Finest WordPress safety plugin

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If you are reading this post because your website was hacked, download Sucuri now and get the company's help to completely fix the problem. For everyone else, Wordfence is my top recommendation for most users to prevent an attack.

A security breach on your WordPress site can bring your business to an immediate standstill. All of the hard work you have put into building your brand and customer trust is at stake.

How quickly can you identify and respond to a problem?

With the best WordPress security plugins, you can prevent attacks in the first place.

Bad actors will find that your website is not worth the effort as there are still many unprotected WordPress websites out there.

Don't be any of these unprotected websites. Hacks can bleed your budget and ruin your company's reputation. If your visitors' information is compromised, they have good reason not to come back.

My WordPress sites are the lifeblood of my business. With seven digit sales in multiple locations, I know I am a primary target.

I have a lot of experience with WordPress security plugins. I want to share some of my insights so that you can make sure your website, visitors, and reputation remain safe.

Here are the top WordPress security plugins and a quick guide to help you find the right one for your site.

# 1 – Sucuri Security – The best for WordPress developers

Sucuri Security helps companies protect all types of websites. WordPress security plugin is a great way to harden your website and prevent malicious attacks.

I don't recommend the free Sucuri plugin as a standalone solution. It does not allow access to a website firewall, which I consider a fundamental element of WordPress security.

If you are a web developer or agency that sells or manages WordPress websites for their clients, the cost of paying Sucuri is nothing compared to the benefits that come with it.

Sites with crippling DDoS attacks installed Sucuri and were fine within an hour. After they were hacked, WordPress administrators reached out to Sucuri and got their website clean and up and running before the day was up.

These are just some of the common stories Sucuri users have shared.

If you are responsible for protecting your customers' WordPress site, Sucuri is the place for you. You will get a detailed picture of what is going on on each website, as well as automatic notifications if an error occurs.

Sucuri is constantly scanning your websites for malware. Unlike Wordfence, Sucuri scans remotely (from their servers) so you don't have to resort to your own resources when scanning or loading your database.

The other benefit of remote malware scanning is that all data is securely stored in Sucuri, preventing attackers from deleting logs to cover their tracks. You will always know exactly what happened and how.

In the event a website is hacked, there is no better ally in your corner than Sucuri. There are no hidden costs for complete malware removal.

It is incredibly difficult to make sure a hack is 100% clean unless you are a fairly experienced software developer. With sucuri, it is guaranteed.

As I said, you need a paid Sucuri license to access the firewall. The reason for this is that it is a best-in-breed product. Sucuri can't just give it away.

It automatically blocks all unencrypted traffic, DDoS attacks, bots, brute force attacks, password cracking and malicious code. You also get granular control over the IP whitelist to ensure that only suitable users have access to admin panels.

You can also block visitors from certain countries. This can be very important when you notice a high number of attacks from a certain location.

There are some weaknesses in a cloud-based firewall, which is why Wordfence's endpoint firewall works so well. Sucuri solves this problem by including server-side scanning of the website.

This protects you from phishing pages, backdoors, spam, and other types of attacks that Sucuri's remote malware scanner does not detect.

The Sucuri Security Plugin is free, but in order to use many of the features just listed you need to get the full platform.

There are three levels available:

  • basic: $ 199 / year per location
  • professional: $ 299 / year per location
  • business: $ 499 / year per location

The difference in levels has more to do with how your service requests are prioritized.

Business tier licenses include a malware removal SLA of six hours. If your client's website is hacked in the middle of the night, it's guaranteed to be available again as soon as everyone gets back to work.

The other plans will still give you full malware removal, but it may take longer depending on the complexity and severity of the attack.

All plans come with a secure 24/7 ticketing system for customer support and a 30 day money back guarantee.

If you're looking for a free WordPress security plugin, I'd pick one of the other options on this list. However, if you have customers who rely on you to manage WordPress websites, paying $ 20-40 for the Sucuri platform is well worth the top-notch protection and security.

# 2 – Jetpack – The best for improving your entire website

Jetpack is one of the easiest ways to make your WordPress site faster and more secure. It's like a dozen plugins in one, so you can do more with less.

