Best WordPress Security Plugins

If you want to make your website as safe as possible, protect your content, your visitors’ personal data, and everything you work on, you should consider using the best WordPress security plugins out there. 

But out of the plethora that is currently available, you need to pick the ones that are winners in terms of effectiveness, but that won’t raise unnecessary technical difficulties. They have to be easy to use and convenient and basically protect your site with as little effort on your behalf as possible.

Without further ado, here’s a list of security WordPress plugins that are worth looking into. 

Top WordPress security plugins

1. iThemes Security Pro

With its user-friendly design and excellent convenience, iThemes Security Pro should be right at the top of this list. It has a wide variety of helpful features forms scheduled WordPress backups to the ability to limit login attempts, for example.

Other things you can use this plugin for range from plugin scans and 404 detections to a 2-factor authentication for more security. There are several plans available, but the cheapest one costs eighty dollars a year. 

2. Sucuri

This is one of the best-known WordPress security plugins out there. Sucuri has built an excellent reputation out of protecting websites, but it’s also a winner in terms of straightforwardness. 

Some of the features that it offers range from security notifications to a built-in web app firewall, malware scanning, file monitoring, and a variety of others that should convince you to give it a go. 

The downside is that Sucuri is among the most expensive security plugins for WordPress right now, with the paid plan costing a whopping $199.99 a year. That might be a bit too much for someone who’s starting out. 

3. Wordfence

If you’re not feeling prepared when it comes to making an investment and getting a paid plugin, there’s always the option of you trying out Wordfence. It is completely free, and it includes a range of excellent features that you can get without having to reach out for your credit card.

For example, you can use Wordfence for free, no matter the number of websites that you manage. You can monitor your visits and even the hack attempts and also see if someone tried to break your password.

On the other hand, this plugin doesn’t use its own server, and it’s not cloud-based, which means that it could slow down your website speed. 

4. All in One WP Security & Firewall

This is another plugin that you should consider giving a shot to, especially since it costs no money at all. Like Wordfence, this one is entirely free, but it does come with a number of helpful features that all assist you in making your website safer.

For example, you can benefit from firewall protection, comment spam prevention, IP filtering for blocking locations or specific IPs, and even a scan for any possible malicious patterns. Not only that, but you can also blacklist suspicious internet addresses, but you do have to do that manually.

It also supports login lockdowns if it notices that someone’s trying to repeatedly log into your website or blog. 

5. Defender 

The last security plugin that we are showcasing here comes with a fairly limited number of features if you don’t want to opt for a paid plan. However, it does allow you to blacklist suspicious IPs, and some of its other interesting benefits range from WordPress core file scanning to 2FA. 

What’s interesting about this one is that you need to get a WPMU DEV membership in order to be able to install it. That means that you pay just under $50 a month, but you do get access to over one hundred plugins for an unlimited number of websites that you might own. 

Do you need a WordPress security plugin?

Now that we’ve gone through our favorites in terms of the best WordPress security plugins, let’s look at a few reasons you want to make sure you use one. 

The first (and one of the most important ones) is that your customers’ data is going to be adequately protected. You wouldn’t believe the number of lawsuits that happen every year because of data breaches, so that is something you never want to go through. 

On top of that, if someone gets access to your logins, they can virtually make any changes whatsoever, beginning with a modification that doesn’t allow you access to your site in the first place. 

Just imagine a scenario where your site would distribute malware to your users. Not only would your brand be damaged in the long run, but your website’s ranking will also drop in terms of SEO. And once all of these changes have been made, it can be either impossible for you to recover your site or it can cost you a lot of money to get it back. 

Considering all of this, the least you could do is give Wordfence or All in One WP Security & Firewall a chance, especially since you don’t have to pay anything for using them. 

Craig Campbell

I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years. In this time I have gained extensive knowledge in the subject of SEO and have build up a wealth of experience in SEO and other digital marketing services.

See Full Bio