5 Best WordPress Security Plugins for Your Blog in 2023

WordPress Blogs are prone to online cyber-attacks once they are hosted and live.

Hackers all around the web, try to steal critical information, leaving your blog security compromised.

A weakly secure WP site has a high chance of being ranked down or removed during search engine optimization (SEO).

Therefore, you will not be able to generate money when you lose ranking. Also, most bloggers are not technically sound to handle hosting servers.

Prevention is better than cure, for sure. Intrusion prevention, integrity checkers, and two-way password authentication are some ways to ensure secure entries to your websites.

With growing preventive security measures, smart mutations of threats are rising every day.

So let us learn about the best security plugin for WordPress in recent times.

We will also analyze some top plugins to help with what would work best for your website.

Why We Should Install WordPress Security Plugins?

Did you know that an average of 30000 WordPress websites get hacked every day?

WordPress(WP) is the most preferred Content Management System (CMS) for blogs. From e-commerce, blogs, tutorials, music and video streaming libraries, magazines, etc. there is a WordPress theme for all websites.

Let us see some situations in which our blogs can be attacked.

• Malware can be embedded along with links to external sources.
• Bots can try brute force attacks to get unauthorized access.
• E-commerce transactions, that involve data transfer between merchant and payment portals, have chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
• Weak integrity checkers on document/multimedia uploads can lead to data corruption. For example, when uploading images from remote locations.

Read further to decide what security plugin you can incorporate with your website.

5 Best WordPress Security Plugins

Any website would require a strong security firewall.

Strong authentication mechanisms, malware detections, periodic security notifications, safe communications, and recovery are some main features that one should look for while choosing a security plugin.

The following plugins offer a host of security features that can secure your websites.

1. Sucuri

This popular plugin is robust to run on websites/blogs powered with WordPress. Sucuri is most preferred by those having online-business websites. Its free version offers basic security features like,

• Running daily scans and sending notifications to alert about threats
• Best firewall application to prevent malware attacks
• Stops SQL injections and brute force attacks in login or credential pages
• Cleans and recovers corrupted websites.

There are some more comprehensive features provided by Sucuri.

• Offers protection from DDoS attacks and blocks suspicious IPs.
• Helps to schedule periodic checks to generate backups, remove unwanted elements and send notifications.
• Detects SEO spam and removes content meant to lower website rank.
• Secret keys help to encrypt user credentials while storing in browser cookies.
• Provides default cache clearing options, which can also be customized and set in website scripts.

Pros, Cons, and Pricing of Sucuri WP Security Plugin

Pros

• User-friendly interface to install and navigate.
• Easy customer support.
• High quality and fast response.

Cons

• Deeper security features come only with paid versions.
• Challenging for novice developers without technical prerequisites.
• Scans can give false positive notifications at times.

Pricing

Sucuri’s paid versions start from $199/ year.

2. All-in-One WP Security

This is a free plugin offering a complete set of essential website security services. This plugin is most suited for beginners and small business websites and blogs that lack on budget for dedicated security.

Some security features that make All-In-One WP unique are

• Has a block listing tool to set requirements to block certain users.
• Hides website login page from bots.
• Locks down the login page after failed login attempts.
• Activate firewall settings from basic, intermediate to advanced as your website grows.
• Best plugin to handle website backups.
• Provides content protection through iFrame and copywriting.

Pros, Cons, and Pricings of All-in-One WP Security

Pros

• Covers necessary security functions required, for free.
• Easy for novice users.

Cons

• The basic version does not scan malware.
• Bot protection prevents search engine-powered bots, and crawlers from reaching your website.

Pricing

The basic version comes free. This must be installed before you go for the premium version, which offers malware scanning, 404 blocking, and two-factor authentication.

3. WordFence

This is one of the best WordPress security plugins to consider if your blog is prone to malware attacks, from external advertisement links.

WordFence keeps learning the latest malware and threats used, to turn them to firewall rules and malware signatures.

