ModSecurity vs Hetzner DDoS Protection
A detailed comparison to help you choose between ModSecurity and Hetzner DDoS Protection.
Quick Verdict
3.7/5
ModSecurity
0 reviews
4.0/5
Hetzner DDoS Protection
0 reviews
Hetzner DDoS Protection is rated higher (4.0 vs 3.7). ModSecurity is a free WAF engine that detects and blocks malicious HTTP requests. Operates as a module for major web servers to protect against OWASP Top 10 attacks and custom threats. Free automatic DDoS mitigation included with every Hetzner product. Arbor/Juniper scrubbing plus Nokia Deepfield Defender edge filtering (2026), with no per-gigabit charges and no configurable thresholds.
ModSecurity Open-source web application firewall for Apache, Nginx, and IIS | Hetzner DDoS Protection Hardware-backed DDoS mitigation for high-traffic infrastructure | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.7 (0 reviews) | 4.0 (0 reviews)✓ |
| Pricing model | free | free |
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Best for | Sysadmins and DevOps teams running self-managed web servers who need auditable, on-premises application-layer filtering and have the capacity to tune rules. | Hetzner customers who want a credible zero-cost first line of volumetric defense and will layer external L7 filtering on top only where attack risk justifies paying for it. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ||
| DDoS protection | ✓ | |
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceself hostable | free tierddos protectioneu datacenter |
| Visit ModSecurity → | Visit Hetzner DDoS Protection → | |
ModSecurity
Pros
- + Free Apache-2.0 WAF engine with 23 years of production deployments behind it
- + OWASP Core Rule Set covers OWASP Top 10 attack classes without application-specific knowledge
- + Actively maintained under OWASP governance with LTS rule branches and coordinated security releases
- + Full control and visibility: custom rules, blocking or detection-only modes, everything on your own servers
- + Broad deployment surface: Apache, nginx, IIS, containers, Debian/Ubuntu packages
Cons
- - Engine alone provides almost no protection — CRS tuning is mandatory skilled work
- - False positives are guaranteed without a detection-only tuning period; not a deploy-and-forget tool
- - libmodsecurity 3.x connector path (nginx/IIS) has matured more slowly than the Apache module
- - No volumetric DDoS protection, no managed option, no SLA, community-only support
Hetzner DDoS Protection
Pros
- + Free and automatic for every Hetzner customer, with no scrubbing or per-gigabit charges during attacks
- + Nokia Deepfield Defender edge mitigation (since March 2026) filters most attack traffic before it enters the backbone
- + Distinguishes attack types (e.g. UDP flood vs SYN flood) instead of reacting to raw volume alone
- + Filtering stays inside Hetzner's own German/Finnish network, supporting GDPR data-sovereignty requirements
- + Covers all Hetzner products at once: cloud servers, dedicated root servers, web hosting, load balancers
Cons
- - Protects Hetzner infrastructure only; useless for non-Hetzner origins
- - Zero user control: no configurable thresholds, no dashboard, no WAF rules
- - No published mitigation capacity, detection SLA, or uptime credits tied to the service
- - Non-EU locations (Ashburn, Hillsboro, Singapore) not confirmed to run the same mitigation stack
- - Historic community reports of null-routing attacked dedicated servers could not be confirmed against current policy
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