The OCI Network Firewall alternative, at a fraction of the cost.
OCI Network Firewall is Palo-Alto-powered and fully managed, and it bills a flat $2,007.50 a month per instance before a byte flows. Enforza does the egress-firewall job on your own Oracle Cloud VM, all-in around $267–293 a month per firewall. That is roughly 85% off the firewall layer. Oracle Cloud's NAT Gateway is free, so this is a firewall saving, not a NAT one. Rates dated 2026-07-21, directional.
OCI Network Firewall is a flat $2,007.50 a month, per instance.
To be fair up front: Oracle Cloud's NAT Gateway is free, so there is no NAT tax to undercut here — the wedge is purely the firewall layer. OCI Network Firewall is a Palo-Alto-powered, fully managed service that bills a flat $2.75/hr (about $2,007.50/month) per instance, a fixed charge before a byte flows, plus $0/GB for the first 10 TB then $0.01/GB. Enforza does the everyday egress-firewall job — FQDN/SNI-based L7, stateful L3/L4 and secure NAT — on your own OCI VM at a flat per-firewall licence, all-in around $267–293/month.
- Flat instance
- $2,007.50 / mo
- Data ≤ 10 TB
- $0 / GB
A fixed $2,007.50 every month, per instance, before a byte flows. NAT Gateway is free, so there is no NAT charge to undercut.
- Per firewall
- ~$239 / mo
- Per GB
- $0 / GB
Flat, per-firewall licence — plus the OCI VM you provision (~$28–54/mo), depending on the shape and your availability requirements.
| Line item | OCI-native | Enforza |
|---|---|---|
| Firewall / NVA compute | $2,007.50 / mo (flat instance-hour) | ~$28–54 / mo (OCI VM you run) |
| Firewall data processing (≤ 10 TB) | $0 (within free tier) | $0 |
| NAT Gateway | $0 (free) | $0 (free) |
| Enforza licence (per firewall) | — | ~$239 / mo (1–5 band) |
| Egress (10 TB, within free tier) | $0 | $0 (identical, not removed) |
| Monthly total, per firewall | ~$2,007.50 | ~$267–293 |
| Saving with Enforza | — | ~$1,715 / mo ≈ 85% |
Oracle Cloud rates VERIFIED against Oracle's own price list, dated
2026-07-21 — directional and subject to change.
OCI Network Firewall: $2.75/hr (about $2,007.50/mo) per instance, part
B95403; data processing $0 for the first 10 TB/mo then $0.01/GB, part
B95404. NAT Gateway is free (no billing SKU).
Enforza is priced per firewall — about $239/mo in the 1–5 band, about
$199/mo at six or more — plus the OCI VM you run. The ~85% figure is the
firewall-layer saving for this example and can exceed our usual 60–80%;
run your own numbers on the calculator.
Deploys on your own OCI VM — egress, ingress and east-west
Enforza runs as a single Linux VM in your Oracle Cloud network, on any compute shape. Install it with a registration key, disable the VNIC's source/destination check, and point a route rule at the firewall's private IP. No re-architecture, no new network design.
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Install by registration key
One command on an OCI compute VM. The firewall registers to the Enforza cloud over an outbound connection and pulls its policy. There is no OCI marketplace listing yet — it is a straight registration-key install.
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Any OCI shape, flat price
Run it on a ~$28 Ampere A1 shape or a bigger compute shape for more throughput — the per-firewall licence never moves. Size the VM for your traffic, not for the price.
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GitOps or console
Drive policy as code from a GitHub pipeline with PR-gated compliance checks, or from the Cloud Controller console — the same firewall NVA underneath, your team's choice of workflow.
Enforza vs OCI Network Firewall — including where Oracle Cloud wins
Here is the honest, row-by-row breakdown — including where Oracle Cloud wins. We group it three ways: 6 rows where the two are the same on the core firewall job, 8 where Enforza leads on cost, workflow and reach, and 5 where Oracle Cloud is genuinely the stronger choice — starting with the fact that it is fully managed. A comparison that hides the trade-offs is not worth trusting.
