Alternatives
A fail2ban alternative with one dashboard for all your servers
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In short
fail2ban is excellent at one thing: reading a log and banning the addresses that fail too often. It is free, fully local and works with any log format you can write a filter for. What it lacks is a view across servers. Self-hosted interfaces such as Fail2Ban UI add one, but you have to install, secure and run them yourself. InfraFence installs with one command per server, has no server for you to run, and detects more than log-based brute force: web attacks, bots, malware, file changes and what leaves the server. The two can run side by side.
fail2ban and InfraFence side by side
- What it is
- fail2ban: A daemon on each server that bans addresses found in logs
- InfraFence: An agent on each server and a hosted dashboard for all of them
- Dashboard for many servers
- fail2ban: None built in; self-hosted UIs exist, which you install and run
- InfraFence: Included, with nothing to host; team members and two-factor authentication
- Setup
- fail2ban: A package from the distribution, then jails and filters to configure
- InfraFence: One command, with a read-only check of the server first
- What it reads
- fail2ban: Any log, through regular-expression filters you can write
- InfraFence: Built-in detections for SSH (15 patterns), mail, databases, FTP and web logs; web firewall rules you can edit or add
- Repeat offenders
- fail2ban: Longer bans with the bantime.increment option
- InfraFence: 24 h, 7 days, 30 days, then permanent, built in; optionally shared across your servers
- Web attacks and bots
- fail2ban: Filters for specific patterns in web logs
- InfraFence: A scoring web firewall and about 1,500 bots recognized, each allowed, logged or blocked
- Outbound and DNS
- fail2ban: Not covered
- InfraFence: Every DNS query tied to its program; connections to known malicious addresses
- Malware and file integrity
- fail2ban: Not covered
- InfraFence: Malware scanner with quarantine; system files, cron, systemd and SSH keys watched
- Fixing the cause
- fail2ban: Not covered
- InfraFence: 40–50 hardening checks, depending on the server; fixes checked after the change and rolled back if SSH or a site breaks
- Alerts
- fail2ban: Email or any command, through actions you configure
- InfraFence: Email on every plan; Slack, Discord, Telegram and webhooks from Basic
- Without an internet connection
- fail2ban: Works fully offline
- InfraFence: Needs to reach the InfraFence dashboard
- Price
- fail2ban: Free (GPLv2)
- InfraFence: Free for 1 server; from $8.90 per server per month
fail2ban facts as of October 2026, from its documentation; Fail2Ban UI facts from its README. fail2ban is free software under the GPLv2; InfraFence is a paid service with a free plan for one server.
What fail2ban does well
fail2ban has protected SSH servers for many years. It is small, packaged by every distribution and easy to reason about: a jail watches a log, a filter matches the failures, an action bans the address. If your application writes a log in its own format, you write a filter and fail2ban protects it too. Nothing leaves the server, and there is no account to create.
Adding a dashboard to fail2ban
With a handful of servers, the question soon becomes: what was banned where, and why? fail2ban answers it one server at a time, with fail2ban-client.
Self-hosted interfaces fill the gap. Fail2Ban UI, an open-source project under the AGPL-3.0, manages fail2ban on several hosts from one screen, with search, unban, jail editing and alerts. It does not replace fail2ban: it connects to each instance over SSH, through its own agent, or locally. You run it yourself, as a container or a systemd service, keep it off the public internet behind a reverse proxy or VPN, and give it a service account with sudo rights on every host.
That is a good fit if you want everything on your own infrastructure. If you would rather not run and secure one more service, InfraFence's dashboard is hosted, and each server needs only the agent.
What InfraFence adds beyond SSH logs
Brute force is the noisiest attack, not the most dangerous one. InfraFence covers it, then looks further:
- A web firewall that gives each visitor a risk score from the web server logs: slowed down, then blocked, then banned.
- Bot management: about 1,500 bots recognized, fake search-engine bots unmasked.
- Outbound and DNS detection: every DNS query tied to the program, process ID and user that made it, so a compromised server calling home stands out.
- A malware scanner and file-integrity monitoring of system files, cron, systemd units and SSH keys.
- SSH session risk scoring: who was logged in when something else fired.
- Hardening checks with fixes that are checked after the change and rolled back if SSH or a monitored site stops answering.
Running fail2ban and InfraFence together
They are compatible: both only drop traffic. InfraFence keeps its rules in its own INFRAFENCE chains and does not touch fail2ban's chains. If an SSH attacker is banned by both, nothing breaks; the address is simply blocked twice.
A common split is to keep fail2ban jails for custom application logs that only you know how to parse, and let InfraFence handle SSH, mail, databases, FTP and the web, with one view across servers.
When fail2ban is the better choice
Stay with fail2ban if:
- you want a free tool that is fully local, with no account and no outside service;
- your main need is to ban on custom log formats, with filters you write yourself;
- you run one or two servers and fail2ban-client is all the view you need;
- the servers are offline or air-gapped: InfraFence needs to reach its dashboard.
Add InfraFence next to fail2ban
fail2ban keeps running while you try it. A read-only check runs before anything is installed.
- 01
Create the install token
In the dashboard, open Servers › Add server. The token works once and expires after one hour.
- 02
Install the agent as root
The check reports fail2ban as active and compatible. Your jails are not changed.
curl -fsSL https://github.com/infrafence/infrafence-agent/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --token <TOKEN> - 03
Compare in monitor mode
Monitor mode detects everything and blocks nothing. Compare what InfraFence reports with what fail2ban bans:
fail2ban-client status sshd - 04
Decide which jails to keep
Keep the jails for your own application logs. If you like, turn off the ones InfraFence now covers, such as sshd, and restart fail2ban.
Questions about fail2ban and InfraFence
Is there a fail2ban dashboard for multiple servers?
Not built into fail2ban. Self-hosted interfaces such as Fail2Ban UI connect to several fail2ban instances; you install and run them yourself. InfraFence includes a hosted dashboard for every server, with nothing to run.
Can fail2ban and InfraFence run on the same server?
Yes. Both only drop traffic, and InfraFence does not touch fail2ban's chains.
Can InfraFence read my custom application logs like a fail2ban filter?
Not in the same way. InfraFence has built-in detections for SSH, mail, databases, FTP and web servers, and you can edit or add web firewall rules. For an arbitrary log format, a fail2ban filter is the right tool.
Does InfraFence send my logs anywhere?
No. Only security events leave the server: attacker address, type, time and the details needed to understand them. Full logs and files stay on the server.
What does it cost?
One server is free, with full protection. Paid plans are $8.90, $18.90 or $28.90 per server per month, 20% less billed yearly.
Try it free on 1 server
Starter gives one server full protection, free and with no credit card.
- 01
Create a free account, then open Servers › Add server to get your install token. It is valid for one hour.
Create the token - 02
Then run this as root on the server:
curl -fsSL https://github.com/infrafence/infrafence-agent/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --token <TOKEN>
Sources, checked in October 2026
fail2ban and Fail2Ban UI are the names of their respective projects. InfraFence is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.