Everyone considers security a crucial aspect of a website, there are a number of ways in which your site could become the victim of a security breach. Unsupported and outdated plugins and themes are one way. Weak password rules and unfettered access to WordPress is another. Hackers could also get in through your hosting server. This situation might exist due to the users’ ignorance or due to a lack of knowledge or time.
Needless to say, having a laser-eye focus on security is of the utmost importance when you’re a web developer, especially when you work on a platform like WordPress that already seems to have a huge target on its back.
Strengthening a website’s security is a long process, but some measures require less than a half of an hour of work. WordPress Security plugins are amongst these simple but useful methods of protecting your website.
We have made a list of WordPress security plugins. where you’ll find trustworthy security plugins to help keep your site secure.
Jetpack
Most people who use WordPress are familiar with Jetpack, and it’s mainly because the plugin has so many features, but it’s also because the plugin is made by the people from WordPress.com. It’s true that it meets only the basic security needs, but it’s still a reliable solution. It prevents brute force attacks, provides secure authentication, spam filtering, Daily or real-time backups of your entire site, Malware scanning, code scanning, and automated threat resolution and monitors the website for downtime.
That said, the paid versions of Jetpack are more powerful when it comes to security. For instance, the $99 per year plan includes malware scanning, scheduled website backups, and restoration if anything goes wrong. Furthermore, the $299 per year plan offers on-demand malware scans and real-time backups for the ultimate protection.
Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening
The Sucuri Security plugin offers both free and paid versions, yet the majority of websites should be fine with the free plugin.This plugin creates a great first impression with its clutter-free interface. The dashboard is user-friendly and provides useful information. You will find a complete audit of logs, a report on files’ “health,” and of course, the status of your security.
Sucuri Scanner performs scheduled scans and informs you about potential threats via email. Additionally, you can set up notifications for various user actions (e.g., plugin, theme, or widget installation or deletion, new user added) and it offers multiple variations of SSL certificates. You do have to pay for these, but it’s available in the packages, Advanced DDoS protection is available through some plans. If you don’t want to pay any money you still receive valuable tools for blacklist monitoring, malware scanning, file integrity monitoring, and security hardening.
Another plus of Sucuri Scanner is its modular approach to security strengthening. You can apply, revert, or check the defence actions for specific modules such as the Plugin and Theme Editor, Default Admin Account, or Information Leakage.
iThemes Security
iThemes Security (previously known as Better WP Security) gives you over 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress site. On average, 30,000 new websites are hacked each day. WordPress sites can be an easy target for attacks because of plugin vulnerabilities, weak passwords and obsolete software.
Although some basic security features are included with the free version, we highly recommend upgrading to iThemes Security Pro Version. It comes with two factor-authentication, password security, and a dashboard widget, among other features.
The security plugin offers file change detection, which is important since most webmasters don’t notice when a file is messed with, Add an extra layer of protection to your login by using the Google reCAPTCHA integration. The plugin compares your WordPress core files with the current version of WordPress, helping you understand if anything malicious is placed in those files, Other essentials like 404 detection, brute force protection, and strong password enforcement.
All In One WP Security & Firewall
All In One WP Security & Firewall is another popular WordPress security plugin to check vulnerabilities in your WordPress website. This plugin is easy to use and reduces the security risks by adding recommended security practices.
It protect against bruteforce login attack and lockdown if someone tries to bruteforce. It also sends you an email notification if somebody gets locked out due to failed login attempts. It detects if a user tries to save a weak password and forces him/her to use a strong password. It also monitors the account activity of all users and keeps track of username, IP and login date time.
It also allows you to schedule automatic backup and receive email notification. It also protects PHP code by disabling admin area editing. It adds a web application firewall in your website and enables 5G Blacklist to prevent various attacks. It denies bad query strings, prevent XSS, CSRF, SQL injection, malicious bots and other security threats.
It also has a security scanner which keeps track of files and notifies you about each changes in your WordPress system. It can also detect malicious code in your WordPress website. It blocks and protects your blog from comment spam. It also works with most plugins without any problem.
