The 10 best DDoS protection services for enterprise websites
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are a pressing concern every year, especially for enterprises. In 2022, global DDoS attacks rose by 150%. In the Americas, that number rose even faster - 212%.
These attacks are increasing in frequency and severity, plaguing enterprise websites with poor performance. In the worst-case scenario, DDoS attacks can sabotage your revenue by causing website downtime for days on end.
Here’s the good news: There are DDoS protection services that mitigate the risk and minimize the damage. This protection is a must-have for any enterprise with an online presence.
Let’s consider the 10 best DDoS protection services and how to choose the right fit for your enterprise website.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Understanding DDoS attacks
- Why cloud-based DDoS protection is essential for enterprise websites
- How does DDoS protection work?
- Features of good cloud DDoS protection services
- Best DDoS protection services
- Comparing the best DDoS protection services for enterprise websites
- Final thoughts: Top DDoS protection for enterprise websites
Understanding DDoS attacks
DDoS attacks attempt to bring down your website by overwhelming it with spikes in web traffic. These spikes consume your host servers' processing power until no more requests can be handled, making your website inaccessible to legitimate visitors.
A DDoS attack is carried out with a network of malware-infected devices known as a botnet. A botnet can compromise thousands or even millions of computers, allowing a single attacker to operate them using a control server and commands.
Attackers have various motivations, including targeting competitors, ransoming enterprises for money, pursuing an ideological agenda, or simply wanting to cause chaos.
Whatever the motivation, DDoS attacks drive away customers, grind revenue to a standstill, and damage your reputation as they render your website inaccessible.
Why cloud-based DDoS protection is essential for enterprise websites
There are two types of DDoS protection: Traditional (on-premises) and cloud DDoS protection.
On-premises measures are deployed within a physical location and generally consist of devices (e.g., firewalls and routers) that work together to ensure comprehensive security. While traditional DDoS protection can be effective against basic volumetric attacks, more may be needed for large-scale attacks.
However, you can get the best of both worlds by combining cloud-based DDoS protection with traditional DDoS protection. This hybrid approach offers the ultimate defense against all types of DDoS attacks.
A DDoS attack can last for hours or days. For an enterprise, these attacks can cost up to $300,000 per minute as productivity tanks, sales grind to a halt, and your employees scramble to get the servers back up.
But there’s another hidden cost: The damage to your brand’s reputation. Visitors will be frustrated as your website becomes extremely slow or inaccessible. Even loyal customers can become skeptical about your website’s security, and this can drive them into the arms of your competitors.
While any website can be a victim of DDoS attacks, enterprise websites are at a higher risk of being targeted by malware strains that exploit enterprise vulnerabilities, including Mirai, QSnatch, and FluBot. Plus, enterprises are often singled out for ransom DDoS attacks.
Without robust security measures, a single attack on your website can cause a total outage, lost sales, and reputational damage. That’s why your enterprise needs cloud DDoS protection.
How does DDoS protection work?
An anti-DDoS service routes your web traffic through its content delivery network (CDN) with endpoints worldwide. It then analyzes the incoming traffic to detect various warning signs and block malicious traffic before it ever reaches your servers. Lastly, the DDoS protection service forwards legitimate users to your servers, giving them access to your website.
A typical anti-DDoS service implements security measures such as geolocation filtering, IP address reputation checks, and CAPTCHA tests.
In this way, cloud DDoS protection services stop an attack while allowing legitimate users to continue browsing. The difficulty of stopping botnets is that compromised computers come from all over the globe. But anti-DDoS services have become more sophisticated over the years.
Some DDoS protection services offer temporary strict filtering when you’re under attack, which more painstakingly scans traffic for anomalies. While this can result in some false positives for legitimate users, it helps your website stay online despite ongoing DDoS attacks.
Features of good cloud DDoS protection services
Now that you know why you need cloud DDoS protection, let’s explore the essential features to look for when choosing a service provider.
- Scalability —To handle massive attacks, you need enterprise-level DDoS protection with a global infrastructure.
- Automated bot detection —The best DDoS protection services use sophisticated algorithms to detect and neutralize dangerous bots.
- Real-time monitoring and alerting — The software you choose should be able to alert you when it detects unusual traffic.
- “Under Attack” mode — This mode temporarily heightens restrictions to block unwanted traffic at the cost of more false positives for legitimate traffic.
- Rate limiting— Your DDoS mitigation service should be able to prevent IPs from making too many requests in a short period.
- IP whitelisting/blacklisting — The best anti-DDoS services selectively grant access to your server while blocking suspicious IPs.
- Geoblocking: The ideal anti-DDoS software blocks users from countries where DDoS attacks often originate. This can be helpful while under attack but can be circumvented by IP spoofing.
- Software integrations —DDoS protection software can integrate with web hosting, CDNs, web application firewalls (WAFs), traffic analysis tools, security information and event management (SIEM) tools, and machine learning/AI tools that can learn to detect non-legitimate traffic better.
