8 Best WordPress Security Plugins to Protect Your Site

Last updated on Feb 15, 2021 by Lisa Gennaro

Are you trying to keep your website safe?

Using a security tool on your WordPress site is super important to having a successful business online.

In this post, we’ve rounded up the very best WordPress security plugins to protect your website.

Here’s a table of contents to help you navigate this post:

Do I Need a WordPress Security Plugin?

If you’re asking yourself are WordPress security plugins necessary? Know this stat — The average website is attacked 44 times every day.

And if any of those attacks are successful, it could seriously hurt your business online.

That’s why your WordPress site security and online security measures should be at the top of your priorities.

Your WordPress hosting provider alone can’t protect you from all threats.

Some of the negative things that can happen with a security breach include:

All of these reasons make having a WordPress security plugin installed on your site incredibly important.

So now that you know the risks of an unsecured website and the reasons why you need a WordPress security plugin, let’s talk about the top choices.

This list should help you pick which one works best for you and your business.

So which security plugin offers the best WordPress protection and is best for you? Let’s take a peek at the list of popular WordPress security plugins:

1. Sucuri

The best free WordPress security plugin available today is Sucuri. The all-in-one security platform is wildly popular for good reason.

Although Sucuri is a great free WordPress security plugin for websites, the pro version is actually the real must-have for every website owner.

Features:

Cost:

There’s a free version of Sucuri and the Pro version is $299/year.

Click here to get started with Sucuri today.

2. iThemes Security Pro

If you’re a WordPress user, you might be familiar with the team that created iThemes Security Pro since they also built the popular BackupBuddy plugin and other great themes and plugins. All of their tools offer an easy-to-use interface for brute force security protection and more.

Features:

Cost:

iThemes Security Pro pricing starts at $80/year.

3. Jetpack

Another popular all-in-one solution on our list for the best WordPress protection plugins is Jetpack. This well-known plugin lets you easily scan your website for security vulnerabilities and has over 5 million active installs.

Features:

Cost:

The free version of Jetpack includes basic WordPress security features. The Security Daily plan starts at $19.95/month billed annually.

4. WPScan

Another great solution for WordPress website security is WPScan. This user-friendly tool has been around since 2012 and can keep your website safe and secure on the backend. It works by cataloging tons of different known threats and reports the important ones to you, so you can avoid unwanted security issues.

Features:

Cost:

There’s a free version of the plugin that’s great for most websites. If you’ve got a big site and use a lot of plugins the paid version of WPScan would be best for you and starts at around $2.31/month.

5. Wordfence

Wordfence is a WordPress security plugin that has some amazing features to protect your WordPress site. You can use the basic version without spending a cent.

Features:

Cost:

Wordfence is available as a free or paid plugin. The paid version is priced from $99/yr.

6. BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security is a WordPress security plugin that doesn’t look all that cool, but gets you some basic security features for free, so it’s worth being on the list.

Features:

Cost:

BulletProof Security is free.

7.  All In One WP Security & Firewall

It’s easy (and free) to use All In One WP Security & Firewall to apply most WordPress best practices for security to your small business website. But the tool is pretty basic and not as beginner-friendly as the more well-known solutions.

Features:

Cost:

All In One WP Security & Firewall is free.

8. Google Authenticator

Setting up two-factor authentication for extra security is a really good idea to keep your website secure. Google Authenticator lets you do just that. And it’s on our list since most security plugins don’t include this.

Features:

Cost:

Free.

If you’re looking for a WordPress security plugin that has it all, the answer’s fairly obvious which you should choose.

Our pick for the very best goes to Sucuri Security, without a doubt. It comes with all the features you’ll need to protect your website, instead of just a few.

This includes website scanning, DNS-level firewalls (not just website), and their own cloud-based server and CDN network.

If you haven’t already, we recommend that you get started with Sucuri as soon as possible. The Premium version isn’t free, but having a secure website’s going to save you a ton of potential costs and headaches in the event of a breach (Not to mention, peace of mind).

In Conclusion on WordPress Security

And that’s it. Hopefully, this list of the best WordPress security plugins helped give you the info you need to find the best security tool for you.

Security is important to be legally compliant with the GDPR. This list of WordPress GDPR plugins includes some helpful tools to log user activity on your site.

You may also really like our post with some awesome proven strategies for creating secure WordPress forms.

And in case you’re not aware of the security risk of using hacked plugins, we’ve also created an article on why you must avoid WPForms Pro nulled.