fail2ban is good. But it has no dashboard, no WAF, no CVE detection — and requires manual regex config for every service. Defensia does all of that in one command.
$ apt install fail2ban
$ cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local
$ nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local
# Edit [sshd] section manually...
# Write custom filters for nginx...
# Write custom filters for apache...
# No dashboard. No WAF. No CVE alerts.
$ systemctl restart fail2ban
~15-30 minutes. Config files to maintain.
$ curl -fsSL https://defensia.cloud/install.sh | sudo bash
✓ SSH protection active
✓ Web firewall active (nginx + apache)
✓ Dashboard connected
✓ CVE scanner running
✓ Real-time alerts ready
28 seconds. Zero config files.
fail2ban works. We're not dismissing it. But after running it for a while, most sysadmins hit the same walls:
fail2ban logs to a file. You have to grep to see what's blocked. There's no dashboard, no charts, no real-time feed.
Each service needs a jail config and a filter regex. When nginx updates its log format, your filter breaks silently.
fail2ban can count 404s, but it doesn't understand SQL injection, path traversal, XSS, or OWASP attacks.
Running 5 servers? You have 5 separate fail2ban configs to maintain. No shared ban lists. No central view.
fail2ban blocks attackers, but doesn't tell you if your OpenSSH version has a critical CVE that attackers will exploit next.
When fail2ban bans an IP at 3am, nobody knows until someone checks the logs. No Slack, no email, no webhook.
Side by side, feature by feature.
| Feature | Defensia | fail2ban |
|---|---|---|
| Install time | ~30 seconds | ~15-30 min |
| Configuration required | None | Regex filter files per service |
| SSH brute force protection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web server attack detection (WAF) | ✓ | ✗ |
| SQL injection detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| XSS / path traversal detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real-time dashboard | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi-server management | ✓ | ✗ |
| CVE & vulnerability scanning | ✓ | ✗ |
| Geoblocking (200+ countries) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Shared ban propagation across servers | ✓ | ✗ |
| Slack / email / Discord alerts | ✓ | ✗ |
| Security score & hardening checks | ✓ | ✗ |
| ipset support (65K+ ban capacity) | ✓ | Partial |
| Monitor mode (detect without blocking) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Docker-aware log detection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Open source agent | ✓ | ✓ |
These aren't marginal improvements — they're fundamentally different capabilities.
Every blocked IP, every attack type, live charts. See what's happening on all your servers right now — not just in log files.
Detects SQL injection, XSS, RCE, path traversal, and 10+ OWASP attack types from your nginx/Apache logs. Zero configuration.
Scans your installed packages and alerts you when a new CVE affects your stack. Know about it before attackers exploit it.
Yes. Defensia and fail2ban can run at the same time. They both write iptables rules independently. However, once you see what Defensia detects, most users remove fail2ban — it becomes redundant and adds complexity without benefit.
No. The agent auto-detects your SSH logs, nginx/Apache logs, and firewall. Everything is configured from the web dashboard. There are no config files to maintain on the server.
Yes. The agent that runs on your server is MIT licensed and available on GitHub. The dashboard is a commercial SaaS with a free tier for one server.
Ubuntu 20+, Debian 11+, CentOS 7+, RHEL 8+, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, Fedora, and Amazon Linux 2023. The agent requires systemd, iptables, and root access.
Free plan: 1 server, SSH protection, real-time dashboard. Pro plan: €9/server/month — unlimited servers, WAF, CVE scanning, geoblocking, alerts, and team management.
Install Defensia in 30 seconds. Free plan includes 1 server, SSH protection, and the real-time dashboard.
Get Started FreeNo credit card required. Free plan includes 1 server.