Best WordPress Security Plugin of 2022 [Expert Secret]

WordPress is an open-source and the most commonly used platform for many website owners, almost 30% of the websites are built-in WordPress which makes it a target for the hackers.

Though there are some WordPress security plugins that help to protect your website but finding the best WordPress Security Plugin is a little bit time taking process.

WordPress usually publishes new updates to patch all the known vulnerabilities, but few third-party themes and plugins make WordPress vulnerable. Sometimes the hackers manage to find some of these vulnerabilities in WordPress that allow them to hack the whole server.

So, you must install on the Best WordPress plugin in your WordPress Website.

Because when your WordPress site is hacked or infected with malware, it negatively affects your site ranking and as well as site traffic. Therefore, I have created a list for the Best WordPress Security Plugins which will help you protect your WordPress website from hackers.

So, today let’s see what are the best WordPress security plugins available in its repository. But before driving in to find out the best WordPress Security Plugin, let’s have some basic ideas like – What is WordPress Security Plugin? Why should we use the best WordPress Security Plugin? So, let’s start.

What is WordPress Security Plugin?

A WordPress Security Plugin is a piece of code that contains a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website to increase the security of the WordPress website. They extend the security functionalities that WordPress provides by default and also add some new security features.

In the WordPress community, there is a saying – “there’s a plugin for that”. These make it easier for users to add more security features to their website without knowing a single line of code.

Why should we use the best WordPress Security Plugin?

Starting a portfolio website or a blog, an eCommerce or even a website for small businesses requires some investment for a domain, hosting, theme, plugin, and website development.

But the most important thing is that you are making sure that you don’t forget to protect the money you are going to make in the future through the website.

So, the security of a website is as important as the backend and frontend of your WordPress website.

By default, WordPress does provide some security measures, but nothing it’s compared to what a premium and well-known security plugin provide for you. For example, the top WordPress security plugins provide the following facilities:

• Firewalls
• File Scanning
• Malware Scanning
•  Blacklist Monitoring
• Active Security Monitoring
• Post-hack Action
• Security Hardening
• Brute Force Attack Protection
• Alert / Notifications for when a security threat is detected
• Much more

List of Best WordPress Security Plugins in 2022

I have listed below the best WordPress Security plugins available in 2022 according to their ranking, if you are in short of time then just click the link to install the WordPress Security plugins.

But I would recommend reading first so that you can get in-depth knowledge and choose the Best WordPress Security Plugins that you require for your WordPress website.

1. Sucuri Security
2. IThemes Security
3. Wordfence Security
4. WP Fail2ban
5. All In One WP Security & Firewall
6. Jetpack
7. SecuPress
8. BulletProof Security
9. VaultPress
10. Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication
11. Security Ninja
12. Defender
13. Astra Web Security
14. Shield Security
15. Anti-Malware Security
16. Hide my WP
17. WebARX
18. Acunetix WP Security
19. 6Scan Security
20. MalCare

Most worthwhile security plugins have a price tag, but there are a few security plugins among them that come with limited functionality for free.

So, let us do an in-depth analysis and understand what each WordPress Security Plugins are offering you to keep the bad guys away from your WordPress website. 

WebARX

WebARX is available in premium mode only and it is a great website security platform that supports almost every PHP application. It has a smart firewall engine that will protect your website from software vulnerabilities and separates true visitors from fake traffic. 

WebARX has a great web application firewall which protects your site from plugin malicious bot attacks, vulnerabilities, brute force attack and from fake traffic, and it also lets you create your own firewall rules.

WebARX is used by more than 3000 digital agencies and developers worldwide and has a 4.9-star rating on its Trustpilot page. 

Some of the features that Anti-Malware Security plugin offers:

• Managed Web Application Firewall
• Custom Firewall Rules
• Plugin Vulnerability Monitoring
• Up-time and SSL Monitoring
• Blacklist Monitoring
• Email and Slack Alerts
• PDF Security Reports
• Automatic Off-Site Backups
• WordPress Hardening
• 24/7 Security Monitoring
• 2 Factor Authentication
• GDPR Cookie and Privacy Policy
• Plugin Remote Management
• Website Software Overview
• User Activity Logging
• User Management
• Block malicious bots and hacking attempts
• Prevent malware infections
• Secure your website from plugin vulnerabilities
• Protect your website from brute-force attacks
• Make your own rules with WebARX firewall engine
• Plugin vulnerability monitoring
• SSL/TLS certificate monitoring
• Up-time monitoring
• Blacklist monitoring
• Domain expiration monitoring
• Login Rate Limiting
• GDPR Cookie and Privacy Policy
• reCAPTCHA & 2 Factor Authentication
• User Activity Logging
• HTTP Security Headers
• Off-Site Backups
• Only You Have the Access
• Integration with Google Drive
• Set the Desired Frequency Yourself
• Backups are Automated
• Customize when to receive alerts
• Receive alerts on slack
• Receive alerts on email
• Send alerts to alternative emails
• Generate full security reports (PDF)
• Customize reports with your company logo
• Create weekly reports

Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening

Sucuri Security comes in both versions – free and premium, yet maximum WordPress website owner uses the free one as it goes fine with their websites.

Sucuri Security has a 600,000+ active installation, this plugin is from the popular website security and auditing company Sucuri Inc.

Sucuri Security protects your website from DOS attack, Brute Force attacks, Zero Day Disclosure Patches and other scanner attacks, well it also keeps a log of all activities. 

The installation of Sucuri Security is also very simple and it gives a lot of security options to implement in your WordPress website. After installation, you will find a new icon in the sidebar of your WordPress website with the Sucuri logo.

Go to the plugin’s dashboard and click the button – “Generate API Key” to activate the event monitoring, this will generate a unique key to authenticate your website against the remote Sucuri WordPress API service.

