A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack can cause downtime, financial loss, and reputation damage, disrupting your business operations. The bad news is that DDoS attacks are rampant across the globe, including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. You can check real-time cyber threat maps to see how often these attacks are happening.

In fact, DDoS attacks surged by 56% in Q3–Q4 2024 compared to the same period last year, with businesses losing an average of $6,130 per minute during an attack. These attacks often use botnets to flood your resources with malicious traffic.

That’s why deploying a DDoS protection service is essential to shield your applications, network, and servers from these growing threats. Effective DDoS protection solutions offer L3/L4/L7 DDoS mitigation, AI-based threat detection, and zero-day attack prevention to combat sophisticated threats.

I’ve explored 23 popular services and listed the 13 best DDoS protection services in this post. I’ll discuss 9 out of the 13 solutions in detail below.

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Comparison of the Top DDoS Protection Services

I compared top DDoS protection services by deployment options, mitigation capacity, protected OSI layers, pricing models, and starting costs.

Check it out below 👇🏼.

Akamai Prolexic

Cloudflare

Sucuri

Radware

AWS Shield

Imperva

Google Cloud Armor

Apptrana

Fastly

Deployment

Cloud, on-prem, hybrid

Cloud, on-prem, hybrid

Cloud

Cloud, on-prem, hybrid

Cloud, on-prem

Cloud, on-prem

Cloud, on-prem, hybrid

Cloud

Cloud

Attack Mitigation

20+ Tbps DDoS defense

348 Tbps network capacity

250GPS

15 Tbps

Not publicly available

6 Tbps

Not publicly available

2.3 Tbps

350+ Tbps

Layer Protection

L1 to L5, L7

L3, L4, L7

L3, L4, L7

L3, L4, L7

L3, L4, L7

L3, L4, L7

L3, L4, L7

L3, L4, L7

L3, L4, L7

AI-powered
Advantage
Advantage
Advantage
Advantage
Advantage
Advantage
Advantage
Advantage
Advantage
Pricing Model

Enterprise model with customizable solutions

Tiered pricing

Tiered

Custom

Fixed monthly fee

Custom

Tiered

Tiered with subscription-based billing

Add-on (usage-based)

Starting Price

Custom

$20/month

$9.99/month

Custom

$3,000/month

Custom

$200/month

$99/app/month

Visit

After reviewing the comparison of the best DDoS tools, let’s explore each one in detail.

1. Akamai Prolexic

Cloud, Hybrid, On-Premises Protection for Enterprise

Akamai provides powerful DDoS protection with 20+ Tbps of dedicated defense capacity and 24/7/365 support from a global Security Operations Command Center (SOCC). This allows it to handle even the largest and most complex DDoS attacks in real-time.

What I like about Akamai Prolexic is its extensive global network and comprehensive threat intelligence. As a result, it can detect and mitigate sophisticated DDoS attacks in real time. Also, it can be easily integrated with other Akamai security solutions to offer comprehensive and cohesive application and network security.

Akamai Prolexic is not suitable for small businesses due to its cost and extensive features that exceed typical small business needs. The high-capacity infrastructure (20+ Tbps) is designed for large-scale DDoS attacks that small businesses rarely face.

You can deploy Akamai Prolexic DDoS protection for your cloud, on-prem, and hybrid resources.

Akamai Prolexic Features

  • Offers DDoS detection, mitigation, and protection.
  • Provides flexible connectivity and integration options that protect hybrid origins.
  • Comes with Network-wide Access Control Lists (ACLs) and firewall rules.
  • Offers 100% platform availability Service Level Agreement (SLA).
  • Provides dynamic mitigation controls to stop attacks across IPv4 and IPv6 traffic flows.

Akamai Prolexic Pricing

As the Akamai Prolexic landing page doesn’t have any pricing details, you need to contact the company to know its pricing.

Explore Akamai Prolexic

2. Cloudflare

Affordable DDoS Protection for SMBs

Cloudflare is known to offer reliable DDoS protection without slowing down the performance of your application or network for your customers. Its 348 Tbps of network capacity can mitigate huge DDoS attacks. 

I like that Cloudflare can roll out DDoS protection within minutes of an attack, thanks to their Under Attack Hotline. It also blocks attacks from nearby locations in over 335 cities, so your traffic never gets sent to faraway traffic scrubbing centers.

Cloudflare DDoS protection can be deployed to protect websites, web applications, TCP/UDP applications, networks, and data centres. It is available for cloud, on-prem, and hybrid resources. 

