As the most used website management platform globally, WordPress is also one of the most targeted by malicious actors. Keeping your WordPress site secure can quickly become challenging especially for small business owners who have 1,000 other things to do. Luckily, there are security plugins, that can be installed right from within WordPress, that can make the task easier for you and help you keep your website away from cyber attackers.

Some of the functionalities usually provided by site plugins include, among others:

->Web traffic monitoring
-Malware scanning
-Security hardening
-Malware scanning
-Malware cleanup
-Automated backup
-Brute force attack protection
-Unusual login notification

We have reviewed the most used plugins in the community, and have come up with this list of three plugins which you can consider to add to your WordPress site. The first two are comprehensive security tools that offer a free (albeit limited) version. The third one is a backup tool that is very affordable. Make sure to choose one of them and take a few minutes to install it for your WordPress site.

#1 WordFence
Free version available: Yes
Paid version pricing: $119/year and up (compare versions)
Key Features:
-Very easy to use
-Built-in Web Application Firewall that blocks malicious traffic
-Malware scanning of files, plugins and themes before upload
-2FA and login limits to prevent brute force attacks
-Real time live traffic and analytics
-Over 4 millions downloads to date – one of the most popular WordPress security pluginsSome plugins would focus on one or two of these roles, while some are more comprehensive and include a wide range of security features.

#2: All in One Security (AIOS)
Free version available: Yes
Paid version pricing: $70/year (compare versions)
Key Features:
-Provides insights for best practices (such as renaming ‘admin” username)
-In-depth reports about website users and their activity
->Hides login page from bots
-Login lockout function to prevent brute force attacks or users with invalid usernames
-Configurable forced logouts to prvents users being logged in indefinitel
-Two Factor Authentication
-Password strength tool

#3 VaultPress Backup by JetPack
Free version available: No
Paid version pricing: $5.5/month or more
Key Features:
-Great for membership sites and Woocommerce stores
-Real-time backups
-Includes 10GB of cloud storage (get up to 1TB storage for double the price)
-30-day activity log archive
-Unlimited one-click restores from the last 30 days

We hope you have found the recommendations above useful. There are hundreds of other security tools available for WordPress, so it is worth to take the time to review some of them to find the one most suited for your needs. As we alway say, running a WordPress site is not do and forget thing. If you need help in keeping your site secure and want to outsource this function to a knowledgeable, trusted partner, while you focus on growing your business or magnifying the impact of your cause, please consider subscribing to one of our Web Defender packages today.