Then go to the Sucuri setting page, configure the setting as your requirement and save it. 

Some of the features the Sucuri Security offers are:

• Security Activity Auditing
• File Integrity Monitoring
• Remote Malware Scanning
• Blacklist Monitoring
• Effective Security Hardening
• Post-Hack Security Actions
• Security Notifications
• Website Firewall (premium)

iThemes Security

iThemes Security which was previously known as Better WP Security is one of the most impressive ways to protect your WordPress website, it has 900,00+ active installation and offers more than 30 features to prevent your WordPress website from the hackers.

It strongly focuses on recognizing the plugin vulnerabilities, obsolete software, and weak passwords. This plugin also offers a security dashboard that helps you to monitor your WordPress website’s security at a glance.

And if you upgrade it to iThemes Security Pro version its Security grade report as it helps you to quickly scan the website to create a report of the current security level of your WordPress website.

Some of the features that iThemes Security offers are:

• Prevents brute force attacks by banning hosts and users with too many invalid login attempts
• Scans your site to instantly report where vulnerabilities exist and fix them in seconds
• Bans troublesome user agents, bots and other hosts
• Strengthens server security
• Enforces strong passwords for all accounts of a configurable minimum role
• Forces SSL for admin pages (on supporting servers)
• Forces SSL for any page or post (on supporting servers)
• Turns off file editing from within WordPress admin area
• Detects and blocks numerous attacks to your filesystem and database
• Detects bots and other attempts to search for vulnerabilities.
• Monitors filesystem for unauthorized changes.
• Run a scan for malware and blacklists on the homepage of your site.
• Receive email notifications when someone gets locked out after too many failed login attempts or when a file on your site has been changed.
• Changes the URLs for WordPress dashboard areas including login, admin and more
• Completely turns off the ability to login for a given time period (away mode)
• Removes theme, plugin, and core update notifications from users who do not have permission to update them
• Removes Windows Live Write header information
• Removes RSD header information
• Renames “admin” account
• Changes the ID on the user with ID 1
• Changes the WordPress database table prefix
• Changes wp-content path
• Removes login error messages
• Makes it easier for users not accustomed to WordPress to remember login and admin URLs by customizing default admin URLs
• Detects hidden 404 errors on your site that can affect your SEO such as bad links and missing images

iThemes Security Pro provides some additional features like:

• Two-Factor Authentication – Use a mobile app such as Google Authenticator or Authy to generate a code or have a generated code emailed to you.
• WordPress Salts & Security Keys – The iThemes Security plugin makes updating your WordPress keys and salts easy.
• Malware Scan Scheduling – Have your site scanned for malware automatically each day. If an issue is found, an email is sent with the details.
• Password Security – Generate strong passwords right from your profile screen.
• Password Expiration – Set a maximum password age and force users to choose a new password. You can also force all users to choose a new password immediately (if needed).
• Google reCAPTCHA – Protect your site against spammers.
• User Action Logging – Track when users edit content, login or logout.
• Import/Export Settings – Saves time setting up multiple WordPress sites.
• Dashboard Widget – Manage important tasks such as user banning and system scans right from the WordPress dashboard.
• Online File Comparison – When a file change is detected it will scan the origin of the files to determine if the change was malicious or not. Currently works only in WordPress core but plugins and themes are coming.
• Temporary Privilege Escalation – give a contractor or someone else temporary admin or editor access to your site that will automatically reset itself.
• wp-cli Integration – Manage your site’s security from the command line.

Wordfence Security

Wordfence Security has a 3+ million active installation, yes, it is one of the most popular plugins and trusted by a large number of website administrator using both versions – free as well as a premium plugin.

Wordfence Security has a great live traffic view that allows you to see traffic updates in real-time and any hack attempts being made on your website.

Wordfence Security also includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that was built from the ground up to protect WordPress.

Wordfence Security is one of the best free security solutions that provide everything starting from firewall blocks to protection from brute force attacks.

However, the premium version provides more rock-solid security to your website, though the starting price of the Wordfence Security premium version is $ 99 per year for a single website.

Some of the features that Wordfence Security offers are:

• Web Application Firewall identifies and blocks malicious traffic. Built and maintained by a large team focused 100% on WordPress security.
• Protects your site at the endpoint, enabling deep integration with WordPress. Unlike cloud alternatives do not break encryption, cannot be bypassed and cannot leak data.
• Integrated malware scanner blocks requests that include malicious code or content.
• Protection from brute force attacks by limiting login attempts.
• Malware scanner checks core files, themes, and plugins for malware, bad URLs, backdoors, SEO spam, malicious redirects and code injections.
• Compares your core files, themes, and plugins with what is in the WordPress.org repository, checking their integrity and reporting any changes to you.
• Repair files that have changed by overwriting them with a pristine, original version. Delete any files that don’t belong easily within the Wordfence interface.
• Checks your site for known security vulnerabilities and alerts you to any issues. It also alerts you to potential security issues when a plugin has been closed or abandoned.
• Checks your content safety by scanning file contents, posts and comments for dangerous URLs and suspicious content.
• Two-factor authentication (2FA), one of the most secure forms of remote system authentication available via any TOTP-based authenticator app or service.
• Login Page CAPTCHA stops bots from logging in.
• Disable or add 2FA to XML-RPC.
• Block logins for administrators using known compromised passwords.
• Wordfence Central is a powerful and efficient way to manage the security for multiple sites in one place.
• Efficiently assess the security status of all your websites in one view. View detailed security findings without leaving Wordfence Central.
• Powerful templates make configuring Wordfence a breeze.
• Highly configurable alerts can be delivered via email, SMS or Slack. Improve the signal to noise ratio by leveraging severity level options and a daily digest option.
• Track and alert on important security events including administrator logins breached password usage and surges in attack activity.
• Free to use for unlimited sites.
• With Live Traffic, monitor visits and hack attempts not shown in other analytics packages in real-time; including origin, their IP address, the time of day and time spent on your site.
• Block attackers by IP or build advanced rules based on IP Range, Hostname, User Agent and Referrer.
• Country blocking available with Wordfence Premium.

