4 self-hosted Cloudflare WAF alternatives

Cloudflare WAF is a popular proprietary tool in the reverse proxy & gateways space. These open-source apps let you replace Cloudflare WAF with software you host and control yourself.

Best self-hosted Cloudflare WAF alternatives

SafeLine

Reverse Proxy & Gateways

Self-hosted web application firewall with a web console

Replaces Cloudflare WAF

★ 22.3k Medium setup GPL-3.0

CrowdSec

Reverse Proxy & Gateways

Collaborative open-source intrusion prevention system

Replaces Cloudflare WAF, Fail2ban

★ 14.5k Medium setup MIT

Coraza WAF

Reverse Proxy & Gateways

Open-source enterprise-grade web application firewall

Replaces ModSecurity, Cloudflare WAF

★ 3.7k Medium setup Apache-2.0

Traefik Geoblock

Reverse Proxy & Gateways

Geo-blocking middleware plugin for Traefik

Replaces Cloudflare WAF

★ 314 Easy setup MIT

Compare Cloudflare WAF alternatives

Switching from Cloudflare WAF

Moving off Cloudflare WAF means trading a managed subscription for a service you run yourself. The payoff is ownership: no per-seat pricing, no vendor lock-in, and full control of your data. Start with the option above that matches your setup-difficulty comfort level — every app links to a detailed specs page and head-to-head comparisons.