14 Best WordPress Security Plugins to Lock out the Bad Guys

Category : WordPress
Posted on : Feb 11, 2019
Views : 2,145
By : Icarus M.

Before we dive into some WordPress security plugins, let’s start with an example. Say you buy a new house. This exciting new investment requires a hefty down-payment you’re probably not used to spending. And, of course, you’re hit with inspection fees prior to buying. Then comes the mortgage and insurance payments, all of which come straight out of your pocket.

They say purchasing real estate is one of the best investments you can make, but that investment is a costly one. For such a high-value investment (and something that could make you big bucks in the future,) would you not want to protect it to the best of your ability?

That’s why you buy insurance and consider setting up an alarm system or some security cameras. Many experts suggest at least placing a security system sign on your door, to scare away those who don’t want to risk it. All of this security is meant to protect the initial investment, along with the potential for that investment in the future.

Best WordPress Security Plugins in 2019

If you’re in a hurry, feel free to click on the following links to test out the security plugins and make your own decisions. If you’d like to see our in-depth analysis, keep reading!

Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening
iThemes Security
Wordfence Security
WP fail2ban
All In One WP Security & Firewall
Jetpack
SecuPress
BulletProof Security
VaultPress
Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication
Security Ninja
Defender
Astra Web Security
Shield Security

Most worthwhile security plugins have a price tag, but there are a few that come with limited functionality for free.

We’ll talk about the pricing, but it’s more important to understand what each plugin is going to do for you. Ultimately, it’s all about figuring out the best way to keep the bad guys away from your investment–and sometimes that means spending a little money.

1. 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. For instance, the website firewall requires you to pay for a Sucuri plan, but not every webmaster feels like they need that type of security.

As for the free features, the plugin comes with security activity auditing for seeing how well the plugin is protecting your website. It has file integrity monitoring, blacklist monitoring, security notifications, and security hardening. The premium plans open up customer service channels and more frequent scans. For instance, you might want a scan to be completed every 12 hours. For that, you’d pay about $17 per month.

Best Features of Sucuri Security

It offers multiple variations of SSL certificates. You do have to pay for these, but it’s available in the packages.
The customer service is available in the form of instant chat and email.
You receive instant notifications when something is wrong with your website.
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.

Further reading: How to Set up Sucuri Firewall (WAF) on Your WordPress Site

2. iThemes Security

The iThemes Security plugin (previously known as Better WP Security) is one of the more impressive ways to protect your website, with over 30 offerings to prevent things like hacks and unwanted intruders. It has a strong focus on recognizing plugin vulnerabilities, obsolete software, and weak passwords.

Although some basic security features are included with the free version, we highly recommend upgrading to iThemes Security Pro for the low price of $80 per year. This provides ticketed support, one year of plugin updates, and support for two websites. If you’d like to protect more sites, you have the option to upgrade to a more expensive plan.

As for the primary features in the pro version, iThemes Security Pro provides strong password enforcement, the locking out of bad users, database backups, and two-factor authentication. These are only a few of the ways to protect your site with this WordPress security plugin. You can activate 30 total security measures, making iThemes Security Pro a great value.

Best Features of iThemes Security

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.
Update your WordPress salts and keys to add an extra layer of complexity to your authentication keys.
You can set an “Away Mode” for when you’re not making constant updates to your site and want to completely lock your WordPress dashboard from all users.
Other essentials like 404 detection, brute force protection, and strong password enforcement.

3. Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security is one of the most popular WordPress security plugins, and for good reason. This gem pairs simplicity with powerful protection tools, such as the robust login security features and the security incident recovery tools. One of the main advantages of Wordfence is the fact that you can gain insight into overall traffic trends and hack attempts.

Wordfence has one of the more impressive free solutions, with everything from firewall blocks to protection from brute force attacks. However, a premium version is sold starting at around $99 per year for one site. The plugin creators also make it cheaper for developers, providing steep discounts when you signup for multiple site keys. For instance, opting for 25 keys cuts the price to about $29 per year for each site. Overall, it pays to consider Wordfence if you’re developing multiple websites and want to protect them all.

Best Features of WordFence Security

The free version is powerful enough for smaller websites.
Developers can save tons of money when they signup for multiple site keys.
It has a full firewall suite with tools for country blocking, manual blocking, brute force protection, real-time threat defense, and a web application firewall.
The scan portion of the plugin fights off malware, real-time threats, and spam.
The plugin monitors live traffic by viewing things like Google crawl activity, logins and logouts, human visitors, and bots.
You gain access to some unique tools like the option to sign in with your cell phone and password auditing.
The comment spam filter removes the need to install a separate plugin for this.

