When it comes to your WordPress security, it is almost impossible to say that you have enough. After all, on average around 30,000 websites are hacked in someway a day. Whether it’s your personal information, important files, products, or even other people’s information, you need a way to keep it all safe, secure, and away from bots and spammers looking to access your site.
Today, let’s take a look a five WordPress security plugins that will let you rest easy knowing your site is safe!
5 Excellent & FREE WordPress Security Plugins
1. Wordfence Security by Wordfence
To anyone who has already performed a few preliminary searches of security plugins for WordPress, this one won’t be any surprise. Wordfence Security is one of the most trusted security plugins for WordPress, and it packs a punch. The firewall for Wordfence protects your site from your site. This means that the firewall is integrated into your site, instead of being controlled from the cloud or a remote location. This helps prevent it from being bypassed or blocked.
In addition to keeping you safe at the source, Wordfence also keeps an up to date list of black listed IP addresses that will be halted before they ever reach your site. For free users this list is automatically updated every 30 days, but there is a premium version that updates immediately. There are many more features to Wordfence, but if you are looking for a trustworthy and thorough security system then this is a great option.
2. iThemes Security by iThemes
iThemes Security is a great tool to prevent brute force attacks on your site. This plugin will automatically lockout and report users who try to repeatedly login to your website. This plugin will also set up password requirements for your users to make sure each password is a strong as possible. iThemes will also scan your website in order to better know what sections of your site are more vulnerable than others.
iThemes also give you the ability to shut off document editing from your dashboard to ensure know one else can alter your content. Best, however, iThemes Security makes regular backups of your WordPress database, so you can get back up and running as quickly as possible in the event that you do suffer an attack. Give iThemes Security a look and also check out its Pro Version features.
3. Sucuri Security by Sucuri
Sucuri Security is unique in that it is a security suite meant to complement your already existing security measures. Rather than being a security system in itself, it offers you features that will help you take your security further. These include: File Integrity Monitoring, Remote Malware Scanning, Blacklist Monitoring, Effective Security Hardening, and more.
The feature that I find most interesting, however, is the Security Activity Auditing. This feature gives you the ability to log who is logging in and what changes are being made while they are logged in! Even better, the security logs for this Audit are kept in the Sucuri cloud, making it that much harder for any attacker to cover their tracks. For that feature alone you should give Sucuri Security a look.
4. Shield Security by OneDollarPlugins
What if you are looking for a security plugin that will do its job and not over complicate your life with security issues? Shield Security is a great system that will do its job efficiently and quietly. Activate the plugin, follow a step by step configuration wizard, and then let Shield do its thing. It will protect your site, and only notifies you when you need to be informed.
In short, Shield Security keeps you focused on your website’s content, and not on its security. It will handle the automated spam and black listed IP address and only notify you when something big is happening. If you like what you here you should also explore their Premium Version to see what else it is capable of protecting.
5. All In One WP Security and Firewall by Tips and Tricks HQ
All in One WP Security has many of the same features as the above plugins. I.E. protection from brute force logins, force strong passwords, control when users can and can’t login, etc. However, All In One also keeps you protected by covering what others might overlook. For instance, All In One will not allow users to have their login name be the same as their display name, and it can add a captcha to the forgot password form.
All In One also breaks its security features into categories (Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced), so you can better identify what your website needs. All In One also integrates with many other security plugins to provide bonus features and security. Though integrating it with another plugin might take some additional work from you, the possibility of additional WordPress security makes this a great option.
Keep your site safe and running smooth with any of these amazing plugins!
With any of these plugins, your WordPress security will be snuggly in your control and your site protected from bots and hackers. Do you have a security plugin that you trust above all others, or have any suggestions from the list? Be sure to share in the comments below and let us know how you keep your site safe and sound.