It offers native integration with the Content Delivery Network (CDN), web application firewall (WAF), bot management, and other services. 

Cloudflare DDoS Features

  • Unlimited and unmetered DDoS attack mitigation.
  • Free DDoS protection is included in all Application Service plans.
  • Easy setup through the Cloudflare dashboard or API.
  • DDoS protection for websites using HTTP/HTTPS.
  • Optional upgrades like WAF, site acceleration, and advanced bot mitigation.

Cloudflare DDoS Pricing

For applications, Cloudflare gives free unmetered DDoS protection for personal sites or hobby projects. Paid plans start at $20/month and include Spectrum DDoS protection.

For network-level protection, Cloudflare offers DDoS defense with custom pricing based on your needs.

Get Cloudflare DDoS Protection

3. Radware

Industry-leading SLA-backed Rapid Mitigation

Radware offers multiple solutions for DDoS protection, including Cloud DDoS protection service, Web DDoS protection service, DefensePro X, and more. Through its worldwide 21 scrubbing centres and 15 Tbps of mitigation capacity, Radware provides frictionless DDoS protection.

Their protection services use patented, behavior-based algorithms to block advanced threats like Burst, DNS, Web DDoS, IoT botnets, and Ransom DDoS. It reacts in real-time, so your site stays protected without delay.

In my opinion, Radware offers one of the most comprehensive SLAs. It commits for time-to-mitigate, time-to-detect, time-to-divert, and consistency of mitigation service availability.

I also liked the fact that Radware Cloud DDoS protection service is backed by Radware’s Emergency Response Team (ERT), which acts as a single point of contact for routine and emergency needs.

You can deploy Radware DDoS protection on your cloud, on-prem, and hybrid resources.

Radware DDoS Protection Features

  • Behavior-based algorithms spot and stop new, unknown attacks.
  • Protection covers Burst, DNS, encrypted, and ransom DDoS threats.
  • SLA ensures fast detection, quick mitigation, and high uptime.
  • Multi-layered protection uses real-time threat data to boost defense.
  • Cloud DDoS services provide fast, accurate, and always-on protection.
  • Web DDoS protection blocks threats without slowing real users.

Radware DDoS Protection Pricing

Radware hasn’t published the pricing details for its DDoS services. You need to contact the company to get pricing information.

Explore Radware DDoS Protection

4. AWS Shield

Best for AWS Services Integration

AWS Shield protects your apps on AWS from DDoS attacks. The basic version, Shield Standard, is free and works for all AWS users.

If you want more protection from more advanced attacks, such as SYN/UDP floods, reflection attacks, and others, you can choose Shield Advanced (paid option).

Shield Advanced works with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon CloudFront, AWS Global Accelerator, and Route 53.

I like AWS Shield’s DDoS cost protection feature that allows you to request credits if any of the AWS Shield Advanced protected resources scale up due to a DDoS attack.

However, what I didn’t like about AWS Shield is that you have to be on a Business or Enterprise support plan to contact the Shield Response Team (SRT). Also, DDoS attack alerts come only with AWS Shield Advanced.

AWS Shield Features

  • Automatically detects and mitigates complex network-level DDoS attacks.
  • Customizes application protection using Shield Response Team (SRT) protocol or AWS WAF.
  • Integrates with SRT for expert attack-time support.
  • Provides real-time visibility into DDoS events and impact.
  • Offers cost protection for traffic surges caused by DDoS attacks.

AWS Shield Pricing

With AWS Shield Advanced, you pay $3,000 monthly for your whole organization. It’s a fixed monthly cost. AWS Shield Standard is free.

Get AWS Shield

5. Imperva

DDoS Mitigation with Web Application Firewall

Imperva offers multi-layered DDoS protection for websites, networks, DNS servers, and individual IPs. A good thing is that Imperva DDoS protection works with the Imperva web application firewall to block attacks and malicious bots.

The solution covers a broad range of DDoS attacks, including UDP, ICMP, DNS flood, TCP SYN flood, Ping of Death, DNS amplification, and more. It automatically blocks DDoS attacks without you notifying the company about an attack, which minimizes downtime. 

I’m impressed with Imperva’s ability to minimize false positives. It leverages machine learning to study traffic patterns and set optimal thresholds for Layer 7 DDoS attacks. You don’t need to adjust settings often since it adapts automatically.

