7 Best WordPress Security Plugins in 2022 – Pay Zero

 

Internet is the quickest way to grow a business, network, and gain knowledge, however, it poses a high-security threat, as cybercrimes are rampant. To protect a website against hacking, security plugins like WordPress security plugins are the best option, to prevent targeted cyberattacks. They include several features, such as web application firewalls (WAFs) and website scanning. Since a wrong plugin can make your website vulnerable to attack, hence, it’s important to evaluate your security requirements before opting for security plugins from the WordPress plugin library. This article shares popular plugins to protect your WordPress site from cyber threats.

 

Powerful security plugin features

 

What features a powerful plugin should have? A consistent and useful plugin must possess the following functionalities and features.

 

• 100% detection ability of Spam, Malware, & Viruses 
• Login page protection
• Highly secured website yet quick to responding
• Fast error rectification ability of the website before it gets blacklisted or suspended
• A robust firewall to guard against malware traffic
• Unlimited ability to remove malware and viruses
• Multiple site management abilities via a single dashboard
• Security hardening procedures
• Quick & active customer response
• Advance way to reset multiple passwords

 

Plugins you need to secure your WordPress site (Free)

 

Wordfence

 

 

 

Wordfence Central is a powerful and efficient method to manage the security of multiple websites from a central location. 

 

Features:

 

• Quickly evaluates the security status of all your websites from a unified view. Thus, the website owner/administrator can view detailed security observations without leaving Wordfence Central.
• Templates make configuring Wordfence easier.
• Highly configurable alerts are delivered via SMA, email, or Slack. 
• Improve the signal-to-noise ratio by using daily digest option and severity level options.
• Track and alert critical security actions such as administrator login, breached password use, and surge in cyberattacks.
• Free to use for unlimited websites.

 

Average User Rating: 4.5/5

 

Active Installation: 4+ million

 

Sucuri Security

 

 

Free to use for all WordPress users, the Sucuri Security WordPress plugin is a security suite that integrates with existing security tools to offer robust security against cyberattacks. Currently, GoDaddy has its own rights.  

 

Features:

 

• Auditing of security activities
• Monitoring file integrity 
• Scanning remote malware
• Monitoring blocklist
• Deploying post-hack security actions
• Powerful security hardening
• Automated security notifications
• Website firewall 

 

Average User Rating: 4.5/5

 

Active Installation: 800,000+

 

Shield Security

 

 

Shield Security is a simple-to-use security plugin, just install and allow the plugin to work its magic. Additionally, modify settings as per your requirements. 

 

Features

 

• Offers a highly secure WordPress login page
• The core file scanner automatically detects malware and spam
• Complete monitoring of user activity
• Scans for vulnerability issues in themes and plugins
• Brute Force script to limit failed login and block the user  
• Import & export option of settings across all websites if the plugin is installed 

 

Average User Rating: 5/5

 

Active Installation:  60,000+

Jetpack

 

 

Jetpack plugin makes WP site secure and improves the flow of targeted traffic to the site. It provides simple, comprehensive, security features such as auto real-time backups, spam protection, malware scans, and easy restoration to make your site faster and safer.     

Features:

 

• Brute force protection and downtime/uptime monitoring 
• AMP built-in to optimize a website for mobile devices 
• CDN (content delivery network) auto optimizes images on the website

 

Thus, with this premier WP plugin, page load times decrease as images are optimized; especially for mobile devices. Thus, bandwidth usage is reduced which saves money.    

 

Average User Rating: 4.5/5

 

Active Installation: 5+million

 

NinjaFirewall (WP Edition)

 

 

NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) is a powerful Web Application Firewall, which is configurable like any plugin and is a stand-alone firewall that protects the WP site against malware, spam, and virus. WordPress website administrators gain from this powerful and advanced security tool which has been designed for security applications like the Apache ModSecurity module or the PHP Suhosin extension. 

 

Features:

 

• It scans, rejects, and hooks any HTTP/HTTPS request sent to a PHP script before reaching WordPress or its plugins.
• Scripts inside blog installation directories and sub-directories are protected, including the ones that don’t belong to the WordPress package.
• Encoded PHP scripts, backdoors, and hacker’s shell scripts are filtered by NinjaFirewall.
• Web Application Firewall transforms incoming data from HTTP requests that detect dodging techniques and muddying tactics by hackers and decode a large set of encodings. This allows enhanced protection of the WP site against distributed and multiple attacks sent from different IPs.

 

Average User Rating: 4.5/5

 

Active Installation: 80,000+

 

 

Also Read: How to Quickly Change or Reset Your WordPress Admin Password (6 Ways Explained)

 

 

 

BulletProof Security

 

 

BulletProof Security is a proactive security plugin that automatically fixes 100+ known issues/conflicts with other plugins.

 

Features

 

• Guaranteed login security and monitoring
• File upload protection and integrity monitoring
• Automatic logout of an idle session to prevent user’s exploitation when away
• Robust invasion detection and prevention tool for WordPress site
• In-built code scanners for limiting failed login attempts, IP blocks, and searches for false traffic
• Optimize website performance through caching
• Unlimited website security is offered by the Pro version

 

Average User Rating: 4.5/5* 

 

Active Installation: 40,000+

Security Ninja

 

 

Security Ninja runs 50+ security tests instantly to discover hidden threats. Automatically blocks 600+ million compromised IPs with a single click. Security Ninja Pro Cloud Firewall enables comprehensive protection to your website as it contains information on millions of sites attacked and how they were protected. 

 

Features:

 

• Cloud firewall proactively blocks malicious IP addresses and requests
• Country blocking feature blocks specific countries from accessing your site
• The core scanner is used for finding files or unapproved changes
• Malware scanner to find malicious files on the server
• Auto fixer rectifies issues detected by the plugin’s free version
• Events logger to log critical events in the dashboard, like edits and installation
• Scheduled scanner to run automatically for malware detection 

 

Average User Rating: 4.5/5

 

Active Installation: 10,000+

 

Wrapping it up

 

With several valuable WordPress security plugins available, it becomes a daunting task to select the best fit for your website. Whether you need comprehensive plugins like Sucuri Security, or combining with other tools – WP Security Audit Log and Google Authenticator. The best practice is to pair the choicest plugins with other compatible security tools to improve the security of your WordPress site.