Application-level firewalls are generally more or less resource-intensive than traditional firewalls?

Application-level firewalls operate at a higher level in the OSI model compared to traditional firewalls, which primarily filter traffic based on IP addresses and ports. They inspect the actual content of the traffic, analyzing applications-specific protocols and enforcing security policies based on the application behavior.

This intricate processing demands more computational resources, including CPU and memory, making application-level firewalls more resource-intensive compared to traditional firewalls. They engage in deep packet inspection and maintain stateful information about sessions, which increases their workloads significantly.

In contrast, traditional firewalls often focus on simpler tasks such as allowing or blocking traffic based solely on predefined rules concerning protocols and IP addresses, which typically consume fewer resources. So, when comparing the two, it's evident that application-level firewalls require more resources to perform their advanced tasks effectively.