Imperva Features

  • Handles over 6 Tbps of global network traffic
  • Operates 44+ global data centers for scrubbing to absorb large attacks
  • Delivers mitigation within 3 seconds (SLA)
  • Enables always-on, automated DDoS protection
  • Detects and mitigates application-layer attacks with advanced algorithms
  • Correlates DDoS and related events with integrated analytics

Imperva Pricing

Imperva didn’t publish pricing details for its DDoS protection service. You need to contact the company to receive pricing information. It offers a free trial.

Explore Imperva DDoS Protection

6. Sucuri

Best DDoS Protection for Small Businesses

Sucuri offers reliable DDoS protection through its global distributed Anycast network. It uses 10 Super Points of Presence (SuperPOPs) and 3 Content Delivery Network Points of Presence (CDN POPs) worldwide. This setup improves availability and redundancy by distributing traffic across locations. 

I like the fact that Sucuri automatically blocks malicious traffic and requests without interfering with your legitimate traffic. It guarantees your website’s availability even during large DDoS attacks.

Furthermore, it offers various security features to protect your business website, such as an intrusion prevention system, virtual patching and hardening, brute force protection, and more.

It provides prompt support as well; I received a quick reply to my query.

Chat with Sucuri support executive

 

Though Sucuri provides strong DDoS protection for websites, it doesn’t support on-premises applications. For protecting on-prem resources, Sucuri won’t be the right fit for your setup.

If your website is based on WordPress, you can check these WordPress WAFs to boost your website security.

Sucuri DDoS Protection Features

  • Detects and stops both network and application-layer DDoS attacks to keep your site running smoothly
  • Uses machine learning to study attack data and block new threats before they impact your site
  • Filters fake traffic fast so your site stays online and accessible during large-scale attacks
  • Blocks malicious bots and hackers automatically, which reduces resource strain and prevents downtime.

Sucuri DDoS Protection Pricing

Sucuri includes DDoS protection in both its Security Platform and Firewall with CDN plans. Firewall with CDN starts at $9.99/month, while the full Security Platform starts at $229/year.

If you only need DDoS protection, the Firewall with CDN plan is the more affordable option.

Get Sucuri

7. Google Cloud Armor

Best for Google Cloud Integration

Google Cloud Armor protects your applications on Google Cloud from DDoS attacks and threats like cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection (SQLi). It combines automatic defenses with manual rule configuration.

You also get a pre-configured web application firewall that protects your application and services from the OWASP Top Ten risks.

All tiers receive DDoS protection for global external, classic, and external proxy load balancers. With the Enterprise tier, you also gain access to detailed telemetry for better visibility into DDoS attack activity.

I like Google Cloud Armor for its threat intelligence and adaptive protection. It blocks or allows traffic based on several categories of threat intelligence data. Adaptive Protection watches traffic patterns, detects Layer 7 DDoS attacks, and suggests WAF rules to stop them.

However, a caveat is that you need to have the Enterprise Google Cloud Armor plan to enable adaptive protection.

Google Cloud Armor Features

  • ML-based mechanism to prevent DDoS attacks
  • Bot management to prevent fraud
  • Predefined WAF rules to mitigate OWASP Top Ten risks
  • Limits request volume to block traffic spikes and abusive behavior

Google Cloud Armor Pricing

Google Cloud Armor offers two pricing tiers:

  • Standard pay-as-you-go pricing
  • Enterprise plans starting at $200/month (pay as you go), or $3,000/month for annual subscription.
Get Google Cloud Armor

8. AppTrana

Best for Indian Businesses

IndusFace AppTrana offers DDoS, WAF, DAST scanner, bot mitigation, and API security in a single platform. Its fully-managed, AI-powered DDoS mitigation service protects your websites and APIs from various attacks, such as ICMP/UDP flood attacks, SYN flood attacks, HTTP flood, and more.

AppTrana lets you enforce AI/ML rate-limiting on URL, IP, and GEO. It keeps your application always available by blocking large DDoS attacks using an AI-powered, always-on DDoS scrubber. It instantly filters out malicious requests to keep your services running without slowdowns or outages.

Moreover, the solution uses machine learning to understand your normal traffic behavior. Then, it adjusts protections based on patterns like IP addresses, sessions, hosts, and geographic regions. This way, it blocks only harmful traffic while letting real users access your application smoothly.

I like AppTrana’s ability to protect important pages like login, sign-up, and checkout from attacks. Its unique URI-based DDoS protection stops account takeovers and fake login attempts.

