Imunify360 is built for shared hosting. If you run VPS or dedicated servers, you're paying for cPanel lock-in you don't need. Defensia works on any Linux server — no control panel required.
$ Purchase cPanel/Plesk license
$ Install Imunify360 from control panel
# Requires cPanel, Plesk, or DirectAdmin...
# Configure malware scanner settings...
# Set up firewall rules per domain...
# Review Proactive Defense policies...
# $12-15/server/month on top of cPanel license
~$25-40/month total (cPanel + Imunify360)
$ 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.
Imunify360 works well for shared hosting. But after running it for a while, most sysadmins hit the same walls:
Imunify360 only works with cPanel, Plesk, or DirectAdmin. If you run a standalone VPS, Docker host, or bare metal server — it simply won't install.
You need a cPanel license ($15-45/month) PLUS Imunify360 ($12-15/month). That's $27-60/month per server before you've done anything. Defensia is EUR 9/month total — or free for one server.
Malware Scanner, Proactive Defense, Reputation Management, KernelCare, Patch Management — Imunify360 has tabs within tabs. Most sysadmins use 20% of it and ignore the rest.
Imunify360's malware scanner and proactive defense consume significant CPU and RAM on shared hosting servers. Defensia's Go agent uses under 50MB of memory even during full malware scans with 64K+ signatures.
Imunify360 is fully proprietary. You can't audit what runs on your server. Defensia's agent is MIT licensed and open source on GitHub.
Imunify360 assumes a cPanel shared hosting environment. It doesn't understand Docker, doesn't monitor standalone nginx, and has no API-first design.
Side by side, feature by feature.
| Feature | Defensia | Imunify360 |
|---|---|---|
| Install time | ~30 seconds | ~15-30 min + cPanel |
| Control panel required | None | cPanel/Plesk/DirectAdmin |
| Works on any Linux server | ✓ | ✗ |
| SSH brute force protection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web Application Firewall | ✓ | ✓ |
| SQL injection detection | ✓ | ✓ |
| Real-time dashboard | ✓ | Via cPanel plugin |
| Multi-server management | ✓ | ImunifyAV+ (extra) |
| CVE & vulnerability scanning | ✓ | KernelCare (extra) |
| Geoblocking (200+ countries) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Malware scanning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source agent | ✓ | ✗ |
| Docker / container support | ✓ | ✗ |
| Price (per server/month) | Free + EUR 9/mo | $12-15 + cPanel license |
These aren't marginal improvements — they're fundamentally different capabilities.
64,000+ hash signatures, 684 dynamic patterns, web shell detection, cryptominer detection, rootkit checks, WordPress database scanning, quarantine, and security posture scoring — all in a Go agent under 50MB of memory.
Every blocked IP, every attack type, live charts. See what's happening on all your servers right now — not just in log files.
Defensia understands containers. Docker detection, Kubernetes DaemonSet deployment via Helm, ingress WAF — Imunify360 doesn't even know Docker exists.
We believe in being honest. Here are cases where Imunify360 might suit you better:
For most VPS and dedicated server users, yes. Defensia covers SSH protection, WAF, CVE scanning, geoblocking, malware scanning, and real-time monitoring. The remaining gap is Proactive Defense — Imunify360's real-time PHP execution monitoring at the opcache level. For everything else, Defensia matches or exceeds Imunify360 at a fraction of the cost.
Yes. Defensia works on any Linux server with systemd and iptables. No control panel needed. Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Rocky, Alma, Fedora, and Amazon Linux are all supported.
Yes. The agent is MIT licensed and available on GitHub. Written in Go, it uses under 30MB of memory. The dashboard is a commercial SaaS with a free tier for one server.
Imunify360: $12-15/server/month, but requires a cPanel license ($15-45/month). Total: $27-60/server/month. Defensia: free for 1 server, then EUR 9/server/month (EUR 7 billed annually). No control panel license needed.
Defensia includes a full malware scanner: 64,000+ hash signatures, 684 dynamic detection patterns, web shell detection in upload directories, cryptominer detection, rootkit checks, WordPress database scanning (posts, options, rogue admins), automatic quarantine, and a security posture score (0-100, A-F grade). All powered by a lightweight Go agent that uses under 50MB of memory even during scans.
Sources
Imunify360 pricing and feature set (imunify360.com/pricing, docs.imunify360.com). cPanel license pricing (cpanel.net/pricing). Defensia agent telemetry data across 9 production servers. All pricing and features verified April 2026.
Install Defensia in 30 seconds. Free plan includes 1 server, SSH protection, and the real-time dashboard. No control panel required.
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