5 Best WordPress Security Plugins For 2021
There are millions of people who are running active businesses on the WordPress. In a world where you use internet to connect with like-minded individuals, there is a tendency of being a target for hackers. A great number of websites fall prey to such antics everyday because they lack WordPress security plugin that can protect their website.
As I said before, when you build something it is also important for you to think about its security. In case of WordPress, a good security plugin can provide you that sense of relief and peace of mind knowing that your business will not be target of attacks and will not be infected with malware.
What is WordPress Security Plugin?
WordPress security plugin is especially designed to protect your WordPress website from outside attacks like hacking attempts, brute force attacks and malware infection. These security plugins secure your WordPress website by covering every possible entry point and providing you with a protective wall that keeps the intruders outside.
A statistic states that an average website is attacked 44 times each day which means if you don’t have a protective wall or a security plugin for WordPress you will be victim of cyber-attacks.
We all have this tendency of thinking that this cannot happen to me but these numbers you see in statistics are other people’s businesses and they might also think the same way if they left their businesses exposed.
Why Do I Need a WordPress Security Plugin?
If you do not have a security plugin, your website can suffer from security breach that can harm your business in following different ways.
- The data collected by your website can get stolen by the hacker and sold to other parties or exposed causing a mistrust between you and your customers.
- Your website can get infected by malware and be compromised.
- Malware can also be distributed to your users.
- You can lose website data and content affecting your SEO ranking and brand image.
- You can lose access to your website and your data can be held hostage.
- It is a lot of work and costs a great deal to recover your website after it has been hacked.
These reasons make it incredibly important for you to install a WordPress security plugin and protect your data from being stolen or exposed. This not only hurts your brand but also destroys the community you have built around your brand.
Now that we know about the importance of WordPress security plugins, lets look into the options of plugins available and see what option the best for you is. Because now that we know what is at risk, we need the best possible solution out there.
Best WordPress Security Plugins:
There are many options available for security plugins in the market. We have compiled a list of these plugins so that you have the information about best security plugins, and you can make an informed choice based on your needs.
Sucuri:
Sucuri is one of the most powerful and effective security plugins out there. Sucuri has some security features available in its free version like
- Security Activity Auditing—monitors any login attempts on your website
- Blacklist Monitoring—monitoring if your website is blocked on blacklist engines
- Effective Security Hardening—improves security actions by removing vulnerable points
- Security Notifications
- Post-Hacking Security Action
- File Integrity Monitoring—detect changes in files if someone changes them
- Remote Malware Screening
If you take a look at these features, you will see that it also has features that do damage control. If your website is indeed hacked, it provides you services for post hacking action. It also gives notification when your security is compromised.
These are quite a few features available in free versions to protect your WordPress website. If, according to your needs, you require more advanced features, you can opt for paid version that provides you with extra security features for protecting your website.
The paid version includes:
- Powerful WordPress Firewall
- Increases overall speed and performance of website
- Stopping DDoS attacks that come with overwhelming traffic produced by hackers
Both free and paid versions have great features working to improve your website’s security. Whatever you opt for, make sure this is what your website needs.
Sucuri acknowledges the fact that it cannot provide 100% of protection all the time which is why it provides post-hack security action if something ever goes wrong. You also receive notifications instantly notify you of the problem.
iThemes Security:
iThemes is a great plugin for security but not all of its features are available in free version. You need to upgrade it to pro version in order to get access to all features and best results. The version only comes wit basic features of security. The whole package is in pro version and includes the following feature.
- Two-factor authentication
- Malware scans (uses Sucuri’s Sitecheck malware scanner)
- Password security and expiration
- WordPress security keys
- Integrity checks
- Security hardening
- Limit login attempts
Looking at these feature, one can judge that having a paid version is the best option for your website’s security.
WordFence:
WordFence is another one of more popular security plugins. Similar to others, it comes in free and paid versions. Unlike iThemes and like Sucuri, the free version provides quite a significant level of protection for your website.
It includes following features in it:
- Website Firewall
- Malware Scanner
- Country blocking feature
- Two-factor authentication
- Blocking unknown logins
- Tracks traffic trends
The premium version upgrades on these additional features and includes:
- IP blacklist
- Scans on your behest
- Better spam filtering
These features fight threat in real time and keep you aware of it. It also has a user-friendly interface. The feature of tracking traffic trends help you understand the source of incoming traffic i.e. from humans, bots or Google crawlers.
MalCare:
MalCare is easy-to-use, automated WordPress security plugin. It automatically scans and remove malware from your website. When you first install it, it automatically runs a scan and gives suggestions. It doesn’t affect or slows down the performance of your website as the scans are done on its own servers.
Following are some of its features:
- Powerful firewall
- Automated malware removal system
- Conveys data on threats in real time
- Blacklist monitoring
- Scanning at your behest
- Content downloadable to MalCare servers to save from possible attacks
- Blocks suspicious IP address
Among other things, MalCare manages multiple sites on WordPress. It is easy to follow as it is user-friendly. It also gives you an option of getting 90-day backup on their server.
All In One WP Security and Firewall:
It is also an easy-to-use software with user-friendly design like MalCare. The plugin has visual elements on the dashboard that give you information on your website security through graphs.
The software scans your website for vulnerabilities and makes a report on security condition. It helps you improve any areas you are lacking in. the software comes in three different forms: basic, intermediate and advanced.
Following are some of its feature:
- Malware Scan
- Firewall Protection
- Automatic scan
- Account integrity monitoring
- Spam security
- Detection of suspicious IP addresses and blocking them
- The grading system to grade your security
- Blacklist tool
What is very interesting in this software is that it is 100% free to be used by all WordPress users. No special features are kept for paid customers so anyone can use it. For a beginner, it is a great place to start but other versions like intermediate and advanced.
Which is the Best?
It all depends on your needs.
Your WordPress security plugin should complement your needs and add value to your account by protecting it against intruders and their attacks. If your business requires backup or malware scans at your behest then you would need different WordPress security plugin to tackle security issues.
Therefore, you should go through details like login security, firewall rules, and plugin offers of all these plugins and select your match.
Based on these five security plugins, Sucuri seems to provide a lot of features including post-hack security action. It is one of the best in terms of its performance meaning people who have used it recommend it to others.