Nova Scan vs Sucuri Platform - 2026 Comparison
Sucuri scans your site from the outside, through their cloud, after you point your DNS at them. Nova Scan runs inside your server, reads every file directly, and scans your database without touching DNS or sending any of your code to a third party. Here is the full 2026 breakdown.
Pricing
- Nova Scan: Free forever
- Sucuri Platform: $199/yr basic
Why Choose Nova Scan
- Four dedicated NDE engines catch zero-days and obfuscated payloads that remote cloud scanners simply cannot see
- All scanning runs locally - your code, database, and hashes never leave your server
- No DNS changes required - Sucuri only protects you once you hand them control of your traffic
- Deep server-side scanning reads every file, every database table, and every cron job
- Auto-clean with surgical rollback - Sucuri's free remediation is a manual ticket queue
- Free tier includes the full scanner plus pre-boot WAF (Sucuri's free tier is read-only scanning)
- Built for shared hosting - runs in plain PHP memory with no infrastructure changes
- Verified update chain plus a self-audit cron that detects tampering
Where Sucuri Platform Wins
- Bundled CDN with global edge network for traffic acceleration
- Managed malware removal service performed by human analysts (paid tiers only)
The Verdict
Sucuri's strength is its bundled CDN and managed removal service, which is real value if you want a third party handling everything for you and you don't mind redirecting your DNS to do it. For pure malware detection accuracy, deep scanning, and price, Nova Scan wins decisively. Running Nova Scan locally and keeping your CDN choice separate (Cloudflare, BunnyCDN, your host's edge) gets you better detection at lower cost with no DNS handoff.
Common Questions
Does Nova Scan replace Sucuri completely? For malware detection, firewall, and remediation - yes, completely. If you specifically rely on Sucuri's CDN and DDoS shielding, pair Nova Scan with Cloudflare (free) or any other CDN. You still come out ahead on price and detection.
Why does local scanning matter? Cloud scanners can only see what's publicly reachable over HTTP. Local scanning reads every file on disk, every database row, every cron job, every hidden directory, and every staging environment - including the backdoors attackers deliberately hide from public crawlers.
Is Sucuri's manual malware removal better than auto-clean? Sucuri's analysts do solid work on edge cases - but it's a ticket queue, not real time. Nova Scan's auto-clean handles the vast majority of infections instantly via quarantine and signed-repository restoration, with manual review available for whatever's left.