- Parity Genuine parity on the job
- Enforza advantage Enforza is the stronger choice
- Oracle Cloud advantage Oracle Cloud is the stronger choice
| Capability | Enforza | OCI Network Firewall | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stateful L3–L7 filtering | Stateful inspection across L3/L4 and L7, egress and ingress | Stateful next-gen firewall, L3/L4 up to Palo-Alto-powered L7 | Same |
| Domain / FQDN allow-listing | SNI and FQDN allow- and deny-lists for outbound control | FQDN and URL filtering in the managed service | Same |
| Filtered outbound egress | Filtered egress plus secure source NAT in one appliance | Free NAT Gateway for connectivity, plus the firewall for inspection | Same |
| Micro-segmentation / east-west control | Inspects egress, ingress and east-west network-to-network traffic | Inspects north-south and east-west traffic routed through it | Same |
| Geo / IP-range based rules | Network objects with AWS IP-range and Azure Service-Tag imports | Address-list and application rules, plus threat-intelligence feeds | Same |
| Runs in your Oracle Cloud network | Runs as a VM in your VCN — deploys where your workloads live | A managed resource attached to your VCN, in the region you choose | Same |
| Cost model | Flat, per-firewall licence — about $239/mo, less at six or more | $2,007.50/mo per instance, a fixed charge before a byte flows | Enforza |
| Billing shape | One flat line, no instance-hour meter — predictable, like a box | Per-instance-hour ($2.75/hr) — the meter runs whether traffic does or not | Enforza |
| Run it on any VM shape | Any OCI shape — a ~$28 Ampere A1 or a big compute shape, price is flat | A fixed managed instance SKU, sized and scaled by Oracle | Enforza |
| FQDN/SNI-based L7 without TLS decryption | SNI and FQDN filtering with no TLS decryption, no key custody | Deeper URL filtering relies on TLS inspection — decryption and key handling | Enforza |
| Compliance frameworks | 25 framework packs / 210 controls — advise or enforce on publish | Compliance carried at the OCI platform level; no firewall framework grid | Enforza |
| Fleet view + logs to your own SIEM | One pane of glass, multi-firewall live logs to your own SIEM | Managed logging into OCI Logging and Monitoring within the tenancy | Enforza |
| GitOps or console | Policy-as-code via GitHub pipeline, or the Cloud Controller console | Terraform and the OCI console, but no marketed GitOps / policy-as-code flow | Enforza |
| Runs on any cloud | One control plane across Oracle Cloud, AWS, Azure and on-prem VMs | OCI-only — the managed service lives inside Oracle Cloud | Enforza |
| Fully managed service | You run the VM (self-upgrading); you own the box and the data path | Oracle operates, scales and keeps it highly available — no VM for you to run | Oracle Cloud |
| Signature IDS/IPS | Threat hardening on the data path — anti-scan, SYN protection, JA3 fingerprinting. No signature engine, by design | Full signature IDS/IPS, powered by Palo Alto Networks threat prevention | Oracle Cloud |
| Deep TLS inspection + URL-category filtering | Filters by SNI/FQDN without decrypting; no deep URL-category engine | Decrypting TLS inspection and URL-category filtering, all features included | Oracle Cloud |
| Curated threat intelligence | Threat hardening and egress control; no first-party threat feed | Managed threat-intelligence feeds from Palo Alto Networks | Oracle Cloud |
| Native Oracle Cloud integration & billing | Imports cloud-resident objects; runs as a VM in your network | Deeply OCI-native — VCN routing, OCI Logging/Monitoring, one Oracle invoice | Oracle Cloud |
Where each one fits
Where Enforza wins
- Around 85% off the firewall layer. A flat per-firewall licence plus a small OCI VM (~$267–293/mo all-in) replaces the $2,007.50/month-per-instance OCI Network Firewall charge — about $1,715/mo per firewall.
- Flat, predictable billing. One per-firewall line, no per-instance-hour meter — run Enforza on a ~$28 Ampere shape or a bigger compute shape and the price never moves.
- FQDN/SNI-based L7 without decryption — SNI and FQDN filtering with no TLS man-in-the-middle and no key custody.
- Secure NAT and egress filtering in one appliance you run — filtered outbound and stateful control in a single NVA.
- Any cloud, not OCI-locked — the same capability across Oracle Cloud, AWS, Azure and on-prem under one control plane.
- Compliance and GitOps first-class — 25 frameworks / 210 controls, advise-or-enforce on every publish, from a GitHub pipeline or the console.
When OCI Network Firewall might suit you
- You want a fully managed service — Oracle runs, scales and keeps the firewall highly available within the region, with no VM for you to operate.
- You need signature IDS/IPS depth and curated threat intelligence, powered by Palo Alto Networks, delivered as a managed OCI service.
- You need decrypting TLS inspection and URL-category filtering as a first-party managed capability, with every feature included in one price.
- Deep OCI-native integration matters most — VCN routing, OCI Logging and Monitoring, and a single Oracle invoice.
OCI Network Firewall alternative — common questions
What is an OCI Network Firewall alternative?