Not only is it convenient and efficient, but it is also safer. Plugins are the main target of WordPress hackers. Using fewer plugins reduces your attack surface.

In terms of security enforcement features, Jetpack isn't as robust as Wordfence or Sucuri, but it might be enough to do the job for your WordPress sites.

It covers the basics like automated plugin updates, 2FA, brute force protection, spam prevention, and malware scanning.

Anyone can find their way around the intuitive user interface without any technical issues. For those new to tech, Jetpack can be a refreshingly easy way to manage WordPress security:

You also get automated backups of your site. This is a feature reserved for an additional fee with Sucuri or another plugin with Wordfence. Oh, and you understand Unlimited storage space for backupswhich is huge for people with ecommerce sites.

In addition, the single Jetpack plugin gives you tools to help you design a beautiful website and increase your traffic.

I'll focus on the security side of Jetpack in this post, but I know that it has numerous design, growth, and performance features that you won't get with other options on this list.

Each of these features is one less plugin to install, which really compromises your WordPress security.

As I said, Jetpack is designed for general users. Yes, it's powerful, but it's just stupid to find out.

Even if you're away from your desk when you receive a notification, Jetpack's mobile app will walk you through the process of correcting it:

Jetpack is actually hosted by WordPress, which means all of these great tools won't put a load on your servers. Like any plugin, it can still slow your website down, but it's nothing compared to the 20-30 plugins you'll need to replace.

The reason some people complain that Jetpack is slowing down their website is usually because it conflicts with another plugin or because they have Jetpack modules enabled that they are not using.

This is not difficult to fix. The most popular modules are enabled by default, but you can control all Jetpack functions on one page:

Just check the ones you want, uncheck the ones you don't and watch the website's performance issues go away in the back view.

Jetpack Free offers a number of very helpful security features, including brute force attack protection, two-factor authentication, daily backups, daily scans and automatic plugin updates.

When you take advantage of the design, grow, and performance features, you get one of the better all-round WordPress plugins out there.

The paid plans for Jetpack have more security features like spam prevention and a much richer activity log for monitoring your website.

The pricing is divided into three levels:

  • Jetpack backup: $ 7.95 / month
  • Jetpack Security Daily: $ 19.95 / month
  • Real-time jetpack security: $ 59.95 / month
  • Jetpack complete: $ 79.95 / month

As you would expect, the difference between Jetpack Security Daily and Real-Time plans relates to the frequency of backups and scans. Instead of working once a day, Jetpack Security Real-Time continuously scans and secures your site.

You will also receive a year-long, real-time activity log instead of the 30-day archive that comes with Jetpack Security Daily.

For e-commerce and membership sites with a lot of active visitors, the additional safeguards that come with Jetpack Security Real-Time are really valuable. If your website has a lot of static content, the daily schedule is likely enough.

If your only focus is on safety, then don't worry about Jetpack Complete. It does not contain any relevant functions that are not included in Jetpack Security. The difference is in the CRM software features, which are great for managing customer relationships, but which I won't go into here.

All of the tools that come with Jetpack Free will work on all of the WordPress sites you manage. The paid features work too, but you need to purchase licenses for each site.

When problems or confusion arise, Jetpack has what they refer to as a "global team of Happiness Engineers" ready to provide incredible support. It's tempting, but what does it mean?

Well, Jetpack is made by Automattic – the same people who run WordPress – so it's safe to say that you will get quality support from experts who are knowledgeable about these things.

If Jetpack fails, you can request a cancellation within 14 days and receive a full refund.

I can only recommend Jetpack to people who are new to WordPress as it makes managing a website a lot easier. It's also great for people looking to increase security and reduce the number of plugins they rely on.

# 3 – Wordfence Security – Best for multiple WordPress sites

Wordfence is one of the top rated WordPress security plugins with an excellent free version that includes a lot of important security features.

Just install the free plugin on WordPress.org and provide an email address that Wordfence will use to send you notifications. Whenever an outdated plugin, malicious file or virus is detected, you will be notified immediately.

