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FortiAppSec Cloud

Features
Ease of use
Ease of management
Quality of support
Affordability
Market presence
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Pricing from
Pay-as-you-go
Free Trial
Free version unavailable
User corporate size
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User industry
  1. Energy and utilities
  2. Transportation and logistics
  3. Information technology and software

What is FortiAppSec Cloud

FortiAppSec Cloud is a cloud-delivered web application and API protection service that provides a managed WAF capability for internet-facing applications and APIs. It targets security and platform teams that need to reduce exposure to common web attacks and automate protection policies without operating dedicated WAF infrastructure. The service focuses on application-layer threat detection and mitigation, with deployment and policy management delivered as a cloud service that aligns with cloud and DevSecOps workflows.

pros

Cloud-delivered WAF operations

The product is delivered as a cloud service, which reduces the need to deploy and maintain WAF appliances or self-managed virtual instances. This can simplify rollout for teams that want centralized policy management across multiple applications. It also fits organizations that prefer a managed service model for application-layer security controls.

Web and API protection

FortiAppSec Cloud is positioned to protect both traditional web applications and API endpoints, aligning with modern application architectures. This helps teams apply consistent application-layer controls as traffic shifts from browser-based apps to API-driven services. It supports use cases where security teams need a single control plane for app and API exposure.

Integrates with security ecosystem

As part of a broader security vendor portfolio, it typically aligns with centralized security operations practices such as shared logging, alerting, and policy governance. This can reduce integration effort for organizations already standardizing on the same vendor’s security stack. It is relevant for enterprises that want consolidated vendor management for network and application security controls.

cons

Less focus on traffic acceleration

The product’s primary purpose is application security rather than content delivery or edge performance optimization. Organizations seeking a combined security-and-acceleration platform may need additional services for caching, global performance routing, or advanced edge compute. This can increase architectural complexity when performance and security are both top priorities.

Potential vendor stack dependence

Organizations may realize the most operational benefit when the service is used alongside the same vendor’s broader security tooling. Teams with heterogeneous environments can face additional integration work for identity, SIEM/SOAR, and policy workflows. This can affect time-to-value compared with more vendor-neutral deployments.

Policy tuning and false positives

Like most WAF and API protection tools, effective protection often requires tuning rules and exceptions to match application behavior. Without careful baselining, teams can encounter false positives that block legitimate traffic or create alert fatigue. This is especially relevant for rapidly changing APIs and CI/CD-driven release cycles.

Plan & Pricing

Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go (points-based). FortiAppSec Cloud also supports annual prepaid subscription (pre-purchase points) and marketplace PAYG subscriptions billed monthly.

Free tier/trial: 30-day free trial on public cloud marketplaces (bandwidth-limited).

Example costs (points-based):

  • WAF — Standard: 0.14 points per application per hour; 4.38 points per 5 Mbps per day.
  • WAF — Advanced: 0.21 points per application per hour; 6.56 points per 5 Mbps per day.
  • WAF — Enterprise: 0.27 points per application per hour; 8.77 points per 5 Mbps per day.
  • GSLB — Health checks: 0.02 points per 10 checks per hour.
  • GSLB — Query capacity: 0.99 points per 20 QPS per day.

Minimum-billable usage / minimum charges (as stated on Fortinet docs):

  • Public cloud marketplace docs: FortiAppSec WAF Minimum Charge — a daily charge for 5 Mbps of bandwidth applies whenever a WAF application exists.
  • License & Contract docs / Fortinet Sales contracts: some contract language references a minimum of 25 Mbps per day billed when a WAF application is deployed (different purchasing channels/contract types specify different minimums).

Other notes:

  • Annual subscription: customers prepay for a set number of usage points (example: 10,000 points). PAYG customers are billed monthly on actual usage.
  • WAF requires both an Application contract and a Bandwidth contract for some contract types; plan tiers (Standard/Advanced/Enterprise) are fixed and cannot be mixed across Application and Bandwidth contracts.
  • GSLB can be purchased standalone; Enterprise plan bundles some services billed separately in lower tiers.

Discount/options: Contact Fortinet Sales for enterprise/contract pricing; FortiFlex (points) and marketplace subscription options available.

(Information sourced only from Fortinet official product pages and documentation.)

Seller details

Fortinet, Inc.
Sunnyvale, California, USA
2000
Public
https://www.fortinet.com/
https://x.com/Fortinet
https://www.linkedin.com/company/fortinet/

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