However, it doesn’t protect on-prem resources, which may be a drawback for those needing on-site DDoS protection.

AppTrana Virtual Demo

AppTrana Features

  • Block DDoS attacks up to 2.3 Tbps and 700k RPS from day one using scalable AWS infrastructure
  • Protects specific endpoints like login, checkout, and sign-up pages from targeted attacks
  • Provides 24×7 SOC support for complex DDoS attacks
  • Applies advanced protections like tarpitting and CAPTCHA
  • Offers real-time alerts when traffic crosses set limits and automatically blocks DDoS attacks once defined thresholds are reached

AppTrana Pricing

Indus AppTrana web application and & API protection (WAAP) has three pricing plans:

  • Advance ($99/app/month)
  • Premium (Custom)
  • Enterprise (Custom)

Some advanced DDoS protection features, like customizing BDDoS behavior or geo-based DDoS controls, are available only in Premium and Enterprise plans. It offers a 14-day free trial.

Try AppTrana

9. Fastly

Edge Security for Low-Latency Web Application Protection

Fastly offers DDoS protection as an add-on to its various packages. You can quickly deploy it to protect your apps and APIs without having to configure it on your end. 

It uses a global network with over 350 Tbps capacity. This helps it handle very large network attacks. 

You also get automatic DDoS attack mitigation. It uses Attribute Unmasking to check if sudden traffic spikes are real. If they’re attacks, it spots patterns and blocks them, even with changing IPs.

The solution follows usage-based pricing, and I like the fact that it bills you only for legitimate traffic. In the event of an attack, you might have huge spikes of traffic that it will mitigate, but you will not be presented with a bill for mitigated malicious traffic.

If you use an edge cloud platform, Fastly DDoS Protection is a good option for low-latency web application protection. But it doesn’t offer protection for on-prem resources.

So, you’ll need a separate solution if you want to protect internal systems or self-hosted infrastructure.

Fastly DDoS Protection features

  • Leverages a global 350+ Tbps edge network to absorb large-scale attacks
  • Uses proprietary Attribute Unmasking to detect and stop novel and stealthy attacks
  • Automatically blocks disruptive traffic while reducing false positives
  • Integrates easily with the rest of the Fastly edge cloud platform

Fastly DDoS Protection Pricing

Fastly DDoS Protection pricing is usage-based and add-on only. You pay for clean traffic, not attack traffic.

You get 500,000 requests free every month. After that, $1.00 per 10K requests up to 10 million. The pricing goes down to $0.015 as volume increases.

A free trial is available.

Get Fastly

Honorable Mentions

Here are some more DDoS protection services I have explored, but which couldn’t make it to the top of the list. However, they’re still worth checking out!

DDoS Protection Service Best ForPricing
10. Arbor DDoS Protection from NETSCOUTAdaptive DDoS Defense Using Global Threat InsightsOn-request
11. DDoS-GuardWebsite Protection$100/month/domain
12. Link11 DDoS ProtectionWeb ApplicationsOn-request
13. Azure DDoS ProtectionAzure Resources$2,944/month

What Is a DDoS Protection Service?

DDoS protection is a service that blocks fake traffic from overwhelming your website, app, server, or networks. It stops attackers from disrupting your online services.

The DDoS protection system checks all incoming traffic and filters out harmful requests. It lets only real users or devices connect. It often uses WAF solutions to block threats at the application level. These WAFs inspect requests and stop anything that looks suspicious.

You’ll also notice that the service uses rate limits, IP reputation, and deep inspection to detect attacks early. This keeps your services fast and always available, even in zero-day exploits.

What’s more, some DDoS protection services like Imperva and Akamai Prolexic offer additional features like CDN protection, DNS filtering, IP reputation scoring, and SSL/TLS encryption to further enhance security.

Most DDoS protection tools offer multi-cloud security. So, you won’t have trouble finding one that fits your cloud provider.

Does a Small Website Need DDoS Protection?

Yes, small websites need DDoS protection. Though you may think that hackers only target large corporations, small websites are increasingly becoming favorite targets for DDoS attacks due to their weaker security.

DDoS attacks come in many forms—volumetric, protocol-based, and application layer attacks. Your website runs on the application layer (L7), which is highly targeted.

In the absence of DDoS protection, hackers can disrupt your website, costing you traffic, money, and reputation.

With a platform like Sucuri, you can get DDoS protection for as low as $9.99 per month per website. So, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have DDoS protection for your website.