Wordfence Security Pro provides some additional features like:

• [Premium] Real-time firewall rule and malware signature updates via the Threat Defense Feed (free version is delayed by 30 days).
• [Premium] Real-time IP Blacklist blocks all requests from the most malicious IPs, protecting your site while reducing load.
• [Premium] Real-time malware signature updates via the Threat Defense Feed (free version is delayed by 30 days).
• [Premium] Checks to see if your site or IP has been blacklisted for malicious activity, generating spam or other security issues.

WP Fail2ban

WP Fail2ban delivers only one specific feature, but it’s an important one – protecting your WordPress website from Brute Force attacks and it has 40,000+ active installation.

This plugin takes a different approach which many WordPress website owners feel more effective than what you get from some of the security plugins in this list. 

WP fail2ban documents all login attempts via XML-RPC, regardless of their nature or successfulness, to the Syslog using LOG_AUTH. Wp Fail2ban offers three different filters, they are WordPress-hard.conf, WordPress-soft.conf, and WordPress-extra.conf.

WordPress-hard.conf for immediate banning, WordPress-soft.conf for the traditional graceful approach and WordPress-extra.conf for extra rules for custom configuration.

Some of the features that Wordfence Security offers are:

• Blocking Users:
  WPf2b can be configured to short-cut the login process when the username matches a regex. For an overview see WP_FAIL2BAN_BLOCKED_USERS.
• Block User Enumeration:
  WPf2b can block user enumeration. See WP_FAIL2BAN_BLOCK_USER_ENUMERATION.
• Cloudflare and Proxy Servers:
  WPf2b can be configured to work with Cloudflare and other proxy servers. For an overview see WP_FAIL2BAN_PROXIES.
• Comments:
  WPf2b can log comments (see WP_FAIL2BAN_LOG_COMMENTS) and attempted comments (see WP_FAIL2BAN_LOG_COMMENTS_EXTRA).
• Pingbacks:
  WPf2b logs failed pingbacks and can log all pingbacks. For an overview see WP_FAIL2BAN_LOG_PINGBACKS.
• Spam:
  WPf2b can log comments marked as spam. See WP_FAIL2BAN_LOG_SPAM.
• Workarounds for Broken syslogd:
  WPf2b can be configured to work around most syslogd weirdness. For an overview see WP_FAIL2BAN_SYSLOG_SHORT_TAG and WP_FAIL2BAN_HTTP_HOST.
• Mu-plugins Support:
  WPf2b can easily be configured as a must-use plugin – see Configuration.
• Support for 3rd-party Plugins:
  Version 4.2 introduces a simple API for authors to integrate their plugins with WPf2b, with 2 experimental add-ons: Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms.

All In One WP Security & Firewall

All In One WP Security & Firewall is a full security package for a WordPress website which free of cost, on top of that they also provide customer support in the free version and it has an 800,00+ active installation. Though they also have a premium version for providing an extra edge to the clients.

All In One WP Security & Firewall also provides a highly visual security plugin with meters and graphs to explain to the beginners about the current condition of his WordPress website and what needs to be done to make your WordPress website more secure.

All In One WP Security & Firewall is also available in different languages – English, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil), Persian.

Some of the features that All In One WP Security & Firewall offers are:

• Detect if there is a user account that has the default “admin” username and easily changes the username to a value of your choice.
• The plugin will also detect if you have any WordPress user accounts which have identical login and display names. Having accounts where display name is identical to login name is bad security practice because you are making it 50% easier for hackers because they already know the login name.
• Password strength tool to allow you to create very strong passwords.
• Stop user enumeration. So, users/bots cannot discover user info via author permalink.
• Protect against “Brute Force Login Attack” with the Login Lockdown feature. Users with a certain IP address or range will be locked out of the system for a predetermined amount of time-based on the configuration settings and you can also choose to be notified via email whenever somebody gets locked out due to too many login attempts.
• As the administrator, you can view a list of all locked out users which are displayed in an easily readable and navigable table which also allows you to unlock individual or bulk IP addresses at the click of a button.
• Force logout of all users after a configurable time period.
• Monitor/View failed login attempts that show the user’s IP address, User ID/Username and Date/Time of the failed login attempt.
• Monitor/View the account activity of all user accounts on your system by keeping track of the username, IP address, login date/time, and logout date/time.
• Ability to automatically lockout IP address ranges which attempt to login with an invalid username.
• Ability to see a list of all the users who are currently logged into your site.
• It allows you to specify one or more IP addresses in a special whitelist. The whitelisted IP addresses will have access to your WP login page.
• Add Google Recaptcha or plain maths captcha to WordPress Login form.
• Add Google Recaptcha or plain maths captcha to the forgot password form of your WP Login system.
• Enable manual approval of WordPress user accounts. If your site allows people to create their own accounts via the WordPress registration form, then you can minimize SPAM or bogus registrations by manually approving each registration.
• Ability to add Google reCaptcha or plain maths captcha to WordPress’s user registration page to protect you from spam user registration.
• Ability to add Honeypot to WordPress’s user registration form to reduce registration attempts by robots.
• Easily set the default WP prefix to a value of your choice with the click of a button.
• Schedule automatic backups and email notifications or make an instant DB backup whenever you want with one click.
• Identify files or folders which have permission settings that are not secure and set the permissions to the recommend secure values with the click of a button.
• Protect your PHP code by disabling file editing from the WordPress administration area.
• Easily view and monitor all host system logs from a single menu page and stay informed of any issues or problems occurring on your server so you can address them quickly.
• Prevent people from accessing the readme.html, license.txt and wp-config-sample.php files of your WordPress site.
• Easily backup your original .htaccess and wp-config.php files in case you will need to use them to restore broken functionality.
• Modify the contents of the currently active .htaccess or wp-config.php files from the admin dashboard with only a few clicks
• Ban users by specifying IP addresses or use a wild card to specify IP ranges.
• Ban users by specifying user agents.
• Access control facility.
• Instantly activate a selection of firewall settings ranging from basic, intermediate and advanced.
• Enable the famous “6G Blacklist” Firewall rules courtesy of Perishable Press.
• Forbid proxy comment posting.
• Block access to the debug log files.
• Disable trace and track.
• Deny bad or malicious query strings.
• Protect against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) by activating the comprehensive advanced character string filter.
• WordPress PingBack Vulnerability Protection feature. This firewall feature allows the user to prohibit access to the xmlrpc.php file in order to protect against certain vulnerabilities in the pingback functionality. This is also helpful to block bots from constantly accessing the xmlrpc.php file and wasting your server resource.
• Ability to block fake Google-bots from crawling your site.
• Ability to prevent image hot-linking. Use this to prevent others from hotlinking your images.
• Ability to log all 404 events on your site. You can also choose to automatically block IP addresses that are hitting too many 404s.
• Ability to add custom rules to block access to various resources of your site.
• Instantly block Brute Force Login Attacks via our special Cookie-Based Brute Force Login Prevention feature. This firewall functionality will block all login attempts from people and bots.
• Ability to add a simple math captcha to the WordPress login form to fight against brute force login attacks.
• Ability to hide the admin login page. Rename your WordPress login page URL so that bots and hackers cannot access your real WordPress login URL. This feature allows you to change the default login page (wp-login.php) to something you configure.
• Ability to use Login Honeypot which will helps reduce brute force login attempts by robots.
• The file change detection scanner can alert you if any files have changed in your WordPress system. You can then investigate and see if that was a legitimate change or some bad code was injected.
• Monitor the most active IP addresses which persistently produce the most SPAM comments and instantly block them with the click of a button.
• Prevent comments from being submitted if it doesn’t originate from your domain (this should reduce some SPAM bot comment posting on your site).
• Add a captcha to your WordPress comment form to add security against comment spam.
• Automatically and permanently block IP addresses that have exceeded a certain number of comments labeled as SPAM.
• Ability to disable the right-click, text selection and copy option for your front-end.
• WordPress Security is something that evolves over time. We will be updating the All In One WP Security plugin with new security features (and fixes if required) on a regular basis so you can rest assured that your site will be on the cutting edge of security protection techniques.
• It should work smoothly with the most popular WordPress plugins.
• Ability to remove the WordPress Generator Meta information from the HTML source of your site.
• The ability to remove the WordPress Version information from the JS and CSS file includes your site.
• Ability to prevent people from accessing the readme.html, license.txt and wp-config-sample.php files
• Ability to temporarily lock down the front end of your site from general visitors while you do various backend tasks (investigate security attacks, perform site upgrades, do maintenance work, etc.)
• Ability to export/import the security settings.
• Prevent other sites from displaying your content via a frame or iframe.
• If you have a question or problem with the All In One Security plugin, post it on their support forum and they will help you.

Jetpack

Jetpack is having a combination of different features like strengthen your social media, site speed, unauthorized logins, spam protection, brute force attack protection and whitelisting that made Jetpack get 5+ million active installations.

JetPack is available in both version – free as well as premium version. Premium version of Jetpack can provide Auto Social Resharing, Social Share Scheduling, Site Backups, Malware Scanning, Security Support, and many more features.

Some of the features that Jetpack offers are:

• Brute-force attack protection, spam filtering, and downtime monitoring.
• Backups of your entire site, either once daily or in real-time.
• Secure login, with optional two-factor authentication.
• Malware scanning, code scanning, and automated threat resolution.
• A record of every change on your site to simplify troubleshooting.
• Fast, priority support from WordPress experts.
• Images and static files, like CSS and JavaScript, served from our servers, not yours.
• Elasticsearch-powered related content and site search, for relevant results with no drain on your servers.
• Lazy image loading for a faster mobile experience.
• Unlimited and high-speed video via our content delivery network.
• Advanced site stats and analytics for understanding your audience.
• Hundreds of professional themes, for a pro site no matter what your niche.
• Intuitive and powerful customization tools to match your website to your brand.
• Simple PayPal payment buttons for selling products and services.
• SEO tools for Google, Bing, Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress.com to maximize your reach.
• An advertising program that includes the best of AdSense, Facebook Ads, AOL, Amazon, Google AdX, and Yahoo.
• Integration with the official WordPress mobile apps, to manage your site from anywhere.

SecuPress

SecuPress is a newly launched WordPress security plugin on the market, it was launched in 2016. But its rapid growth and popularity have succeeded to gain 20,000+ active installation.

SecuPress is developed by Julio Potier, who is one of the co-founders of WP-Media, those who have developed some of the WordPress leading plugins like WP Rocket and Imagify.

SecuPress is available in both the version – free as well as premium version. If you are a beginner and you want a security plugin that is easy-to-use and provides a great UI interface then SecuPress is the best choice for you.

After installing SecuPress, on the very first scan, it will provide you a report that will include – a reminder to delete the deactivated plugins, outdated plugins, security suggestions for wp-config.php, the status of wp-admin/install.php, users and login status, WordPress core tweaking and many more. 