4. WP fail2ban

WP fail2ban delivers one feature, but it’s a rather important one: protection from brute force attacks. The plugin takes a different approach which many see as more effective than what you get from some of the security suite plugins listed above. WP fail2ban documents all login attempts, regardless of their nature or successfulness, to the syslog using LOG_AUTH. You have the option to implement a soft or hard ban, which is different from the more traditional approach of only choosing one.

There’s not much to know in terms of configuration for the WP fail2ban plugin. In fact, all you have to do is install it and let it do its magic. In addition, the brute force security plugin is completely free so you don’t have to worry about spending any money. This plugin is truly a standout, since the users consistently report that it works flawlessly.

Best Features of WP fail2ban

Choose between hard or soft blocks.
Integrate with CloudFlare and proxy servers.
Log comments to prevent spam or malicious comments.
The plugin also logs information about spam, pingbacks, and user enumeration.
You also have the option to create a shortcode that blocks users immediately before even having a chance to reach the login process.

5. All In One WP Security & Firewall

As one of the most feature-packed free security plugins, All In One WP Security & Firewall provides an easy interface and decent customer support without any premium plans. This is a highly visual security plugin with graphs and meters to explain to the beginners metrics like security strength and what needs to be done to make your site stronger.

The features are broken down into three categories: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Therefore, you can still take advantage of the plugin if you’re a more advanced developer. The main ways this plugin works is by protecting your user accounts, blocking forceful attempts on your login, and enhancing the user registration security. Database and file security is also packaged into the plugin.

Best Features of All In One WP Security & Firewall

The WordPress security plugin has a blacklist tool where you can set certain requirements to block a user.
You can backup .htaccess and .wp-config files. There’s also a tool to restore them if anything goes wrong.
The plugin shows one graph to specify how strong your website is and a graph that designates points to certain areas of your site. It’s one of the best features for the average user to visualize what’s going on with the security of a site.
The plugin is free without any upsells along the way.

6. 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. Jetpack is filled with modules to strengthen your social media, site speed, and spam protection. There are so many features in Jetpack that it’s definitely worth exploring.

Some security tools are included with Jetpack as well, making it an appealing plugin for those who want to save money and rely on a reputable solution. For instance, the Protect module is free and it blocks suspicious activity from happening. Brute force attack protection and whitelisting is also supported by the basic security functionality from Jetpack.

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.

Best Features of Jetpack

The free plan provides a decent amount of security for a small website, then you can upgrade to the reasonably priced premium plans and get full support and a plugin that’s one of the best on the market.
The premium plans turn the plugin into more of a suite, with benefits like backups, spam protection, and security scanning.
Plugin updates are managed entirely through Jetpack.
You also get downtime monitoring.
Jetpack is also a plugin that eliminates the need for other plugins. For instance, it has features for email marketing, social media, site customization, and optimization.

7. SecuPress

SecuPress is a newer security plugin on the market (originally released as freemium in 2016), but it’s definitely one that’s growing rapidly. It’s actually developed by Julio Potier, one of the original co-founders of WP Media, who you might recognize, as they develop WP Rocket and Imagify. There is both a free version and premium version which includes a lot of additional features.

If you want a security plugin that has a great UI and easy to use interface, SecuPress is definitely the plugin to go with. The free version features anti-brute force login, blocked IPs, and a firewall. It also includes protection of your security keys as well as blocks visits from bad bots (which you usually have to pay for in other security plugins).

If you want even more features, their premium versions starts at $59 a year per site and includes additional features such as alerts and notifications, two-factor authentication, GeoIP blocking, PHP malware scans, and PDF reports.

Best Features of SecuPress

The UI in SecuPress is probably one of the best! This makes it very easy to use, even for beginners.
The premium version definitely adds a lot of value. Check 35 security points in 5 minutes, get a nice report, and then harden your WordPress site.
It includes the ability to change your WordPress login URL so bots can’t find it.
Helps you detect themes and plugins that are vulnerable or that have been tampered with to include malicious code.

8. BulletProof Security

The BulletProof Security plugin has both free and premium versions. The paid option sells for a one-time payment of $69.95 and is actively developed, updated, and probably contains more features than most of the other security plugins on the market. They provide a 30-day money back guarantee, and you receive features for quarantines, email alerting, anti-spam, auto-restore, and more.

I’d suggest you try out the free plugin first, since it offers the following tools:

Login security and monitoring.
Database backups and restoring.
MScan Malware Scanner.
Anti-spam and anti-hacking tools.
A security log.
Hidden plugin folders.
Maintenance mode.
A full setup wizard.

