDoS, and broader WAAP depth"}]},{"model":"Gemini","from":"2026-06-30","to":"2026-07-08","added":[{"t":"smooth CI/CD pipeline integration","q":"integrates smoothly into CI/CD pipelines"},{"t":"deployment flexibility","q":"deployment flexibility"},{"t":"global threat intelligence sharing","q":"native global threat intelligence sharing"}],"dropped":[{"t":"SmartParse eliminates false positives","q":"patented SmartParse technology that virtually eliminates false positives without ongoing manual rule tuning"},{"t":"native API security profiling","q":"native API security profiling"},{"t":"deep behavioral analytics","q":"deep behavioral analytics"}]}],"api":"https://modelsagree.com/api/v1/best/best-waf-for-web-application-protection.json"}],"page":"https://modelsagree.com/product/fastly-next-gen-waf","check":"https://modelsagree.com/check?q=Fastly%20Next-Gen%20WAF","updated":"2026-08-10T18:18:45.051Z","attribution":"modelsagree.com, CC BY 4.0"}