WordFence

WordFence is one of the most downloaded and most comprehensive WordPress security plugins. Setting it up is easy and once you have installed and activated it, you can start tweaking its settings or take the tour for a step-by-step guide on how to use the plugin.  

The plugin is available in both free and paid versions. The basic free version is a good choice as it offers enough security measures to keep your site safe and away from spam lists. It comes with essential features such as a malware scanner and a web application firewall. It can also protect your WordPress website from brute attacks, and it will lock out anyone after many failed login attempts. It also provides users with an option to stop content fraud and attacks from a specific geographic area with its country blocking feature.

WordFence will provide you with multiple security options to meet the requirements of your website. But it does come with a drawback though. Its server is not cloud-based but runs on your own server putting a significant amount of load to it which can affect the performance of your WordPress website.

Sucuri Security

Sucuri is another favorite WordPress security plugin among users of the platform. It is a full-featured security solution for your website that offers protection from malware, SQL injections, and other brute attacks. It comes with a lot of excellent features such as monitoring tools that you can easily use, security activity audit, and a full scanning module. It does offer a website firewall, but unlike with some competitors you have to pay an additional fee for it starting at $9.99 per month.

The security plugin uses Cloudproxy servers where all the traffic of your site goes. All requests are then scanned in order to filter out any malicious requests it detects. Your server load is reduced by Sucuri, and not letting malicious traffic get to your site will improve its performance. Furthermore, any potential threats to your site are reported proactively to the WordPress team as well as other plugins from third-parties.

iThemes Security

iThemes Security is a pretty good security plugin for WordPress. It claims to provide users with more than 30 ways of securing and protecting their website. It has a one-click installation process where your site is protected immediately by stopping automated attacks. If you are a WordPress newbie, this is something you might find appealing.

To protect your website further, iThemes Security restricts the amount of failed login attempts. Moreover, it will also send you notifications and email alerts of any new file updates, so you are aware of whether someone other than you made changes on your site. Also, if it finds an IP address rather suspicious, it will lock it out.

The plugin is armed with security features on its free version including global dashboard restriction mode and login URL obfuscation. Its premium version comes with more advanced features such as Google reCAPTCHA box and malware scanning.

JetPack

JetPack was created by Automattic, the developers behind WordPress. The plugin is included and automatically pre-installed with WordPress on most providers. It includes several modules which you are able to either activate or deactivate. Activating a module lets you use its features on your site. Once deactivated, it will no longer run or load its code on your blog.

Although it’s not actually a security plugin, it does come with a wealth of features that can help secure and protect your website. Its free version features a 2FA module via WordPress.com and an easy-to-use set-and-forget brute-force prevention module. On the other hand, its premium version offers automatic site backups and malware scanning.

All In One WP Security & Firewall

If you are not very familiar with advanced security settings, the All In One WP Security & Firewall is ideal for you. This free WordPress security plugin is simple but takes website protection to a different level. One of its great features is its categories for basic, intermediate, and advanced users, making it easy for anyone to utilize its various security settings.

All In One is fairly easy to use, and it adds suggested protection methods to reduce security threats. On your dashboard, you will see a simple strength meter where a score is displayed indicating how secure your website is. It also comes with a dashboard widget with recommendations on which features you need to enable to secure your site.

The plugin offers protection against brute force attacks. It will also send you an email notification if someone gets locked out after many failed login attempts. Furthermore, you can schedule an automatic backup and track your files for any changes through its security scanner.

Shield Security for WordPress

Shield Security is a new player compared to other plugins with hundreds of thousands and even millions of active installs. However, their number of subscribers is growing each day and with plenty of useful features, it has been receiving spectacular reviews making it worthy to be included in our list.

This plugin is completely discrete. You can install it without the need to make any modifications in the core files of your website, thus providing you with further options in case something goes wrong. It also comes with several built-in recovery options, but if all of these fail, you can entirely delete Shield safely without harming your site’s integrity through FTP.

This professional security plugin is powerful and robust with features such as restricting the sharing of a username, login activity monitoring, Audit Trail Log where you can review activities of other admins, reCaptcha, a firewall that you can easily toggle, fantastic support, and so much more. You can download it for free or pay an additional $1 to upgrade to Shield Pro to gain access to enhanced and exclusive features.