WordPress is a great CMS for your blog, page, or e-shop, but like every open source system, it's not perfectly secure. If you use WordPress, you shouldn't have a careless approach to security, because in that case you're skating on very thin ice. WordPress sites are basically very easily vulnerable.
WordPress contains a lot of gaps that hackers know well, and believe me, if they get the opportunity, they'll gladly hack unsecured sites and deploy their malicious code, e.g. for cryptocurrency mining. In this article, we'll introduce what we consider the top 3 plugins that will help you protect your sites.
Plugin | Rating | Active installations ---|---|--- All-In-One WP Security & Firewall | 4.8 / 5 | 700,000+ iThemes Security | 4.7 / 5 | 900,000+ Wordfence Security | 4.8 / 5 | 1+ million
All-In-One WP Security & Firewall
The name of this plugin says it all. This plugin is a 360° security solution for your WordPress. It's a comprehensive and easy-to-use, stable, and well-supported security plugin for WordPress. This module will push your WordPress security to another level. The plugin focuses primarily on brute-force attacks and also helps protect WordPress against the most common website attacks. The plugin uses a so-called security meter that shows you on the basic dashboard how strongly your site is protected. This module doesn't slow down website speed. The module writes protection settings directly to the .htaccess file. In addition, it offers wp-config.php backup, and it's possible to set anti-spam protection and content copy protection. All-In-One WP Security & Firewall is free and doesn't have a paid version. Plugin in the WordPress repository — download
iThemes Security
iThemes has been developing tools for WordPress since 2008. Their plugin Backupbuddy is among the top modules within database and website backup. This provides a certain guarantee that the iThemes Security plugin is also a great product. iThemes Security has many useful settings in the free version. Interesting features include sharing information about attacking IP addresses. That is, if some IP address attacked another site in the iThemes Security Network, it'll have its access to your site blocked immediately. iThemes contains the following functions:
Contains a security check that helps you set up basic protection of your site Can deny access to dangerous bots, agents, and possibly selected IP addresses Strengthens server security Enforces strong passwords for all accounts for which this option is set — always from lowest to highest Offers renaming of the login page Offers the option of renaming the wp-content directory Offers blocking of running scripts in the uploads, themes, plugins directories Checks the currency of plugins, theme, and system core
iThemes Security is basically free, and it's possible to pay extra for a higher version. Plugin in the WordPress repository — download
Wordfence
Wordfence, together with iThemes Security, belongs among the best security plugins for WordPress. Wordfence is the most popular security plugin for WordPress, as also proven by more than 1,000,000 installations. Wordfence contains the following functions:
Firewall with learning mode and various level settings Can deny access to dangerous bots, agents, and possibly selected IP addresses Strengthens server security Enforces strong passwords for all accounts for which this option is set — always from lowest to highest Offers renaming of the login page Offers blocking of running scripts in the uploads, themes, plugins directories * Checks the currency of plugins, theme, and system core
Wordfence is basically free, and it's possible to pay extra for a higher version. Plugin in the WordPress repository — download
