Best WordPress Security Plugins in 2023 | Pickup WP

If you’re looking for the best WordPress security plugins, you’ve come to the right place.

Using a WordPress security plugin protects your WordPress site from malware, brute force attacks, and hacking attempts.

In this post, we’ve hand-picked the best WordPress security plugins that you can use to protect your website.

Why Use a WordPress Security Plugin?

Every week, around 18.5 million websites are attacked with malware. Every day, an average website gets attacked 44 times, including both WordPress and non-WordPress sites.

And if any of these attacks succeed, it might be bad for your business.

That’s why your WordPress 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:

• Hackers can steal your data as well as the data of your users and customers.
• A hacked website can be used to spread dangerous code to unwary visitors and other websites.
• You might lose data, lose access to your website, lock yourself out, or have your data taken hostage.
• Your website may be damaged or defaced, negatively affecting your SEO rankings and brand reputation.

For all of these reasons, having a WordPress security plugin on your site is important.

Let’s look at some of the best WordPress security plugins and how they may help you keep your website safe.

Best WordPress Security Plugins

Here are some of the best security plugins for WordPress to protect your website from malware.

1. Sucuri

Sucuri is the market leader in WordPress security. It is one of the most effective WordPress security plugins available.

Sucuri Security is a free plugin that helps you improve WordPress security and check your website for common attacks.

However, the actual value is in the premium plans, which include the best WordPress firewall security. A firewall protects your WordPress site from brute-force and malicious attacks.

Top Features:

• If your WordPress site gets attacked with malware, they will clean it up for free.
• Firewall security protects your WordPress site from brute-force and malicious attacks.
• It lets you conduct malware scanning.
• Effective security hardening.
• Keeps track of every activity on your site, including file changes, last logins, and failed login attempts.
• DDoS protection is available on some plans.
• By preventing malicious traffic, you may minimize server load time and increase your site’s performance.
• It serves static content from its own CDN servers.
• Protects your WordPress site from SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other known attacks.

Pricing:

Sucuri’s free version is available on the WordPress.org official repository. However, the premium version starts from $199.99 a year for the basic platform.

2. Wordfence

With over 4 million downloads up to date, Wordfence is another best WordPress security plugin.

They provide a free version of their plugin that includes a powerful malware scanner, exploit detection, and threat assessment functionality.

Top Features:

• The basic version is free to use for as many sites as you need.
• Visits and hack attempts are tracked in real-time, including the source, IP address, time of day, and amount of time spent on your site.
• Tracks and notifies you when your password has been hacked, allowing you to generate a new secure password quickly.
• Limits failed login attempts to protect against brute force attacks.
• It has customizable email alerts.
• The Pro version lets you monitor all sites from a central dashboard.

Pricing:

Wordfence offers both free and premium versions. The paid version starts from $99 a year.

3. iThemes Security

iThemes Security is another well-known WordPress security plugin. Along with the previous two, this plugin is one of the most widely used and trusted by WordPress users.

The plugin offers a user-friendly dashboard that displays all of the plugin’s features. From the dashboard, you may enable or disable the tools you wish.

iThemes Security lacks a website firewall and its own malware scanning. It uses Sucuri’s SiteCheck for malware scanning.

Top Features:

• Two-factor authentication and strong password enforcement.
• 404 error detection and plugin scans.
• Automatic WordPress backups.
• It locks out bad users.
• Sends you email alerts when any harmful file changes are made to your site.
• Limit the number of login attempts.
• It protects WordPress plugins and themes.

Pricing:

iTheme Security free version is available for free on the WordPress.org official repository. However, the premium version starts from $80 a year for a single site.

4. All in One WP Security & Firewell

The All In One WP Security & Firewall is a feature-rich free security plugin for WordPress. It offers a simple interface and great customer support without any premium plans.

This visual security plugin uses graphs and meters to explain metrics like security strength and what should do to make your site more secure to beginners.

It also allows you to quickly and effectively apply basic WordPress security best practices on your website.

Top Features:

• Offer Login Lockdown option to protect brute force attacks.
• File security, editing, backups, and restoration features.
• Website-level firewall.
• A file change detection scanner.
• Comment spam prevention.
• Front-end copy protection.

Pricing:

All In One WP Security & Firewall is completely free to use.

5. WPScan

WPScan is also the best WordPress security plugin. It uses its own database to search your website for vulnerabilities.

It has approximately 21,000 known security threats in its database as of today and has been adding new vulnerabilities since 2014.

You won’t have to check your website for malware if you use WPScan manually.

The security plugin discovers and reports the most serious flaws in your website’s security.

WPScan also looks for debug file logs, weak passwords, backup files, and other things.

Top Features:

• Automated vulnerability scanning for WordPress, plugins, and themes.
• Their database of vulnerabilities is updated daily by community members and dedicated WordPress security specialists.
• Additional security checks.
• Email notification of security reports.

