Security plugins are a critical part of your website, especially as it enhances your customers’ security while they are browsing your website. To assist you in choosing the most suitable WordPress security plugin for your requirements, we’ve accumulated 8 excellent choices that can help with security hardening, firewalls, and malware scanning.
However, before delving into the best security plugins, lets first answer some important security questions related to WordPress.
Is WordPress Secure?
WordPress is, by far, the most recommended CMS to build a website, considering it’s fairly easy and provides many features. However, this also comes with the side effect of many malicious players around the world creating WordPress websites that are scam sites, sometimes filled with malware.
Hence, the question of whether WordPress is secure or not has been raised quite a few times.
First things first, it’s true that hundreds of thousands of WordPress sites get hacked every year. While that surely sounds bad, the good news is that hackers aren’t gaining access to sites due to some drawbacks or shortcomings of the CMS.
Instead, many sites get hacked from totally preventable points, like not keeping things renewed or using weak passwords.
If you’re wondering how to secure your WordPress website, mentioned below are some of the WordPress vulnerabilities that you need to take care of while building your website, to ensure hackers aren’t able to easily gain access.
WordPress Vulnerabilities To Look Out For
Regardless of whether your website is brand new or years old, you should periodically check and optimize your site to secure your website from the vulnerabilities mentioned below:
Outdated themes and plugins
Like any different CMS, themes and plugins face certain WordPress security issues or errors. When developers know about these issues, they immediately fix it and publish a security patch in a sort of an update. Hence, always ensure you’re making use of the most recent update of a theme or plugin.
Pirated Plugins and Themes
Another pretty common vulnerability seen on WordPress websites is the appearance of pirated software.
Pirated WordPress theme and plugins provide you access to the premium version of the software for free. Website proprietors looking to lower down costs are influenced to utilize pirated themes and plugins for WordPress instead of purchasing the premium versions.
This results in their site getting attacked or hacked. Hence, only opt for reliable vendors while purchasing a theme or plugin.
The WordPress Login Page
The login page enables you to enter your WordPress admin dashboard, which is why hackers target it more than any other page. Furthermore, it’s simple to obtain the login page of a WordPress website because all WordPress sites appear with a default login page like website.com/wp-admin.
Hackers unusually attempt to break into the login page by themselves. They add bots to crack a login page and work out various combinations of username and password. If you are utilizing an easy-to-remember login credential (like username – admin and password – p@ssw0rd), the bots can decipher it in a few minutes.
Hackers can then access your website and begin doing malicious activities. Hence, ensure you keep an uncommon password that the bots can’t crack easily.
How To Pick The Right WordPress Plugin
Plugins make WordPress a dream come true for newcomers. Nevertheless, with more than 56,000 WordPress plugins obtainable in the formal plugin directory, users find it challenging to find the best WordPress plugin for the job.
In this article, we will explain to you how to pick the best WordPress plugin:
Before You Start
When searching for a plugin, the first thing you should do is pen down precisely what you want this plugin to do. You could even build a checklist with points that you’re looking for (in the order of significance).
How to Search for a Plugin
The WordPress plugin index is the starting point for some people. You can easily locate this index from your dashboard.
Comparing Plugins – Which One to Download?
Once you have shortlisted a couple of plugins, you can open these plugin pages in different tabs to compare them. WordPress plugin page includes data about the plugin, what it does, how to utilize it, etc. You can use this data to determine whether or not this plugin is the most suitable fit for you.
Check Plugin Reviews
When a customer evaluates a plugin, they are requested to write a summary and rate the plugin. You can view these reviews by clicking on the rating bars. For instance, if somebody has given a plugin one star, then you can click on the 1-star link to see their detailed review.
Check The Compatibility
While it’s feasible to diagnose compatibility concerns after downloading the plugin, it’s more helpful to try and decide if a plugin will crash your site before you install it.
As you can never 100% guarantee this, there are steps to reduce the possibility of facing any compatibility issues significantly.
Before installing any new plugin, check for the following:
- You should make sure the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress. This data is recorded on every entry in the WordPress Plugin Directory, and on several other sites that sell plugins.
- Examine to see if the plugin has been renewed recently. In overall, dodge plugins that haven’t been renovated in the past six months.
