Top 10 WordPress Security Plugins to Keep Your Site Safe

Do you have a website on WordPress, and you want to secure it from any hacking, virus, or other online threats?

Every single day, hackers are managing to hack thousands of sites made in WordPress. The hackers continuously hunt for weak spots on the website; they do not just target very large websites. Around 43% of websites are hosted on WordPress, which is one of the biggest CMSs, and that’s why, it has become a greater target. On average, a WordPress site faces an attack every 22 minutes, for that, you must need protection with a security plugin on your site.

There are a lot of plugins out there that can help in keeping your site secure, having features available such as website scanning, firewalls, and login protection. Some might be free, but most have a paid version with advanced features and functionality.

Below, we discussed the top 10 WordPress security plugins, which might prevent hacker attacks. We will let you know what they do and which might be best for your website. Let’s begin!

◈ Quick Overview: WordPress Security Plugins ◈

The table below summarizes the features of the top 10 WordPress security plugins. This table gives you an overview of the plugins that we discussed.

➥ Why You Need to Care About WordPress Security

According to a recent report, 90,000 attacks happen every minute on WordPress websites. That’s huge! It does not happen with big businesses only; even small sites might be a target. Hackers use special software that scans for websites with weak security, like old plugins or simple passwords, and once they find a way in, they can cause all sorts of trouble.

When your site gets hacked, it can be terrible. You could lose important data, get blacklisted, or even completely taken over. If you run a business, that could also mean potential lost customers and lost money. Moreover, cleaning up a hacked site can be super stressful and expensive.

➥ How WordPress Security Plugins Can Help

WordPress plugins are the best way to secure WordPress for your website. These plugins will work as a safeguard for your website. These plugins can block hackers and stop them before they even reach your site. By scanning for malware, they examine your site for harmful software and assist in its removal.

Block Hackers: Prevent attacks before they even reach your site. 

Scan for Malware: Examine your site for harmful software and assist in removing it.

Protect your login: Block bots, and enforce tough login procedures, so that only trusted people have access to your site.

See the Weaknesses: Some plugins can disguise the areas of your site where hackers usually focus their attention. In doing so, they make exploiting vulnerabilities more difficult.

Monitor activity: You will receive alerts whenever suspicious activity occurs to take quicker speculation before anything gets out of hand.

➥ Top 10 WordPress Security Plugins to Keep Your Site Safe

Here is the list of the top 10 WordPress security plugins that can help you protect your WordPress website. Each plugin covers different needs; so, explore and choose the best fit for your website.

Wordfence – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security

Wordfence acts like a safeguard at your website’s gate. It is highly in demand because it blocks hackers and many other threats effectively. It offers a firewall that keeps bad traffic away from your website. It scans viruses and malware-like threats that may be hidden from your website. If problems are detected, it serves with the fixing too!

Features Included:

• Firewall: Blocks unwanted traffic to limit the access of hackers to protect or harm your site.
• Malware Scanning: Scanning the site for harmful software and backdoors that may provide entry to hackers.
• Brute Force Protection: Prevents the brute-forcers by limiting the number of times a user can try to access locked accounts by guessing their passwords.
• Authenticated Login: Adds a layer of two-factor authentication to log in via a personal password.
• Live Traffic: Shows the real-time visitors to the site, epidemiologically watching for suspicious activity.

What you can do:

WordFence keeps you informed by providing updated insights into your website’s security. It allows you to fix infected files from the WordPress dashboard, making the whole process simple and easy. The free version provides excellent security, and upgrading to the premium version provides numerous extra security layers for that next level of protection. Besides that, it provides real-time notifications whenever it finds any trouble, and always keeps you informed about potential threats. WordFence is one of the must have plugin to secure WordPress site.

Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening

Sucuri acts like an inbuilt security team and shield for your website. It’s good at fighting off the big threats of site crashes by hackers and data breaches. The tool comes with a firewall and supercharges your website through its inbuilt CDN for a performance boost. If your site gets hacked, Sucuri cleans it up for you.

