One of the most common requests we’ve gotten from readers is to do a pros and cons analysis of Sucuri vs CloudFlare to explain which one is better, due to the increased emphasis on website security in today’s digital landscape. Sucuri and CloudFlare are online services that provide website firewall, content delivery network, and DDoS protection. In this article, we’ll compare the benefits and drawbacks of Sucuri and Cloudflare to see which is the better option.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, hacking attempts, and malware injection can all compromise even the most secure websites on the internet.
You can use some security best practices as a WordPress site owner, such as password-protecting the admin directory, limiting login attempts, adding two-factor authentication, and so on.
These tips, however, only work on a software level, leaving your website vulnerable to other types of attacks. Financial loss, data loss, poor search rankings, and a poor user experience are all possible consequences of these attacks.
A website application firewall is available from Sucuri and CloudFlare (WAF).
This means that all of the traffic on your website is scanned by their servers. If a request appears to be malicious, the firewall will stop it from reaching your website.
These two services appear to be nearly identical on the surface, but there are a few key differences.
We’ll concentrate on the following points in this comparison:
- Features
- Pricing
- Service to Remove Malware
You’ll know which platform is best for you by the end.
Ready? Let’s look at the differences between Sucuri and Cloudflare.
Features
In this section, we’ll look at the features that Sucuri and CloudFlare have to offer.
It’s important to keep in mind that both services have different plans with different features.
Make sure you aren’t a victim of their marketing site as a user because not all plans include all of the features.
CloudFlare’s Advantages
CloudFlare is best known for its free content delivery network (CDN). With their Website Application Firewall product, they specialize in mitigating DDOS attacks. When your server is down or under a lot of traffic, CloudFlare keeps your site up and running for your users.
Before suspicious traffic reaches your website, their website firewall blocks it. The firewall also protects your website from comment and registration spam by extending to form submissions.
With all of their plans, CloudFlare also includes free and custom SSL certificates. You can only use CloudFlare issued certificates with the free and pro plans. You’ll need to upgrade to their Business or Enterprise plan to get a custom certificate.
While CloudFlare provides a free CDN, most other features, such as their Website Application Firewall, require a paid subscription.
CloudFlare does not provide a server scanning service for malware detection. It also doesn’t guarantee malware removal if you’re hacked while under their care.
Sucuri’s Advantages
Sucuri is a well-known security and monitoring service for websites. They provide website monitoring, malware scanning, DDoS protection, and malware removal services, among other things.
CloudProxy, a website firewall, and load balancing service from Sucuri, is available. It effectively blocks DDoS attacks, code injection, bad bots, and other website threats from reaching your website by blocking suspicious traffic.
Sucuri’s basic plan includes integration with the free Let’s Encrypt SSL. Custom SSL certificates are also available with their professional and business plans.
Sucuri scans your website for file changes, code injection, and malware on a regular basis. They clean up hacked sites and support all major CMS platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and others.
Sucuri is the clear winner because they provide a more comprehensive set of tools and services (Website Firewall + Load Balancing + Malware Cleanup / Hack Repair).
Pricing
For many small businesses, pricing is a critical consideration.
Here, we’ll compare CloudFlare and Sucuri’s various pricing plans so you know exactly what you’re getting for your money.
It’s not always better to be free
Plans for CloudFlare Pricing
Everyone can use CloudFlare’s free CDN service. They don’t charge for bandwidth, so regardless of your traffic volume, you’ll be able to use their free CDN.
This free plan, however, does not include a website application firewall. Your website may benefit from CDN, but it will be vulnerable to DDoS attacks, spam, bad traffic, and other threats.
The Pro plan, which costs $20 per month, is required for their web application firewall (this is what you need for improved security).
Advanced DDoS mitigation and custom SSL are not included in this pro plan. You’ll need their Business plan, which costs $200 per month, to get those features.
Sucuri’s Pricing Structure
Sucuri, unlike CloudFlare, does not have a free plan. Their website security stack plan is less expensive than CloudFlare’s Pro plan, starting at $199.99 for a year.
Full website monitoring, website application firewall, DDoS protection, malware removal, and a free LetsEncrypt SSL certificate are all included in this basic plan.
Sucuri uses priority as an incentive for their higher paying plans, rather than excluding features from lower level plans.
Malware removal, for example, is estimated to take 12 hours for the basic plan, 6 hours for the professional plan, and 4 hours for the business plan. However, the actual cleanup times for all customers are much shorter.
As part of all plans, they provide support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Subscribers to their business plan can also use Live Chat support.
When it comes to pricing, Sucuri is an obvious choice for small businesses. Sucuri costs $199 per year and offers more features than CloudFlare Pro, which costs $240 per year. You’d have to upgrade to CloudFlare’s $2400/year plan to get the same features. The most expensive Sucuri plan is $499 per year.
Service to Remove Malware
Malware and code injections are the most common threats faced by WordPress site owners, aside from denial of service attacks.
Let’s take a look at how both services protect your website from common threats.
CloudFlare – Malware Removal and Security
CloudFlare’s free version is essentially a content delivery network that aids in the speeding up of your website.
Their paid plan includes a website security firewall. CloudFlare’s ready-to-use custom rules set is included. These rules guard against common code injection attacks, XSS JavaScript exploits, and form submissions.
They do not, however, provide file change detection, malware scanning, blacklist monitoring, or a variety of other security features. You can use third-party apps to scan for malware, but these services will cost you extra money.
Sucuri – Malware Removal and Security
Sucuri is a company that focuses on security. They specialize in website monitoring and protection against malware and other types of attacks.
Sucuri’s website application firewall guards against DDOS attacks, SQL injections, XSS JavaScript injections, as well as spam comments and contact forms.
If something manages to get past all of those security barriers and onto your website, Sucuri offers to clean it up (for free).
If your website has already been infected with malware, Sucuri will remove it as well.
Sucuri was named the winner for its website application firewall, monitoring, malware protection, and clean-up services.
Final Conclusion
Both CloudFlare and Sucuri can protect your website from DDoS attacks. In terms of content delivery networks, CloudFlare performs slightly better.
Sucuri outperforms the competition in terms of overall features, security monitoring, and price. Sucuri is required if you use a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress.
We hope that this article has helped you compare the benefits and drawbacks of Sucuri and CloudFlare.
Comments are closed.