Top 13 security plugin for your WordPress website in 2020

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top 13 WordPress security plugin website

About 35% of the world’s websites are powered by WordPress. Because of the huge number, websites that run on WordPress are exposed to various threats and attacks.

Although WordPress is one of the best CMSs around, it’s not perfect. A website built on WordPress can easily be compromised if it is not configured properly. 

Most of us spend plenty of time and effort on building our perfect websites on WordPress — picking the right theme and the right plugins so that our website can perform better.

However, more often than not, we overlook the importance of website security. In this blog post, we’re pleased to list down the top security plugins so that you can select the one that best suits your needs. 

Some WordPress security plugins are completely free. Others are considered “Freemium,” which means they‘re free but you also have the option to upgrade to a more feature-rich “Pro” version with extended support for a fee.

By default, WordPress core has some security measures in place, but it’s nothing compared to what a good security plugin can do for you. Most WordPress security plugins offer the following security features:

  • File scanning
  • Active security monitoring
  • Malware scanning
  • Firewalls
  • Blacklist monitoring
  • Security hardening
  • Post-hack actions
  • Brute force attack protection
  • Notifications for when a security threat is detected

Let’s look at some of the top WordPress security plugins that can help to safeguard your website. In no particular order, here you go:

sucuri security

  1. Sucuri security

sucuri security
Price: Freemium

This plugin is offered by the popular website security and auditing company Sucuri. It offers various security features like security activity auditing, file integrity monitoring, malware scanning, blacklist monitoring, and website firewall.

It incorporates various blacklist engines including Google Safe Browsing, Sucuri Labs, Norton, McAfee Site Advisor and more to check your website. If anything goes wrong, it will notify you via email.

It protects your website from DOS attack, Zero Day Disclosure Patches, bruteforce attacks and other scanner attacks. It also keeps a log of all activities and keeps these logs safe in the Sucuri cloud.

So, if an attacker is able to bypass the security controls, your security logs will be safe within Sucuri’s security operations center.

Features that we like:

  • Security Activity Auditing
  • Website Firewall (premium)
  • Remote Malware Scanning

All In One WP Security & Firewall

  1. All In One WP Security & Firewall

All In One WP Security & Firewall
Price: Free

As one of the most feature-packed free security plugins, All In One WP Security & Firewall provides an easy interface and without any premium plans.

All In One WP Security uses an unprecedented security points grading system to measure how well you are protecting your site based on the security features you have activated.

Their security and firewall rules are categorized into basic, intermediate and advanced. This way you can apply the firewall rules progressively without breaking your site’s functionality.

Their advanced categories of security can be used for more advanced developers. 

Features that we like:

  • Protection Against “Brute Force Login Attack”
  • Monitor/View Failed Login Attempts
  • Monitor/View Account Activity of All User Accounts 

Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan

  1. WordFence

Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan

Price: Freemium (free version with limited features)

WordFence is one of the most popular WordPress security plugins. It continues to check on your website for malware infection in the background.

WordFence also scans your website for potential “backdoors” that could put sites at risk and allows users to block traffic from specific sources and countries if needed.

It scans all the files of your WordPress core, theme and plugins. If there is any kind of infection, it will send an email to notify you.

Features that we like:

  • Web Application Firewall identifies and blocks malicious traffic. 
  • Scan core files, themes and plugins for malware, bad URLs, backdoors, SEO spam, malicious redirects and code injections
  • Real-time IP Blacklist blocks all requests from the most malicious IPs (Premium)

BulletProof Security

  1. BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security

Price: Freemium

A single-click solution for all your WordPress security needs. It protects your website against RFI, XSS, CRLF, SQL injection, and code injection hacking.

The paid option sells for a one-time payment of $69.95 and is actively developed and updated. They also provide very good support on WordPress.

Features that we like:

  • One-Click Setup Wizard
  • .htaccess Website Security Protection (Firewalls)
  • Quarantine Intrusion Detection & Prevention System (Premium)

iThemes Security (formerly Better WP Security)

  1. iTheme Security

iThemes Security

Price: Freemium

iThemes Security malware scanner is available from iThemes in free and premium forms. This plugin features scanning with automatic fixes for website security issues and also bans bots, spam, and users who have attacked other websites.

With their track record of building and supporting WordPress security since 2008, you can surely count on their plugin to protect your website.

Features that we like:

  • Bans troublesome user & Bots
  • Monitors filesystem for unauthorized changes
  • Two-Factor Authentication – Use a mobile app such as Google Authenticator or Authy to generate a code (Premium)

Defender WordPress Security, Malware Detection, and Firewall

  1. Defender

Defender WordPress Security, Malware Detection, and Firewall

Price: Freemium

With simple to use dashboard, Defender is built to make your WordPress website security simple. It has a scan tool that helps to check for malware by comparing your WordPress install with the directory, report all the changes and let you restore the original file with only a click.

The free and pro version both start with a list of the most effective hardening techniques to instantly upgrade your WordPress website security.

Features that we like:

  • Two-factor authentication – passwords and mobile app verification codes
  • WordPress core file scanning and repair
  • Automated website scanning (Premium)

Security & Firewall – MalCare Security

  1. Malcare

Security & Firewall – MalCare Security

Price: Freemium

A very powerful scanner that can detect a lot of Malware that is lurking around the internet, however you will need to sign up for the premium plan to really know what is wrong on your website.

The free plan is a great solution to keep your site scanned without having the server affected. Many other plugins scan your website on your server and make your website busy.