- Get a look at the plugin’s user ratings and reviews. These will give you a basic idea of its quality. Plus, users will usually specify any compatibility issues they’ve faced in their reviews.
- Contemplate whether the plugin’s functionality overlays with anything previously installed on your site. Having two plugins that modify the same feature doesn’t prove there will be a problem, although it does increase the risk.
Best WordPress Security Plugins
Now that you have sufficient knowledge about WordPress plugins, let’s delve into the best WordPress security plugins that you could consider integrating with your WordPress website.
1. Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening:
The most reliable free WordPress security plugin accessible is arguably Sucuri. The all-in-one security program and WordPress malware scanner is fiercely famous for good reason.
Although Sucuri is a prominent free WordPress security plugin for websites, the pro version is the real must-have.
Features:
- They will clean up your WordPress site at no extra cost if it receives malware.
- WordPress Firewall protection assists you prevent brute force and malicious assaults from entering your WordPress site.
- Lets you administer malware scanning.
- Powerful security hardening.
2. iThemes Security:
If you are a WordPress user, you might be accustomed to the company that created iThemes Security Pro as they also made the popular BackupBuddy plugin and additional exceptional plugins and themes. All of their tools give an easy-to-use interface for brute force safety protection and more.
Features:
- Two-factor authentication for an additional layer of security.
- Robust password enforcement.
- 404 disclosure and plugin scans.
- Programmed WordPress backups.
3. Jetpack:
Another excellent all-in-one solution on our list for the most reliable WordPress protection plugins is Jetpack. This well-known plugin allows you to quickly scan your website for security vulnerabilities and has more than 5 million active installs.
Features:
- Signals you through email the minute it identifies that your WordPress site is down.
- Guards your site against brute force login assaults, spam, and dangerous malware.
- Site backups and 1-click restore.
4. Wordfence Security:
Wordfence is a free plugin that has a few astonishing security features that protect your WordPress site without you needing to spend a cent.
Features:
- Free to work for as many sites as you want.
- Monitors visits and hack trials in real-time including origin, their IP address, the point of the day, and the time consumed on your site.
- Records and signals you about breached password usage so you can make a new strong password instantly.
5. All In One WP Security & Firewall:
It’s simple (and free) to use, the All In One WP Security & Firewall is the most useful practices for security to your small business website. However, the tool is rather basic and not as beginner-friendly as the more well-known solutions.
Features:
- Scanning for malicious patterns.
- IP filtering to prevent particular people and geographic locations.
- Login lockdowns after failed login tries.
- See a list of locked out users to unbar individuals in only a few clicks.
- A password strength tool to enable you to create suitably strong passwords.
6. BulletProof Security:
BulletProof Security is a WordPress security plugin that does not seem all that cool but offers you a few basic security characteristics for free, so it’s worth staying on the list.
Features:
- A moderately easy-to-use setup wizard.
- Malware scanning and firewalls.
- Database backups.
- Login security.
7. VaultPress:
This tool provides basic security tools that monitor suspicious actions on your website, with tabs for seeing your history and viewing which threats have been dealt with or neglected. You can further check out stats and maintain your full security detail from the comfort of a clean dashboard.
Features
- The pricing is more useful than several other premium WordPress security plugins.
- The dashboard seems clean and simple to understand for all users.
- You can create real-time or manual backups utilizing a calendar.
8. SecuPress:
SecuPress is a more modern security plugin on the market (formerly issued as freemium in 2016), but it’s one that’s rising rapidly. It’s formed by Julio Potier, one of the primary co-founders of WP Media, who you may recognize, as they develop WP Rocket and Imagify. There are both a free version and a premium version which incorporates a lot of extra features.
Features
- The UI in SecuPress is one of the best! This makes it very straightforward to use, also for beginners.
- The premium version surely adds a lot of importance. Check 35 security points in 5 minutes, get a detailed report, and then strengthen your WordPress site.
- It involves the capacity to modify your WordPress login URL so bots can’t locate it.
In Conclusion: PlugIns Are Great, But You Need More
While WordPress security plugins are an absolute must and are highly effective, you can’t solely rely on the plugins to ensure complete safety for your website. Always check manually and ensure you keep your theme and plugins up-to-date.
