CrowdSec is an open-source, crowdsourced IDS that blocks malicious IPs using threat data shared by a global community. See features, pricing, and alternatives.
CrowdSec is an open-source intrusion detection and prevention platform that turns attack data from its global user base into a shared, real-time blocklist of malicious IP addresses. Founded in 2020 in France by Philippe Humeau, Laurent Soubrevilla, and Thibault Koechlin, the company built its Security Engine as a free, MIT-licensed alternative to running detection in isolation.
When one deployment detects an attack such as a brute-force attempt or a scraping bot, the anonymized signal is shared across the network so every participant benefits from what any other participant has already seen, creating a crowdsourced neighborhood watch for internet infrastructure.
The free, self-hosted Security Engine parses logs using configurable detection scenarios and hands off enforcement to modular bouncers that integrate with firewalls, Nginx, Apache, WordPress, and cloud security groups.
The hosted Console gives teams centralized visibility across many enrolled engines, while the paid CTI API and Platinum Blocklists expose CrowdSec's aggregated threat data for teams that want IP reputation scoring without deploying the full engine.
CrowdSec's Security Engine and Community Console tier are free to use. Paid options layer on top: Console Premium is billed per enrolled Security Engine on a pay-as-you-grow basis, the CTI/IP Reputation API starts near $49/month for 5,000 queries, and Platinum Blocklists start around $1,900/month for SMB customers.
Enterprise customers needing on-premises threat data replication for latency or compliance reasons can access local CTI synchronization starting near $9,000/month.
Yes. The core CrowdSec Security Engine and the Community Console tier are free and open source under the MIT license. Paid tiers add premium blocklists, a CTI API, and enterprise support.
When a CrowdSec deployment detects an attack, an anonymized signal is shared with the CrowdSec network, and every other participant's blocklist is updated with that malicious IP, creating a collective defense.
A bouncer is a remediation component that enforces blocking decisions made by the Security Engine, integrating with tools like firewalls, Nginx, Apache, and WordPress.
No. CrowdSec is designed to complement existing firewalls and WAFs by adding crowdsourced detection and blocking, not to replace network perimeter security entirely.
CrowdSec is used by individual server administrators, DevOps teams, managed service providers, and larger organizations including governments and financial institutions, with reported installs exceeding 100,000 across roughly 175 countries.
Fail2ban blocks attackers based only on what a single server observes, while CrowdSec shares detection signals across its whole user community so every participant benefits from attacks detected elsewhere.