Shield Security
Shield Security is a complex security plugin that makes your website almost impossible to hack. It starts with user security by restricting privileges and verifying users’ identities by using two-factor authentication. Next, it blocks all malicious threats and scans the website to detect altered files. Finally, it creates a firewall to prevent any hacker intrusions. All these features combined considerably strengthen your website’s security.
Here are some of the things Shield Security will do. Off-site security key included, Activity auditing, Firewall protection, Two-factor authentication, Brute force protection, Spam-blocker, Automatic core, plugin, and theme updates, IP address blocking.
Wordfence
WordFence is one of the most popular WordPress security plugins. It keeps on checking your website for malware infection. If scans all the files of your WordPress core, theme and plugins. If it finds any kind of infection, it will notify you. It claims to make your WordPress website 50 times faster and secure. For making your website faster, it uses Falcom caching engine. This plugin is free, but a few advanced features are available for premium users. If you can afford it, do it.
This plugin blocks bruteforce attack and can add two factor authentication via SMS. You can also block traffic from a specific country. It also includes a firewall to block fake traffic, botnet and scanners. It also scans your hosting for known backdoors including C99, R57 and others. If it finds anything, you will instantly get email notification.
It also scans your posts and comments for malicious code. It also supports multi-site. You can also check the traffic on your WordPress website in real time and see if there is any security threat attacking your website.
BulletProof Security
BulletProof Security is another popular WordPress security plugin that takes care of various things. It adds firewall security, database security, login security and more. It comes with four-click setup interface. Just activate this plugin and then relax. It will take care of your website.
It limits failed login attempts and blocks security scanners, fake traffic, IP blocking and code scanners. It keeps on checking the code of WordPress core files, themes and plugins. In case of any known infection, it notifies admin. It also optimizes the performance of your website by adding caching. It comes with built-in file manager for htaccess. It protects WordPress websites against various vulnerabilities including XSS, RFI, CRLF, CSRF, Base64, Code Injection, SQL Injection and many other. This plugin keeps itself updated with new vulnerabilities to keep your website protected. It keeps on updating it according to new exploits and vulnerabilities.
It also has a pro version which offers some advanced features to improve the security of your website. But the free version is popular enough to make your website secure.
Akismet
Akismet is the leading anti-spam plugin, and its authority is undeniable. The free version is more than enough for the majority of websites. Part of the Automattic family of plugins, Akismet handles all that nasty comment spam that often comes through on blogs. It’s a super simple plugin that takes all the thinking and actual work out of moderating comments or links from malicious entities you want to spare your readers from clicking on.
Cerber Security & Antispam
Cerber Security plugin has 50,000 active installs, and it’s rated five out of five stars. The signs show that this plugin fully deserves your attention. This plugin is part anti-spam, part login-fortifying plugin. Like many of the other plugins mentioned before, this one works on kicking out spammers before they can get through to your comments or contact forms. It also works to strengthen your login screen, changing the wp-admin address, adding a reCAPTCHA, and limiting login attempts.
It makes your website more secure by hiding the dashboard and the wp-login.php, wp-signup.php, and wp-register.php files. The plugin provides all the data related to users’ login and logout activities, and you can whitelist or blacklist IPs, IP ranges, or subnets. This plugin is gold in the battle against spam comments, and it’s compatible with all contact form plugins.
Conclusion
These are few WordPress security plugins you can use to make your WordPress blog secure. You do not need to download all these plugins. Just try anyone and see if it suits you. If you are not happy with its performance, you can download any other plugin to check and use. Every single plugin offers unique security features. You will feel relaxed after having any of these plugins on your website. Malware scanning, exploit scanning and brute force protection are few features which you must have in your website. If you have a good budget and do not want to be in technicalities, you can go for premium versions of the plugins which offer more advanced security features with detail reports. A few plugins also offer free customer support and security assessment with the pro version. With an increasing number of hacking attacks, it is necessary to have security in your website.