Top 12 Best WordPress Security Plugins

Why does security matters for your WordPress website?

Nowadays! With malicious practices such as the following:

• Phishing
• Viruses and malicious codes
• UI redress
• Cookie theft
• SEO injections
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Denial of service (DoS/DDoS)
• Brute force
• Many more…

These are all used to break down your WordPress website and affect its performance. The hackers are continuously trying to breach your website especially if it’s not secure enough.

Cybersecurity, data breaches, hacking are those things that every website owner is afraid of. Reports such as by a firm named Shape Security told us that 80% of the login attempts made on a retailer’s website is by hackers, who use stolen data. Thorough research by KPMG reveals that 19% of the consumers will stop visiting that website that has been breached.

Keeping all the stats in mind, one should always be worried about their website security. WordPress as the best CMS out there also has a lot of imperfections that attracts intruders to overpower your hard work. What is that you should be doing then for your WordPress website security? Well! The answers to all of your concerns are there. Following are the ways that you can adopt or choose to follow considering your comfort zone:

1. WordPress security practices
2. WordPress security plugins
3. WordPress security services/maintenance
4. WordPress website hosting

Why use WordPress security plugins?

There are many WordPress security plugins available online, the reason for that is to harden your website’s security. They usually help you to enable and tackle everything from login security to allowing someone to use a single tool by applying restrictions. They help you in maintaining security for your WordPress website from every angle whatsoever. If you have a large website with a lot of traffic, WordPress helps you to add plugins very simply to minimize the risk of a breach. The more the plugins, the lesser the risk of security threats.

The main issue with a large number of plugins is that there is a great deal of maintenance that is needed for their regular updates. But it’s not an issue if you have a smaller site. Other than that there are services available online to take care of your plugins updates. They help you maintain your WordPress security check, keeping you secure one way or the other.

Following are the top WordPress security plugins available online:

1. Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening
2. iThemes Security
3. Wordfence Security
4. All In One WP Security & Firewall
5. Jetpack
6. WPS Hide Login
7. Anti-Malware Security
8. Login LockDown
9. BBQ: Block Bad Queries
10. BulletProof Security
11. VaultPress
12. Shield Security

1. Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening

It is a globally recognized security plugin for all WordPress website owners. It is almost a complete package for securing your website from all the big bad wolves out there. It specializes in WordPress security. Its main purpose is to hold down your already available security features and help them in their posture. It offers its users a set of those security features that help the owner of the website to uphold their site’s security. The Sucuri Security WordPress Plugin creates a positive effect on the security of your website.

One of the greatest features that this plugin offers is the Security Activity Audit Logging. It develops a log of all the activities on your website to keep it safe. So, if God forbid your website gets hacked, he/she will not be able to remove your forensic data.

Another interesting feature that Sucuri Security provides is File Integrity Monitoring. It creates “Known Good” for your website. If your website differs or goes on a path other than “Known Good”, then you have a problem and it will automatically notify you. The most effective part of this plugin is its Remote Malware Scanning through a powerful scanning engine, SiteCheck. After facing an unfortunate attack, it guides you in its Post Hack Security Actions to retrieve the data. It is one of the best free WordPress security plugins out there and is considered essential for your WordPress website nowadays.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 500,000+

2. iThemes Security

iTheme Security plugins when installed works to protect your site, following are the key features of this WordPress plugin:

• It blocks bad users by securing passwords and other vital information.
• Limits the login attempts and ban hosts that use brute force attacks.
• It scans your site and reports vulnerabilities. Sometimes it fixes those security holes by itself also.
• It monitors the site, detects and block numerous attacks to your filesystem and database.
• It changes the URL for WordPress dashboard areas and removes the theme, plugin and core updates notifications from those users who do not have the permission to update them.
• It detects any 404 errors which are hidden on your site that can affect your SEO such as bad links or missing images.

iTheme Security makes regular backups of your WordPress database, helping you to get online as soon as possible in an event of an attack. You can easily create an email database backup on your customizable schedule. Overall, it hardens your WordPress and is easy to use. It is also used globally from beginners to experienced professionals.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 900,000+

3. Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan

It is the most popular WordPress Firewall and Security Scanner. It was built for WordPress and included endpoint firewall and malware scanner. It is up to date and is the most comprehensive WordPress security solution available online. Its constantly updates Threat Defence Feed, Wordfence Firewall stops you from getting hacked. Scanning the same proprietary feed, it alerts you instantly about any security issues or if your website is compromised. The feature of Live Traffic View enables you to see real-time visibility into traffic and hack attempts on your website. The Web Application Firewall helps you in detecting malicious traffic by blocking users who are attempting to get into your website.

It blocks common WordPress security threats such as Googlebot, malicious scans from hackers and botnets. It scans how files have changed and repairs changed files that are security threats. It constantly scans for malware and phishing URL’s which include the URLs in Google Safe Browsing List in all your website areas such as comments section, posts or files, etc.

