Comparison
How Astrari compares
We'd rather you choose the right product than the loudest one. Here's an honest read of where Astrari fits versus the most common alternatives — including where we'd send you elsewhere.
In short, what makes us different
- ✓Two products, one dashboard. Most competitors do WordPress OR servers, not both.
- ✓Agent-based deep server scanning (Trivy, ClamAV, rkhunter, MalDet, file integrity, SSH hardening) plus external website scanning — under one billing line.
- ✓Vendor advisory monitor. We surface CloudLinux / RHSA / USN / DSA / ALSA / CISA-KEV advisories on matching hosts before the public CVE feeds catch up — typically 24-72 hours ahead of the scanner-driven alternatives.
- ✓Panel-aware updates. cPanel/WHM and Plesk hosts get a separate panel-update button alongside OS updates — the agent excludes panel-managed packages from yum/apt and delegates to /scripts/upcp or plesk installer update. Most monitoring tools either skip these hosts or risk corrupting them.
- ✓CloudLinux KernelCare integration. Kernel CVEs that are live-patched in memory are auto-acknowledged with the effective kernel version recorded — no false-positive 'reboot required' notices, no fake-protection from advisory matches alone. Read directly from kcarectl on every check-in.
- ✓Forensic post-mortem on every outage. When a site recovers, the diagnostic snapshot (logs, OOM kills, failed services, disk pressure) is already attached to the resolved finding. No second click.
- ✓Vault — ransomware-resistant backups. Append-only B2 credentials on the agent mean a fully-compromised host cannot delete or overwrite the backup history.
- ✓Agency-friendly economics. Cover the Agency plan with 6 client-bills at our Basic rate; pure margin past that.
- ✓UK-based human support. You email us, a real person replies. Cleanup work available as a retainer (see /managed).
- ✓We don't sit in your traffic. No DNS changes, no in-line WAF, no proxy. We monitor — you keep control of your routing.
- ✓Read-only by default. Every action that modifies your servers is an explicit dashboard click. No surprise apt-get upgrades.
Astrari vs Wordfence
visit wordfence ↗The dominant freemium WordPress security plugin. Runs inside WordPress as a plugin, not externally.
Where Wordfence is great
- +Real-time WAF that blocks malicious requests at the WP layer
- +Generous free tier installed on millions of sites
- +Best-in-class threat-intelligence team — the same Wordfence Intelligence database we use for our CVE matching
Where we differ
- ▸We scan from outside the site over HTTPS — no plugin to install, no WP performance impact, no dashboard inside wp-admin
- ▸We cover Linux servers too (CVE, malware, rootkit, file integrity, SSH hardening) — Wordfence is WordPress-only
- ▸We're not a WAF. If you want active in-line request filtering, run Wordfence (or Cloudflare) alongside us
Pick Wordfence instead — If you only run a single WordPress site and want a free tool that ships request blocking out of the box.
Astrari vs Patchstack
visit patchstack ↗Agency-focused WordPress security with virtual patching for vulnerabilities before plugin authors release fixes.
Where Patchstack is great
- +Virtual patching — they push WAF rules that mitigate plugin CVEs before the plugin author updates
- +Agency-grade pricing and white-label features for managing many WP sites
- +Strong vulnerability research team and disclosure programme
Where we differ
- ▸We do server monitoring as well as websites. Patchstack is WordPress-only; if your clients run anything beyond WP you'd need a second tool
- ▸We don't do virtual patching. Our remediation guidance is human-readable, with auto-fix for some categories (.htaccess, SSH); virtual patching at the WAF layer is Patchstack's lane
- ▸Our pricing is lower at the same site counts (compare £65/mo for 25 sites with us vs Patchstack's mid-tier)
- ▸We run the security UK-side with direct human support — see /managed for full remediation work
Pick Patchstack instead — If virtual patching is non-negotiable for your agency's risk model and you're WP-exclusive.
Astrari vs MalCare
visit malcare ↗Managed WordPress malware detection and one-click cleanup, popular with agencies that want hands-off recovery.
Where MalCare is great
- +Automated malware cleanup — they remove the infection for you, not just detect it
- +Backups built in
- +Heuristic detection for zero-day infections in addition to signature-based
Where we differ
- ▸We monitor Linux servers in addition to websites — MalCare is WordPress-only
- ▸Cleanup is a separate add-on, not bundled. The same UK team that builds Astrari runs hands-on remediation and post-incident cleanup under Managed Response (see /managed). Three tiers from £150/mo, with exclusive rates for Astrari customers
- ▸Backups are an add-on too — Astrari Vault, our ransomware-resistant backup product, ships off-host append-only snapshots that the agent on the host literally cannot delete or overwrite. Different model to MalCare's per-site backups, designed for the case the host itself is the attacker (see /products/vault)
Pick MalCare instead — If you want a single subscription that bundles WordPress malware detection, backups, and one-click cleanup into one product line, and you don't run anything beyond WP.