Some of the features that SecuPress offers are:

• Anti-Brute Force login
• Blocked IPs
• Firewall
• Security alerts
• Malware Scan
• Block country by Geo-location
• Protection of Security Keys
• Block visits from Bad Bots
• Vulnerable Plugins & Themes detection
• Security Reports in PDF format
• Security Audit
• Two Factor Authentication
• Password lifetimes for your users
• Enforce strong password use
• Forbid the use of vague usernames like www or admin
• The plugin secures WordPress Endpoints and APIs by blocking bad requests for XML-RPC or REST API
• It blocks bad bots with its Robots Blackhole feature
• It provides an anti-hotlink feature to preserve your bandwidth
• The plugin packs 7 anti-disclose security modules to make sure no precious information is available to hackers in your PHP or WordPress itself
• Profile and SecuPress settings pages are passwords protected to keep sensitive information away from prying eyes
• The plugin blocks malicious incoming requests
• It blocks bad User Agents (no bad crawlers allowed)
• Bad requests methods also get the boot in a single click
• URLs are kept in check: no bad URL contents
• SQL injection scanners are kept out as well
• Brute force attempts are stopped in their tracks
• GeoIP Blocking by country gives you more control over your traffic
• Bad files in your FTP
• Your uploads folder for dangerous files
• Potential phishing attempts via index.php loads
• Back-up
• Anti-spam
• Alerts
• Scheduled Security Tasks – Scheduled Scanner, Scheduled Backup, Scheduled Malware Scan
• Logs

BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security is available in both versions – free one, as well as a pro version with 30 days money-back guarantee and it has a 70,000+ active installations.

BulletProof Security plug-in is one of the best security plug-ins that use .htaccess website security files to protect your root website folder and wp-admin folder and it also provides other additional website security protection to your WordPress website.

The different security modes at BulletProof Security offers are wp-admin .htaccess security protection, root .htaccess security protection, WordPress default .htaccess mode, deny All .htaccess self-protection, and .htaccess Maintenance Mode (503 Website under Maintenance).

BulletProof Security protection your WordPress website against XSS, RFI, CRLF, CSRF, Base64, Code Injection, and SQL Injection hacking.

Some of the features that BulletProof Security offers are:

• One-Click Setup Wizard
• Setup Wizard AutoFix (AutoWhitelist|AutoSetup|AutoCleanup)
• MScan Malware Scanner
• .htaccess Website Security Protection (Firewalls)
• Hidden Plugin Folders|Files Cron (HPF)
• Login Security & Monitoring
• JTC-Lite (Limited version of BPS Pro JTC Anti-Spam|Anti-Hacker)
• Idle Session Logout (ISL)
• Auth Cookie Expiration (ACE)
• DB Backup: Full|Partial DB Backups | Manual|Scheduled DB Backups | Email Zip Backups | Cron Delete Old Backups
• DB Table Prefix Changer
• Security Logging
• HTTP Error Logging
• FrontEnd|BackEnd Maintenance Mode
• UI Theme Skin Changer (3 Theme Skins)
• Extensive System Info

Some of the features that BulletProof Security Premium version offers are:

• One-Click Setup Wizard
• Setup Wizard AutoFix (AutoWhitelist|AutoSetup|AutoCleanup)
• Auto-Restore Intrusion Detection & Prevention System (ARQ IDPS)
• Quarantine Intrusion Detection & Prevention System (ARQ IDPS)
• Real-time File Monitor (IDPS)
• MScan Malware Scanner
• DB Monitor Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
• DB Diff Tool: data comparison tool
• DB Backup: Full|Partial DB Backups | Manual|Scheduled DB Backups | Email Zip Backups | Cron Delete Old Backups
• DB Status & Info: extensive database status & info
• Plugin Firewall (IP Firewall): Automated Whitelisting & IP Address Updating in Real-time
• JTC Anti-Spam|Anti-Hacker
• Uploads Folder Anti-Exploit Guard (UAEG)
• .htaccess Website Security Protection (Firewalls)
• Hidden Plugin Folders|Files Cron (HPF)
• Custom php.ini Website Security
• Login Security & Monitoring w/Dashboard Alerting|Status Display & additional options/features
• Idle Session Logout (ISL)
• Auth Cookie Expiration (ACE)
• F-Lock: Read Only File Locking
• FrontEnd|BackEnd Maintenance Mode
• Security Logging
• HTTP Error Logging
• PHP Error Logging
• DB Table Prefix Changer
• S-Monitor: Monitoring & Alerting Core
• Pro Tools: 16 mini-plugins
• Heads Up Dashboard Status Display
• UI Theme Skin Changer (3 Theme Skins)
• Extensive System Info

VaultPress

VaultPress is only available in premium version starting from $39 per year to $299 per year depending on the website needs, basically, it has two variants – personal which is $39 per year and for business, it is further divided into two variants one Jetpack Premium which is $99 per year and Jetpack Professional which is $299 per year.

VaultPress has 80,000+ active installation and you can say it is a combination of both Sucuri Scanner and iThemes Security Pro. It provides a real-time back-up as well as daily back-ups, with a beautiful calendar view for specifying when you’d like to schedule your backups and can restore it from that specific date.

Some of the features that VaultPress offers depending on the plan you choose:

• Brute Force attack protection and uptime monitoring
• Automated real-time back-ups with unlimited storage space
• Unlimited back-up archive
• Daily and on-demand scans for infiltrations and malware
• Automated resolution
• Unlimited high-speed, ad-free video hosting
• Ad revenue generation
• Search engine optimization tools
• Google analytics integration
• Spam protection for comments and pingbacks
• Easy site migration & 1-click site restore from back-up
• Priority support from WordPress experts

Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication

Google Authenticator plugin adds an extra layer of security to your WordPress website’s login system. Google Authenticator either sends a push notification to your phone or another form of authentication such as using an asking a security question or QR code at the time of logging-in to your WordPress website.

By adding this plugin, you can provide next-level security to your WordPress login page. Google Authenticator makes impossible for any attackers to log-in to your WordPress website, even if they guess your username and password. Google Authenticator is available for free and has 20,000+ active installations.

