It's been a while since the debate on cybersecurity first started. From being a subject always pushed to the periphery, it has now become the central topic in boardroom discussions.
According to Maninder Singh, VP, HCL technologies, " companies have upped their security budget from a meagre 5% to a security budget with the lower-end at 9% and upper-end at 14-15%, so there is 3-4 fold increase and we can see this across the world ...." This shift in awareness in businesses comes from being inflicted by brutal and widespread attacks like Petya and wannacry.
To emphasize on how big a problem cyber attack is, James Snook, Deputy Director for Cyber Security, UK, said "My message for companies that think they haven't been attacked: You are not looking hard enough".
Astra Security Suite Review 2019: Astra Web Security Discount Coupon : Save Upto 25% on Yearly Plans
All Websites are at risk
According to a survey, more than 40,000 websites are hacked daily and around 1400 vulnerabilities are reported every single day. This is alarming. And, contrary to popular belief that only big companies get hacked, research has shown that small and medium websites are targeted the most. That is when you start looking for a security solution that works for you.
As website security becomes an alarming concern we decided to review Astra Security Suite. We started testing the plugin just like any other security plugin but as we indulged more in Astra, it turned to be a breath of fresh air in this crowded space of security solutions.
How Does Astra Security Suite Help?
As we used it, the Astra Security Suite turned out to be a diverse security solution for our website. Right from a Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Malware Scanner to security audits, everything is covered under a single intuitive dashboard.
Moreover, each of these plays a pivotal role in strengthening your website's security. Apart from the security, when we started using my Astra dashboard we also found a readymade GDPR consent code snippet for me to install.
Not deflecting from our motive of finding a worthwhile website security solution this is how Astra stands in the face of a cyber attack. Using Astra we found it to be quite competent in securing a website from Owasp top 10. Apart from that, it also protects a website from credit card hacks, phishing attacks, email spam, SEO spam, etc.
Who can Benefit from Astra?
Any business looking to secure their website can use Astra Security. This means Astra is perfectly compatible with CMS(s) like WordPress, Magento, Opencart, Prestashop, Drupal, etc.
Till date, Astra is known to secure big brands like Gillette, African Union, Ford, Carrier, Oman Airways, Hotstar, Kotak Bank, Akeneo(Founded by former CTO of Magento).
What Does Astra Security Suite Include?
From our own experience as a webmaster, we believe every website needs continuous monitoring to combat these continuous hack attacks by bots, malware or hackers. Since the tricks and methods of hackers keep on evolving after each attempt of a hack, the website protection system should be able to keep up and beat the hackers.
Quite frankly, we would not like to go through the exhausting process of changing our web security system after each newfound attack.
Astra impresses us because it not only takes care of the current web security situation but also because it adjusts and configures itself to take on newer cybersecurity challenges with its machine learning formula and community-powered product. It evolves with every new pattern, type, the methodology of hacks. What more could we have asked for?
Here are some of the key offerings by Astra Security:
Web Application Firewall
Security is a continuous and ever-evolving process. Having a firewall installed on your website will ensure that it is protected even when you are sleeping. We found Astra's firewall to be surprisingly simple to configure, basically, everything happened out of the box which we particularly liked.
The firewall protects your website against SQLi, XSS, LFI, RFI, Bad Bots, Spam & 100+ types of website threats in real time. And report all that in a concise threat analytics report. It's very simple to use and you can perform all the actions like blocking IPs, blocking countries, whitelisting all by a click of a button.
On-Demand Malware Scanner
Another inviting feature of Astra is its automated malware scanner which is powered by machine learning, and lets you know the current state of your website by scanning your website on a click. Most importantly, this scanner keeps on evolving with each scan it does and becomes better optimized for the next.
To test the capability of the malware scanner we downloaded some malware from links on several CMS(s) forums (where people have been infected & asking for help) and injected that in our test website.
Astra's scanner indeed flagged the malware & what amazed us was the simplicity of the malware report with the speed of the scan. Our first malware scan took 20 minutes and all subsequent scans happened in under 2 minutes which made the malware scanner really steal the show for us!
Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing
Periodic Security Audits are as necessary for a website as regular health check-ups for humans. Astra provides a security audit assessment to ensure that your website is in compliance with safe security standards.
This audit is, in fact, more optimized than others in the market with manual & automation both elements mixed together. Vulnerabilities found are reported on your dashboard. Also, Astra engineers make sure your developers get the required help to fix these.
The security audit comes inherent with the business plan and can also be availed independently at $499. Given the pros, it seems worth the investment. More information can be found Here.
Astra Security Suite Review Other Features
Dashboard & Reporting
In addition to the firewall and malware scanner, the reporting part is what looked appealing to us. The threat analytics are stats bundled to give a concise as well as a detailed view on Astra's dashboard.
It also keeps track of admin area login and emails you the hourly summary of logins in your dashboard. In addition, Astra's dashboard is available in all the major languages.