Astrari vs Sucuri
visit sucuri ↗Established website security and incident-response company — WAF, malware cleanup, monitoring under one roof.
Where Sucuri is great
- +Cloud-based WAF and CDN that sits in front of your site
- +Manual cleanup specialists with 24/7 incident response
- +Decade-plus incumbent in the space; well-known by clients of agencies
Where we differ
- ▸Sucuri's WAF requires DNS routing through their infrastructure. We don't sit in your traffic path at all — you keep your DNS, your CDN, your TLS termination
- ▸Sucuri's pricing scales with sites and starts higher than ours for similar feature sets
- ▸We monitor Linux servers as well — Sucuri's focus is the website itself
- ▸Cleanup work is done by the same UK team that builds Astrari, via the Managed Response add-on (see /managed). Sucuri runs cleanup as a bundled service; we offer it as a retainer that scales with how much hands-on care you actually want
Pick Sucuri instead — If you want one vendor that bundles WAF + cleanup + monitoring under a single subscription, and DNS-routed protection works for your clients.
Astrari vs WPScan Pro
visit wpscanpro ↗WordPress vulnerability database and CLI tool, now owned by Automattic. The pro tier is primarily an API for the vuln data.
Where WPScan Pro is great
- +Massive, well-curated WP vulnerability database (40,000+ vulnerabilities at last count)
- +CLI scanning tool that's been a pen-test staple for a decade
- +API access for tooling integrations
Where we differ
- ▸WPScan Pro is mostly a data feed; you build the dashboard and alerting around it. We give you a finished product
- ▸We use a different data source (Wordfence Intelligence) for our CVE matching, with overlapping but distinct coverage
- ▸We're not a CLI tool — we're a dashboard, alerting and remediation product
Pick WPScan Pro instead — If you're a security researcher or pen-tester who wants raw data and CLI tooling, not a SaaS product.
Astrari vs ManageWP
visit managewp ↗WordPress management suite — bulk updates, uptime monitoring, backups, with security checks layered on top.
Where ManageWP is great
- +Managing dozens or hundreds of WP sites from a single pane
- +Bulk plugin/theme/core updates at scale
- +Backups and migration tooling that's been around forever
Where we differ
- ▸Their primary value is management; security is a feature. Ours is the reverse — we're a security product first, with some management affordances
- ▸We monitor Linux servers; ManageWP doesn't
- ▸Astrari Vault does file-level off-host backups designed for ransomware survival (append-only credentials on the host). ManageWP's per-WordPress-install database-aware backups, with restore-to-staging and migration tooling, are still their bread and butter — different model, different audience
Pick ManageWP instead — If your problem is bulk WP management — updates, migrations, per-site database backups — and you treat security as a checkbox, not the primary objective.
Astrari vs Wazuh
visit wazuh ↗Open-source SIEM/HIDS — the closest free analogue to our agent-based server monitoring, but enterprise-grade.
Where Wazuh is great
- +Free and open-source
- +Massive coverage: file integrity, vulnerability detection, log analysis, security configuration assessment
- +Mature ecosystem and active community
Where we differ
- ▸Self-hosted vs SaaS. Wazuh requires you to stand up the manager and the dashboard yourself; we run it for you
- ▸Wazuh is a platform, not a product — it has a steep learning curve and assumes you know what you're doing
- ▸Wazuh doesn't do WordPress. We do, deeply
- ▸Signal-level log watching without a SIEM. Wazuh ingests, parses and stores your logs, and you run the pipeline and the storage; we read the same security logs on the host and ship hourly counters and control facts instead — enough to tell you a blocker has stopped blocking, without any log lines leaving the box
- ▸Wazuh is free; we're not. The trade-off is operational simplicity and human support
Pick Wazuh instead — If you have an SOC team, want full data sovereignty, and have time to run the platform yourself.
Add-on · Managed Response
Want us to fix what we find?
Astrari detects and alerts. Managed Response bolts a retainer onto any plan so our UK engineers handle the remediation side — patching, hardening, incident response, and routine portfolio care. Three tiers from £150/mo.
See Managed Response →Still on the fence?
The Starter plan is permanently free — try us on one server and one website. If we're not the right fit, you'll know within a week. No card, no commitment.