[Updated] Astra Vs Sucuri Comparison 2019: Which One To Choose ??

Posted on the 09 October 2019 by Jitendra Vaswani @JitendraBlogger

All of us are more or less absorbed by the web. Clearly, the usefulness of the web is not to be argued upon. But, the downsides couldn't be overlooked either. The threats that cyberspace poses to our data, privacy, and safety require dire attention.

Cybersecurity is not an alien topic today as it was a few years back. In fact, the increased awareness for security is reflecting in the business decisions of several companies. Consequently, cybersecurity became a thriving business.

Scores of cybersecurity firms sprouted following this. However, with competition came confusion. And, it became hard to pick the best from the rest. Not to worry, we have done the research for you. After eliminating hundreds of security companies, we came down to the two A-listed solutions - Sucuri & Astra. In this article, we aim to provide a side-by-side comparison of these two solutions and bare the results in front of you. We hope this thorough comparison will help you choose the one for your website.

Astra vs Sucuri Comparison 2019: Which One Better Secure Your Website??

Astra vs Sucuri Comparison 2019

Firstly, we need to define the main security requirements of a website. A website needs real-time protection from attacks, it needs regular maintenance to eliminate security loopholes, and it requires a quick malware removal for a desperate situation.

In a nutshell, every website needs-

Apart from these essentials, there is a list of things like IP/country blacklisting & whitelisting, file scanning, performance, etc that makes a security solution worthwhile.

Comparing for the essentials first-

Even though around for the maximum time, Sucuri has rather disappointing reviews and ratings on Trustpilot .

Total ratings = 38 Overall Stars gave = 2

Astra has as many as 75 reviews on Trustpilot , most of which are highly favorable.

Total reviews = 75 Overall Stars given = 5

Astra vs Sucuri 2019: Features Comparison

1) (Astra vs Sucuri): Web Application Firewall

Sucuri

Sucuri's firewall blocks malicious traffic, DDoS attack, brute-force attack, etc from reaching your website. Other than that it enables the customer to do IP blacklisting/whitelisting and country blacklisting/whitelisting.

However, a huge drawback that Sucuri has is that it requires DNS changing. Pointing your servers to an external DNS can always be tricky. Apart from latency issues, DNS malfunctioning can cause all the websites using it to go down. Thus, an external DNS can become a single point of failure for all the websites.

Also, this change of DNS diverts the customer's organic traffic to Sucuri's server first before sending them to your website. Besides, DNS changing is a hectic process that makes the installation too tedious.

This is how the Sucuri firewall works -

Astra

Astra's firewall protects your website from SQLi, XSS, CSRF, bad bots, SEO spam, LFI/RFI and 100+ other cyber threats. Also, IP blacklisting/whitelisting and country blacklisting/whitelisting is an integral part of the Astra dashboard. Moreover, the installation of the Astra firewall is exceptionally easy. For instance, It doesn't require any DNS changing.

Astra comes as a plugin for all CMSs & never becomes a single point of failure for its customers. Astra scales with your website and runs smoothly on your own server. No traffic diversion takes place from your server.

This is how the Astra firewall works

2. (Astra vs Sucuri) Malware cleanup

The malware cleanup in Sucuri includes:

While malware removal can be availed at a cheaper price from Sucuri, the revert time is usually 12 hours. And, the support is almost invisible.

Astra

The malware cleanup by Astra includes:

The revert time for Astra's malware cleanup is usually 6-8 hours after signing up. In most cases, Astra security engineers take even lesser time than 6 hours. The immediate malware clean up comes with Pro and higher plans .

3. (Astra vs Sucuri): Security audit

Sucuri

There are no manual security audits and pentesting done by Sucuri. However, it provides an activity log auditing on the website.

Astra

On the other hand, Astra's security audi t assessment assures that the already written code is bug-free. With the optimized mix of automated & manual analysis, Astra assures that all your website's vulnerabilities are uncovered.

After the audit, it sends a detailed report with the vulnerabilities found and their fixation steps. In addition to the source code, business error testing for your website.

4. (Astra vs Sucuri): Malware scanning

Sucuri

The effectiveness of a malware scanner is based on the fact of how easily it detects minute symptoms. Sucuri's malware scanner lacks in this aspect and even tends to hamper your website's speed and performance.

Astra

The best part about Astra's malware scanner is that it is available to you 24×7. With this scanner, you can track file changes to your website, changes in your website code as well as malware. This scanner is a perfect solution to protect your website from malware like pub2srv, Japanese spam, Credit card hack, Malicious redirects, Pharma attack and more.

Sucuri

Astra

6. (Astra vs Sucuri): Customer Support

Sucuri

Sucuri's support is ticket-based support through and through. Although it claims to be there for its customers, the reviews tell a different story.

This is not a single unfortunate instance. Sucuri's review on these platforms confirms the worst.

Astra

Astra's support includes silver support and gold support. The silver support is ticket-based support which can be availed directly from the dashboard. The other kind of support (ticket+call) is available exclusively for business plan customers.

You never feel deserted in the hour of need with Astra. Whenever I had any queries to ask, the customer success team at Astra was always there to reply & solve. In fact, the response I got for malware cleanup was especially won my heart. They connected in minutes and fixed the website in a few hours. This constant & problem-solving support system is what makes me trust Astra even more.

A testimony of Astra's support

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Conclusion: Astra vs Sucuri Comparison 2019 | Which One To Choose??

I have briefed all the key differences in the two security solutions. and in my opinion, Astra outperforms Sucuri exceptionally well. It has many unique things to offer, like the premium firewall, meticulous security audits, quick malware removal, simple & intuitive dashboard, health check, and more. Moreover, we found Astra's interface to be extremely simple and hassle-free. Astra was a surprise right from the installation.

Hence, we conclude that Astra makes for a better choice when it comes to web security.