How to Set Up Rate Limiting on Any Web App (Free, No Code Changes)

The Problem Your login page, search endpoint, or contact form is getting hammered. Rate limiting is the fix — but implementing it in application code means finding every endpoint, writing middleware, choosing a storage backend, and deploying changes. On a WAF, you set it once and it applies everywhere. Why WAF-Level Rate Limiting Is Better Approach Code-Level WAF-Level Setup time Hours to days 5 minutes Code changes Required None Applies to One endpoint at a time All routes with one rule Storage Redis/Memcached needed Built into WAF Performance impact Hits your app server Blocked at proxy Updates Deploy new code Change a rule in dashboard Step-by-Step: Rate Limit Setup 1. Log into SafeLine Dashboard Go to https://<your-ip>:9443 . Navigate to Rules -> Add Rule -> Rate Limiting. 2. Create Your First Rule — Login Protection Name: Login brute force protection Match: URL contains /login OR /wp-login.php OR /auth Limit: 5 requests per minute per IP Action: Block (return 429 Too Many Requests) Block duration: 15 minutes This stops credential stuffing cold. An attacker who tries 5 wrong passwords in 60 seconds gets blocked for 15 minutes. That's a maximum of 480 attempts per day — vs unlimited without rate limiting. 3. Search Endpoint Protection Name: Search rate limit Match: URL contains /search OR /query Limit: 30 requests per minute per IP Action: Challenge (JS captcha) Search endpoints are expensive. A single user running a script can do 1,000+ queries per minute and degrade performance for everyone. 30/min is generous for humans but stops scripts. 4. Global Baseline Name: Global request limit Match: /* Limit: 300 requests per minute per IP Action: Throttle Catches anything that slips through specific rules. 300/min = 5/sec, which is more than any human needs. What Happens When a Limit Is Hit SafeLine logs every rate limit trigger to the Attack Log. You'll see: Which IP triggered it Which endpoint they were hitting Time of the trigger Whether they got blocked, challenge