SafeLine is a self-hosted WAF(Web Application Firewall) / reverse proxy to protect your web apps from attacks and exploits.
Reverse proxy WAF with a web console, rate limiting and bot challenges, in front of your own sites.
alternatives to
Cloudflare WAF
Web application firewall that filters traffic at Cloudflare's edge in front of a site. A closed product from Cloudflare.
Side by side
| Tool | Fit | Stars | Licence | Terms | Self-hosted | Language | Latest | Last push |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SafeLine | Full replacement | 23k | GPL-3.0 | Open source | Yes | Go | v9.4.2 | 2026-09-28 |
| Anubis | Partial | 23k | MIT | Open source | Yes | Go | v1.27.0 | 2026-10-05 |
| ModSecurity | Partial | 9.8k | Apache-2.0 | Open source | Yes | C++ | v3.0.17 | 2026-10-03 |
| Coraza | Partial | 3.9k | Apache-2.0 | Open source | Yes | Go | v3.8.1 | 2026-10-06 |
| open-appsec | Partial | 1.7k | Apache-2.0 | Open source | Yes | C++ | 1.1.36 | 2026-09-06 |
Every alternative
5 alternatives
Weighs the soul of incoming HTTP requests to stop AI crawlers
Only the bot challenge: a proof-of-work check in front of a site to keep scrapers out.
ModSecurity is an open source, cross platform web application firewall (WAF) engine for Apache, IIS and Nginx. It has a robust event-based programming language which provides protection from a range of attacks against web applications and allows for HTTP traffic monitoring, logging and real-time analysis.
WAF engine for nginx, Apache and IIS on your own servers, used with a rule set such as the OWASP CRS.
- Language
- C++
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Stars
- 9.8k
- Latest
- v3.0.17
- Last push
- 2026-10-03
OWASP Coraza WAF is a golang modsecurity compatible web application firewall library
WAF library in Go, compatible with ModSecurity rules, embedded in Caddy, Envoy or your own proxy.
- Language
- Go
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Stars
- 3.9k
- Latest
- v3.8.1
- Last push
- 2026-10-06
open-appsec is a machine learning security engine that preemptively and automatically prevents threats against Web Application & APIs. This repo include the main code and logic.
Machine-learning WAF for NGINX, Kubernetes ingress and API gateways, without a CDN.
- Language
- C++
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Stars
- 1.7k
- Latest
- 1.1.36
- Last push
- 2026-09-06
Head to head
About Cloudflare WAF
- Vendor
- Cloudflare