You can also use Email Verification / SMS Verification / OTP Verification with Google Authenticator for a better result. This plugin decreases the possibility of a user registering with a fake Email Address/Mobile Number.

Some of the features that Google Authenticator free plugin offers:

• Simplified & easy user interface.
• Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for 1 User forever FREE!
• Variety of Authentication Methods: Any App supporting TOTP algorithm like Google, Authy, LastPass Authenticator, QR Code, Push Notification, Soft Token, and Security Questions(KBA)
• Includes Language Translation Support. Supports a wide variety of languages
• This plugin supports standard TOTP + HOTP protocols for Authentication Methods.
• Two Factor Authentication (2FA) allows authentication on the login page itself for Google Authenticator & miniOrange Soft Token.
• Brute force attack prevention & IP Blocking.
• User login Monitoring.

Google Authenticator Standard:

• Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for Users as per the upgrade (User-based pricing )
• Available Authentication Methods: Google, Authy, LastPass Authenticator, QR Code, Push Notification, Soft Token, Security Questions (KBA), OTP Over Email, OTP Over SMS, OTP Over SMS and Email, Email Verification. (SMS credits need to be purchased as per the need)
• Includes language Translation Support. Supports a wide variety of languages.
• Multiple Login Options: Username + password + two-factor (or) Username + two-factor i.e. Passwordless login.
• Backup Method: KBA(Security Questions)
• Multisite compatible.
• User role-based redirection after log-in, Customize account name in Google Authenticator app
• Custom Security Questions (KBA)

Google Authenticator Premium:

• Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for Users as per the upgrade (User-based pricing)
• Available Authentication Methods: Google, Authy, LastPass Authenticator, QR Code, Push Notification, Soft Token, Security Questions (KBA), OTP Over Email, OTP Over SMS, OTP Over SMS and Email, Email Verification. (SMS credits need to be purchased as per the need)
• Includes language Translation Support. Supports a wide variety of languages
• Multiple Login Options: Username + password + two-factor (or) Username + two-factor i.e. Passwordless login
• Backup Method: KBA(Security Questions)
• Multisite compatible
• User role-based redirection after log-in, Customize account name in Google Authenticator app
• Custom Security Questions (KBA)
• Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for Users as per the upgrade (User-based pricing) 
• Available Authentication Methods: Google, Authy, LastPass Authenticator, QR Code, Push Notification, Soft Token, Security Questions (KBA), OTP Over Email, OTP Over SMS, OTP Over SMS and Email, Email Verification, Hardware Token. (SMS and Email credits need to be purchased as per the need)
• Language Translation Support
• Multiple Login Options: Username + password + two-factor (or) Username + two-factor i.e. Passwordless login
• Backup Methods: KBA(Security Questions), OTP Over Email, Backup Codes
• Multisite compatible
• Email notification to users asking them to set up Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
• The user role-based redirection after log-in, Custom Security Questions (KBA), Customize account name in Google Authenticator app
• Enable Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for specific Users/User Roles
• Choose specific authentication methods for Users
• App-Specific Password to login from mobile Apps
• Add-Ons Included: RBA & Trusted Devices Management Add-on, Personalization Add-on, and Short Codes Add-on

Google Authenticator Enterprise:

• Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for Users as per the upgrade (User-based pricing)
• Available Authentication Methods: Google, Authy, LastPass Authenticator, QR Code, Push Notification, Soft Token, Security Questions (KBA), OTP Over Email, OTP Over SMS, OTP Over SMS and Email, Email Verification, Hardware Token. (SMS and Email credits need to be purchased as per the need)
• Language Translation Support
• Multiple Login Options: Username + password + two-factor (or) Username + two-factor i.e. Passwordless login
• Backup Methods: KBA(Security Questions), OTP Over Email, Backup Codes
• Multisite compatible
• Email notification to users asking them to set up Two Factor Authentication (2FA)
• The user role-based redirection after log-in, Custom Security Questions (KBA), Customize account name in Google Authenticator app
• Enable Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for specific Users/User Roles
• Choose specific authentication methods for Users
• App-Specific Password to login from mobile Apps
• Add-Ons Included: RBA & Trusted Devices Management Add-on, Personalization Add-on, and Short Codes Add-on
• Brute force attack prevention, IP Blocking & User login Monitoring
• File protection & strong password

Add-ons (Applicable for free and standard plans, inclusive in the premium plan):

• RBA & Trusted Devices Management Add-on Features
  • Remember Device
  • Set Device Limit for the users to login
  • IP Restriction: Limit users to log in from specific IPs
  • Personalization Add-on Features
  • Custom UI of Two Factor Authentication (2FA) popups
  • Custom Email and SMS Templates
  • Customize ‘powered by’ Logo
  • Customize Plugin Icon
  • Customize Plugin Name
  • Short Codes Add-on Features
• Option to turn on/off 2-factor by user
  • Option to configure the Google Authenticator and Security Questions by user
  • Option to ‘Enable Remember Device’ from a custom login form
  • On-Demand ShortCodes for specific functionalities (like for enabling 2FA for specific pages)

Security Ninja

Security Ninja runs over 50+ security tests in an instant and discovers many issues that you didn’t even know existed. It has 10,000+ active installations and has been securing many WordPress websites for more than 8 years.

The best part of Security Ninja that it differs from other WordPress security plugins is that it doesn’t make any changes to your WordPress files which means you will have full control of your WordPress website.

Security Ninja can perform 50+ security checks within a single click of your mouse, it also has an auto-fixer module that can resolve any issue detected. It is available in both versions – free as well as premium version.

