31 Jan WordPress Security Plugins Compared

As a website owner you should be prepared for all kinds of situations and challenges including security breaches and hacker attacks. Recently over 10,000 WordPress websites suffered a massive attack and infested millions of visitors around the globe.

These types of malicious threats are not new anymore and advancements to technology have made it easier for hackers to detect vulnerabilities and hack into systems. This is especially true for WordPress because it’s the world’s most popular CMS.

Website owners should periodically conduct scans to protect their websites, limit login attempts, set up DDoS protection to keep hackers away from websites and blogs. Thankfully you can take care of all of these security measures with a single WordPress plugin.

We want to help you protect your site from hackers by helping you choose the best WordPress security plugin. Here is a comparison of plugins to help you find out which one is the best for your website.

Sucuri Security

Sucuri is a well-known leader in the cyber security industry. This plugin is free for all users with over 400,000 active users. It gets updated regularly and features file integrity monitoring for checking to see ndif any of the core files are affected or have vulnerabilities ad malware scanning and blacklist monitoring.

Pros:

• Developed by trustworthy company and gets regularly updated.
• Effective malware scanning.
• Security notifications and auditing to notify you of unusual behavior.
• Able to monitor file integrity.

Cons:

• Outdated user interface is not friendly.
• Website firewall only included in premium plan.

Wordfence

Wordfence is also free and is best for small websites and blogs and has over 2 million installs.

The main features of this plugin include: a website firewall, malware scanner with the ability to repair infected files and has the ability to limit login attempts to prevent brute force attacks. These features are included in the free plan with access to two-factor authentication, country blocking, and real-time threat defense feed added to the premium version.

Pros:

• Easy to use beginner interface.
• Built-in firewall and malware scanner.
• Limits login attempts.
• Monitors Google crawlers, bots and human visitors to detect unusual behavior.
• View and monitor login activity to detect hackers.
• Able to repair damaged files.

Cons:

• Can impact website performance.

iThemes Security

iThemes is a premium alternative and comes packed with a lot of features. Costing $80 per year, this is a good security plugin choice for large websites and magazine blogs. Features of this plugin include: a sleek interface where users can choose options they can turn on or off to activate the defenses that are most important to the website, brute force detection and malware scanning, 404 detection and basic database backups.

Pros:

• Powerful malware scanning.
• Protection against brute force logins with limit attempts.
• File change detection to let you know if someone changes important files.
• Can hide login and admin URLs.
• Built-in Two-Factor Authentication for password security.
• Instant email notification.

Cons:

• No built-in website firewall.
• Free version lacks useful security features.
• Slightly expensive plans.

SecuPress Free

SecuPress Free is a new WordPress security plugin and costs $1 per month. It has over 10,000 installs.

The free version has all the basic features including website firewall, brute force protection, and ability to hide the login page. However for those with bigger websites, the Pro plan can be worth considering. Features include: automated scans, database backups, instant notifications, Two-Factor Authentication, and plugin and theme vulnerability detection.

Pros:

• Malware scanning and website firewall.
• Limits login attempts to protect against brute force logins.
• 2-factor authentication and ability to hide login page (pro).
• Can block visitors from specific countries (pro).
• Detects vulnerabilities in themes (pro).
• PHP malware scanning (pro).
• Detect and block bad bots (pro).
• Automated scanning (pro).

Cons:

• Expensive premium plans.
• Free version has limited features.
• Reliability still questionable since the plugin is new.

When talking about website security, plugins aren’t the only measures you need. Website owners should also consider using a secure and managed WordPress hosting provider to avoid being a victim of hackers.