It’s not the most user-friendly WordPress security plugin, but it does the job for advanced developers who want to take advantage of unique settings and features like the anti-exploit guard and the online Base64 decoder. It also has a setup wizard auto-fix feature to help make it a little easier.

Best Features of BulletProof Security

It has some of the most unique advanced security tools on the market, with features like BPS Pro ARQ Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (ARQ IDPS) encrypting solutions, as well as scheduled crons, cURL scans, folder locking, and more.
The free version is packed with enough features for the average website.
The database backups are provided in the free version.
You can hide individual plugin folders.
The maintenance mode functionality is not something you would find in most other security plugins.

9. VaultPress

It’s important not to forget VaultPress, since it works similar to plugins like iThemes Security Pro and Sucuri Scanner. You need to pay in order to get any type of protection, but the plans start at only $39 per year, making it one of the more affordable premium security plugins. The website states that this plan is more for small businesses and bloggers, but you also have the option to upgrade to a more powerful plan for either $99 per year or $299 per year.

The daily and real-time backups are the bread and butter of the operation, with a beautiful calendar view for specifying when you’d like to complete your backups. You can also complete site restores with a quick click of the mouse. What’s more is that the restore files are logged in the dashboard, and several of them are stored so that you can choose which one you want. The best part of VaultPress in regards to backups is that they are incremental. This is great for performance.

The primary security tools monitor suspicious activity on your website, with tabs for viewing your history and seeing which threats have been dealt with or ignored. You can also check out stats and manage your entire security detail from the convenience of a clean dashboard.

Best Features of VaultPress

The pricing is better than most other premium WordPress security plugins.
The dashboard looks cleans and easy to understand for all users.
You can make real-time or manual backups using a calendar.
The stats tab reveals information on the most popular visiting times on your site, while also showing what threats have occurred during those times.
You can contact the experts from VaultPress to help you out with tasks like site restores and backups.

If you would like to learn more about the best-rated backup plugins take a look at our other guide: 4 Best Incremental WordPress Backup Plugins (Save Space and Speed)

10. Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication

The majority of plugins that have individual security features don’t make much sense to install. The reason for this is because you can typically go with a plugin like iThemes Security Pro and get that one feature along with dozens of other ones. However, two-factor authentication is a different story, since it seems like most security suites don’t include it. Therefore, it might make sense to harden your login security with a plugin like this.

The Google Authenticator plugin adds a second layer of security to your login module, which is rather important since the majority of hacking attempts happen with the login. In addition to your regular password, this plugin either sends a push notification to your phone or some other form of authentication such as using a QR code or asking a security question.

This way, your login becomes far less penetrable since the second layer is most likely something that only you know or have on your person (like your phone).

This WordPress security plugin doesn’t require any payment, and the interface is easy enough to understand. Besides choosing the type of authentication, another cool feature lets you specify which type of user role should have to go through the authentication. So, you can allow admins to get in easier, but you might ask that authors or other users go through the two-factor process.

The only problem is that the two-factor authentication makes it rather difficult to log in to your backend with a mobile device.

Best Features of Google Authenticator

It nearly eliminates the vulnerability that is your login area.
You can choose which two-factor authentication method is the easiest for you.
You can select which user types need to go through the authentication process.
The plugin has a shortcode for using with custom login pages.

11. Security Ninja

Security Ninja has been around for over seven years. Starting out as one of the first security plugins sold on CodeCanyon (with four add-ons available) it moved to a freemium model in 2016. Add-ons were ditched in favor of having just two versions – free and premium. The main module (which is the only one available for free) performs over 50 security tests ranging from checking files and MySQL permissions to various PHP settings.

Security Ninja also does a brute force check of all user passwords to weed out accounts with weak passwords such as “12345” or “password”. This helps educates users on security. It does include an auto fixer module, but for those who want to understand what’s going on, there’s a detailed explanation of every test including code to manually fix the security issue. If you don’t like plugins messing with your site, Security Ninja offers a nice alternative to the usual “just click here to fix it” approach. Other modules in the paid version, start at $29 a year per site.

Best Features of Security Ninja

The security tester module (available in the free version) performs over 50 security tests across your site.
Not tech-savvy? No problem, the auto fixer module can resolve any issues detected.
Scan WordPress core to ensure the integrity of the core files by comparing them to a secure and latest copy from wordpress.org.
Scan plugins and themes in search for suspicious code and malware.
Take advantage of a huge list of known bad IPs and automatically block them.
Log all events that are happening on your WordPress site, from users logging in to settings being changed.
You can schedule regular scans.