- Threat detection —Some of the best DDoS protection services offer additional security features, such as protection from hacking and brute force attacks.
- Great support —Malicious actors can strike at any time. Soyou need fast, 24/7 support and top-notch security management systems.
Best DDoS protection services
1. Cloudflare.
2. Akamai.
3. Imperva.
4. AWS Shield.
6. Vercara.
7. Sucuri.
9. Gcore.
10. Ribbon.
Cloudflare is the leading DDoS protection service due to its robust features and comprehensive coverage. In 2023, Cloudflare mitigated the most severe DDoS attack on record, at 71 million requests per second (RPS), making it the gold standard in DDoS protection.
However, each anti-DDoS software has a lot to offer enterprises. Let’s explore the options to help you choose the best DDoS protection service for your enterprise website.
Comparing the best DDoS protection services for enterprise websites
The companies mentioned earlier offer DDoS protection suitable for businesses of any size, but each service has unique enterprise-level features that will affect your ultimate decision.
1. Cloudflare
Cloudflare powers over 15 million live websites, making it a leader in website security and performance. It offers its expertise to everyone, from individuals to large enterprises, and it does its job well, providing comprehensive protection against different types of DDoS attacks.
For instance, it offers standard HTTP and Level 3/4 (network layer) protection. Network layer attacks target the network on which a website or app is hosted. Protection at the network layer means preventing attacks that slow down or crash a server.
Cloudflare also protects against application layer (L7) attacks. This is the layer where users interact with an application.
Features:
- A fast and reliable CDN that reduces page load times and improves website performance.
- Access to Anycast, an extensive global network of data centers that routes your traffic to the nearest server.
- Premium traffic filtering via Edge, the autonomous DDoS protection system.
- An under attack mode that implements stricter security measures during a DDoS crisis.
- A web application firewall (WAF) that checks incoming web requests and blocks unwanted traffic.
- Comprehensive coverage from the HTTP, L3/L4 (network layer), and L7 (application layer).
Best DDoS protection for: Enterprises of any type that need comprehensive DDoS protection.
Pricing: Free with limited features. Premium plans start at $20 per month when billed annually. Custom enterprise plans are available.
2. Akamai
Akamai tailors its cloud DDoS protection services to the largest businesses. Even the most sophisticated cyberattacks won’t stand up to its anti-DDoS solution called Prolexic. This solution helps to move DDoS attacks away from targeted servers and sends them to “scrubbing centers,” which effectively filter malicious traffic.
This means legitimate visitors will be directed to your website, while malicious traffic will be blocked.
Features:
- Highly scalable anti-DDoS solution that stops DDoS attacks at the source.
- A vast global network of servers and over 20 scrubbing centers to offload malicious traffic and quickly mitigate DDoS attacks.
- Your choice between always-on or on-demand DDoS protection.
- A complete suite of services, including cybersecurity, cloud computing, and CDN.
- Enterprise-focused features like Edge DNS and the App & API Protector.
Best DDoS protection for: Large enterprises and high-traffic websites.
Pricing: Custom enterprise plans are available.
3. Imperva
With a machine learning approach to cybersecurity, Imperva is here to stop DDoS attacks and protect your data. Imperva uses machine learning to detect threats before they ever reach your website.
This helps to keep your website’s information safe and secure without being compromised during attack attempts.
Features:
- Machine learning algorithms detect L3/L4 and L7 DDoS attacks.
- On-demand protection for websites, servers, and IPs.
- Seamless integration with multiple security information and event management (SIEM) platforms and cloud services.
- Real-time notifications via mail, SMS, and mobile app.
Best DDoS protection for:Security-focused enterprises seeking a dedicated cybersecurity platform.
Pricing: Custom enterprise plans and a free trial are available.
4. AWS Shield
AWS Shield is a cloud-based anti-DDoS software that protects applications on Amazon Web Services. This managed service fully integrates with Amazon’s cloud infrastructure.
AWS Shield Standard comes at no extra cost and is best for low-traffic websites, while AWS Shield Advanced offers more robust protection and is most suitable for larger enterprises with higher traffic.
Features:
- Amazon’s powerful global server network, which you can leverage for comprehensive DDoS protection.
- Seamless integration with Amazon Web Services.
- Customizable setup using Amazon’s web application firewall.
- Real-time DDoS monitoring and analytics via CloudWatch.
Best DDoS protection for: Applications hosted on Amazon Web Services.
Pricing: Free with limited features. Premium plans start at $3,000 per month.
5. NETSCOUT Arbor
NETSCOUT offers enterprise-level performance, security, and availability solutions specially made for communications services providers, though suitable for any large enterprise.
The company has been offering adaptive website security services since 1999 and has become one of the industry’s most reliable.