Wordfence is a particularly good option for people with a lot of WordPress sites to protect. Wordfence Central allows you to manage the security of all your websites in a single interface.

There are no fees or restrictions for Wordfence Central. Quickly track security events using the intuitive dashboard and configure alerts to be sent via email, SMS or Slack.

Given the security features available to you, it is hard to imagine how you could better or cheaper protect all of your websites.

The Wordfence security scanner will scan all of your WordPress core files, themes, and plugins for a variety of potential problems, such as:

  • Wrong urls
  • Back doors
  • Code injection
  • Malicious redirects
  • SEO spam

And that's with the free version. The only difference from the paid version is that the scanner checks that your website and IP address are not blacklisted and updates in real time with the Wordfence Threat Defense feed.

With Wordfence protecting more than 4 million WordPress sites, the company has incredible insight into the latest threats, malware signatures, and required firewall rules.

Premium Wordfence users get the latest security updates from the Threat Defense feed in real time. With the free version, you have to wait 30 days for the updates to be available.

The web application firewall (WAF) is also very well developed. Stop spam, bots, brute force and DDoS attacks.

Unlike other WordPress security plugins, Wordfence uses an endpoint firewall instead of a cloud-based one. This means that the firewall is actually running on the server it is protecting.

This picture simplifies what is going on and how a cloud-based firewall can cause problems that a WordPress-specific endpoint firewall cannot:

The combination of a strong firewall and a malware scanner is further enhanced by the logon security of Wordfence.

You get two-factor authentication (2FA) that uses temporary one-time passwords and login page CAPTCHA forms to prevent bots from breaking into your site.

With Wordfence Live Traffic included in the free version, you get a real-time picture of what is happening on your website by creating logs at the server level. This captures a lot more information than data visualization software like Google Analytics.

The downside is that enabling live traffic can seriously drain your server resources.

Because of this, Wordfence has a reputation for being a plugin that will slow down your website. This is especially true for people with shared hosting plans.

I recommend setting Live Traffic to Security Only to only track successful logins, attempted logins, and other security incidents. This will reduce the load on your server.

The free version of Wordfence will be more than enough for most WordPress owners, even if they have a ton of different websites.

If you need the added protection of Wordfence Premium, licenses start at $ 99 / year per site, with discounts for bulk purchases and longer contracts.

If you are not satisfied with the way things have gone, you can inform Wordfence within one month and receive a refund.

# 4 – All in One WP Security & Firewall – The Best Free Forever WordPress Security Plugin Forever

All In One WP Security & Firewall is a no-hassle option that is loved by people who would never call themselves WordPress security gurus. I am thinking of those who are great at using WordPress for their business but are less secure with the technical backend.

Regardless of your WordPress know-how, All In One makes protecting your website as easy and clear as possible.

The plugin is too forever free. There is no paid version. All of the features and functions they list are yours when you install them with no upsells to come upon you.

The downside is that you have to do a lot more on your own than with a plugin like Sucuri. As I said earlier, All In One makes it as easy as possible to maintain your WordPress security.

Let's dive in.

After installing the plugin, you'll see a simple dashboard with a security strength meter and a breakdown of security points:

No degree required to understand this. The score on the meter is based on the number of security features you have enabled. The breakdown explains how the points are scored.

It's great to get a quick temperature reading and just figure out how to increase your score when the needle moves into the danger area.

There is also a Critical Function Status field, which shows whether or not the most important safety functions are enabled:

That way, if you had to turn these features off for any reason, don't forget to turn them back on.

Not too complicated so far.

What about the other features that affect your security rating and protect your website?

All In One rates features like Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced based on how likely they are to cause problems on your website.

Basic functions improve security without much impact. Intermediate and advanced functions may affect other parts of your website depending on the other plugins used.

With All In One you can activate functions individually. The feature ratings indicate how careful you need to be.

This fixes a common problem with using WordPress security plugins. You're playing with a firewall setting and suddenly another plugin breaks.