Enforza is a flat-priced firewall and secure NAT appliance you run on your own Oracle Cloud VM. It does the everyday egress-firewall job — stateful L3/L4, FQDN/SNI-based L7 egress filtering, secure NAT, and east-west control — for a flat per-firewall licence, instead of OCI Network Firewall's $2,007.50/month-per-instance managed service. Most teams looking for an alternative want the same filtered egress out of their VCN without the fixed per-instance-hour charge.
How much does OCI Network Firewall cost?
OCI Network Firewall bills a flat $2.75 per hour — about $2,007.50 per month per instance — a fixed charge before a byte flows, plus $0/GB for the first 10 TB of data processing per month and $0.01/GB after that. All features (IDS/IPS, TLS inspection, URL filtering) are included, with no per-rule or per-feature upcharge. OCI's NAT Gateway is free and separate. Enforza is a flat per-firewall licence (about $239/month, less at six or more) plus the OCI VM you run — all-in around $267–293/month per firewall. Rates dated 2026-07-21, directional and subject to change.
Does Enforza save on the OCI NAT Gateway?
No, and we will not claim it. On Oracle Cloud the NAT Gateway is free, so there is no NAT tax to undercut — unlike AWS or Azure. The saving on OCI is purely the firewall layer: replacing the $2,007.50/month-per-instance OCI Network Firewall charge with a flat per-firewall licence plus a small VM. Your OCI compute, storage and egress-transfer charges are unchanged either way.
Where are Enforza and OCI Network Firewall the same?
On the core firewall job they are at parity. Both do stateful L3–L7 filtering, FQDN/domain egress filtering, geo/IP-range matching, filtered outbound and east-west inspection, deployed inside your Oracle Cloud network. We show that parity openly — and we are equally open about where it ends: OCI Network Firewall has a Palo-Alto-powered signature IDS/IPS and decrypting TLS inspection, and Enforza deliberately does not. The difference on the core job is the cost model and the surrounding workflow, not whether the firewall does the job.
Where is OCI Network Firewall genuinely better?
In several places, and we say so plainly. It is fully managed — Oracle runs it and keeps it highly available, with no VM for you to operate. It has a full signature IDS/IPS and curated threat intelligence powered by Palo Alto Networks. It offers decrypting TLS inspection and URL-category filtering as first-party managed features. And it is deeply OCI-native, on a single Oracle invoice. If those matter most to you, OCI Network Firewall may be the right call.
Is Enforza a drop-in replacement for OCI Network Firewall?
For the common job — filtered, FQDN/SNI-based egress out of your VCN — yes. Enforza runs as a single Linux VM in your Oracle Cloud network and you route egress through it, giving you SNI/FQDN filtering, secure NAT and threat hardening in one appliance. It is not the same product as Oracle's fully managed service: Oracle runs and scales the firewall for you, whereas you run the Enforza VM and gain a flat price, no per-instance-hour meter, multi-cloud reach and compliance-as-code. Most teams switching are replacing the fixed $2,007.50/month firewall instance.
Does Enforza decrypt TLS to filter by hostname?
No. Enforza filters egress by SNI and FQDN without decrypting TLS and without holding your keys. OCI Network Firewall's deeper URL-category filtering relies on decrypting TLS inspection — genuinely more thorough, at the cost of key handling and a man-in-the-middle. Enforza gives you FQDN/SNI-based L7 control with no decryption; if you need decrypting URL-category inspection, that is a real reason to prefer the managed OCI service.
How do I run Enforza on Oracle Cloud (OCI)?
Install it on an OCI compute VM of any shape with a single command using a registration key. The firewall registers to the Enforza control plane over an outbound connection and pulls its policy — there is no OCI marketplace listing yet, so it is a registration-key install today. Disable the VNIC's source/destination check, add a route rule that sends your workload subnets' egress to the firewall's private IP (Oracle's own central-network-virtual-appliance pattern), and enable IP forwarding on the VM. Minutes, not a re-architecture.
Is there a free way to try it?
Yes. Enforza has a genuine free tier — one firewall with L3/L4 policy and network objects, no card required. A 14-day trial unlocks the full feature set, including L7/FQDN filtering, compliance packs, log export and live logs. The paid plan is about $239/month per firewall, dropping to about $199 from your sixth, plus the OCI VM you provision.
Replace the OCI Network Firewall instance.
Same egress and FQDN/SNI-based L7 control, secure NAT in one appliance, on your own OCI VM — at a flat per-firewall price and around 85% off the firewall layer. Start free, no card.