WordPress security is a concern for all of us who have self-hosted WordPress sites. With nearly 24% of the websites on the Internet built in WordPress, we’ve become a rich and entertaining playground for the hackers of the world. Finding the best WordPress security plugin for your site can be a challenge.
If you search the plugin repository at WordPress.org for ‘security’, you’ll get over 1,000 results. How do you know which is the best WordPress security plugin to use to enhance the security of your site? Below are what we consider to be the 5 best WordPress security plugins to help you reduce the overwhelm in making a choice.
Comprehensive WordPress Security Plugins
These plugins offer a one-click option to secure your site which is great for folks who want the added protection but don’t want to have to configure settings. Most also have premium versions with additional features.
- Wordfence Security: Wordfence starts by checking if your site is already infected. We do a deep server-side scan of your source code, comparing it to the Official WordPress repository for core, themes, and plugins. Then Wordfence secures your site and makes it up to 50 times faster. Wordfence Security is 100% free and open source. We also offer a Premium API key that gives you Premium Support, Country Blocking, Scheduled Scans, Password Auditing and we even check if your website IP address is being used to Spamvertize.
- iThemes Security: iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security) gives you over 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site for free. It works to fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials. With one-click activation for most features and advanced features for experienced users, iThemes Security can help protect any WordPress site.
- All In One WordPress Security & Firewall Our security and firewall rules are categorized into “basic”, “intermediate,” and “advanced.” This way, you can apply the firewall rules progressively without breaking your site’s functionality. The All In One WordPress Security plugin doesn’t slow down your site, and it is 100% free.
- Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening: The Sucuri Security WordPress Security plugin is free to all WordPress users. It is a security suite meant to complement your existing security posture. It offers its users seven key security features for their website, each designed to positively affect its security posture.
- BulletProof Security BulletProof Security uses a one-click setup method vs. breaking up options and settings into multiple separate different options and settings. One-click is literal if you are setting up BulletProof Security using the Setup Wizard.
Additional WordPress Security Plugins for Specific Issues
The following are some plugins we’ve used to address specific issues in the WordPress sites we maintain for our clients, which you might also find useful.
- WP Security Audit Log WordPress’ most comprehensive user monitoring and audit log plugin keeps a WordPress audit log of all users’ changes and under the hood WordPress activity. Identify WordPress issues before they become security problems.
- Login Security Solution A simple way to lock down login security for multi-site and regular WordPress installations.
- Plugin Security Scanner This plugin determines whether any of your plugins have security vulnerabilities. It does this by looking up details in the WPScan Vulnerability Database. It also adds a new menu option to the admin tools menu called “Plugin Security Scanner”. Clicking this runs a scan. If the scan finds any problems, it shows you a list of plugins that have vulnerabilities, along with a description of the issue.
Need Help?
WordPress security is a complex endeavor, for sure. These plugins simplify the process, but we totally understand if you’re still unsure how to proceed.
Our WP Anti-Hack Plan takes the stress out of managing your WordPress site by doing all the technical hard work for you. Creating and verifying backups, updating your software, plugins, themes, maintenance, and security tasks are all officially off your plate.
