Ant2 vs World WAF — Feature & Performance Comparison

Ant2Cloud is a WAF and Private Cloud appliance developed by Thai engineers 🇹🇭 — compared here against the world’s leading WAF solutions

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3-Layer Defense in One Integrated System

Only a handful of WAF solutions worldwide combine GeoIP + IP Block + IP Jail in a single integrated system — Ant2Cloud is one of them.

Solution	GeoIP Block	Static IP Block	Auto-Jail	Cost
Ant2Cloud (Thailand 🇹🇭)	✅	✅	✅ WAF-event-based	฿250,000 (one-time)
Cloudflare WAF	✅	✅	✅ rate-based	Free → Enterprise/yr
AWS WAF + Shield	✅	✅	✅ rate-based	Pay-per-request
Huawei Cloud WAF	✅	✅	✅ rate-based	Pay-per-use
Akamai App & API Protector	✅	✅	✅ behavioral	Enterprise
Imperva WAF	✅	✅	✅ behavioral	Enterprise/yr
Fastly WAF (Signal Sciences)	✅	✅	✅ threshold-based	Mid-Enterprise
CrowdSec + Bouncer	✅	✅	✅ scenario-based	Free / Paid
FortiWeb / F5 BIG-IP	✅	✅	✅ IP Intelligence	Enterprise
Bare WAF Engine (no GUI)	❌	❌	❌	Free

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How Ant2 IP Jail Differs from the Rest

Most WAFs worldwide block based on requests per minute (rate) Ant2 blocks based on number of WAF rule violations — a fundamentally different approach:

Rate-based (typical WAF): 100 requests in 60s → block
Ant2 (event-based):       10 WAF violations (SQLi/XSS/RCE) → block

The result: An attacker sending dangerous payload once every 30 seconds won’t be caught by rate-based WAFs — but Ant2 catches them after 10 violations, regardless of speed.

Time from first attack to block: ~20 seconds

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Speed Comparison

Capability	Ant2	Cloudflare	AWS WAF	Huawei Cloud WAF
Config change detection	Instant (kernel-level)	Managed	API push (~1-5s)	Managed (~seconds)
Test before apply	✅	N/A	N/A	N/A
Apply without dropping connections	✅ Zero downtime	✅	✅	✅
GeoIP lookup	< 1ms (in-memory)	CDN-edge	CDN-edge	CDN-edge
Streaming / SSE support	✅ No issues	⚠️ Config-dependent	⚠️	❌ Has issues

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Huawei Cloud WAF — SSE (Server-Sent Events) Proxy Issue (issue detected Mar 2026)

SSE (Server-Sent Events) is a technology that lets servers push data to clients in real-time continuously through a single connection — widely used in AI chat, live dashboards, notification systems, and log streaming.

Issues Found with Huawei Cloud WAF

Huawei Cloud WAF operates as a reverse proxy in front of the server — every request and response must pass through the WAF first.

Core Problem: Response Buffering

Server sends SSE stream → Huawei WAF receives and buffers everything → forwards to client
                                        ↑
                              ❌ SSE is not a single response
                              It's an endless stream
                              WAF waits for buffer to complete → it never completes

Issue	Symptom
Response buffering	WAF stores response before forwarding — SSE events don’t reach client in real-time
Connection timeout	Huawei WAF cuts connections that are idle or long-lived beyond threshold
Chunked transfer	WAF reassembles chunked responses before forwarding — destroys streaming nature
Content inspection delay	WAF must inspect content before sending — adds latency to every event
Keep-alive interference	WAF manages keep-alive instead of server — connection may close unintentionally

Real-World Impact

• AI Chat applications using SSE to stream tokens one by one → screen freezes, no character output
• Live dashboards → data updates very slowly or not at all until connection times out and reconnects
• Log streaming → logs don’t appear in real-time, must refresh page to see new data
• Notification systems → notifications reach client late, or arrive batched together instead of one at a time

SSE Support Comparison

WAF	SSE / Streaming	Notes
Ant2Cloud	✅ Full support	Designed to support real-time streaming without buffering issues
Cloudflare	⚠️ Partial	Requires enterprise plan configuration / feature-dependent
AWS WAF	⚠️ Partial	Depends on load balancer config
Huawei Cloud WAF	❌ Has issues	Buffering + timeout prevents SSE from working in real-time
FortiWeb	⚠️ Partial	Must manually disable response buffering

Ant2Cloud is designed to support real-time streaming from the ground up — whether AI chat, live monitoring, or event-driven applications work through the WAF without any workaround

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Defense Depth — 5 Layers

Ant2 enforces 5 security layers, each catching what the previous missed:

Layer	Function
1 — Rate Limit	Limit request count per IP
2 — GeoIP Block	Block unwanted countries before everything else
3 — IP Jail Block	Block known attackers before WAF rules
4 — WAF Rules	Inspect SQLi, XSS, RCE, LFI, RFI
5 — Backend	Only clean traffic reaches origin server

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Compared to Free/OSS Alternatives

Feature	Ant2	CrowdSec
Management GUI	✅	⚠️
GeoIP block	✅ Per-host + global	✅
Auto-jail	✅ WAF-event-based	✅
Swarm Attack Protection	✅ GeoIP + event-jail + rate	⚠️
Attack Domain Identification	✅ real-time per domain	❌
SSL management	✅ Let’s Encrypt + manual	❌
Custom error pages	✅	❌
SSE / Streaming	✅	✅
Data sovereignty	✅ 100% on-premise	✅
Cost	฿250,000 (one-time)	Free / Paid

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Ant2Cloud — Commercial Appliance

	Ant2Cloud	Cloudflare Business	Huawei Cloud WAF	FortiWeb (HW)
Price	฿250,000 (one-time)	~$3,000/yr	Pay-per-use/yr	$10,000–$50,000
GeoIP Block	✅	✅	✅	✅
Auto IP Jail	✅ event-based	✅ rate-based	✅ rate-based	✅
SSE / Streaming	✅	⚠️	❌	⚠️
Data Sovereignty	✅ 100% on-premise	❌	❌ through Huawei Cloud	✅
Monthly fees	❌ None	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ None
Support	🇹🇭 Thai local	Global	Global	Partner

🌐 ant2cloud.com

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See Also

• Ant2 Proxy Security Manager