Acra protects sensitive data in SQL and NoSQL databases, web applications, and backend applications. It offers field-level and searchable encryption, tokenization, and data masking, and can be deployed as a transparent SQL proxy, an HTTP/gRPC encryption API, or client-side SDKs. AcraServer supports PostgreSQL and MySQL wire protocols, including MariaDB; listed NoSQL and key-management integrations include MongoDB, Redis, Cassandra, TimescaleDB, Amazon KMS, Google Cloud KMS, HashiCorp Vault, Keywhiz, and HSMs. Acra can detect requests for planted poison records or honeytokens, raise alarms, and halt decryption. It also provides security logging for SIEM/SOC analytics and a crypto-signed audit log of access and security events. Server components run on Linux distributions including CentOS, RHEL, Debian, and Ubuntu, with Docker and Kubernetes-compatible images documented. The maker describes Acra as cloud-agnostic and supported on Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and DigitalOcean. Community Edition is free for nonprofit and business use; Enterprise Edition starts at $10,000/yr, with pricing dependent on deployments and requested features.
Who it is for
Community Edition is described as suited to prototyping and small-scale projects, while Enterprise Edition is aimed at large-scale and enterprise deployments. It may fit teams that need database encryption or masking alongside intrusion detection and audit logging.
What is good
- Offers encryption, tokenization, and data masking
- Supports SQL and listed NoSQL data stores
- Integrates with external key-management systems
- Can detect planted poison-record or honeytoken requests
- Cloud-agnostic deployment with Linux server components
What to know first
- Server-side components should not run on Windows
- Community Edition does not support MySQL Protocol X
- Enterprise Edition starts at $10,000/yr
Verdict
Acra offers several deployment forms and data-protection methods, with intrusion detection and audit logging alongside database support. Note the Linux server requirement and Community Edition’s MySQL Protocol X limitation when assessing fit.
Acra plans and pricing
All plansCompared on cloud encryption software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Customer key control
- mixed
- External KMS support
- Yes
- Deployment options
- hybrid
- Cloud coverage
- cloud-agnostic
- Automated key rotation
- Yes
- Protected data types
- multiple
