CrowdSec Reviews

“Free, brilliant lifesaver for startups!

Pros

It doesn't cost anything and as someone running two very early-stage companies that's an absolute lifesaver. It's brilliant software that I've installed on all my machines from simple SSH gateways to more advanced setups.

Cons

The interface looks great but it can get complicated when you set up more advanced protection modules. It stops being a simple one-click process and since many modules are built by the community the instructions can be inconsistent.

“useful web stats!

Pros

Getting it up and running is simple.

Cons

The web dashboard displays helpful statistics and lets you check suspicious IP addresses.

“Open source with simple pattern matching

Pros

My favorite part is that it's open source. You can analyze your server logs to stop malicious traffic similar to other tools but using pattern matching that's much simpler to write and set up. Building new log parsers is easy and it's incredibly effective at keeping a huge amount of harmful traffic away from your systems.

Cons

A downside is that you need a paid plan if your system needs to process more threat data than you contribute. The standard SSH and web attack coverages do handle most common threats though.

“Simple setup that works!

Pros

The setup and operation are simple. It works with most common programs right out of the box.

Cons

I'd like a web-based management panel the ability to add more IP addresses to block and an option to export lists.

“Very user-friendly :)

Pros

It's very user-friendly and one of its strongest points is how simple it is. In just a short time I can have it installed, set up and running a protection module to shield my servers.

Cons

No cons as such.

“Simple protection for websites

Pros

Pretty simple to get running on separate machines and offers great basic protection for websites, including WordPress. It also works well with other self-hosted tools.

Cons

I'm not a fan of how unclear the pricing is for accessing more than two blocklists. I've tried asking them for a cost several times but never got a reply. The connection with OPNsense is also underwhelming as the interface offers very few configuration options.

“single-panel monitoring

Pros

I love how I can link all my machines to a single control panel and monitor the activity on each one from there.

Cons

I've noticed that some of the services we use don't have officially supported log readers and threat profiles so we frequently have to build our own solutions for them.

“Technical documentation needs improvement

Pros

I've been working with Linux systems and security for over two decades. Switching from another popular tool to this one had a noticeable learning curve for me. It's missing a lot of ready-made plugins for common software and creating your own involves many components and a new, unconventional language. For instance OpenVPN is extremely common yet there's no pre-built setup or plugin for it. I found it wasn't quick or simple to create a protection rule for my OpenVPN ports unlike with other tools where you can make a rule faster and with fewer files.

Cons

I don't find the technical guides to be very thorough or easy to understand compared to other open-source projects in this field.

“simple to install and manage!

Pros

It's simple to install and look after. It's easy to add new detection rules and blocking actions. You also get "free" protection from a shared blocklist that's built from reports submitted by all users.

Cons

There's nothing I can point to that I don't like about it.