You can secure your WordPress site via two methods i.e. With the help of WordPress security plugins and manually. But before introducing WordPress security plugins, we want to explain how you can manually secure your WordPress site. Let’s see:

As we all know that, with more than 60 million websites globally powering by WordPress – One of the most popular content management system (CMS). Looking at this popularity, hackers and spammers have taken keen interest to break WordPress security of WP-powered sites.

Going forward, since WordPress has made a big chunk of market share; Since then it brings more WordPress security concerns and increases WordPress security risks when vulnerabilities found. However, to avoid this problem, a number of WordPress security plugins are available in the market.

In accordance with research, Google blacklists approx 20,000 sites for WordPress security issues and approx 50,000 for phishing each week. If your site is your business and you have spent time standing this business, so securing your WordPress site should be your first priority.

However, WordPress has many in-built security features and audited by a lot of developers on a regular basis, but that’s not enough to secure your WordPress site from hacking attempts. You cannot depend only on this blogging platform. You will have to do something more.

Fortunately, you can secure your WordPress site manually and also with the help of WordPress security plugins. Both of the methods mentioned below which will help you to keep your WordPress site secure. Keep reading this guide.

Let’s introduce you how to secure a WordPress site. But before this, we will introduce you why WordPress security is important. Let’s see:

In this guide we have covered up shown-below topics:

Let’s get engaged with the same.

Why WordPress website security is important?

Sometimes Google shows a warning that one of the sites from search results may include malware, or it has been hacked. As soon as users see this warning, most of them avoid that site; no one wants to engage with malware.

Because they know very clearly, a hacked site can cause your business revenue and reputation. Further, hackers and spammers can steal your user information, password, install malicious software, etc. and even they distribute malware to your users.

In March 2016, Google warned more than 50 million sites users about a website that they are going to visiting the site may contain malware and theft information.

For more info on this matter just go to this link – Google warning

Not only this but, a hacked site causes a lot of traffic loss. Lately, in accordance with a survey, about 45% of people said that a hacked website lose a bit of traffic. And about 9% of people said that its lose as much as 75% traffic.

If your site is your WordPress business, no matter which type of business you run such as e-commerce business, company site, etc. WordPress security keys is utmost important for all.

Finally, as a site owner, it’s your responsibility to secure your site. Now we will show you some signs that indicate you when your WordPress site has been hacked. ? Let’s see:

Some signs indicating your WordPress site hacked

The solution to any problem can be started after identifying that particular problem. As we discussed above how important is the protection of your site? Therefore, it is necessary to keep your site secure. But for keeping your site safe how do you know what has happened with your site.

Keeping this in mind, we brought some possible signs that would help you to know when your WordPress site has been hacked. Let’s see:

1. Addition of bad content to your site

Hackers usually access the admin area of your WordPress site, they would alter your WordPress theme and plugin files. This would empower them to add anomalous content to your website.

If you start observing such content on your WordPress site, this is a possible indication that your website is hacked.

When a hacker gains access to the admin area, they can change anything on the website that he wants to. At times, they can destroy your complete website and even show a message that your site is hacked.

2. Dropping of site traffic

If you encounter a sudden drop in website traffic in your google analytics report then this might be a possible indication that your website has been hacked.

Hackers hijack your website traffic and divert you to spammy sites. There are many other explanations behind a drop in website traffic. Users are unable to access websites if they recognize Google blacklists that particular site.

3. When you are unable to login your WordPress site

If you are having any trouble in logging to your WordPress site then this is a possible indication that your site has been hacked. Hackers may delete your admin account from your site.

This way you won’t be able to retrieve your password because your user account doesn’t even exist.

4. Finding new user accounts

If you find new user accounts being added to your site, chances are that your site has been hacked. In a few occasions, the suspicious user account has administrator rights and you won’t have the capacity to erase it.

5. Addition of spammy links to your site

Hackers sometimes gain access to your WordPress documents and database and modify it by creating a backdoor on your WordPress website.

These hacks help in adding links to spammy sites. Typically these links are added to the footer of your site. Erasing the links won’t ensure that they won’t return.

6. Changes in website homepage

If the design or layout of your website all of a sudden changes, at that point it’s conceivable that your site has been hacked.

If you perceive a ton of your pictures all of a sudden vanishing, or you notice any weird pictures on your site, at that point it might be an indication that you’ve been hacked.

Sometimes hackers might substitute the entire homepage with a message to let you know that your site is hacked.