This makes it a strong plugin capable of handling any new mutations of cyber threats. Let us look at some unique features of WordFence in addition to the usual basic features.

• A user-friendly dashboard showing hack attempts, firewall scan results, and security threats.
• Block suspicious IP addresses through WHOIS lookup.
• Centralized portal to handle the management of multiple WordPress websites.
• Live traffic view helps distinguish visits by humans, bots, and crawlers.
• Sends alerts and provides instructions to fix security breaches, which can be done by developers without much external aid.
• Country blocking feature helps restrict your website in certain geographical locations, specifically prone to hacker attacks.

Pros, Cons, and Pricings of WordFence WP Security Plugin

Pros

• A highly reliable plugin with the capacity to handle the latest online security hackers.
• Helpful for beginners with simple terminology

Cons

• The firewall is run only before loading WordPress, posing DNS-level threats.
• Real-time threat notifications are available only for paid versions.

Pricing

Available for free. The paid version costs you $99 per year. Choose packages based on the criticality of your website.

4. Jetpack WP Security Plugin

This is a popular all-in-one WP Security Plugin that allows users to take care of their blog from a central dashboard.

The free package offers all basics like malware scanning, brute force protection, activity logging, and two-factor authentication.

This is a great choice for beginner bloggers who are looking for basic fallback mechanisms.

• Real-time backup saves all changes happening then and there in your blog.
• One-click restore options help your WordPress blog to be up and running in no time.
• Automatically clears spam from comments and forms with Akismet.
• Alerts on website downtime will reach you before your clients/customers can experience them.
• Protects from both traditional and distributed brute force attacks.

Pros, Cons, and Pricings of Jetpack Security Plugin

Pros

• Strong security support
• Integrates with WordPress.com dashboard, as an external dashboard for your website.

Cons

• No firewall protection and routine cleanups
• Scans are not robust.
• Non-fool-proof scan results can contain false positives.

Pricing

The free version includes basic WordPress security. The security plan costs $10.95 per month, annually. Add-ons like Scan, AI, VaultPress Backup, Boost, and Social can be billed individually.

5. iThemes Security

This provides about 30 WordPress Security features within one WordPress Plugin. The free version does basic security checks like brute force attacks and password protections.

They depend on Sucuri’s malware scanner. However, the Pro version has malware scanning as an option.

iThemes boasts of the following security features available across different packages offered,

• Strong password enforcement with two-factor authentication and Google Recaptcha.
• Detects file changes which could indicate corruption attacks
• 404 error detection and handling
• Supports partial website backups
• Allows to monitor and enable/disable security features for specific ‘groups’.
• Best brute force protection, blocking malicious entrants. A lockout period can be set to prevent hackers from trying again.
• Checks if your website is blacklisted by Google for suspicious malware presence.
• Automatic and periodic updates can be set to refresh obsolete pages.
• Private ticketed support and response for any user queries

Pros, Cons, and Pricings of iThemes Security Plugin for WordPress

Pros

• Suitable for personal and professional websites and blogs.
• Works well for modular security in web pages like login pages, payment credential entry pages, etc.

Cons

• Does not have a website firewall.
• Does not perform regular scans.
• Most websites require an upgrade to the Pro version to get features that are basic in other tools.

Pricing

iThemes Security Pro starts from $99 per year for a single website. iThemes Security Plus comes at $199 per year for 5 secure sites while Agency supports 10 secure sites at $299 per year.

Conclusion

Every blogger’s dream is to create a passive source of Income from their online presence. Any damages to your ‘online’ image, would cost you the trust of your audiences.

To secure your WordPress-powered blog, you can easily install any of the security plugins.

We all know that WordPress is the most popular CMS and at the same time most common platform for vulnerabilities.

You need to take preventive measures by installing the right WordPress security plugins. If not so, you will lose your rankings and revenue.

Therefore pay greater attention to finding the right security solutions for your WP blog.