Some of the features that the Security Ninja plugin offers:

• Brute-force attack on user accounts to test password strength
• Numerous installation parameters tests
• File permissions
• Version hiding
• 0-day exploits tests
• Debug and auto-update modes tests
• Database configuration tests
• Apache and PHP related tests
• WP options tests
• Check if WordPress core is up to date
• Check if automatic WordPress core updates are enabled
• Check if plugins are up to date
• Check if there are deactivated plugins
• Check if active plugins have been updated in the last 12 months
• Check if active plugins are compatible with your version of WP
• Check if themes are up to date
• Check if there are any deactivated themes
• Check if full WordPress version info is revealed in page’s metadata
• Check if readme.html file is accessible via HTTP on the default location
• Check the PHP version
• Check the MySQL version
• Check if server response headers contain detailed PHP version info
• Check if expose_php PHP directive is turned off
• Check if a user with username “admin” and administrator privileges exists
• Check if “anyone can register” option is enabled
• Check user’s password strength with a brute-force attack
• Check for a display of unnecessary information on failed login attempts
• Check if database table prefix is the default one
• Check if security keys and salts have proper values
• Check the age of security keys and salts
• Test the strength of WordPress database password
• Check if general debug mode is enabled
• Check if database debug mode is enabled
• Check if JavaScript debug mode is enabled
• Check if display_errors PHP directive is turned off
• Check if WordPress installation address is the same as the site address
• Check if the wp-config.php file has the right permissions (chmod) set
• Check if install.php file is accessible via HTTP on the default location
• Check if upgrade.php file is accessible via HTTP on the default location
• Check if register_globals PHP directive is turned off
• Check if PHP safe mode is disabled
• Check if allow_url_include PHP directive is turned off
• Check if plugins/themes file editor is enabled
• Check if uploads folder is browsable by browsers
• Test if a user with ID “1” and administrator role exists
• Check if Windows Live Writer link is present in pages’ header data
• Check if wp-config.php is present on the default location
• Check if MySQL server is connectable from outside with the WP user
• Check if EditURI link is present in pages’ header data
• Check if TimThumb script is used in the active theme
• Check if the server is vulnerable to the Shellshock bug #6271
• Check if the server is vulnerable to the Shellshock bug #7169
• Check if admin interface is delivered via SSL
• Check if MySQL account used by WordPress has too many permissions

Defender

Defender is one of the most popular WordPress security plugins developed by WPMU DEV and have 10,000+ active installation.

Defender is the easiest WordPress security plugin for any beginners, without knowing any technical complexity you can configure the plugin within a few minutes. It instantly adds a security layer to your WordPress website to protect it against security threats.

Defender is available in both versions – free as well as premium. You can try Defender Premium version free for the first 30 days, after that, it will charge $49 per month.

Some of the features that Defender plugin offers:

• Disable trackbacks and pingbacks – safety first
• Core and server update recommendations – stay on top of your systems
• Change default database prefix – they won’t find this
• Disable file editor – if they get in, they won’t get far
• Hide error reporting – don’t reveal your issues
• Update security keys – ultimate security reset
• Prevent information disclosure – why tell them what you have
• Prevent PHP execution – because it’s dangerous

Astra Web Security

Astra Web Security is a great security-suite for your WordPress website, it is only available in premium version and the pricing starts from $9 per month (if paid annually) or $12 per month (if paid monthly).

You wouldn’t require any other WordPress security plugins once you install Astra Web Security in your WordPress website, as it will protect your website against SQLi, brute force, comment spam, XSS, malware and 100+ other security threats with its super intuitive dashboard.

The most important feature of this WordPress security plugin is a one-click malware removal feature. It also automatically generates a report on how many attacks it prevented on your WordPress website and what was the nature of those attacks.

Some of the features that Astra Web Security plugin offers:

• Rock Solid Firewall
• Bad bot protection
• Spam protection
• 1-Click Malware Removal
• File change notifications
• Unlimited scans
• Threat analytics
• Login notifications
• Blacklist monitoring
• No false positives
• Block countries
• Whitelist countries
• IP range whitelist/block
• IP profiling
• Prevent malicious uploads
• Set upload size limit
• Control allowed extensions
• Backdoor upload prevention
• Collective threat intelligence
• Add collaborators
• Slack integration
• Email notification
• Summary reports
• Vulnerability assessment
• Catch business logic errors
• Penetration testing
• Dedicated cloud dashboard
• Strengthen CMS core
• Secure third-party plugins
• Increase trust & conversions
• Real human support
• Chat & phone support
• Less than 6-hour turn-around time

Shield Security

Shield Security is the only best-rated 5-star WordPress security plugin in the repository, with an 80,000+ active installation.  It is the best plugin for any WordPress beginners – just install and activate, that’s it.

It is a smart security plugin which knows when and in which case you should be notified and what type of problem it should bring to your attention, compared to other WordPress security plugins just fill your WordPress dashboard with full of notification and bombarding with emails.

Shield Security is available in both versions – free as well as pro version. The Shield Security pro pricing starts from $12 per year, which means you need to spend $1 per month for 1 website and it also provides a 30 days money-back guarantee.

Some of the features that Shield Security plugin offers:

• Beautiful, Easy-To-Use Guided Wizards – help you configure Shield and run scans like a Pro
• Limit Login Attempts / Block Automatic Brute-Force Bots – all automatically
• Powerful Core File Scanners – automatically detects malicious file changes and hacks you’d never see
• Automatic IP Black List – no need for you to manage IPs!
• 2-Factor Authentication – including Google Authenticator and Email
• Block 100% Automated Comments SPAM
• Audit Trail & User Activity Logging
• ReCAPTCHA
• Firewall
• Security Admin Users
• Block REST API / XML-RPC
• HTTP Headers
• Automatic Updates Control

Some of the features that Shield Security PRO plugin offers:

• Exclusive customer email support
• Plugin Vulnerability Scanner
• Plugin / Themes Hack Detection Scanner
• More Frequent Scans – as often as every hour
• Protection for your WooCommerce customers (incl. Easy Digital Downloads & BuddyPress)
• Remember-Me 2-Factor Authentication
• Powerful Password Policies
• Import/Export of options across sites
• Improved Audit Trail logging
• Exclusive early access to new security features
• Text customizations for your visitors
• No manual Pro plugin downloads – we handle this all for you automatically
• No license keys to manage – it’s all automatic!
• (coming soon) White Labelling
• (coming soon) Statistics and Reporting
• (coming soon) Select individual automatic plugin updates

Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall

Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall comes in two version – free and premium, and have 200,000+ active installations. It runs a complete scan that automatically removes viruses, malware, any security threats, and backdoor scripts, it also provides a firewall block called SoakSoak.