7. When your site is slow and unresponsive

Your website often becomes unresponsive due to denial of service attack. In this type of attack, the hacker overloads the server with multiple requests due to which you are unable to access your own site.

Any such action will make your site slow and inaccessible. You should check your server logs to see which IPs are making an excessive number of requests and block them.

8. Website crashing

When you see the message ‘server not found’ the first you should check If your network connection is working fine or not. If it’s working then your site may have been hacked.

Some of the time, a hacker would just need to crash your site and not perform any spiteful activities.

This makes it imperative to have your site on a well hosting organization that will keep your WordPress security in priority.

How to secure WordPress site?

Keeping your site in a WordPress security scan mode is a continuous process. That’ why we illustrate to you some actionable steps that will help you to improve your security.

However, in this guide, some of the WordPress security tips and tricks can be applied once that will help you to keep secure always and some of them you will have to do from time to time.

Note: In case of any WordPress security issue, feel free to contact to our WordPress Security Cleanup Services.

19 Steps to manually secure WordPress site

Let’s get cracked in detail;

1. Keep WordPress Up-to-date

As we have discussed above – WordPress is a free and open source platform that is updated on regular basis. The best thing is – by default, it installs minor updates automatically. And for major releases, you need to install manually.

No doubt, it also comes with a lot of themes and plugins. And these themes and plugins are developed by third-party developers which release updates on a regular basis. Therefore, WordPress security updates is the utmost important stuff to keep your site secure and stable.

That’s why we introduce you some steps to keep your themes and plugins secure, which are as follows. Let’s start:

Regularly update themes, plugins, and WordPress: The major reason for updates is to improve the shortcomings of the previous version. Hence, by updating your WordPress core, themes, and plugins on regular basis you can improve your WordPress security.

The major reason for updates is to improve the shortcomings of the previous version. Hence, by updating your WordPress core, themes, and plugins on regular basis you can improve your WordPress security. Delete themes and plugins that are not in use: Delete all your themes and plugins that you are not using currently. Because each & every theme and plugin adds extra code to your site in which WordPress security vulnerabilities are included that hackers can take benefits.

Delete all your themes and plugins that you are not using currently. Because each & every theme and plugin adds extra code to your site in which WordPress security vulnerabilities are included that hackers can take benefits. Do not download themes and plugins from untrusted sites: There are a lot of premium plugins and themes have ripped version that you can download on file sharing sites. But don’t download low fee and low-quality themes and plugins from untrusted sites. We recommend you download themes and plugins directly from WordPress because these are the best.

2. Use strong passwords and user permissions

Most of the time, WordPress hacking attempts are due to the theft of passwords. Therefore, you need to create a strong password for your site. Not only for the WordPress admin area but also for the database, WordPress hosting accounts, FTP accounts, and your email address.

Remember that don’t give access to anyone to your WordPress admin area. If you have a large team, then use user roles and capabilities.

3. The role of WordPress Hosting

WordPress Hosting also plays the utmost important role. A good WordPress hosting provider like BlueHost or Siteground protects your site from malware attempts.

Further on, when you share the server resources on shared hosting, the cross-site contamination risk increases where a hacker can hack your site with the help of another site.

We recommend you use a managed WordPress Hosting service. Because it offers a more secure platform for your site. These hosting providers companies services include automatic WordPress updates, automatic backups, and more advanced security.

4. Use two-factor authentication

The two-factor authentication is the one-time password that you get while you are trying to sign up for some services.

Using two-factor authentication means completely secure. It provides an additional feature of WordPress security by presenting an added layer. A user has to go through this step to get access to your site.

The most benefit of this feature is – if someone knows your username and password, they cannot get access to your site because they will need your mobile device to access your WordPress dashboard.

However, some plugins also come with this feature such as Wordfence security plugin. You can apply this feature by using this WordPress security plugin.

5. Limit number of login attempts

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This process is very important for the WordPress security alert. It prevents your site from brute force attacks. With the help of brute force, a user tries to access your site again and again by using different username and password. If any of these login attempts works, the user will get your correct details and access your site easily.

However, keep your limit number of login attempts to just 3 tries. It will protect your site from brute force attacks.

Alternatively, you can do this by using the Login LockDown plugin. For more info, take a look at how to install a plugin in WordPress.

You can also implement this by using the WordFence – Best WordPress security plugin.

6. Change your login url

By default, you can access any page of your WordPress site by using https://www.example.com/wp-admin. Means a hacker know very well where to go for attacks on your login page.

