Advanced Policy Firewall vs BitNinja

Advanced Policy Firewall is a free GNU GPL firewall system for Internet-deployed Linux servers. It uses iptables/netfilter to combine static rules, stateful connection policies, and checks for attack patterns and forged source addresses. Administrators can configure granular inbound and outbound filtering, including rules based on users and applications. Additional controls include reactive address blocking, GeoIP country filtering, and Spamhaus and DShield lists. IPv6 dual-stack filtering can create ip6tables rules automatically. Documentation describes snapshots loading more than 1,000 rules in under one second, plus integrations with BFD, cron, systemd, Docker/Kubernetes, and logrotate. APF requires Linux, iptables/netfilter, and Bash, and supports legacy and nft backends. Listed systems include RHEL/Rocky/AlmaLinux 8 and 9, CentOS 6 and 7, Debian 12, and Ubuntu 12.04, 20.04, and 24.04. Development mode initially flushes the firewall every five minutes; only SSH port 22 is open by default.

BitNinja is a Linux server security suite managed from a centralized dashboard. Its scanner monitors web files and uses cloud AI analysis to detect malicious PHP, webshells, and backdoors, with automatic quarantine available. The web application firewall inspects HTTP traffic and blocks SQL injection, XSS, CMS exploits, and other suspicious requests before they reach websites. BitNinja says its Defense Network shares attack information across protected Linux servers to block malicious IPs. Listed integrations include 360 Monitoring, cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, Enhance, ISPmanager, and REST API endpoints. The site lists compatibility with Apache, NGINX, LiteSpeed, OpenLiteSpeed, Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Red Hat, CentOS, and VzLinux. Intended users include hosting providers, server owners, VPS operators, and shared or dedicated server operators. Pricing is freemium, with a free plan, a 7-day trial, and paid access from $8/mo. The VPS Free plan is free for up to 2 vCPU, up to 2 GB RAM, and up to 10 hosted users. BitNinja is headquartered in Debrecen, Hungary.