Pricing:

The plugin offers a free version that is suitable for most websites. However, for large websites, go with the pro version, which starts from $5.53 a month.

6. BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security is another security plugin that offers tools to help secure your WordPress website from hackers.

However, It doesn’t have the most user-friendly interface, but it makes up for it in terms of its functionality.

Top Features:

• Login security and monitoring.
• MScan Malware Scanner.
• A security log.
• Database backups and restoring.
• Anti-spam and anti-hacking tools.
• Hidden plugin folders.
• Maintenance mode.
• A complete setup wizard.

Pricing:

BulletProof Security is available in both a free version and a premium version. The pro version starts from $69.95 for lifetime use and unlimited installations.

7. Jetpack

Jetpack is another popular all-in-one solution on our list of the top WordPress security plugins.

This well-known plugin, which has over 5 million active downloads, allows you to check your website for security vulnerabilities quickly.

Top Features:

• Every change you make to your website is saved in real-time via backups.
• It Protects your website against malicious malware and brute force login attacks.
• It automatically updates your WordPress plugins and tells you if you’re using the most recent version of WordPress.
• Downtime monitoring allows you to learn about problems before your visitors do.
• Detailed activity log outlining every site change that’s made.

Pricing:

Jetpack’s free version offers some basic security protections for WordPress. The Security Daily plan costs $19.95 per month when paid annually.

8. MalCare Security

MalCare is a popular security plugin that focuses on malware scanning and removal, as the name suggests. It also includes several other standard WordPress security features.

They also protect your website against attacks from their own servers. As a result, your site will never slow down when they scan for malware.

Top Features:

• Automatic malware scans.
• It has one-click malware removal for any issues.
• A basic firewall.
• Offer a built-in activity log to detect suspicious events.
• Brute force protection.

Pricing:

There is a free version of MalCare that can scan your website. However, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version to see or fix any issues it finds.

The premium version starts at $99 per year for a single site.

9. WP Cerber

WP Cerber is a popular all-in-one WordPress security plugin similar to Wordfence. It protects WordPress against hackers, malware, and spam.

You may also create malware removal and file recovery policies using an automated malware scanner and integrity checker.

Top Features:

• A proactive firewall.
• Malware scans and file integrity monitoring.
• Offers lots of login protection like limited login attempts, two-factor, CAPTCHAs, and more.
• Anti-spam protection for registration and comment forms.
• IP blocklists, including blocking whole countries.
• An application-level web application firewall and real-time traffic log.

Pricing:

WP Cerber offers a free version that you can download from the official WordPress.org repository. However, the premium version starts at $99 per year.

10. Google Authenticator

Setting up two-factor authentication for further protection is a good way to make sure that your website stays safe. This is possible using Google Authenticator. It’s on our list because most security plugins don’t have it.

Top Features:

• It gives your login an extra layer of protection.
• It has a simple interface and is moderately easy to use.
• Let’s pick which type of two-factor authentication you want to use.
• It offers shortcodes, so you can do things like using it on custom login pages.

Pricing:

Google Authenticator is completely free to use.

11. Anti-Malware Security and Brute Force Firewall

The next plugin on our list is Anti-Malware Security and Brute Force Firewall. It integrates well with WordPress websites and has a simple installation method.

Its major purpose is to prevent your website from becoming infected with malware. However, you may use its firewall to prevent brute force attacks.

You may use the plugin’s complete website scan to automatically discover and remove website threats.

Top Features:

• Comprehensive website scanner.
• A strong firewall.
• It protects your login against DDoS and brute-force attacks.
• Download Definition Updates to protect against new threats.

Pricing:

Anti-Malware Security and Brute Force Firewall are completely free to use.

12. Security Ninja

Try the Security Ninja plugin for complete and easy-to-use vulnerability testing.

This plugin performs more than 50 security checks on your core files, themes, plugins, and password strength and then shows the safety status of your website in your dashboard.

Top Features:

• Check your website for security flaws, bugs, and holes.
• Check to see if WordPress core, plugins, and themes are up-to-date.
• Test file accessibility.

Pricing:

Security Ninja offers both free and premium versions. However, the premium version starts from $49.99 a year.

The Best WordPress Security Plugins in Summary

The best WordPress security plugins are decided by your requirements, level of knowledge, and money.

If you’re a beginner looking for something that will secure your site without requiring any difficult setup, I’d recommend sticking with Wordfence.

It’s the best option for a reason, and it’s also the most straightforward to use. Most sites will be OK with the free version, as only mission-critical sites require real-time security rules.

Keep in mind that no WordPress security plugin is perfect. While using a security plugin is a great approach to improve your site’s security, some of the most critical aspects of WordPress security still need human intervention. These are the ones:

• Keep everything up to date, including the core software, plugins, and themes.
• Never install sketchy nulled plugins and only use the best plugins from trusted developers.
• Always use a strong password for your admin account.

For more on this topic, check out our complete WordPress security guide.

You may also see our list of best WordPress backup plugins that will help you restore your website after a security breach.