As you know, WordPress is the most popular content publishing platform and is being used by millions of websites around the globe. Due to its popularity, hackers are very interested in hacking websites that use WordPress. WP itself is very secure and once developers find a vulnerability, they push an update to patch it.
Usually, WordPress based websites are hacked through third-party WordPress plugins and themes. There’re also other factors that can be used to hack WordPress. Here are some of them:
- WordPress Hosting server vulnerabilities.
- WordPress plugin security.
- Theme security.
- File permissions.
- WordPress database security.
- FTP vulnerabilities.
- Weak passwords.
- Users permissions.
- Your computer security.
- And more…
Your website security is very important and you must keep your WordPress installation secured as much as possible. Just imagine what will happen if your website gets hacked; private info of you and your website users/customers will be stolen, and many hours of your work will be missed up with. So you must take care of your WordPress installation security.
In order to make WordPress secure, you need to take care of many things. To help you with that we’ve done our research and gathered a list of most used WordPress Security plugins.
Don’t rely on WordPress Security plugins only
Don’t rely on a security plugin only to secure WordPress. There are many things to consider in order to make your website secure, here’re some things to consider:
- Always Keep WordPress, plugins, and themes up to date.
- Use a good WordPress hosting company.
- Use strong passwords.
- Take WordPress backup regularly.
- Don’t install WordPress plugins or themes from unknown or untrusted sources.
- Take care of permissions you give to your website users, authors and editors.
- Secure your computer.
Here is a list of the best WordPress Security Plugins that you can use to add an extra layer of security to your website.
Best WordPress Security Plugins
1. WordFence WordPress Security plugin
WordFence is the most downloaded WordPress security plugin with 1+ million active installs to date. It is a full-featured, powerful, and constantly updated security plugin for WordPress. This plugin provides protection from hacking, malware, malicious traffic and more features that make WordFence one of the most powerful free WordPress security plugins.
Here are some WF features that add extra WordPress Security layer:
- WordPress Firewall.
- Blocking Features.
- Security Scanning.
- Login Security.
- Monitoring Features.
- Multi-Site Security.
- Major Theme and Plugins Supported.
- IPv6 Compatible.
WordFence also has a premium API key that adds extra features like country blocking, scheduled scans, premium support and 2-factor authentication that allows you to sign in to WordPress using a password and your cellphone. The premium plan also checks if your website IP is being used for spamming.
2. iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security)
This WordPress security plugin from the known WordPress themes and plugins developer iThemes. This free security plugin for WordPress gives the user more than 30 ways to protect his WordPress site. Both beginners and experienced WP users can use this plugin. On one hand, it comes with 1-click installation for easy setup of the plugin, on the other hand, its advanced security options can be easily configured from the dashboard.
iThemes Security protects WordPress sites by fixing common security vulnerabilities, helps users choose strong passwords, stop automated attacks, and more security features. There is a security checklist in the plugin dashboard for easier maintenance.
3. Sucuri Security WordPress plugin
Sucuri is a well-known authority in the industry of WordPress and Website Security, their WordPress Security plugin is a scanning and monitoring tool for WordPress. This free WordPress Security plugin has 4 main features: Security activity auditing, Remote Malware Scanner, File integrity monitoring, and Overall WordPress Security Hardening.
This free security plugin is meant for experienced users and developers as it requires an understanding of codes and files within WordPress. Also, remember to use this plugin with another WP security plugin like WordFence or iThemes Security in order to have the best security level.
4. MalCare Security and Firewall
Another interesting free security plugin for WordPress is MalCare Security and Firewall. As the name suggests, the plugin is both a security plugin and a firewall. It also comes with a built-in login protection system that protects WordPress admin dashboard from Block brute force login attempts.
The plugin’s malware scanner scans your site’s code against 100 signals of malicious code. These malware scans are performed automatically on a daily basis. You can also perform a manual scan anytime easily with a click of a button. Moreover, the plugin keeps track of file modifications to detect the malicious activity of malware and viruses early.
MalCare free WordPress plugin also includes an intelligent, rule-based firewall. The firewall monitors all traffic including visits, login attempts, and errors and stores them in the database. MalCare servers collect the data on regular intervals from all websites, analyze it and use it to prevent attacks on the websites on their network.
The good thing is, most of the work is done on MalCare’s end, not your end. By performing security processes on MalCare servers, the plugin will not affect your website’s performance and speed.