Features that we like:

  • Cloud scan
  • Powerful Malware detection
  • Automated Malware removal (Premium)

Google Authenticator – WordPress Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

  1. Google Authenticator – WordPress Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

https://wordpress.org/plugins/miniorange-2-factor-authentication/

Price: Freemium

This security plugin adds two-factor authentication for all users to use any WordPress website and works with all kinds of phones and devices.

Two factor authentication (2FA) is used whenever login to your WordPress website ensuring no unauthorised access to your website. An authentication code will be sent to your device to verify your identity.

This security plugin used to be only for two-factor authentication, but recently they have included Brute force attack prevention & IP blocking features. 

Features that we like:

  • Free two-factor authentication for 1 User
  • User login Monitoring
  • OTP Over Email, OTP Over SMS, OTP Over SMS and Email, Email Verification (Premium)

WP Hide & Security Enhancer

  1. WP Hide & Security Enhancer

WP Hide & Security Enhancer

Price: Freemium

This security plugin for WordPress offers to completely hide your core files through an easy process, and prevent theme and plugin path from being shown on the front end.

It allows you to change default Admin URLs for wp-login.php and wp-admin to something else, while at the same time, not announcing to the world that your site is on WordPress.

No files and directories are being changed on your server, everything is processed virtually. 

Not only that you can block direct access to any of WordPress root files, for example, license.txt, wp-load.php, wp-settings.php.

This can greatly help you reduce the chance of getting hacked. Upgrade to premium when you need more features like custom map URLs which can replace any existing link on HTML.

It can also re-map entire paths/subdirectories of your WordPress website. Most importantly, users get to enjoy premium support when they upgrade.

Features that we like:

  • Custom Admin Url
  • Still compatible with other Plugins & Themes
  • Premium support and updates (Premium)

VaultPress

  1. VaultPress

VaultPress

Price: $20/month

VaultPress is a WordPress security plugin that provides real-time backup and security scanning service. The VaultPress plugin connects your site to the VaultPress servers, and WordPress-optimized backups and security scans will run automatically.

VaultPress can automatically restore any backup to your site with just a few clicks. Backup is one of the most important steps to take as a security measure, whenever your site is not working, you can choose to restore them to any previous backup.

Features that we like:

  • Download any Backup
  • Real-time backups
  • One-click restore or migration

BBQ: Block Bad Queries

  1. BBQ: Block Bad Queries

BBQ: Block Bad Queries

Price: Freemium

This WordPress security plugin is super easy-to-use and yet powerful. It protects your website against malicious URL requests by checking all incoming traffic and blocks all bad requests. This is a good alternative for those who are unable to use a strong firewall.

It is lightweight and works what it intended to do. It has gained a lot of good reviews from the WordPress community.

Features that we like:

  • No configuration required
  • Scans all types of requests: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.
  • Blocks SQL injection attacks

WP fail2ban

  1. WP fail2ban

WP fail2ban

Price: Freemium

Another great and simple WordPress security plugin to consider. Its main feature is to prevent brute-force attacks. WP fail2ban documents all login attempts, regardless of their nature or success, 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. Fail2Ban is able to reduce the rate of incorrect authentications attempts however it cannot eliminate the risk that weak authentication presents.

The plugin used to be a free plugin but now they offer another paid upgrade with more features.

Features that we like:

  • Choose between hard or soft blocks
  • Support for 3rd-Party Plugins
  • Cloudflare and Proxy Servers

SecuPress Free — WordPress Security

  1. SecuPress

SecuPress Free — WordPress Security

Price: Freemium

SecuPress prevents your WordPress website from malware, block bots, and suspicious IPs. You can either use the free plugin or you can download the pro version for its advanced features which starts at $59 a year per site.

Pro version gives you a lot of automated tasks and scans if this is what you are looking for.

Features that we like:

  • Blocked IPs
  • SQL injection scanners
  • Scheduled Backup (premium)

Additional Security Measures

Along with these WordPress plugins, you should also follow the security measures below. These will help you improve the overall security of your website.

  • Always keep your WordPress version up to date. Update your WordPress as soon as possible if there are any new WordPress updates released by WordPress. Most often than not, hacked websites are those still using an older version of WordPress. Older versions of WordPress always have certain security issues. And exploits for these security issues are available for free. Even a kid can hack your website if it is running on a vulnerable version of WordPress.

  • Always update your plugins and themes to the latest version. New versions always come with new features and security fixes. So, updating plugins and themes is necessary. Most of the time, these third party plugins and themes are the causes of vulnerability on WordPress websites. Attackers can exploit these plugins to gain access to your website or inject malicious script on your website.

  • Download themes and plugins from trusted sources only. Themes downloaded from untrusted sources generally contain malware in the code. If you have a security plugin installed, you will be notified but that may be too late. Avoid any unknown source that provides plugins and themes.

  • Delete unwanted plugins or themes. If you are certain that you no longer need them, remove them, to prevent your website from being hacked through old or unused plugins. Your old and unused plugins may cause vulnerability. You probably wouldn’t bother to update them but it will give attackers a chance to exploit them.

  • Avoid using the administrator username, ‘admin’, because this is default and common. By using this username in your blog, you are making the attacker’s job easier. The attacker does not need to guess the username now, he/she can just bruteforce your website for username admin. Remember to get bruteforce security plugins to prevent this.

  • Always use a strong password for your WordPress account. Use a long password with capital letters, small case letters, numbers and special characters. A combination of these makes a strong password which is hard to hack.

  • Picking a Web hosting with strong security is important too. Having a well-secured web hosting can minimize the risk of being attacked to half. Understand what your hosting provider has to protect your website as overall security.

So here you go, the top 13 security plugins for your WordPress website. Select the one you need. Remember prevention is better than cure! 

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