However, by changing your login page location you can secure your site. Also, you can implement this by using the WPS Hide plugin.

7. Access your server using the secure connection

Use secure connection such as FTP (SFTP) while connecting to your server (either during initial setup or to access and alter files). Secure connection transfer your files without hijacked and change by a hacker.

If you are not aware of how to use SFTP, then contact their web host provider.

8. Use correct permissions on files and folders

WordPress tells that files should have 644 permission and folder should have 755. Follow this scheme, else your site may be vulnerable to hacks.

Further, any files and folder should not have 777 permission. Because this permission allows all rights such as (read, write, execute) to everyone.

You can also change all folder permissions to 755 to your site by using below command line:

find /path/to/your/wordpress/install/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;

You can do the same to change files using below command line:

find /path/to/your/wordpress/install/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} ;

Alternatively, by using an FTP client like FileZilla this can be done easily.

9. Prevent directory browsing

A folder in your site in which an index.php or index.html file are not included can show all files in that directory on the screen when a hacker types in a link of that particular folder.

Hackers can go for the same to search vulnerabilities. Therefore, add the given below code to the .htaccess file to protect your directory browsing:

Options –Indexes

10. Secure your database

WordPress database is also one of the attacking points. If a hacker gets full control of your database, they can access most of the part of your site. For example, by doing the same they can add a new admin user and password and can get multiple access to your WordPress dashboard.

That’s why to secure your database we have provided you the following steps. Let’s see:

a. Use strong passwords: Make sure that use a secure and strong password for your database user. In case your current password is not enough to secure, then have a look:

By using FileZilla FTP client, access your WordPress files.

Thereafter, go to the wp-config.php in your WordPress base directory. And press right click of your mouse and choose the “View/Edit” button.

Now you will be able to see:

define( ‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘Your old password’ );

And you have to change it to:

define( ‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘the_password_you_just_created’);

Thereafter, save the file and upload it.

b. Use different database users for different WP sites on the same host: If you are running multiple WordPress sites on a single web hosting, so you should not use the same database user for them all.

However, each & every site should have its own database and also each & every database should have its own user and password. This is very beneficial for you. For example, in case a hacker gets access to the login details for one database, so others will be safe.

There are some more things we are going to cover here for those who want some extra steps such as “Changing the admin url” or “Database Prefix change”.

Remember that mentioned here some steps may require coding knowledge. Let’s have a look:

11. Change the Default “admin” username

Before sometimes, the default WordPress admin user name was “Admin”. But since the username made up half of the login credentials; Since then, it was easy for hackers to make brute-force attacks.

Well, WordPress has changed this, now you will have to choose a custom username during WordPress installation. However, there are some WordPress users still set default admin username “admin”.

Note: Here we are talking about username called “admin”, not administrator role.

Remember that, by default, WordPress does not allow you to change the usernames. Further, there are three ways by which you can change your username.

a. Delete the username and create a new one

All you have to do is to use another email address different from existing.

Thereafter, logout the existing one and login with the new that you just created.

Then go to the Users section and click on the Delete under your old username.

When you delete your old user, so WordPress ask you what you want to do with their content. Click on ‘Attribute all content to:’ option and choose your new user you just have created.

Thereafter, delete the old user account by clicking on ‘confirm deletion’ button.

b: Change Username by Using a Plugin

Another method to change the username is by using a plugin.

Install and activate the username changer plugin.

plugin. Then go to User>>Username changer page.

After that enter the new username and click the save button.

c. Change Your WordPress Username Using phpMyAdmin

We don’t recommend to use this method because here you will have to make direct changes to your WordPress database. That’s not right.

The very first login to your cPanel and scroll down to the database section and press on phpMyAdmin.

Then choose the database that hosted in your blog.

Here choose the wp_users tables on the left-hand side. And press the edit button on the username that you want to change.

tables on the left-hand side. And press the button on the username that you want to change. Now change the username that you want. And finally, click on the Go button.

That’s it!

Bending towards the point!

12. Disable File Editing

As you know that WordPress comes with built-in code editor which allows you to edit your plugin and theme files from your admin dashboard. But sometimes this feature becomes a WordPress security risk factor, that’s why we recommend turning it off.

However, by adding the given-below code to your wp-config.php file, you can do this easily:

// Disallow file edit

define( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );

Another way you can do this via hardening feature in the free sucuri plugin we have mentioned above.