Moreover, if you need more features you can use MalCare’s premium WordPress security service that comes with automatic malware removals, integrated offsite backups, and more..
5. All In One WP Security & Firewall
All In One WordPress Security & Firewall plugin is one of the most preferred WordPress Security plugins for beginners. Thanks to its user-friendly interface that makes configuring its security options easy. This free security plugin for WordPress will improve your site security a lot by adding a powerful firewall that prevents malicious scripts from changing your WordPress code. The firewall will also block fake Google bots from crawling your website and can prevent hot-linking of your website images.
In addition to the firewall, the plugin has powerful security features like login lockdown to prevent an IP address from guessing your password by continuously making failed login attempts “Brute Force Attack”. It also has a very useful tool that helps you create a strong password for your account.
6. Shield Security: Protection with Smarter Automation
Shield Security is a free security plugin for WordPress that has a high rating on WordPress.org’s plugin directory. The plugin focuses on being as silent as possible by lowering alerts and notifications to the minimum and automating most of the functions. It comes with a guided configuration wizard that makes setting Shared Security plugin as easy as possible.
Shield Security plugin features include
- Protection from Automatic Brute-Force attacks done by bots by limiting login attempts
- Automatically blacklists offending IP addresses
- Detection of malicious file changes by scanning WordPress core files
- Built-in Automatic SPAM protection
- 2-Factor Authentication via email and Google Authenticator app
7. Cerber Security, Antispam & Malware Scan
Another high-rated free security plugin for WordPress is Cerber. The plugin can secure your WordPress blog by limiting login attempts, scanning your site files and folders for malware.
Cerber Security also comes with file integrity checker, Two-Factor Authentication, scheduled scans, protection form SPAM and Bots, IP Black/White lists and much more…
8. Bulletproof Security
Bulletproof Security WordPress plugin protects your WordPress website/blog by adding a powerful firewall, protecting Database & backing it up, and protecting from Brute Force Login Attacks. It also scans the .htaccess file for malicious codes that may affect website speed and security. The plugin is easy to set up thanks to its one-click install wizard, besides that you can also configure its advanced options by activating manual mode.
9. Acunetix WP Security plugin
This free and comprehensive WordPress security plugin helps you secure your WordPress-built website by performing scanning for vulnerabilities. This plugin also hides WordPress version for non-admins in the back-end dashboard, Removes WP Generator META tag from core code, secures File permissions, passwords, and allows you to easily take WordPress database backup and more security options.
Note: This plugin was last updated 2 years ago and may have compatibility issues.
10. Brute Force Login Protection
This one-purpose WordPress security plugin protects your website against Brute Force Login Attacks by blocking the attacker IP address for a specific period of time using the .htaccess file.
11. Clef Two-Factor Authentication
Clef WordPress plugin provides an interesting, fast, and secure way to login to WordPress. The plugin works by installing Clef mobile app on your Android or IOS Smartphone. When you want to login to WordPress, open the app on your phone, hold it in front of the WordPress login screen and line up the patterns on both devices and you’ll be able to sign in. There are 2 versions of Clef, free and pro version.
12. Google Authenticator
Google Authenticator is the last WordPress security plugin on our list. It adds two-step or two-factor authentication to WordPress, instead of signing in using username and password only, another method of authentication is done for every new device such as a text, voice call or a mobile app.
This second authentication method is required once per device, so you need to do it one time per device. The plugin also supports security keys plugged in the USB port.
13. WP Antivirus Site Protection
As the name suggests, WP Antivirus Site Protection WordPress plugin is meant to protect your site against viruses, and malware. This free security plugin for WordPress scans all your WordPress installation files to detect malware, worms, spyware, backdoors, hidden links, rootkits, adware, Trojan horses, fraud tools and removes them.
This plugin scans your site files using Siteguarding.com API against the daily-updated virus database. When the plugin detects any threat it displays it in the WordPress Admin dashboard and will also send an email to you if you want.
Conclusion
Your website security is your own responsibility and you must work hard to make your WordPress installation as secure as possible. You should keep WordPress, plugins & themes up to date and you should use strong passwords. Also, don’t install themes or plugins from untrusted sources. To keep WordPress secure you need to use at least one WordPress security plugin to add more security layers to your WordPress website/blog and above we listed the most used Security plugins for WordPress.
If you can’t see your favorite WordPress security plugin on the list, do let us know using the comments below!