Plus, it takes a hybrid approach to DDoS protection, so all types of attacks are mitigated, and you get the best of on-premises and cloud coverage.
Features:
- Adaptive, comprehensive support with 14 global scrubbing centers and over 12 Tbps of attack mitigation capacity.
- Hybrid DDoS protection — both cloud and on-premises.
- Seamless integration with other enterprise services like performance monitoring, VPN, and digital transformation.
Best DDoS protection for: Internet service providers (ISPs) and enterprises with extensive network infrastructure.
Pricing: Custom enterprise plans are available.
6. Vercara
Vercara (formerly Neustar Security Services) is a cloud-based security platform, so DDoS protection is soundly within its domain.
Founded in 1996, the company has a robust and long-running reputation for providing reliable DDoS protection that’s capable of serving a wide range of businesses with diverse needs.
This flexibility is attained through custom-built solutions created around your industry, whether it be finance, gaming, or healthcare.
Features:
- Over 15 Tbps of data scrubbing capacity across 15 global nodes.
- Flexible deployment options to fit the needs of any organization.
- Powerful always-on DDoS protection.
- Additional on-premises DDoS mitigation solutions.
- 24/7 hands-on support from cybersecurity experts.
Best DDoS protectionfor: Enterprises seeking flexible anti-DDoS mitigation.
Pricing: Custom enterprise plans are available.
7. Sucuri
Though Sucuri is a well-known brand commonly used by small to medium-sized businesses (especially those using WordPress), it also has special features for enterprises.
Sucuri is more than just a WordPress security plugin provider. It also offers multi-layer anti-DDoS solutions — either as a stand-alone service or as a part of a more comprehensive plan.
Features:
- Global Anycast network and WAF block DDoS attacks across all layers.
- Malware removal service is included in some plans.
- Cloud-based monitoring platform detects malicious IPs and alerts you of DDoS threats.
- Emergency protection prioritizes website uptime during large-scale attacks.
Best DDoS protection for: Websites built with WordPress.
Pricing: Premium plans start at $199.99 per year. Custom enterprise plans are available.
8. Microsoft Azure
Azure is a cloud computing platform by Microsoft that offers Azure DDoS protection as part of its services.
This anti-DDoS software establishes traffic profiles for your websites and apps. This enables it to differentiate between legitimate and malicious traffic, ultimately mitigating DDoS attacks.
When traffic suddenly exceeds the baseline of normal traffic patterns, the attack mitigation measures activate.
Features:
- Always-on application and traffic monitoring.
- Adaptive traffic profiling to block malicious visitors.
- Access to the DDoS Rapid Response (DRR) team while under attack.
- L3/L4 and L7 attack protection via Azure’s web application firewall.
- Real-time attack analytics, metrics, and alerts to keep you updated.
- Integration with other Azure services like Microsoft Defender for Cloud.
Best DDoS protection for: Enterprises hosting their applications on Microsoft Azure.
Pricing: Network protection costs $2,944 per month, plus overage charges beyond 100 public IP resources.
9. Gcore
Gcore fills a highly specialized niche: CDNs, hosting, and DDoS protection for gaming platforms. The company also offers other helpful services like image optimization and performance optimization for various enterprises, especially those in the tech industry.
With its targeted service offering, Gcore provides a reliable anti-DDoS solution that meets the needs of technology-focused companies.
Features:
- Over 1 Tbps of filtering capacity, plus L3/L4 and L7 protection.
- Under 0.01% false positive rate, meaning your legitimate users will stay connected.
- Protection from multi-vectored attacks, including UDP flood and TCP attacks.
- Support from cybersecurity experts. Some plans include 24/7 access.
Best DDoS protection for: Gaming, esports, and tech companies.
Pricing: Premium plans start at $55 per month. Custom enterprise pricing is available, as well as a free trial.
10. Ribbon
Rather than providing general website and application security, Ribbon Communications fills a very specialized role. This platform tailors its DDoS protection to communications services such as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Along with IP optical networking and communications solutions, Ribbon provides DDoS protection as part of its session border controllers (SBC) service.
Features:
- VoIP-specific DDoS protection.
- Rate limiting of traffic and bandwidth.
- Malicious traffic detection through packet policing, IP address learning, and more.
Best DDoS protection for: Voice and communications service providers.
Pricing: Custom enterprise pricing is available.
Final thoughts: Top DDoS protection for enterprise websites
If you want to keep your website running during a DDoS attack, you need to be proactive and invest in the best DDoS protection solution available.
Mitigating a DDoS attack requires a secure web host with round-the-clock customer support and 100% uptime, especially if you own an enterprise website.
Liquid Web offers managed enterprise hosting integrated with Edge CDN by Cloudflare. We ensure your servers stay online, giving you total peace of mind and potentially saving money during targeted attacks. Request a quote today to hear from our infrastructure experts.
Related Resources
Keep up to date with the latest Hosting news.