Advanced Policy Firewall vs MalCare
Advanced Policy Firewall
rfxn.comMalCare
malcare.comSide by side
| Figure | Advanced Policy Firewall | MalCare |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $8.25/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Malware removal tools | 8.2 (#8) | 8.0 (#12) |
| Founded | 2002 | 2010 |
| Support | The maker directs users to the APF source repository and invites bug reports and feature requests through its issue tracker. | The pricing page lists expert response times of 72 hours for Free, 48 hours for Protect, 24 hours for Repair, and 6 hours for Fortify. |
Plans
In their own words
Advanced Policy Firewall
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.