In this article, we will discuss the five best WordPress security plugins. There are plenty of plugins available for securing your WordPress website but we will keep our discussion limited to the most common only.
WordPress is the most widely used content management system. About 26% (1.4 billion) of all websites are built using this CMS. The popularity of WordPress is due to its ease of use. You can make your own website even if you don’t know how to code.
This popularity has made WordPress a honeypot for hackers. Every third hacker is a WordPress hacker. It is, therefore, necessary to make your WordPress site as secure as possible. Fortunately, WordPress has an extensive forum that deals with these vulnerabilities, but it is crucial to protect your website before an attack.
WordPress core files are written in PHP and are incredibly secure, but excessive use of free plugins and themes makes it vulnerable to attacks. The code of plugins and themes available to us is also accessible to hackers. It is therefore vital to consider the security of the WordPress site before jumping to building a project with this CMS. Many people object to WordPress being vulnerable, but it is its popularity that makes it a top choice for hackers.
There are many WordPress security plugins, but we will keep our discussion limited to the most widely used and secure ones.
Why should you pay attention to WordPress security?
As discussed, WordPress itself is very secure. If you don’t use third-party plugins and themes, then the security risk is very minimal but using these security plugins further secures WordPress. Using a plugin for security has many advantages, including
- File scanning
- Protection from brute-force attacks
- Sit and do file scanning
- Regular security scans and monitoring
- Notifications about possible vulnerabilities
As you may know, there are many plugins for every single task in WordPress, and so is security. The list is very long for WordPress security plugins, but we have studied and tested these exceptional plugins to be the best for WordPress security.
iTheme Security Pro WordPress Plugin
iTheme Security Pro is a paid WordPress security plugin. The cost of a single site is $80. You will get support and updates for one year. If you want to receive support and updates after one year, you will have to renew your license. The plugin will work even if you don’t renew, but you will not receive further updates and support.
The plugin configuration is straightforward, and you don’t need a level of expertise to configure it. The user interface is very simple and straightforward. This plugin has the following features:
- Blocks every suspicious IP
- 404 detection
- Two-factor authentication
- Regular email notifications about the status of the site
- You can limit the number of invalid login attempts
SUCURI
It is the best free WordPress security plugin available. It also has a paid version, but the free one works out of the box as well. Its cost is $200 per year for the basic plan. Following are some of its main features:
- Malware scanning
- Free cleanup after malware detection
- Provides firewall protection
- It completely blocks malicious traffic
- It has a cloud for each site and offers static resources from its CDN
- Prevention against brute force attacks, SQL injection, and all other known attacks
- It stops hacks through hardening or virtual patching
All in one wp security
All-in-One WordPress Security and Firewall is a free, stable, and easy-to-use WordPress Security Plugin. It will add a lot of security practices to your site. It will take your website to a whole new level. Following are some of its main features.
- IP blocking
- It makes it difficult for a hacker to guess it’s a WP site by Removing WordPress generator meta information from the HTML source
- Remove WordPress version information from CSS and JS files
- Prevent people from accessing readme.html, wp-config-sample, and license.txt files
- Prevent users from accessing the front of your site when you do maintenance
- You can import or export your security settings
- Other websites cannot display your content via frame or iframe
- User account monitoring
- Website-level firewall
- You can blacklist users manually based on their IPs
Jetpack Security
Jetpack Security claims to offer anything a website needs related to security. This plugin also has free and paid versions. Its cost is $99 per year. It provides the following features:
- Downtime monitoring
- Basic activity log
- Site stats
- Lazy loading images
- Unlimited image CDN
- Automate the social media posting
- Daily backups
- Daily malware scanning
- One-click security fixes
Wordfence
This plugin protects your website with the best security measures available. Wordfence also has free and paid versions. The free version has many features deemed necessary for security. Its cost is $99 per year for a single license.
It has the following features:
- Real-time IP blacklist
- Monitoring
- Preventing hack attempts
- Limit failed login attacks
- Real-time signature updates for malware
- Real-time firewall rule updates
Conclusion
That is all about WordPress security plugins. I hope you got all the features of each plugin in detail. You can pick any one of these Plugins according to your budget and needs. If you have any questions, please ask in the comment section. We will reply to your queries as soon as possible.
