Free tool

Essential Eight

Australian government's free baseline of eight security controls and maturity levels.

Visit site ↗Pricing ↗

Solid optionUseful free Australian baseline, but a framework to follow rather than a product.

See how Essential Eight fits your setup. Add the tools you already use.

Price

Free

Nonprofit offer

None found

Available in

🌍AnywhereBuilt for Australia 🇦🇺Australian government security guidance

Suits

Small · Medium · Large

Great for

Australian not-for-profits asked to show a security baseline by funders, government or insurers
IT providers helping charities plan security improvements
Free and official
Clear, widely used benchmark in Australia
Maturity levels let you start small

Watch out for

Organisations outside Australia
Tiny groups that need plain-English steps rather than a technical framework
Technical wording; usually needs IT help
Not mandatory for charities, so progress depends on you
Australia focused

Problems it solves

“Our funder or insurer wants us to follow the Essential Eight”“Where do we start with cyber security as a small charity?”“We need a free checklist of security basics”“How do we show our board that we are protected?”

About Essential Eight+

The Essential Eight is a set of eight security strategies published free by the Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre. They cover patching, multi-factor authentication, restricting admin access, application control, Office macro settings, application hardening and regular backups. It is guidance, not software, and it is mandatory only for some federal government bodies, but funders and insurers in Australia often use it as the benchmark.

Pricing: Free to read at cyber.gov.au. You may need IT support or software to put the controls in place. Maturity levels run from zero to three; third-party guides suggest level one as a starting point for small organisations.

Key features+

Eight mitigation strategiesFour maturity levels (zero to three)Maturity model and assessment process guideFree guidance from the Australian Cyber Security Centre

Data & privacy+

Not a software product; applies to your own systems.

How sure are we?+

Partly confirmed on the vendor's pages; some details from reputable secondary sources. Prices and nonprofit programs change often, so check with Essential Eight before you commit. Rankings on Nonprofit Tools are never for sale.

Sources · last checked 2026-10-02