We all want to keep our site secure… right?
And since WordPress is the most popular website platform, it’s often targeted by malicious hackers and spammers.

Regrettably, many website owners fall into the trap of assuming that hackers only target big companies or popular blogs, so they underrate the significance of keeping their site secure.

Some people think that hackers only attack websites for stealing personal data and building backlinks but they also do it just for fun.

It doesn’t matter if you think that having a smaller site guarantee that your site is safe from malicious attacks. Unless you take security measures to prevent site attacks, you’re allowing the hackers to destroy your search rankings and over all online business.

The simplest way to keep your site secure is by installing a WordPress security plugin on your site. In this WordPress Wednesday, I’ve rounded up the best of WordPress security plugins which you can opt for using it out in your website.

But why use a WordPress Security Plugin?

Securing your WordPress site can be tricky, especially if you’re not a expert with WordPress. But having the right security plugin for your WordPress site, you don’t need to get into technicalities of keeping your site secure.

A good WordPress security plugin no matter it’s a free and or paid plugin should come with the following features:

• Firewall: Firewalls monitor all traffic on your site and filter out vulnerable bots before they reach your website server.
• Scan: Scanning your site is recommended to discover if your site have malware or other potential threats.
• Fixes: A good security plugin should assure malware removal and fixes if the site should you get attacked.

1. Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security is one of the most popular security plugins for WordPress, and it is for a good reason. This plugin pairs simplicity with powerful protection tools, like the robust login security features and the security incident recovery tools. One of the advantages of this plugin is the fact that you can gain insight into overall traffic trends and hack attempts of your site.

Wordfence has everything from firewall blocks to protection from brute force attacks. Wordfence also has a premium version starting at around $99 per year for one site. The plugin authors also make it cheaper for developers, providing steep discounts when you signup for multiple site keys.

Price: Free/$99.00 per year for one site, discounts for multiple site keys

2. BulletProof Security

The BulletProof Security WordPress plugin comes with both free and premium versions of the plugin. The paid BulletProof plugin sells for a one-time payment of $69.95 and it’s actively developed, updated and contains features than most of the other security plugins on the market.

With the paid plugin you receive features for quarantines, email alerting, anti-spam, auto-restore, and more. But the free plugin has a bunch of great features like: database backups and restoring, login security and monitoring, mscan malware scanner, anti-spam and anti-hacking tools, security log.

This plugin may not the most user friendly plugin, but it does the job for developers who are experts and wanting to take advantage of settings and features like the anti-exploit guard and the online Base64 decoder.

Price: Free / $69.95

3. iThemes Security

The iThemes Security plugin is just another one of the more impressive ways to protect your site, with over 30 ways to prevent things like hacks and unwanted intruders. It has a strong focus on recognising plugin vulnerabilities, obsolete software and weak passwords.

There are some basic security features that are included with the free version of the plugin, but if you want to you can upgrade to iThemes Security Pro for $80 per year.

The pro version provides ticketed support, one year of plugin updates and support for two sites. If you like to protect more sites, you have the option to upgrade to a more bigger plan.

The primary features you’ll find in the pro version provides strong password enforcement, locking out of bad users, database backups and two-factor authentication.

Price: Free or $80.00 per year

4. Shield Security

Shield Security is here to take on your increasing burden of site security. We are all short on time, so we need smarter defences and a security plugin that knows how to respond to threats without pestering you with emails. This plugin is for both beginners and advanced. When the plugin starts scanning and protecting your site from the moment you activate it.

The core of Shield Security is free forever, but for those professionals and business who need deeper protection and hands-on 24-hour support at the ready, you can get Shield Pro for just $12 per site. The Pro version brings more scans, that run more often, user password policies, bigger audit trails, support for WooCommerce, traffic monitoring.

Price: Free or Shield Pro for just $12 per site.

5. All In One WP Security & Firewall

This is one of the most feature-packed free security plugins. All In One WP Security & Firewall provides a simple interface and satisfactory customer support that doesn’t come with any paid plans. This is a visual security plugin that contains graphs and meters to explain metrics like security strength and what needs to be done to make your site stronger.

The security rules are broken down into three categories, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. Therefore, you can nevertheless take advantage of the plugin if you’re a more seasoned developer. The first way this plugin works is by protecting the user accounts, blocking forceful attempts toward your login and enhancing the user registration security. Plus Database and file security is also packaged into the plugin

Price: Free

6. Jetpack

For most people who use WordPress are familiar with Jetpack, and it’s mainly due to the plugin has a bunch of features. Jetpack is filled with modules that strengthen your social media, site speed and spam protection. But there are so many more features in Jetpack that it’s worth exploring.

Such as the security tools that are included in Jetpack, making it an engaging WordPress plugin for those who want to save money and rely on a reputable solution. Instance, the Protect module is free, and it blocks suspicious activity from happening plus it also includes Brute force attack protection and whitelisting is also supported by the basic security functionality from Jetpack.

Like many other plugins on this list, you’ll find that Jetpack has paid versions that are more powerful when it comes to security. For the $99 per year plan, it includes malware scanning, scheduled website backups, and restoration if anything goes wrong. Moreover, the $299 per year plan offers on-demand malware scans and real-time backups for the ultimate protection.

Price: Free/$99.00 per year/$299.00 per year