6 Best WordPress Security Plugins

If you’re noticing malicious content sneaking into your WordPress website, you’re in the right spot to safeguard it.

WordPress security is paramount, particularly because you share a wide range of content and information on your site. These shared elements make your website more vulnerable to attacks from outside forces. That’s why it’s important to use plugins for WordPress security and take other steps to make sure your website stays safe from potential threats.

Using plugins for malware protection can be helpful. They’re like guardians for your website, constantly checking for bad stuff like viruses and other dangers. If they find anything suspicious, they’ll let you and your users know so you can take action to keep your site safe.

Why should you add malware protection plugins on your website?

Well by now you have known the benefits of WordPress security plugins. But we are about to tell you more beneficial reasons why you should some of the best WordPress security plugins on your website:

  • Protection against threats: Security plugins provide defense mechanisms against common security threats such as malware,brute force attacks, and unauthorized access attempts.
  • Addressing Vulnerabilities: These plugins aid in identifying and remedying weaknesses in your WordPress setup, ensuring it remains shielded from potential exploits.
  • Real-time Monitoring and Notifications: With security plugins, you receive timely alerts and continuous monitoring of your site’s activities, empowering you to respond swiftly to any security breaches.
  • Enhanced Firewall Protection: Many plugins offer built-in firewall defenses, bolstering security by filtering out malicious traffic before it reaches your site’s doorstep.
  • Efficient User Management: Security plugins simplify user role and permission management, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access by restricting user privileges.
  • Routine Scans and Cleanup: These plugins conduct regular malware scans and cleanup operations, guaranteeing your site stays free from harmful code.
  • Backup and Recovery Capabilities: Certain plugins feature backup and restore functionalities, enabling effortless restoration of your site to a previous state in the event of a security incident or data loss.
  • Support for Compliance: Security plugins provide assistance in adhering to security standards and regulations, equipping you with tools to implement best security practices effectively.

Follow along with this article to know the best plugins for WordPress Security:

Comparison of Best WordPress Security Plugins

PluginRatingsFree VersionPremium VersionActive Installations
WordFence4.7YesStarting from $119/ year5+ million
All in One WP Security4.8YesStarting from $83.30 / year1+ million
JetPack Protect4.8YesStarting from $119,40 / year100,000+
Solid Security4.6YesStarting from $199/ year900,000+
Shield Security4.9YesStarting from $99/year50,000+
Sucuri Security4.8Yesstarting from $36/year90,000+
Best WordPress Security Plugins

Wordfence

best WordPress security plugins

Wordfence is the best plugin for WordPress security, which protects your website firewall from threats and scans for any suspicious malware as well as login security.

The two factor authentication along with the reCaptcha login page adds more security to your website. Moreover, block logins for administrators using known compromised passwords.

Key Features of Wordfence:

  • This plugin checks for malware in the core files, themes and plugins. If there are any bad URLs, backdoors, SEO spam it redirects and injects code.
  • Another feature includes that alerts administrators to any differences between their installed files, themes, and plugins compared to those in the WordPress.org repository. This helps maintain the integrity and security of WordPress sites by notifying users of potential modifications made outside the official ecosystem.
  • Alerts you after checking your site for known security vulnerabilities. Moreover, it alerts you for any potential security issues when a plugin has been closed or abandoned.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA), is renowned as one of the most robust methods for verifying remote system access.
  • It automatically scans for any file contents, posts, and comments for dangerous URLs as well as suspicious content.
  • Protection from brute force attacks by limiting login attempts.

While the free version can do the work for the obvious security of your website, the premium version had more added features. If you feel like the free version is not sufficient for the security, you can always switch to the premium version of malware protection plugin. Some notable features of the premium version are:

  • Get real-time malware signature updates via the Threat Defense Feed.
  • Check if your site or IP has been blocklisted for malicious activity.
  • Real-time IP Blocklist blocks all requests from the most malicious IPs, protecting your site while reducing load.

If you want to upgrade to the premium version of this plugin, here are the price listings:

Download Wordfence for Free Purchase Premium

All-In-One Security (AIOS)

AIOS is a security plugin tailored for WordPress, offering user-friendly functionality and comprehensive features at no cost in its basic version.

This plugin gives you the Login Security Tools which keeps the bots at bay which protects your website form brute force attacks.

An automatic protection from security threats is provided by their web application firewall. Let us have some of the notable features of this plugin:

Key Features of AIOS:

  • Protect what you have worked hard to build with the content protection features.
  • Keep the bots away form the website by configuring a custom URL for the WordPress admin login page. Moreover, after many failed login attempts, external users can be locked for a configured period of time keeping your website safe.
  • All-In-One Security TFA supports Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy and many more.
  • Apart from the security breach this plugin provides the copywriting protection, disabling the third parties to simply copy and paste the contents from your website.
  • All-In-One Security stops SPAM at the source by preventing comments that originate from other domains.
  • All-in-one security adds 64 new characters to WordPress Salts and also changes them weekly which makes it even more challenging to the ones who are trying to crack your users WordPress passwords.

These features are limited however if you upgrade to the premium version there are some added advantages:

  • Alerts users to blacklist a site hacked with malicious code. This plugin monitors your site’s status daily and alerts you if youv’e been blacklisted.
  • 24 hour notification alert if there are any malware issues so that the action can be taken before it’s too late.
  • You’ll know immediately if website response time is negatively affected.
  • All-in-one Security checks website uptime every 5 minutes.

