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Security report for startbootstrap.com

Start Bootstrap · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Start Bootstrap is a well-established provider of free and premium Bootstrap 5 themes, templates, and UI tools aimed at web developers and designers. Founded in 2013, the company offers a mix of open source MIT licensed products and premium UI kits, positioning itself as a trusted resource in the Bootstrap ecosystem. The website is professionally designed with excellent content quality, clear navigation, and mobile optimization, catering effectively to its target audience. Technically, the site is built as an Angular single-page application leveraging Bootstrap, Font Awesome, and integrates multiple analytics and advertising services such as Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Adsense, and Facebook Pixel. The domain is registered with Squarespace Domains II LLC and uses Cloudflare DNS, with HTTPS enabled and domain status protections in place, although DNSSEC is not enabled. Security posture is good but could be improved by adding security headers and publishing security policies. Privacy compliance is currently weak due to the absence of privacy and cookie policies and consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional but would benefit from enhanced privacy and security transparency.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of startbootstrap.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching startbootstrap.com

This scan found 24 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
57
Security headers
30
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
66

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Start Bootstrap operates in the technology sector, focusing on web development tools and resources. Its business model combines free open source offerings with premium product sales, targeting developers, designers, and businesses needing Bootstrap-based UI solutions. The company has a strong market position with high download counts and a consistent brand presence. Revenue streams likely include premium theme sales and advertising. The ecosystem includes partnerships with major analytics and advertising providers but no identified subsidiaries or parent companies. Growth indicators include a broad catalog of themes and templates and active content updates. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to improve compliance and security posture to enhance customer trust and meet regulatory requirements.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections such as clientDeleteProhibited and clientTransferProhibited statuses. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a recommended best practice. No security headers were detected in the HTML content, indicating room for improvement in HTTP security configurations. The site uses reputable third-party analytics and advertising scripts, which introduce moderate user tracking but no evident vulnerabilities. There is no published security policy, incident response plan, or vulnerability disclosure information, which are gaps in security transparency and readiness. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were identified. Overall, the security posture is good but could be enhanced by implementing security headers, publishing security policies, and enabling DNSSEC.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement and configure HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies including user consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  4. Create and publish a security policy and incident response contact information to enhance security transparency.
  5. Regularly audit and monitor third-party scripts for vulnerabilities and minimize user tracking where possible.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Start Bootstrap
Description
Start Bootstrap develops free to download, open source Bootstrap 5 themes, templates, and snippets and creates guides and tutorials to help you learn more about designing and developing with Bootstrap.
Key services
Free Bootstrap themes, Bootstrap templates, Code snippets, Guides and tutorials, Premium Bootstrap UI products
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap 5, Angular 15, Font Awesome 6, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Adsense, Facebook Pixel, Cloudflare DNS
Frameworks
Bootstrap, Angular
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of reputable analytics and ad services

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Facebook Pixel
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Ad networks
Google Adsense
Tracking pixels
Facebook Pixel
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a professional, well-established provider of Bootstrap themes and templates.
  2. Content is rich with many free and premium offerings.
  3. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  4. Use of multiple third-party analytics and advertising scripts indicates moderate user tracking.
  5. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML content.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
  7. Domain is secured with HTTPS and has domain status protections but lacks DNSSEC.
  8. No signs of WAF or content blocking; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is a modern Angular single-page application utilizing Bootstrap 5 and Font Awesome 6 for UI components and icons. It leverages Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Google Adsense, and Facebook Pixel for analytics and advertising. The site is hosted with a registrar Squarespace Domains II LLC and uses Cloudflare DNS services. Performance is fast with preloading of fonts and images and lazy loading of images. The site is mobile optimized and accessible with good SEO meta tags including Open Graph and Twitter Card metadata. No CMS detected, indicating a custom-built solution. Technical risks include reliance on multiple third-party scripts which require ongoing security monitoring. The absence of DNSSEC and security headers are technical debt areas to address.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 68/100Medium31 findingsView report
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