Some of the most important security functions that you can safely control with All In One are:

  • Password Strength Tool
  • Automatically detect duplicate login names
  • Prevention of brute force attacks
  • Track and block login attempts
  • Add Google reCAPTCHA
  • Database and file security tools
  • Blacklist unwanted IPs
  • Flexible firewall
  • Scan WordPress for changes
  • Spam prevention

This is not even all that is included. You will find that there are some features that you will definitely have to pay for elsewhere. This is because they are not that deep.

For example, the scanner will alert you of changes to your WordPress system, but it will not detect or remove malware with the precision of Sucuri.

In other words, All In One lets you know something is wrong, but you need to figure out how to fix it.

Support is also limited to posting questions in the community forum. It's certainly not a concierge service – which is to be expected for a completely free plugin.

Your questions might be answered in a day or two, but that's a far cry from the on-demand customer service that paid plugins provide.

All In One is routinely updated and continuously developed. Experts designed it for non-experts. It's been a boon to hundreds of thousands of WordPress owners who have never had to pay a dime. Maybe it's for you too.

What I looked at to find the best WordPress security plugin

It is important that WordPress is protected from attacks. Finding the right security plug-in makes this task easier.

Finding the wrong one can damage your website, make it vulnerable, or slow down crawling.

You want increased security without a headache, so which one do you choose?

Use these criteria to evaluate your options. This will help you find a reputable WordPress security plugin that will cover your basics and work well for your site.

Plugin credibility

Experimenting with new plugins is a lot of fun, just not for security reasons.

Only use those that are popular and widely trustworthy. It is not difficult to do. Basically, everything you need to know can be found on the WordPress plugins page.

By scanning your options, you can quickly see how many people have installed the plugin and how highly it is rated by users:

This is all really good news. Wordfence is used by over 4 million people and it has 4.5 stars out of 5. That's pretty much the gold standard for plugin credibility.

There is no hard and fast rule for ratings and installs. Just don't try anything that only a few thousand people have used. Let other people work out the kinks.

If you click on Wordfence you will find a description of the plugin as well as some important information:

I would avoid plugins that haven't been updated in a year. Cybersecurity is moving too fast for this pace. There may be many new vulnerabilities since the last patch.

You can also dive into the reviews and read reviews. This is a good idea for credibility, but also to see how the security features work in the real world:

When you find a highly rated plugin, it will tell you whether it lives up to expectations or not.

Ultimately, just with what already works for WordPress users, especially in situations similar to yours.

Security functions

What do you need for your WordPress security plugin? Many users know that they want their website to be protected, but they don't know what it means.

Here are some of the key security features and how they keep you safe:

  • Automated backups to restore your site if something happens
  • Automated updates of WordPress Core and Plugins
  • Security warnings this notifies you immediately if something goes wrong
  • Scanning malware to make sure your website is clean
  • Spam protection for your forms and comment area
  • Operating time monitoring to notify you if the website is down
  • Brute force protection to prevent bots or attackers from cracking passwords
  • Blocklist / blacklist monitoring ensures that your website is not flagged by the regulatory authorities
  • IP surveillance Block known attackers
  • Activity log to track and monitor changes on your site
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) to secure logins
  • Web application firewall (WAF) to block malicious traffic before it reaches your website
  • CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test, to distinguish computers and humans. This will prevent bots from filling out forms or logging into your website.

You'd be surprised how much of it is in the free plans on this list. The difference to the Premium plans (besides being faster through customer service) is that you get a higher level of protection and control over these features.

For example, with the free Wordfence plan, the malware scanner covers core files, themes, and plugins for a number of potential cyber threats. With Premium Wordfence, your scanner will be updated in real time as soon as new malware signatures are detected. The free version will not be updated until 30 days later.

When looking at your various options, there are tradeoffs. Sucuri users get blacklist monitoring for free, which only comes with premium Wordfence.

However, with Sucuri only premium licenses get a website firewall, while Wordfence includes this standard.

Evaluate the compromises. If you already have a firewall, the free version of Sucuri is more appealing.

Use of resources

This should be taken into account with any type of plugin that all consume processor and server power to get their jobs done.

WordPress security plugins are notorious for consuming resources. There is no getting around it, malware scans and traffic logs of security incidents will put a strain on your system.

Think about it in terms of your hosting provider and your situation. What resources do you have and what are the costs of exceeding the limit?

