8 Best WordPress Security Plugins to Protect Your Site (Compared)

WordPress security plugins guard your website against viruses, brute-force attacks, and hacking attempts.

Why Use a WordPress Security Plugins?

A security breach on your website can cause some serious damage to your business.

• Hackers can steal your data or the data of your users and customers.
• A compromised website can be used to deliver malicious code to unsuspecting users and other websites.
• You may lose data, lose access to your website, be locked out, or your data may be held hostage.
• Your website can be destroyed or defaced, affecting your SEO ranking and brand reputation.

One of the most important steps in securing your WordPress site is to start using a WordPress security plugin.

1. Sucuri

Sucuri is the industry leader in WordPress security. It is among the top WordPress security plugins available.

Sucuri Website Firewall filters bad traffic before it reaches your server. They also serve static content from their own CDN server.

Most importantly, they offer to clean your WordPress site if it gets infected with malware at no extra cost. You can even take a website already infected with malware and they will clean it for you.

The following features are available to you when using the Sucuri plugin:

• File integrity monitoring.
• Blacklist monitoring.
• Basic security hardening rules.
• Failed login monitoring.
• Frontend malware scanning via Sucuri SiteCheck.

If you want to use Sucuri, the plugin can also assist you in integrating with it.

Pros

• Sucuri is a very established company.
• A CDN and expert malware cleanup are included in the premium service.

2. Wordfence

Wordfence is another popular WordPress security plugin. They offer a free version of their plugin that comes complete with a powerful malware scanner, exploit detection, and threat assessment features.

The following features are available to you when using the Wordfence plugin:

• Web application firewall (WAF) to prevent threats before they happen.
• Malware and vulnerability scanning to detect issues.
• Authentication measures for logins include two-factor authentication, brute force protection, and more.
• Block attackers by IP or geography.

You receive a user-friendly, well-designed dashboard to handle everything.

Pros

• It is a comprehensive security plugin that addresses every facet of WordPress security in a single program.
• It originates from a reputable and well-known company that proactively investigates WordPress security vulnerabilities.
• To stay on top of evolving threats, the firewall and malware rules are updated frequently.

3. iThemes Security

The creators of the well-known BackupBuddy WordPress plugin have created the security plugin iThemes Security.

Included features include file integrity checks, security hardening, login attempt caps, strong password enforcement, 404 detections, brute force protection, and more.

iThemes Security does not include a website firewall. Additionally, it uses Sucuri’s Sitecheck malware scanning instead of having its own.

The following features are available to you when using the iThemes Security plugin:

• Block automated WordPress attacks.
• Scan for vulnerabilities or malware.
• Activity logging.
• Brute force protection with cloud-based IP blocking.
• Two-factor authentication via authenticator apps or email.

Other unique login security features not present in the majority of other WordPress security plugins have also been included by the plugin.

Pros

• It comes from a well-established developer.
• It offers full-service protection.
• The dashboard is intuitive to use and well-designed.

4. All In One WP Security

A strong firewall, auditing, and monitoring plugin for WordPress security is called All in One WordPress Security. It enables you to easily apply basic WordPress security best practices to your website.

Several fundamental security hardening concepts can be implemented with the aid of the well-liked free security plugin All In One WP Security & Firewall.

It has capabilities like IP filtering, file integrity monitoring, user account monitoring, scanning for suspected patterns of database injection, login lockdown to avoid brute force attacks, and more.

The following features are available to you when using the All In One WP Security plugin:

• Brute force protection with login attempt limiting and strong password enforcement.
• Registration page protection (if allowing public registration).
• File permission checking.
• IP blacklisting.
• Based on the 6G firewall developed by Jeff Starr
• For the WordPress core program, file integrity checking.

Pros

• It’s 100% free.
• It’s easy to use.
• It enables you to confirm that you’ve applied the minimal security hardening required by the majority of sites.

5. Anti-Malware Security

WordPress security and anti-malware plugin Anti-Malware Security is superb and helpful. The plugin comes with actively maintained definitions that help it detect the most common threats.

The following features are available to you when using the Anti-Malware Security plugin:

• To defend yourself against fresh risks, download definition updates.
• Run a Complete Scan to swiftly get rid of known security risks, backdoor scripts, and database injections.
• Firewalls prevent malware like SoakSoak from using known vulnerabilities in plugins like Revolution Slider and others, like SoakSoak.
• Upgrade vulnerable versions of timthumb scripts.

You can quickly check for harmful code, backdoors, malware, and other known patterns of malicious assaults using its malware scanner to check all of the files and directories on your WordPress website.

6. WPScan Security

WPScan is a special WordPress security plugin since it uses its own manually curated vulnerability database, which is updated every day by committed WordPress security experts and community members.

They have a free security API suitable for most websites, but you can upgrade to the paid plan if you have a larger site and use a lot of plugins.

What does the plugin do?

• Checks for known WordPress vulnerabilities as well as plugin and theme vulnerabilities.
• Does additional security checks.
• Displays an icon with the total number of security flaws discovered on the Admin Toolbar.
• Sends you a mail notification whenever new security flaws are discovered.

7.Patchstack

Patchstack is an automated WordPress security tool that comes in both a free and premium version.

When new vulnerabilities are found in the plugins and themes you use on your website, Patchstack will send you an immediate notification. Due to extensive internal vulnerability research, Patchstack finds numerous problems.

The following features are available to you when using the Patchstack plugin:

• To defend against brute force assaults and zero-day threats, WordPress has a live firewall.
• Automatic virtual patching for newly discovered vulnerabilities.
• Hardening in general, including the prevention of image hotlinking and the addition of security headers.

Pros

• Receive instant notifications when vulnerabilities are found in your plugins and themes.
• Strong real-time firewall is available in the premium edition.
• Manage security for all of your sites from one unified dashboard.

8. Jetpack Security

You can concentrate on managing your company by using Jetpack Security’s simple, comprehensive WordPress site security.

The WordPress security toolkit Jetpack Security is produced by Automattic, the company that also created WordPress.com and WooCommerce.

The following features are available to you when using the Jetpack Security plugin:

• Jetpack Backup – automatic daily backups to Jetpack’s servers.
• Jetpack Scan – Jetpack will check your site’s backup for malware and let you fix problems with a single click.
• Jetpack Anti-Spam – Spam will be kept out of your forms and comments thanks to Jetpack.

Additionally, Jetpack can aid with activity tracking, downtime monitoring, and brute force prevention.

Pros

• It comes from Automatics, one of the largest WordPress companies.
• To protect your data, it has backups.
• It won’t slow down your site while being scanned because it scans the backup copy of it.
• With just one click, you can remove any virus problems.