Coraza Web Application Firewall vs Monarx

Coraza Web Application Firewall

Model: Free and open source (Apache 2.0)

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Monarx

Model: Custom (contact sales)

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Coraza Web Application Firewall

• ModSecurity Compatibility

  Full compatibility with ModSecurity SecLang rule language. Existing ModSecurity rules and rule sets work without modification.

• OWASP CRS Support

  Native support for the OWASP Core Rule Set, providing protection against SQL injection, XSS, RCE, and other OWASP Top 10 threats.

• Go Native

  Pure Go implementation with no C dependencies. Embeddable as a library, usable as middleware, or deployable as a plugin for modern proxies.

• Proxy Plugins

  Official plugins for Caddy (coraza-caddy), Traefik, and HAProxy allow adding WAF protection with minimal configuration.

• Kubernetes Ready

  Lightweight enough to run as a sidecar or embedded in ingress controllers. Works with any Go-based K8s tooling.

• Audit Logging

  Detailed audit logging of blocked and flagged requests for security analysis and compliance reporting.

Monarx

• Real-time Filesystem Monitoring

  Monitors file system operations at the server level in real-time. Inspects files as they are being written, catching malware regardless of the delivery vector (HTTP, FTP, SSH, plugin updates).

• Pre-write Malware Blocking

  Blocks malware before it is written to disk, not after. This prevents the malware from ever executing, eliminating the window of compromise that exists with scan-and-clean approaches.

• Vector-agnostic Detection

  Detects malware regardless of how it arrives, whether through web exploits, compromised FTP credentials, malicious plugin updates, or supply chain attacks. Traditional WAFs only see HTTP traffic and miss other vectors.

• Shared Hosting Protection

  Protects all websites on a shared hosting server with a single deployment. No per-site configuration required. Particularly valuable for shared hosting environments where hundreds of sites share the same server.

• Malware Analytics Dashboard

  Dashboard showing malware detection events, trends, and affected accounts. Hosting providers can identify compromised accounts and take targeted action.

• Automatic Signature Updates

  Malware signatures are updated automatically as new threats are identified. The Monarx team maintains and updates the signature database without requiring manual intervention from hosting providers.

• Low Performance Overhead

  Designed to run on production hosting servers without noticeable performance impact. Filesystem-level inspection is lightweight compared to full traffic inspection by traditional WAFs.

• API Integration

  API for integrating Monarx data into hosting provider management systems, ticketing workflows, and customer dashboards. Enables automated responses to malware detection events.