If you want to upgrade to the premium version of this plugin it starts at $70/year, you will gain access, on top of the features available in the free wordpress security plugin version.

Download AIOS for Free Purchase Premium

JetPack Protect

Jetpack Protect is a free and essential WordPress security plugin that scans your site and warns you about vulnerabilities, keeping your site one step ahead of security threats. It’s easy to use; setup requires just a few clicks!

By upgrading to the premium version you can get the added advantage of more features

Key Features of Jetpack Protect:

  • Check any vulnerabilities in your WordPress sites.
  • This plugin is best for anti-spam protection and bot prevention for your WordPress website.
  • Even with our utmost diligence, unforeseen issues can arise. This is where the backup function proves invaluable. Jetpack empowers you to stay ahead of any challenge by delivering instant, single-click backups, ensuring you can swiftly return online mere moments after a possible threat.

While the free version of Jetpack allows you to function various site security, it is always better to upgrade to premium version. The premium version of the JetPack has the following offers:

While the free version of this plugin can be downloaded from the WordPress site the premium version starts from $5 and can exceed to $14 as well if you want that added advantages.

Download Jetpack Protect for free Purchase Premium

Solid Security

Solid Security assures that your WordPrees website’s risk is nearly to zero. Protecting your site from potential cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities this plugin also automatically locks out any bad users identified by the Brute Force Protection Network.

Also, by upgrading to the pro version you get to protect your site before you even have a chance to address vulnerabilities.

Key Features of Solid Security:

  • This plugin secures your website in minutes.
  • You can choose between six different site security templates that fits your site needs. Other than just site security protection your website needs the perfect template. So, choose from, commerce, non-profit, blog, portfolio, and brochure templates.
  • The right type of security level for different types of users. During the process of setting up the Solid Security you can identify the website’s key user groups. Once identified the level of security can be applied according to each user group.
  • The two factor authentication is there to keep those bots from entering your WordPress website.

While the free version has limited features upgrading to the premium version has more added advantages

  • The pro version allows you to keep a record of the user activity in your WordPress security logs. This includes login/logout, user registration, adding/removing plugins, switching themes, and changes to posts and pages.
  • The premium version allows you to auto-update WordPress, plugins, and themes.
  • Automatically apply a security patch to vulnerable software detected by the Site Scab when one is available.
  • Enable twice-daily checks for known vulnerabilities of WordPress core file, plugins and themes.

While you can download the free version the premium version starts from $199 per year.

Download Solid Security for Free Purchase Premium

Shield Security

The shield security is another best WordPress security plugins that you can rely on when it comes to protecting your site from malicious security breach.

The main goal of this plugin is to block bad IPs and requests before they can cause any harm. From blocking all the automated comment spam, brute force logins, plugin vulnerability, as well as contact form spam the Shield Security does all the security work for your website.

Key Features of Shield Security:

  • Keep the bad bots away from your WordPress website for the optimal security
  • Our exclusive bot detection technology renders Google reCAPTCHA and CloudFlare Turnstile unnecessary, protecting WordPress forms from brute force attacks and eliminating bot-driven user registration spam.
  • Shield Security not only protects your WordPress site, it also provides security against tampering of key WordPress options.
  • Our smart security system detects and prevents the accidental blocking of vital third-party services like ManageWP, iControlWP, MainWP, Pingdom, NodePing, Statuscake, UptimeRobot, GTMetrix, Stripe, PayPal IPN, CloudFlare, and SEMRush, ensuring uninterrupted functionality and performance.

These are the basic features of this plugin, however if you upgrade to premium you get the benefits of various features of the best plugins for WordPress security.

Download Shield Security for Free Purchase Premium

Sucuri Security

Sucuri Inc., a leading authority in website security, specializes in WordPress Security. Their Sucuri Security WordPress plugin, now owned by GoDaddy, is freely available to all WordPress users. This comprehensive security suite enhances website defenses with features such as activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, remote malware scanning, blocklist monitoring, security hardening, post-breach actions, and timely security notification.

Key Features of Sucuri Security:

  • Unlike most WordPress security plugins that rely on built-in firewalls, Sucuri offers a DNS-level firewall, which is notably more effective in protecting websites from various threats.
  • Sucuri Security allows users to manually set the limit for login attempts before they are classified as brute force attacks, providing advanced protection against unauthorized access attempts.
  • Sucuri stands out by offering the ability to schedule security tasks, enabling users to automate essential processes such as backups, removal of unused elements, and security assessments on a regular basis, streamlining site management and enhancing overall security posture.

By upgrading to the premium version you can get the benefits of this plugin more. The pricing of the Sucuri Security

Download Sucuri Security for Free Purchase Premium

In conclusion, using best WordPress security plugins is like putting a strong lock on your website’s front door. These plugins keep out hackers, malware, and other digital threats, giving you peace of mind knowing your site is safe. Whether you go for Wordfence, All-in-One Security, JetPack Protect, Solid Security, Shield Security, or Sucuri Security, each one adds an extra layer of protection to your online space. So, take the step to safeguard your website and keep your digital home secure.