Community Security
Having your website's vulnerabilities published publicly can be devastating for your business. Astra acknowledges this and gives hackers/security researchers a legitimate platform to report every bug they find on your website instead of writing a disturbing blog post and making it public.
Astra's community security program saves you from countless mishaps. Under the program policy, hackers do not make any bug of your website public instead they report it to you. All the entries coming under the community program are validated by expert engineers at Astra, so you need not worry about each alleged vulnerability.
Astra slack integration
Astra also facilitates slack integration. You can get your website's daily threat reports from Astra in slack to obviate the chances of missing security in a busy work day's schedule. For us, getting important threat reports as slack notifications has simplified things.
GDPR Compliance Bar
When we did a thorough check of Astra's dashboard, to our surprise we also found 'get GDPR' option. By just copying a little code snippet, we were able to get a cookie consent bar on our website and further customize it to our liking.
Astra's Security Seal
According to a report by Astra, Astra security seal improves the trust factor of a website among visitors and consequently results in better business. Astra security seal is a great way to convey a sign of authority to your prospects. After all, they and their data must be in safe hands.
Astra Support
In every review written previously on Astra security, we saw that the support has been lauded fulsomely. But later found it deserving of it all. Astra's support persons and security engineers ensure that you never have to feel deserted when needed. They reply at once and solve your queries.
Click here to see the detailed features.
What Users Have to Say About Astra?
We took a dig at what others have been saying about Astra. This video particularly resonated with our views of Astra:
To get a better idea of Astra security's authority, we skimmed through the reviews from its customers on Trustpilot and Capterra. Both these platforms show a similar picture that Astra security has been up to the mark with its customers.
Whereas Capterra has 100% five-star ratings, Trustpilot has approx 99% five-star ratings. Further, customers have appreciated Astra with adjectives like "extremely responsive", "fast", "competent" and "enthusiastic" on Trustpilot.
Total number of reviews = 72
Number of 5-star reviews = 71
Astra Security is ranked 79 out of 301 in the category Business to Business Service
Astra Security is ranked 3 out of 21 in the category Cloud Computing Service
Astra Security is ranked 6 out of 32 in the category e-Commerce Solution Provider
Astra Security is ranked 11 out of 73 in the category Software Company
TrustScore - 9.6/10
Total number of reviews = 52
Number of 5-star reviews = 52
Ease of Use = 5/5
Customer Service = 5/5
How Astra Security Suite Review Works?
When we started with the actual process from getting Astra to installing it on our websites to using the product, it turned out to be quite a smooth process. Right after signing up, we were given access to a dashboard, from where the installation process is depicted step by step.
Trustpilot reviewsAnd sure enough, the installation was a cake walk. And, that was it. This makes us even more inclined towards Astra Security. The smoothness and effortlessness it ensures from the start are impeccable.
What's the pricing of Astra Security Suite Review? Astra Security Discount Coupon Save Upto 25% in 2019
Capterra reviewsAstra Security comes in different plans - essential, pro and business. Each plan has its own attributes. We availed the pro plan which includes the immediate malware cleanup and a subscription to Astra security suite for one year and have not regretted once. Check the full pricing here.
Comparing Astra Security Suite Review with Other Security Solutions
Now, let us get a little competitive here and find out how Astra compares with contemporary security solutions. We compared Astra with the best contemporary security solutions like Sucuri, WordFence, Sitelock & Malcare. Following is the result we got from the comparison:
Even though, Sucuri has been around for a longer period of time, it still requires the hectic DNS changing. On the other hand Astra does not require any such change.This makes it more likeable because your traffic is not routed through Astra's servers and they won't become a single point of failure for you.
Well, there is no freemium version of Astra. WordFence do lends its services for free but unlike Wordfence which bloats your WordPress website backend, Astra exercises a separate dashboard. We also found Astra's malware scanner to be much faster than Wordfence.
Other than that, Wordfence is a solution exclusively for WordPress whereas Astra can be installed on any PHP based CMS.
Astra's firewall, as we tried & tested, is much more evolved than Malcare's. Further, Astra also provided added facilities such as IP and URL whitelisting, security audits, pentesting, etc. The other problem with Malcare is that it scans the website on its own server rather than the users' due to which it takes longer for each scan to finish.
Sitelock, like Sucuri requires DNS changing. Astra requires no such change and hence your visitors are not diverted. Astra also beats Sitelock in the cost factor. Whereas Sitelock is a way pricey security solution, Astra does not make a hole in your pocket.
Also, read:
Conclusion: Astra Security Suite Review 2019 With Astra Discount Coupon Code
Considering each point discussed in the article, we can safely conclude that Astra is one promising security solution for a website. It amazes in more aspects than not.
If we overlook a few points such as no freemium, Astra wins the comparisons in most aspects like accuracy, quickness & customer support. Having used Astra myself, we will not be exaggerating if we say Astra lives up to its motto of "Making Security Simple".
It assuages the hassles of having different security solutions for different security needs and then switching in between them continuously. Astra truly simplified security for us. We will highly recommend giving it a shot.
