WAF + DDoS Protection — complete website protection, one network

Websites face attacks at two layers: volumetric Layer 3/4 DDoS floods that try to drown your bandwidth, and Layer-7 application attacks — exploits, bots, credential stuffing, HTTP floods — that abuse the application itself. SucuraGuard covers both on one AS398999 anycast network across Toronto, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Singapore: DDoS scrubbing (2Tbps+ capacity) handles the flood, the WAF filters what's left. One vendor, one bill, keep your DNS — add one A-record and you're covered at both layers. WAF free to start, from $20/mo.

Quick Answer

Complete website protection means covering two different layers of attack, not one. SucuraGuard DDoS scrubs volumetric Layer 3/4 floods at the network edge; SucuraGuard WAF filters Layer-7 attacks, bots, and abuse at the same edge, on the same AS398999 anycast network. Traffic hits the anycast edge, gets scrubbed, gets filtered, and only clean requests reach your origin — one vendor, one bill, and you keep your existing DNS.

2 Layers
L3/L4 + L7 Covered
4 PoPs
One Anycast Network
2Tbps+
DDoS Scrubbing Capacity
1 Record
Keep Your DNS

Two Layers of Attack, One Edge

"Website protection" gets talked about as one thing, but attacks against a website arrive in two genuinely different shapes. The first is volumetric Layer 3/4 DDoS — UDP floods, reflection and amplification attacks, SYN floods, and other traffic that tries to saturate your bandwidth or exhaust connection state before a single HTTP request is even parsed. This is a network problem, and it's solved with scrubbing capacity and packet-level filtering, not application logic.

The second is Layer-7 application attack traffic: known-CVE exploits, vulnerability scanners, credential-stuffing attempts against a login form, scraping bots, and HTTP floods that look like real connections but abuse the application behind them. This is a request-level problem, and it's solved by inspecting and filtering HTTP traffic — which is what a web application firewall does.

A DDoS scrubber that only inspects packets has no visibility into a slow credential-stuffing attack running over legitimate-looking connections. A WAF that only inspects HTTP requests has no way to absorb a multi-gigabit flood before it saturates the link. Covering "website protection" honestly means covering both layers — which is why SucuraGuard is built as two products running on one network, not a single product claiming to do both jobs by itself.

How They Work Together

One request, one network, two checks — in order.

1

Anycast Edge

Traffic to your hostname routes to the nearest of our four PoPs over AS398999.

2

L3/L4 Scrub

Volumetric and protocol-level DDoS traffic is dropped at the network edge, at line rate.

3

L7 WAF Filter

What's left is inspected by the WAF — managed rules, custom rules, bot management, rate limiting.

4

Clean to Origin

Only filtered, clean traffic is forwarded to your origin server. Your server never sees either layer of attack.

Same network, same panel

Both layers are configured self-service in Nexus against the same account and the same hostname. There's no second dashboard to log into and no second vendor's support queue to open if something needs tuning across the two layers.

The WAF Layer

SucuraGuard WAF is a reverse proxy: it filters, caches, and terminates TLS in front of your origin. It is not a full CDN.

M
Managed & Custom Rules
Curated ruleset - covers known-CVE exploits, scanners, probes, and other bad request paths, on by default
Your own rules - match on IP, ASN, geography, TLS/HTTP fingerprint, bot score, or rate; version-controlled with diff and revert
B
Bot & Abuse Management
Scored bot-signal engine - cadence analysis and per-signal tuning on Pro and up
Credential-stuffing defence - watches configured login routes and tracks failures
L
Rate Limiting & Challenges
Token-bucket L7 rate limiting - scoped to a path or condition, not the whole site
Challenge engine + Under Attack Mode - invisible proof-of-work up to CAPTCHA, raised site-wide with one switch
E
Edge Caching, TLS & Origin Security
Anycast edge caching - cache purge, dev-mode bypass, and Always Online for a stale copy if origin drops
Auto-TLS + authenticated origin pull - certificates issued and renewed automatically; mutual TLS to your origin on Business

The DDoS Layer

SucuraGuard DDoS is network scrubbing, on the same anycast network as the WAF above — it isn't a CDN or an application feature, it's line-rate packet filtering.

2Tbps+ scrubbing capacity

SucuraGuard's established scrubbing capacity figure applies here too — the same DDoS layer already used across Sucura's hosting and remote-protection customers backs this bundle.

