Sucuri Alternatives for Website Firewall and Malware Cleanup

Sucuri is a website security service best known for two things: a cloud firewall that sits in front of your site, and a team that cleans hacked sites. It still works, and GoDaddy owns it: the operating company is GoDaddy Mediatemple, Inc., d/b/a Sucuri. On the signup page the Security Platform costs $229, $339 or $549 a year for one site, and the cheaper firewall-only plans are $9.99 or $19.98 a month. The tiers differ mainly in how fast the cleanup team responds, from 30 hours on Basic to 6 hours on Business.

The alternatives below fall into three groups. Cloudflare and SiteLock filter traffic at the network edge, like Sucuri's firewall. Wordfence, MalCare and Patchstack run as WordPress plugins and protect from inside the site. Imunify360 runs on the whole server and suits hosts and agencies with root access. Pick the group first, then the product. Only some of them clean up a hacked site for you, and each entry says which.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Cloudflare

Cloudflare does the same edge job as Sucuri's firewall: you point your DNS at it, and traffic passes through its network before it reaches your host. Every plan, including Free, gets DDoS protection, the CDN and a WAF with the Cloudflare Free Managed Ruleset. That is more than Sucuri gives for $0, which is nothing on the firewall side.

The stronger rules are paid. The managed rules docs put the Cloudflare Managed Ruleset and the OWASP Core Ruleset on Pro, Business and Enterprise only. Pro is $20 a month on a yearly bill, and Business is $200. It works for any site, not only WordPress, and many hosts already integrate with it.

Best for: Any site owner who wants an edge firewall and CDN and can handle malware cleanup separately.

Pricing:

• Free: $0, includes WAF with the Free Managed Ruleset
• Pro: $20 a month billed yearly, or $25 monthly
• Business: $200 a month billed yearly, or $250 monthly
• Enterprise: custom contract, billed yearly

Watch out for:

• No malware removal. The plans page lists no cleanup service on any tier, so a hacked site still needs a plugin or a cleanup team.

Official site: Cloudflare.

Wordfence

On WordPress, Wordfence is the plugin most people already have. The plugin directory shows 5+ million active installations and version 9.0.2. It runs inside WordPress rather than as a cloud proxy, so it sees which user is logged in and which plugin file is being hit, and it needs no DNS change. Its malware scanner runs on your own web server too.

The free plugin is usable on its own. Premium, at $149 a year, gets firewall rules and malware signatures in real time plus country blocking and an IP blocklist. Care at $590 and Response at $1,250 add hands-on incident response, which is where hacked-site cleanup comes in. Response promises a 1-hour response time, 24/7.

Best for: WordPress owners who want a free firewall and scanner and only pay for cleanup if something goes wrong.

Pricing:

• Free: firewall and scanner with a 30-day delay on new rules and signatures
• Premium: $149 a year, real-time rules and signatures
• Care: $590 a year, adds incident response and a yearly audit
• Response: $1,250 a year, adds 24/7 incident response with a 1-hour response time

Watch out for:

• Free sites get new firewall rules and malware signatures 30 days after paying customers, according to the plugin directory listing. A plugin hole that is exploited in week one is not covered.
• Because it runs on your server, attack traffic still reaches your host and uses its CPU. It does not absorb a DDoS the way an edge firewall does.

Official site: Wordfence.

MalCare

Cleanup is where MalCare competes most directly with Sucuri. Its Repair plan, at $299 a year for one site, includes instant malware cleanup and a post-cleanup report, which is close to Sucuri Basic at $229 but with scans every 12 hours.

The tiers are clearer than most. Free scans weekly and alerts you. Protect, at $99, adds a firewall with virtual patching, bot protection and geo-blocking, but still only detects malware. Fortify, at $499, adds hourly scans, unlimited manual security fixes and help recovering from a host suspension. Five-site bundles cut the per-site price to roughly $60, $180 or $300.

Best for: WordPress owners and small agencies who want cleanup included without a separate incident fee.

