Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with SafeLine, nor am I here to bash any other vendor. Everything you see below comes straight from DeepSeek AI.
Intro
Over the past few months, DeepSeek has been on fire. Despite occasional slowdowns, it’s been my go-to AI assistant — and today, I’m putting it to the test.
I asked DeepSeek a simple but important question:
Which free WAF (Web Application Firewall) should I use?
There are quite a few floating around, but not all are created equal. Let’s dig in.
What Free WAF Options Are Out There?
My first step was to ask DeepSeek to list all available free WAF products.
Here’s what I got (plus a few common-sense filters I applied):
- ❌ Removed non-product libraries that require custom integration, like ModSecurity, Coraza, LibInjection
- ❌ Removed non-free or overpriced enterprise-only tools, like Venustech, Yunjing (QiAnXin), DBAPPSecurity
- ❌ Removed unmaintained or outdated projects, like NAXSI, HIHTTPS, VeryNginx
That left me with 4 solid candidates:
- SafeLine WAF
- BunkerWeb
- BT WAF (BaoTa)
- UUSEC WAF (NanQiang)
safeline
bunkerweb
BT WAF
UUSEC WAF
I pulled some visuals from their official docs — all of them look great on paper.
But how do they actually perform?
How Do You Evaluate a WAF?
To get an unbiased perspective, I asked DeepSeek again:
"What are the key factors for evaluating a WAF?"
I asked multiple times, and while the wording varied slightly, the core criteria remained the same.
Here’s the consolidated list of evaluation metrics:
- Security Capabilities
- Performance
- Stability
- Ease of Use
- Compliance
- Support & Community
- Reputation & Real-world Adoption
These seven categories became the foundation of my comparison.
The Face-Off: 4 Free WAFs, 1 Winner?
Now comes the fun part. I gave DeepSeek this full prompt:
"I need to pick a WAF for my website. Based on security, performance, stability, ease of use, compliance, support/community, and adoption, compare SafeLine, BunkerWeb, BT WAF, and UUSEC WAF."
Then I hit the Deep Thinking button and let the AI go.
The Result?
Well… I’m not going to spoil the fun.
Go ask DeepSeek yourself — it’s worth it.
But here’s a hint: one project stood out across almost every metric.
Final Thoughts
It’s 2025 — you don’t have to pay enterprise prices to get enterprise-grade security. With tools like DeepSeek and open WAFs improving rapidly, you can now make smarter decisions for your infrastructure without breaking the bank.
If you’re running a website or app and looking for protection, it’s worth checking out these four — and seeing which one fits your stack best.
Oh, and don’t forget to try SafeLine 😉
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