You'll also want to know what control you have over a WordPress security plugin. Proper configuration can resolve many resource-related problems.

For example, you can disable the live feed for Wordfence or ask it to log only security incidents instead of all traffic. Many users claim that in case Wordfence is slowing down your website, that's all you have to do.

Jetpack is hosted by WordPress. This means your servers are underutilized, although memory and CPU usage can be an issue. Fortunately, Jetpack gives you precise control over which modules are enabled, so you can manage resources efficiently.

Plugin Compatibility

If WordPress is part of your larger online platform, then you should do a little research on how the plugin works across your entire ecosystem.

WordPress security plugins prevent bad things from happening on your website, but sometimes the extra protection can get in the way of legitimate users or cause other plugins to stop working.

Jetpack works well with WooCommerce as both plugins are made by the same company. In fact, Jetpack will likely increase the speed of the website for Woo.

However, if you use the BuddyPress plugin which turns your website into a social media venue, Jetpack has been known to cause problems.

I recommend going back to the reviews to see how compatible each WordPress security plugin really is:

The one star reviews are my favorite read. This is where you'll find situations where your plugin isn't working well, although I'll tend to skip the uppercase reviews.

It is also your responsibility to ensure that the plugins work well together.

I really like All In One WP Security because they help you understand which features of your plugin are most likely to affect other plugins you use.

It can be difficult to predict plugin compatibility, but you don't want to put it off. See what you can find out beforehand.

Responsive support

Choosing a free WordPress security plugin is just so much assistance. With All In One, for example, there really isn't anyone you can reach beyond the community forum on WordPress.org.

With plugins from WordFence, Sucuri, and Jetpack, you'll at least have to call someone, although fast response time is only guaranteed with the paid options. With Wordfence Premium you get direct access to competent advice, while answering the free support can take a few days.

You will notice the biggest difference in customer service when something bad happens.

After a hack, Sucuri will clean and restore your site. No other product I've reviewed offers this support.

For example, with Wordfence, you have to pay for a site cleaning service that costs you $ 490 per WordPress site.

If you've ever suffered an attack or have a WordPress that does a large amount of business, paying the higher price for Sucuri's top notch customer service is more than just a reassurance. In the long run, you and your customers can save a lot of money.

Conclusion

When it comes to WordPress security, plugins are part of a bigger battle.

You want to continue to practice security hygiene using common sense – strong passwords, no administrator accounts called "Administrator", constant updates on plugins and themes, etc.

Selbst wenn Sie das beste Plugin haben, können Fehler in diesen Bereichen zu Problemen führen.

All In One WP Security & Firewall hilft Ihnen dabei, den Überblick zu behalten, sicherzustellen, dass Benutzer sichere Kennwörter verwenden, und Sie zu benachrichtigen, wenn Plugins aktualisiert werden müssen. Dies ist eine einfache Möglichkeit, Ihre Website zu schützen und gleichzeitig Best Practices durchzusetzen.

Wenn Sie Jetpack verwenden, können Sie wahrscheinlich die Verwendung von 10 bis 20 anderen Plugins einstellen, wodurch Ihre Website verwaltbarer und sicherer wird. Darüber hinaus können Sie Ihr WordPress vor vielen der häufigsten Angriffe schützen.

Wordfence und Sucuri sind führend in Bezug auf Sicherheitsfunktionen. Die kostenlose Version von Wordfence ist definitiv besser als die kostenlose Version von Sucuri. Zwischen den beiden kostenpflichtigen Optionen hängt es von Ihren spezifischen Anforderungen ab.

Wenn Sie mehrere Websites besitzen, ist Wordfence sehr einfach zu verwenden. Mit dem zentralen Wordfence-Dashboard können Sie Ereignisse auf allen Ihren Websites in Echtzeit verfolgen und darauf reagieren.

Wenn Sie viele Websites für Kunden entwickeln, bietet Sucuri allen Beteiligten Sicherheit. Ihre Sicherheitsüberprüfungstools sind unübertroffen und ihr Ruf für Post-Hack-Reaktionen ist beispiellos.

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