One of the best monitoring features that Wordfence has to offer is that it monitors disk space. The reason for this is that many DDoS attacks try to consume all the disk space o create a denial of service.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 3 Million +

4. All In One WP Security & Firewall

All In One WP Security & Firewall Plugin uses a grading system to measure to what extent you are protecting your website based on all the activated security features on your site. It covers the following major security vulnerabilities of your WordPress website:

• It detects the user account which comprises of the default “admin” username and changes the username to your choice.
• It adds Google reCaptcha or plain maths captcha to WordPress Login form and to forget password form also.
• Limits the login attempts to prevent Brute Force login attack.
• It enables and allows you to manually approve of every account made by a new user on your WordPress website.
• It automatically schedules your regular backups of your DB or you can instantly do a backup with a single click.
• It disables file editing from the WordPress administration area to protect your PHP code.
• It Instantly activates a selection of firewall settings ranging from basic, intermediate and advanced.
• It performs a whole Lookup of a suspicious host or an IP address and gets full details in that matter.
• It identifies SPAM comments and allows you to block them with a single click.

WordPress security evolves overtime and All In One WP Security & Firewall Plugin keeps updating with time with all the new security features that you need.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 800,000 +

5. Jetpack

Jetpack plugin gives your website a security detail in prevention from brute force attacks and unauthorized logins. It includes the following tools to make your website secure:

• It includes spam filtering and downtime monitoring.
• Creates backups for your entire site.
• With 2 factor authentication, it allows secure login to your website.
• It automatically scans your website for malware, code, and automated threat resolution.
• It creates a record for every change that you make on your website to simplify troubleshooting.
• By activating the site’s accelerator tools, the plugin will optimize your images and serve them through their own powerful global network and helps in speeding up your mobile site to reduce bandwidth usage.
• It helps you in managing your simple PayPal buttons for selling products and services.
• Shows your website’s stats and analytics that will help you understand your website’s performance.
• You can connect it with your official WordPress mobile apps, to manage it from anywhere you like. Making it a very user-friendly plugin.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 5 Million+

6. WPS Hide Login

WPS Hide Login Plugin allows the website owner to change the URL of the login form page to anything they like. It does not change the core of the files nor does it add rewrite rules. It only intercepts page requests.

The wp-admin directory and wp-login.php page become inaccessible, so you should bookmark or remember the URL before saving it. If you disable this plugin, the website will return to its original state. Using this plugin will save the website from an outsider trying to enter your website through your files.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 400,000+

7. Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall

This WordPress security plugin offers the following services:

• After running a complete scan it automatically removes any security threats, backdoor scripts and database injections.
• It identifies known vulnerabilities from other plugins and its firewall blocks SoakSoak and other malware from exploiting Revolution Slider.
• It also downloads Definition Updates for protection against new threats.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 200,000+

8. Login Lockdown

Login LockDown Plugin prevents brute force password discovery. It records the IP address of every failed login attempt and also records the timestamp. If a lot of failed login attempts are made by the same IP range, this plugin disables the login function for the amount of time that you have selected, for that particular IP range.

A very helpful and a light plugin with very lockdown support for your WordPress website security.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 200,000+

9. BBQ: Block Bad Queries

BBQ checks and scans all the incoming traffic on your website and blocks any bad requests or excessively long requests strings. Websites which are unable to use a strong .htaccess firewall, this plugin is the solution for it. It blocks the following:

• Malicious requests to a wide range.
• Directory traversal attacks.
• File uploads by intruders.
• SQL injection attacks. You can also customize this plugin using Whitelist/Blacklist Plugins.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 100,000+

10. BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security Plugin when installed, helps the user’s website in the following ways:

• WordPress security protection by malware scanning.
• .htaccess website security protection i.e. firewall.
• It secures and monitors the login function of your website.
• It will help you in backing up your database. Both, automatically bu scheduling it or you can do it manually.

After an extensive usage of this plugin, we can guarantee you that your website will definitely become bulletproof form the attacks done by hackers.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 70,000+

11. VaultPress

Out of many WordPress backup plugins, the best WordPress security plugin is “VaultPress”. It helps you in backing up your posts, comments, media files, revision and dashboard settings in real time to their servers. So, if unfortunately your website gets attacked or gets hacked, you can easily back up your data and come online ASAP.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 80,000+

12. Shield: Security, Scanning & Protection for All

When it comes to rating, this best WordPress security plugin based on 5-star ratings is “Shield: Security, Scanning & Protection For All”. The reason for that is because this plugin covers most of the basic and advanced security measure that a website mostly needs. Following are the key features or services that you will receive if you use this specific plugin:

•  Limits login attempts and block brute force attacks.
• Its detection is really strong and detects the changes in the files that you might never see.
• It automatically manages IP’s and blocks all the bad ones by identifying them. It gives the user 2-factor authentication, thus making the site more unbreachable.
• Firewall protection and reCAPTCHA is also one of its strongholds.

Download: Free

Active Installation: 80,000+

Last Say!

As the world is evolving day by day, you must also evolve with it. When your website becomes famous or is attracting more traffic then it means that your WordPress site is also attracting a lot of unrequired users. They will try to break down your website and use it for their own dirty work. For that purpose, you need to use these security plugins regularly to protect your creation. Hopefully! You will remain safe.

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