ModSecurity vs Sucuri
A detailed comparison to help you choose between ModSecurity and Sucuri.
Quick Verdict
3.7/5
ModSecurity
0 reviews
3.7/5
Sucuri
0 reviews
Both ModSecurity and Sucuri are equally rated at 3.7/5. 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. GoDaddy-owned website security platform (founded 2010): cloud WAF, Anycast CDN, DDoS mitigation, and unlimited human malware cleanups. Firewall-only plans from $9.99/mo; security platform plans from $229/yr. Popular with WordPress sites and small businesses.
ModSecurity Open-source web application firewall for Apache, Nginx, and IIS | Sucuri Website firewall and malware cleanup service | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 3.7 (0 reviews) | 3.7 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | free | paid |
| Starting price | Free✓ | From $9.99/mo |
| 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. | WordPress and small-business site owners who want a cloud firewall plus guaranteed professional malware cleanup from one vendor, and value recovery speed enough to pay for a faster SLA tier. |
| 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 | ddos protectioneu datacenterus datacenter |
| Visit ModSecurity → | Visit Sucuri → | |
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
Sucuri
Pros
- + Unlimited manual malware cleanups by real analysts on every platform plan
- + WAF, DDoS mitigation (layers 3/4/7), and CDN in one proxy — one DNS change to activate
- + Clear, published plan economics: SLA times and scan frequencies per tier
- + Virtual patching covers unpatched CMS installs while you update
- + 24/7/365 ticket support and a 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- - Best feature (human cleanup) engages after you are already breached
- - Response SLAs are tier-gated: 30-hour estimate on the entry plan, and it is not an uptime SLA
- - CDN performance is a convenience layer, not a match for dedicated CDN networks
- - No free tier; firewall-only plans exclude the cleanup service
- - GoDaddy ownership adds portfolio-strategy questions for a trust-critical purchase
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