Comparisons

CrowdSec alternative: what each one does, compared fairly

Last updated: November 7, 2026

In short

CrowdSec is an open-source security engine that reads your logs, detects attacks with scenarios from its hub and blocks them through bouncers: the server firewall, nginx, Cloudflare, HAProxy, WordPress and many more. Its community blocklist, built from the signals of every installation, is its great strength, and the engine is free. InfraFence is a hosted service for agencies and companies with many Linux servers: one command per server, one dashboard for all of them, detection of what leaves the server (DNS and outbound, tied to the program), hardening fixes that are checked and undone if they break something, AutoMode and NIS2 report drafts. The two can run on the same server.

CrowdSec and InfraFence side by side

What it is: CrowdSec: An open-source security engine (MIT) on each server, bouncers that apply its decisions, and an optional online Console; InfraFence: An agent on each server and a hosted dashboard for all of them
Price: CrowdSec: Engine and bouncers free; Console Community plan free, Premium priced per enrolled engine, Advanced on quote; InfraFence: Free for 1 server; then $8.90, $18.90 or $28.90 per server per month
Shared blocklist: CrowdSec: Community blocklist built from the signals of every installation: up to 15,000 addresses for free users who contribute, 3,000 (Lite) for those who do not, more on paid plans; extra paid blocklists; InfraFence: Optional sharing between organizations: an address is shown to others only once three or more have seen it; from Basic, network autoblock of up to 1,000 addresses banned by five or more paying organizations
Where it blocks: CrowdSec: Wherever a bouncer runs: firewall, nginx, OpenResty, Apache, HAProxy, Traefik, Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS WAF, WordPress, PHP and more; InfraFence: At the server firewall, in its own INFRAFENCE chains; optional ModSecurity rules on Apache
Detections: CrowdSec: Scenarios from the hub, which you can add, tune or write yourself; an AppSec component for HTTP requests; InfraFence: Built-in detections for SSH (15 patterns), web (scoring web firewall), bots, mail, databases, FTP and port scans; web rules you can edit or add
Outbound and DNS: CrowdSec: Not its focus: it works from logs and requests; InfraFence: Every DNS query tied to its program, process ID and user; DNS tunnels, random-domain malware, connections to known malicious destinations
Malware and file integrity: CrowdSec: Not covered; InfraFence: Malware scanner with quarantine on request; system files, cron, systemd units and SSH keys watched
Fixing the cause: CrowdSec: Not covered: it detects and blocks; InfraFence: 40–50 hardening checks, depending on the server, and package vulnerabilities (CVE); fixes checked after the change and rolled back if SSH or a site breaks
Many servers: CrowdSec: Console: engines, alerts and blocklists in one place; the free plan shows 500 alerts a month, kept about 2 months; InfraFence: One live dashboard for every server, with team members and two-factor authentication; 30 days of history on Starter, 90 on Basic
Automatic response: CrowdSec: Bans from scenarios, applied by the bouncers; InfraFence: Automatic bans on every plan; AutoMode applies safe fixes from a fixed catalogue and asks before anything risky
Incident reports: CrowdSec: Not listed among its features; InfraFence: NIS2 and GDPR report drafts from the events, for you to review (Pro and AutoMode)
Without the online service: CrowdSec: The engine and bouncers work locally; the Console is optional; InfraFence: Needs to reach the InfraFence dashboard

	CrowdSec	InfraFence
What it is	An open-source security engine (MIT) on each server, bouncers that apply its decisions, and an optional online Console	An agent on each server and a hosted dashboard for all of them
Price	Engine and bouncers free; Console Community plan free, Premium priced per enrolled engine, Advanced on quote	Free for 1 server; then $8.90, $18.90 or $28.90 per server per month
Shared blocklist	Community blocklist built from the signals of every installation: up to 15,000 addresses for free users who contribute, 3,000 (Lite) for those who do not, more on paid plans; extra paid blocklists	Optional sharing between organizations: an address is shown to others only once three or more have seen it; from Basic, network autoblock of up to 1,000 addresses banned by five or more paying organizations
Where it blocks	Wherever a bouncer runs: firewall, nginx, OpenResty, Apache, HAProxy, Traefik, Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS WAF, WordPress, PHP and more	At the server firewall, in its own INFRAFENCE chains; optional ModSecurity rules on Apache
Detections	Scenarios from the hub, which you can add, tune or write yourself; an AppSec component for HTTP requests	Built-in detections for SSH (15 patterns), web (scoring web firewall), bots, mail, databases, FTP and port scans; web rules you can edit or add
Outbound and DNS	Not its focus: it works from logs and requests	Every DNS query tied to its program, process ID and user; DNS tunnels, random-domain malware, connections to known malicious destinations
Malware and file integrity	Not covered	Malware scanner with quarantine on request; system files, cron, systemd units and SSH keys watched
Fixing the cause	Not covered: it detects and blocks	40–50 hardening checks, depending on the server, and package vulnerabilities (CVE); fixes checked after the change and rolled back if SSH or a site breaks
Many servers	Console: engines, alerts and blocklists in one place; the free plan shows 500 alerts a month, kept about 2 months	One live dashboard for every server, with team members and two-factor authentication; 30 days of history on Starter, 90 on Basic
Automatic response	Bans from scenarios, applied by the bouncers	Automatic bans on every plan; AutoMode applies safe fixes from a fixed catalogue and asks before anything risky
Incident reports	Not listed among its features	NIS2 and GDPR report drafts from the events, for you to review (Pro and AutoMode)
Without the online service	The engine and bouncers work locally; the Console is optional	Needs to reach the InfraFence dashboard

CrowdSec facts as of November 2026, from crowdsec.net, app.crowdsec.net/pricing and docs.crowdsec.net. Quotas and prices change; check the official pages before you decide.