Features Included:

• Website Firewall (WAF): Stops harmful attacks such as SQL injections and cross-site scripting.
• Malware Detection: Monitors the site and alerts if there is any malware information.
• Content Delivery Network (CDN): Speeds up the site by communicating content from nearby servers and also protects the site against many DDoS attacks.
• Blacklist Monitoring: Informs you when your site is blacklisted by a service like Google due to security issues of one kind or another.
• Post-Hack Cleanup: This service cleans and restores your hacked website by fixing vulnerabilities and removing malicious files.

What you can do:

This plugin has several advantages for your WordPress site. It builds up a defense so that attacks do not reach your website. It offers performance enhancement by utilizing a built-in Content Delivery Network (CDN) to boost loading times. If your site is hacked, the service will clean everything up and restore security. Its customer support is also very reliable, providing the assistance you need without all the hassle.

Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall

Defender Security is like a superhero in that it scans your site for malware, blocks hackers, and provides tips on how to enhance the security of your site. Once set up, it works on its own.

Features Included:

• Malware Scanning: Detects harmful software such as viruses or malicious files that are on the site.
• Firewall Protection: Shields site from hackers but access attempts.
• Brute Force Protection: Denies the unauthorized access based on continuous repeated failed login attempts.
• Recommendations on Security: Various tips to increase your site security.
• Audit logs: Keeping track of every activity on your website to highlight suspicious behavior.

What you can do:

It is a user-friendly plugin that is enabled with an easy-to-use interface even for nontechnical individuals. Automatic protection allows you to protect WordPress website without dragging it down, helping it stay fast and secure. The free version comes with loads of handy features that give good protection right from the start. It also improves the website security management process beautifully with the one-click solution to troubleshoot the most common set of intrusions.

Solid Security (formerly iThemes Security)

Solid Security locks down your site and makes it difficult for hackers to breach. It offers a range of goodies-from blocking password-guessing attempts to warning when critical site files have changed keeping hassle at a minimum.

Features Included:

• Brute Force Protection: Blocks attackers to attempt to guess your password after repeated failures.
• Two-Factor Authentication: Secure the login procedure with another layer of security.
• File Change Detection: Notifies you about changes made to your critical files on the site with no authorizations.
• Database Backups: Create regular copies of your data as a way to secure it.
• Security Check Pro: Provides you with the possibility to fix the most common security problems with just a click.

What you can do:

Protect against brute force attacks and unauthorized file changes. You can create a scheduled backup of your WordPress site. The Premium version offers more features like country blocking and many more.

MalCare – Malware Scanner, Cleaner, Security Firewall

First and foremost, MalCare is one of the best WordPress plugins to keep your website safe from malware. It performs a deep scan without slowing down one’s website and enables instant removal upon threat detection with one click

Features Included:

• Malware Scanning: Scanning the entire website will detect hidden malware with no throttling on your site.
• One-Click Malware Removal: As easy as a click to remove malware in no time.
• Firewall Protection: No harmful traffic beyond this point will reach your site.
• Website Hardening: This will provide additional lines of defense and ensure hacking is a lot harder on your site.
• Login Protection: Protects your login page from brute force attacks.

What you can do:

This plugin aims to keep your website nice and neat without slowing down the website, checking for problems even while it scans. It quickly deletes any offending malware found, keeping your site clean. It is really user-friendly, so you will not face a problem using it if you are not into tech stuff. In addition to this, the firewall built into the plugin will automatically block bad traffic coming upon your site, protecting it.

All-in-One WP Security & Firewall

All-in-One WP Security & Firewall is like a Swiss Army knife for security—it does everything! It’s totally free and super powerful. Protect your site with a firewall, block hacker password guessing attempts, and even monitor file changes on your site.

Features Included:

• Packet Firewall: Fights unwanted access to your site by adding extra security regulations that may not be provided by others.
• Brute Force Protection: Stops hackers from systematically guessing passwords.
• Login Security: Further secures the login page through two-factor authentication and CAPTCHA.
• File Integrity Monitoring: Monitors files to identify unauthorized alterations.
• Security Scanning: Scans the site for various vulnerabilities, including backdoors hidden and weak points.

What you can do:

It is completely free of charge and requires no technical experience to use. It has a simple and very user-friendly interface that anybody could use without much ado. Development and maintenance provide intricate protection for your website-from firewall protection to login-process safeguarding, and so on. Moreover, it provides clear guidelines, with feedback on every step taken to help you identify security issues and resolve them.

WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress

WP 2FA is a lightweight plugin that will make your login so much safer. It adds two-factor authentication to your site, meaning you have to enter another code—most often coming from your phone—in order to log in. That makes it virtually impossible for hackers to break into your site, even if your password is exposed!

Features Included:

• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Secure your login process by adding an extra security shield.
• Backup Codes: If you can’t able to access your device you can use the backup codes to log in.
• Compatibility: This feature remains supported in WooCommerce, WordPress Multisite, and numerous other popular plugins.
• User Role Management: You can choose which users have to go to 2FA, like just limiting it to admin accounts.

What you can do:

This plugin is easy to install and use, and it will greatly improve your login procedure. It is compatible with multisite setup plugins. Also, it provides backup options should anything happen to your 2FA device, so you can feel safe.

Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall

Hide My WP Ghost is like a magic invisibility cloak for your website! It hides the fact that your site is running WordPress, making it harder for hackers to find and attack. It’s great for those seeking an extra layer of protection by disguising all the obvious WordPress elements.

Features Included:

• Hides WordPress URLs: This feature modifies standard WordPress paths such as “/wp-admin” and “/wp-login.php” to hide the WordPress login dashboard from potential hackers.
• Brute Force Protection: This provides an extra layer of security, so it is not easy for attackers to guess your password.
• Prevents Information Disclosure: It hides details about your WordPress version and installed plugins, protecting you against attacks.
• Intrusion Detection: This feature blocks unauthorized attempts of hard access into the site’s backend.

What you can do:

This is an effective solution for securing WordPress, it will hide the login page so attackers will not get to the page easily. Lightweight, compatible with all other security plugins. Also, It provides security by hiding your WordPress version, theme, and plugin details and some extra protection on your login page.

Security Ninja – Secure Firewall & Secure Malware Scanner

Security Ninja checks whether your website is safe or contains any threats, running over 50 tests to find weak points and problems while providing easy tips on how to fix them. It’s perfect for anyone wanting to secure their site without technical expertise.

Features Included:

• Security Testing: More than 50 security checks, looking for vulnerabilities into which an attack can be executed.
• Brute Force Protection: Blocks hackers by not allowing them repeated attempts at passwords.
• Malware Scanning: Searches for malicious software and any suspicious code on your website.
• Event Logging: Logs all the security-related actions on your site.

What you can do:

This plugin describes, in clear terms, suggestions on how to engage with your security problems so that you can easily follow and improve your site safety. It runs multiple tests at the same time, not causing a slowdown. Apart from that, it also shields your login from attacks while scanning for malware at the same time to secure your site comprehensively.

BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security puts armor on your WordPress site. It’s great at protecting essential parts of your site with strong .htaccess rules. It also scans for malware and backs up your database in case something goes wrong.

Features Included:

• .htaccess Protection: Provides an additional layer to protect critical site files.
• Brute Force Protection: Block automated bots from making multiple password-guessing attempts.
• Malware Scanning: Run regular scans on your site to ensure the safety of your website is not compromised.
• Database Backups: Constantly backup your data to prevent critical data loss.

What you can do:

The plugin is a very powerful protection for the most vital WordPress files, enabling your site to stand safe from possible dangers. Built-in malware scanning allows the detection of harmful software, while brute-force protection prevents hackers from guessing your password. In addition, it automatically backs up your data to secure it from loss. It will be superb for advanced users desiring total control over their website’s protection.

➥ Wrap Up

WordPress is probably now more critical to be secured than before. With so many cyberattacks every time, securing your WordPress website from such attacks is mandatory. The plugins discussed above offer different options and features for protecting your site, whether you need a strong firewall, malware scans, or better login security.

Spend some time working out what your site needs. Do you want protection against malware? More secure login? Whatever it is, each of these WordPress security plugins has its advantages, so take the one you need.

Don’t wait for your site to be attacked. Get those WordPress security plugins and help secure your website so that you can concentrate on running your business. Start today by examining your current security and strengthening your site in every possible way so that it may not have to face an assault.