Volumetric & protocol coverage

UDP floods, reflection/amplification, SYN floods, and other L3/L4 attack traffic are dropped at the anycast edge before reaching the WAF or your origin.

Same four PoPs

Toronto, Chicago, Frankfurt, and Singapore — the identical anycast footprint the WAF runs on, so there's no separate routing path to reason about.

Priced by clean throughput

DDoS protection is sized and billed against clean-traffic throughput, separately from the WAF's rule-based pricing — see the pricing section below.

One Vendor, One Bill, Keep Your DNS

The usual way sites end up with "complete" protection is by stitching together two vendors: a WAF provider that wants your nameservers, and a separate DDoS provider with its own onboarding, its own dashboard, and its own invoice. Two support queues, two sets of credentials, two things to keep in sync when you change something about your origin.

SucuraGuard runs both layers as one product family on AS398999. You register your hostname and origin once in Nexus, add one A-record at whatever DNS provider you already use, and both the WAF and the DDoS scrubbing sit in front of that same hostname. Your nameservers, registrar, and other DNS records stay exactly where they are.

It's one account, one panel, and — for customers who take both products — one invoice, instead of reconciling charges from two unrelated vendors for two halves of the same job.

Pricing

The WAF is priced per account, unlimited domains, flat monthly fee. DDoS protection is priced separately by clean-traffic throughput.

Free
$0
Unlimited domains
5 custom rules
Managed WAF ruleset
Basic challenge
Basic edge caching
Pro
$20/mo
Unlimited domains
25 custom rules
Bot per-signal tuning
Credential-stuffing defence
L7 rate limiting
CAPTCHA challenge
Business
$200/mo
Unlimited domains
250 custom rules
Mutual-TLS origin pull
Custom certificate upload
Enterprise
Custom
Unlimited domains
Unlimited custom rules
Extended analytics retention
WAF prices are in USD; CAD billing is available. DDoS protection is priced separately, by clean-traffic throughput — see SucuraGuard DDoS for current plans and rates.
Start Free in Nexus → See DDoS Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need both WAF and DDoS protection?
They cover different layers. A volumetric L3/L4 DDoS flood tries to saturate your bandwidth or exhaust connection state before a request ever reaches an application. An L7 attack — an exploit, a credential-stuffing run, a scraping bot, an HTTP flood — looks like a normal connection but abuses the application itself. A DDoS scrubber alone won't stop a slow credential-stuffing attack, and a WAF alone won't absorb a multi-gigabit UDP flood. Most sites that only have one are exposed at the other layer.
How do they work together?
Both run on the same AS398999 anycast network. Traffic to your hostname routes to the nearest of our four PoPs, where L3/L4 DDoS scrubbing drops volumetric and protocol-level attack traffic first. What's left is passed to the WAF, which filters L7 attacks, bots, and abuse using managed and custom rules. Only clean, filtered traffic is forwarded to your origin server.
Is this a full CDN?
No. It's an anycast reverse proxy with edge caching and DDoS scrubbing, not a full CDN. The WAF layer includes cache purge, dev-mode bypass, and an Always Online mode that can serve a stale cached copy if your origin goes down — but there's no image optimization and no edge compute.
Do I change my DNS?
No. You keep your existing DNS provider and registrar. You add one A-record at your current DNS provider pointing your hostname at our anycast VIP — there is no nameserver migration and nothing else to move.
What does it cost?
SucuraGuard WAF starts at Free (unlimited domains, 5 custom rules, managed ruleset), then Pro at $20/mo and Business at $200/mo, with custom Enterprise pricing. DDoS protection is priced and sized separately based on clean-traffic throughput — see the SucuraGuard DDoS page for those plans and current rates.
Does the WAF stop DDoS by itself?
Not on its own. The WAF handles Layer-7 concerns — HTTP floods, application exploits, bot abuse, credential stuffing — at the reverse-proxy layer. A large volumetric Layer 3/4 flood (a UDP flood or a reflection/amplification attack, for example) is handled upstream by the DDoS scrubbing layer on the same anycast network, before that traffic ever reaches the WAF. That's the honest reason both layers exist rather than one product trying to do both jobs alone.
Is Sucura the same as Sucuri?
No. Sucura Networks is an independent Canadian network operator running our own autonomous system, AS398999. We are not affiliated with Sucuri (the website security company owned by GoDaddy) or with GoDaddy — the similar name is a coincidence.
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