The premium version offers inspection of the integrity of the WordPress core files, protect against Brute Force and DDoS attacks as well.

Some of the features that Anti-Malware Security plugin offers:

• Run a Complete Scan to automatically remove known security threats, backdoor scripts, and database injections
• Firewall block SoakSoak and other malware from exploiting Revolution Slider and other plugins with known vulnerabilities
• Upgrade vulnerable versions of TimThumb scripts
• Download Definition Updates to protect against new threats

Some of the features that Anti-Malware Security premium version offers:

• Patch your wp-login and XMLRPC to block Brute-Force and DDoS attacks
• Check the integrity of your WordPress Core files
• Automatically download new Definition Updates when running a Complete Scan

Hide my WP

Hide my WP is a WordPress security plugin that secures your WordPress website from hackers and theme detectors.

It even hides the facts that you are using WordPress as your CMS, you can even hide your WordPress theme and WordPress plugins, well it also detects and blocks security attacks like XSS, SQL injection and many more. Hide my WP is only available in premium version and the price is $29.

Some of the features that Hide my WP Security plugin offers:

• Hide your wp-login.php
• Hide wp-admin folder and all of its files (for untrusted users)
• Change the WordPress theme directory, remove theme Info from stylesheet, replace default WP classes and finally minify it!
• Change plugins directory and hash plugins name
• Change wp-includes folder, upload URL, AJAX URL, etc.
• Change WordPress query URLs
• Change author permalink (or disable it!)
• Change or disable feeds
• Hide all other WordPress files!
• Disable WordPress archives, categories, tags, pages, posts, etc
• Easily replace any words in your HTML output file
• Easily change/hide any URL or file by Replacing the URLs
• Notify you when someone is mousing about your WordPress site (included with visitor details like IP, user agent, referrer and even username!)
• Compress HTML output and remove comments in source code
• Remove WordPress meta Info from the header and feeds
• Change default WordPress email sender
• Custom 404 page
• Remove unnecessary menu classes
• Clean up body classes

Login LockDown

Login LockDown is the best and the simplest WordPress Security plugin that prevents your WordPress website from the Brute force attack and it has 100,000+ active installation.

Login LockDown record all the IP address of the failed login attempts with their timestamp, and if more than a certain number of login attempts are made within a short period of time from the same IP addresses, then this plugin block and disable all the request made from that particular IP address.

By default, if 3 (three) failed login attempts are made within 5 (five) minutes, then Login LockDown blocks that particular IP address for the next 1 (one) hour – this will prevent your WordPress website from any kind of brute force attack.

The default configuration can be changed after the plugin is installed with your WordPress website from its dashboard and even the administrator has the option to manually unlock the block IP address.

The only features that Login LockDown plugin offers:

• Prevents Brute force attack

Block Bad Queries (BBQ)

Block Bad Queries (BBQ) is one of the simplest, super-fast plugins that prevent injection-related attacks on WordPress websites and it also checks all the incoming traffic and quietly blocks bad requests containing nasty stuff like eval(), base64 and excessively long request-strings. BBQ has got a 4.9-star rating, with 100,000 active installations.

BBQ is a simple plug-n-play WordPress security plugin, but yet a solid security shield for your website.

The only features that Block Bad Queries (BBQ) plugin offers:

• 100% Plug-n-play functionality
• No configuration required (it just works)
• Born of speed and simplicity, no-frills
• 100% focused on security and performance
• Blocks a wide range of malicious requests
• Blocks directory traversal attacks
• Blocks executable file uploads
• Blocks SQL injection attacks
• Based on the 5G/6G Firewall
• Scans all incoming traffic and blocks bad requests
• Scans all types of requests: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.
• Works silently behind the scenes to protect your site
• Hassle-free security plugin that’s easy to use
• Thoroughly tested, error-free performance
• Compatible with other security plugins
• Regularly updated and “future proof”
• Customize blocked strings via Whitelist/Blacklist plugin

Conclusion

As we have gone through all the top WordPress security plugin available in 2022, so I think now it will be easier for you to decide which WordPress security plugin you will choose for your website.

To be just a little more specific after providing all the details of the top-most WordPress security plugin available in 2022, I will also recommend you – before choosing any plugins for your WordPress website you should know about your web hosting, your website architecture and the security level you required for your WordPress website.

You can also check the Best web hosting for WordPress at Blog Haveli to get an in-depth idea about the best web hosting for your WordPress website.

Lists of suggestion for some common situation where you might choose one security plugin over another:

• Free WordPress Security Plugin: All In One WP Security & Firewall, Sucuri Security (free version,) or Wordfence Security.
• Most reliable: Sucuri Security, Jetpack, iThemes security.
• Best Value for Money: Sucuri Security, SecuPress, Jetpack, iThemes Security.
• Beginners Friendly: SecuPress, Security Ninja, Defender.
• Two-factor authentication: iThemes Security Pro, Google authenticator.

We hope this list will help you to make improvements to your site and achieve all your future business goals. If you think I have missed any plugin that you think is essential too? Feel free to suggest us.

 Please share if you like this article can help others to archive their online goals.

 Thanks in advance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):