Pricing:

• Free: weekly scans, basic firewall, 2FA for 2 admins
• Protect: $99 a year for 1 site, $299 for 5
• Repair: $299 a year for 1 site, $899 for 5
• Fortify: $499 a year for 1 site, $1,499 for 5

Watch out for:

• Protect, the cheapest paid plan, detects and alerts but does not clean malware. The pricing page puts removal in Repair and above.
• On the free plan, virtual patching applies only after 7 days and expert replies take up to 72 hours.

Official site: MalCare.

Patchstack

Patchstack attacks a narrower problem than Sucuri: the gap between a plugin vulnerability being published and the site owner updating. It tracks published WordPress plugin vulnerabilities and ships rules that block exploits of those specific holes, which it calls rapid mitigation, without changing any code on the site. For an agency with dozens of client sites that cannot all be updated the same day, that is the main appeal.

Pricing is aimed at developers and hosts, not single-site owners. The Developer plan is $69 a month on a yearly bill, or $828 a year, with 3 team seats and extra sites in blocks of 5 for $12.50 a month. Enterprise, agency and web host plans are custom.

Best for: Agencies and developers who manage many WordPress sites and want exploits blocked before updates go out.

Pricing:

• Developer: $69 a month billed yearly ($828 a year), 3 seats included
• Extra sites: +5 sites for $12.50 a month; extra seats $24 per seat per month
• Enterprise or Agency, and Web host: custom pricing
• First month free on Developer and Web host; no ongoing free plan listed

Watch out for:

• It is not a malware scanner. The pricing FAQ says Patchstack does not scan your files and will not help find existing malware, so a hacked site needs another tool or a professional.
• There is no free tier, which makes it a poor fit for one personal blog.

Official site: Patchstack.

SiteLock

SiteLock is the closest like-for-like swap: daily malware scans, automatic removal and a cloud WAF with CDN, sold per site. Sectigo, the certificate authority, bought SiteLock in 2021. Many web hosts resell it, so check your hosting account before buying direct.

The direct prices are monthly. Basic is $19.99 a month, Pro $29.99 and Business $44.99, with two months free on a yearly bill. Every plan scans the site and its code and database daily. The WAF and CDN start on Pro, which also patches some vulnerabilities automatically. Business adds 2FA for login pages, PCI reporting for the firewall and custom WAF rules.

Best for: Site owners on any CMS who want scanning, a firewall and removal on one monthly bill.

Pricing:

• Basic: $19.99 a month, daily scans, automatic malware removal, no WAF
• Pro: $29.99 a month, adds WAF and CDN
• Business: $44.99 a month, adds 2FA, PCI reporting, custom WAF rules
• Annual billing: 2 months free, up to 17% off

Watch out for:

• Expert cleanup by people is not in Basic. On Pro it needs SiteLock 911 bought separately or on an annual plan, and only Business includes it with annual billing.
• Basic has no firewall at all, so the plan priced near Sucuri's firewall gives you scanning only.

Official site: SiteLock.

Imunify360

For someone running a VPS or a hosting server, Imunify360 from CloudLinux protects every site on the box with one licence. It installs on the server with cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin or CyberPanel, or with no panel, and includes ImunifyAV+ for malware scanning. Licences cover unlimited websites and are priced by the number of hosting accounts.

The pricing page shows four tiers at $12, $25, $35 and $45 per server per month, falling to $5, $10, $14 and $20 with bulk pricing for 5 or more servers. For an agency hosting 40 client sites on its own server, that can cost less than one Sucuri Platform plan per site.

Best for: Hosts, agencies and VPS owners with root access who want to protect every site on a server.

Pricing:

• $12, $25, $35 or $45 per server per month, by number of hosting accounts
• Bulk pricing for 5+ servers: $5, $10, $14 or $20 per server per month
• Unlimited websites on every tier

Watch out for:

• If your number of users goes over the licence, the pricing page says the software stops working. Size the tier with room to grow.
• It needs root on a Linux server, so it is no use on ordinary shared hosting unless your host already runs it.

Official site: Imunify360.

How to choose

When to stay with Sucuri

Keep Sucuri if you want one vendor to run the firewall and clean the site, with no extra fee per incident. Its Security Platform includes unlimited manual cleanups on every tier, it works for any CMS, and the 30-day money-back guarantee on the signup page lowers the risk of trying it. Cloudflare plus a plugin can cost less, but then two companies share the job.

Frequently asked questions