What is the primary difference between a host-based firewall and a traditional firewall?

The primary difference between a host-based firewall and a traditional firewall is:

Host-based firewalls protect an individual machine while traditional firewalls control traffic arriving at and leaving networks.

• Host-based firewall: This type of firewall is installed on a specific host or individual machine and protects that host from unwanted network traffic. It operates at the host level and can block or allow traffic based on the rules and policies configured specifically for that host. Host-based firewalls are primarily designed to protect the local machine from malicious activities.
• Traditional firewall: Traditional firewalls are network-level devices or software solutions that control traffic between different network segments or between an internal network and external networks, like the internet. They primarily focus on controlling traffic that arrives at and leaves the network as a whole. They are responsible for filtering and managing traffic based on predefined rules and policies for the entire network, rather than for individual hosts.

So, the key distinction is in the scope of protection and control: host-based firewalls are focused on individual hosts, while traditional firewalls are network-wide.