12. Defender

Defender is layered WordPress security made easy, like stupid, simple. The free and pro version both start with a list of the most effective hardening technics for instantly upgrading your WordPress security.

You can run free scans that check WordPress for suspicious code. The Defender scan tool compares your WordPress install with the directory, reports changes and lets you restore the original file with a click. They also offer a pro version which includes cloud backups with 10 GB remote storage, audit logs for monitoring changes, automated security scans, and blacklist monitoring. Their experts will even help you clean up a hacked site.

Best Features of Defender

Google 2-Step Verification.
WordPress core file scanning and repair.
Login Screen Masking.
IP Blacklist manager and logging.
Unlimited file scans.
Timed Lockout brute force attack shield for login protection.
404 limiter for blocking vulnerability scans.
IP lockout notifications and reports.

13. Astra Web Security

Astra Web Security is a go-to ‘security suite’ for your WordPress site. With Astra you don’t have to worry about malware, SQLi, XSS, comments spam, brute force, and 100+ threats, which means you can get rid of other security plugins & let Astra take care of it all. Astra’s super intuitive dashboard doesn’t come with a hundred buttons that make you feel like you’re a pilot in a cockpit!

Many prestigious brands like Gillette, African Union, Ford, and Oman Airways use Astra security solution. Their pricing starts from $9/m and they offer flat 20% off if the plan is billed annually. Overall, Astra can be a good investment if you’re planning to spend money on your website’s security.

Best Features of Astra Web Security

Astra security solution is installed as a WordPress plugin & there is no need to change DNS settings.
They offer immediate malware cleanup, a rock-solid firewall which stops attacks like SQLi, XSS, Code Injection, Bad Bots, Brute force, SEO spam, and other 100+ cyber attacks.
Complete security audit including the business error logic for your WordPress website.
Intuitive Dashboard logs all attacks and gives you an option to block or whitelist country, IP range or a URL, continuous blacklist and reputation monitoring, hourly admin login notifications and much more.
A free community security or bug bounty management platform where you give hackers a safe and secure way to report any vulnerability that they find on your website. Every reported issue is validated by Astra’s engineers.

14. Shield Security

The number one role of Shield Security is to take on your increasing burden of site security. We’re all short on time so we need smarter defenses and a security plugin that knows how to respond to threats without bugging you with emails. Suitable for both beginners and advanced, Shield starts scanning and protecting your site from the moment you activate it. All options are fully documented, so you can dig further into your site security at your leisure.

The core of Shield Security is free forever. Professionals and business who need deeper protection and hands-on 24-hour support at the ready, can get Shield Pro for just $12/site. The mission behind Shield Security is ‘no website left behind’ – where the goal is to make Pro-Grade security accessible for every site, not the just wealthy few. Pro brings more scans, that run more often, user password policies, bigger audit trails, support for WooCommerce, traffic monitoring and features that make security policies smoother for its users.

Best Features of Shield Security

One of the only security plugins that restrict access to its own settings to certain users.
Smarter protection with features that work tirelessly in the background without bugging you with notifications.
The only security plugin to offer three types of two-factor authentication for free and an option to select which users that may use it.
Pro upgrades for everyone at $12/site – bulk pricing without the bulk purchase.
Pro delivers 6x powerful scans to detect problems in all areas of your sites.

Which WordPress Security Plugin is Best for You?

Now that we’ve walked through the best WordPress security plugins, take a look at our main recommendations below. This makes it easier for you to select one or two plugins without having to test every single one out. Remember, that depending on what your WordPress host already offers, security plugins may not be needed.

These suggestions hone in on certain situations where you might choose one security plugin over another.

For the best value – Sucuri Security, SecuPress, Jetpack, iThemes Security, or Shield Security.
If you want a free WordPress security plugin – All In One WP Security & Firewall, Sucuri Security (free version,) or Wordfence Security.
If you’re looking for a security plugin for beginners – All In One WP Security & Firewall, Security Ninja, or Defender.
When you require a more advanced brute force protection plugin – WP fail2ban or Astra.
If you’d like two-factor authentication – Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication.
For a beautiful interface – SecuPress or VaultPress.

Besides installing a plugin you can take further steps to improve the security of your sites. For example, Lockr’s offsite key management (this is a premium service) solution protects against critical site vulnerabilities and helps to secure your data. A simple integration is available for WordPress.

Of course, we can’t cover all the plugins out there. These are simply those we recommend based on our experience with users. If there is one you think should be included in this list, let us know below in the comments.

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