Where CrowdSec is stronger

The community blocklist. Every engine that reports its signals helps build a list of attacking addresses, curated by consensus and tailored to the scenarios each engine reports. It is fed by far more installations than InfraFence has customers.
Bouncers everywhere. A decision taken on one server can be applied at the firewall, in nginx or OpenResty, at Cloudflare or Fastly, in AWS WAF, in WordPress or in your own code. InfraFence blocks at the server firewall only.
Open source and local. The engine and the bouncers are free, MIT-licensed and work without an account. The Console is an extra, not a requirement.
A hub of scenarios. You can add detections for many applications, or write your own for logs that only you know.

Where InfraFence is different

One command, nothing to assemble. No engine, bouncers and collections to choose: the agent installs with one command after a read-only check, and every server appears in one hosted dashboard.
What leaves the server. Every DNS query is tied to the program, process ID and user that made it, so a compromised server calling home stands out by the program that did it.
Beyond blocking. A malware scanner, file-integrity monitoring of accounts, cron, systemd units and SSH keys, SSH session risk scoring and the known vulnerabilities of the installed packages.
Fixes that are checked. 40–50 hardening checks, depending on the server; after every change the agent checks that SSH and your monitored sites still answer, and rolls back by itself if they do not.
AutoMode and NIS2 reports. Safe fixes from a fixed catalogue around the clock, one-tap approval for anything risky, and drafts of the NIS2 early warning, notification and final report.

CrowdSec price, and what you pay for

As of November 2026, the CrowdSec Security Engine and its bouncers are free and open source. The Console has a free Community plan (three free blocklists, 500 alerts a month shown, alerts kept about two months, five team seats), a Premium plan priced per enrolled Security Engine, and an Advanced plan on quote. Premium blocklists and the IP reputation API are sold separately. The current figures are on app.crowdsec.net/pricing.

InfraFence is priced per server: the first server is free with full protection, then $8.90 on Basic, $18.90 on Pro and $28.90 on AutoMode per month, 20% less billed yearly. Every plan, the free one included, gets every detection layer.

Running CrowdSec and InfraFence together

They are compatible. The agent's read-only check detects CrowdSec when its service or its firewall bouncer is active and reports it as compatible: both only drop traffic, and InfraFence does not touch CrowdSec's rules. It keeps its own rules in its INFRAFENCE chains and puts them back after a firewall reload. An address banned by both is simply blocked twice.

A useful split: keep CrowdSec's bouncers where they block best, at Cloudflare or in nginx, and its blocklist, and add InfraFence for one view of the fleet, outbound and DNS detection, malware, hardening fixes and reports.

When CrowdSec is the better choice

CrowdSec is the better choice if:

you want a free, open-source engine that runs fully on your own servers, with no outside service required;
you want to block at the edge, at Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS WAF or in nginx, not only at the server firewall;
the large community blocklist matters most to you;
you are happy to choose collections, tune scenarios and write your own for custom logs;
the servers are offline or air-gapped: InfraFence needs to reach its dashboard.

Try InfraFence on a server that runs CrowdSec

CrowdSec 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 CrowdSec as active and compatible. Its scenarios, decisions and bouncers 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, outbound and DNS especially, with CrowdSec's alerts and decisions:
```
sudo cscli alerts list && sudo cscli decisions list
```
04
Then decide per server
Keep both, with CrowdSec at the edge and InfraFence on the server, or let InfraFence handle a server alone where it covers what you need.

Questions about CrowdSec and InfraFence

Is CrowdSec free?

The Security Engine and the bouncers are free and open source under the MIT license. As of November 2026 the Console has a free Community plan; Premium is priced per enrolled engine, and premium blocklists are sold separately.

Can CrowdSec and InfraFence run on the same server?

Yes. InfraFence detects CrowdSec and reports it as compatible: both only drop traffic, and InfraFence does not touch CrowdSec's rules.

Does InfraFence have a community blocklist like CrowdSec?

A smaller one. Organizations can choose to share attacker addresses; an address is shown to others only once three or more organizations have seen it. From Basic, your servers can also ban up to 1,000 addresses banned by five or more paying organizations in the last 30 days. CrowdSec's list is fed by many more installations.

Can InfraFence block at Cloudflare or in nginx like a CrowdSec bouncer?

No. InfraFence blocks at the server firewall, and behind Cloudflare it trusts the visitor address that Cloudflare sends only from Cloudflare's own ranges. To block at the edge, a CrowdSec bouncer is the right tool, and it can run next to InfraFence.

What does InfraFence add on a server that already runs CrowdSec?

Outbound and DNS detection tied to the program, a malware scanner, file-integrity monitoring, hardening fixes checked after the change, one dashboard for every server and NIS2 report drafts.

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

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>

Create a free account Read the docs

Sources, checked in November 2026

CrowdSec, Cloudflare and nginx are trademarks of their respective owners. InfraFence is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.