13. Disable PHP File Execution in Certain WordPress Directories

Alternatively, by disabling PHP file execution in WordPress directories you can harden your WordPress security. Where /wp-content/uploads/ is not required.

To do this, open your text editor like Notepad and paste below code:

<Files *.php>

deny from all

</Files>

Thereafter, save the file as .htaccess and by using an FTP client upload it to /wp_content/uploads/ folders on your site.

Also, you can do this via sucuri plugin’s hardening feature we have mentioned above.

14. Change WordPress Database Prefix

By default, before all tables name, WordPress uses wp_as the prefix in your WordPress database. This thing makes it easier for hackers. That’s why we recommend to change it.

Note: Remember that if it’s not done properly so it can cause breaking your site. But proceed only if you are aware of coding knowledge.

15. Password Protect WordPress Admin and Login Page

Basically, hackers and spammers can reach your login page and wp-admin folder without any restriction. And they can run their hacking tricks or DDoS attack.

That’s why for your site protection add an additional password on a server side that will block hacker’s request.

16. Disable XML-RPC in WordPress

XML-RPC connects your site with web and mobile apps. Therefore, by default, it was enabled in WordPress 3.5. However, XML-RPC is powerful in nature. With its power, it increases the chances of brute-force attacks.

Let’s introduce you with the help of an example – If a hacker tries to log in your site with 100 different passwords. So they will have to make 100 different login attempts which will be held and blocked via WordPress login lockdown plugin.

But by XML-RPC the hacker can use system.multicall function to try many passwords with 20 or 50 requests. Therefore, we suggest if you are using XML-RPC, disable it.

There are several ways to disable it but the WordPress security .htaccess method is one of the best due to its least resource intensive. The more best if you are using the web application firewall that we have discussed above. By using this you don’t need to do anything because firewall itself take care of all thing.

17. Automatically log out Idle Users in WordPress

You should apply this automatically log out idle users functionality on your site. Because sometimes logged in users deviate from the screen and create a security risk for their site.

A person can take benefit of this thing, they can hack your session, change the password, and make some other changes to your site.

However, most government and banking sites use this strategy so that a hacker cannot try to hack their sites.

To do this, you don’t require coding knowledge just install and activate the idle User Logout plugin.

After the activation process, navigate to Settings>>idle User Logout page to configure plugin settings.

Thereafter set the time duration and uncheck the box that is next to ‘Disable in wp-admin’ option for better security. And press the save changes button to save your settings.

18. Add Security Questions to WordPress Login Screen

You can make your site more secure by adding a security question to your login page.

To do this you need to install and activate the WP Security Questions plugin. Thereafter, go to the Settings>>Security Questions page to configure the settings of the plugin.

19. Fixing a Hacked WordPress Site

As off, a lot of WordPress users not know the importance of WordPress backups and site security until their site is hacked. You should know that cleaning up a WordPress site can be a daunting and time-consuming task.

Hackers create backdoors on hacked sites. And in case these backdoors are not fixed properly then your WordPress site may have possibilities to hack again.

That’s why our first suggestion is to hire WordPress support experts. Because they work in a native manner and protect you from any future attacks.

Apart from that, you can secure your WordPress site by using plugins. Hence, take a look we have mentioned below how to secure site via a plugin. Before that let’s discuss why you should use security plugins?

Why you should use a WordPress Security Plugin?

As we have discussed above, there are around more than 18.5 million sites (WordPress and non-WordPress) infected with malware each week. If seen, an average site is attacked 44 times in a day.

That’s why security is the first priority and can cause serious damage to your online business. It is important because:

Hackers and spammers can steal your useful data.

A hacker can distribute malicious code to your unsuspecting users and other sites.

You can lose your login access and data, get locked out.

Your site can be destroyed completely that will lose your Google ranking and reputation.

Note that fixing a hacked site can be very difficult for non-technical users without the help of WordPress security experts. Therefore, to keep secure your site follow the WordPress security best practices.

If you want to secure your site from malware attacks we suggest start using a security plugin. They will help you to harden your WordPress security. Let’s see here we have mentioned some of the best WordPress security plugins:

WordPress Security by using a plugin (No Coding Required)

You know that very clearly improving WordPress security can be a stressful experience. Especially, if you are not aware of coding knowledge. Don’t worry! You ‘re not alone.

We will explain to you how you can improve your WordPress security without coding knowledge.

Install a WordPress Backup Solution

Remember that – nothing is 100% safe. Even, government sites can be hacked, so what’s yours. Hence, backing up your site is a necessary process.

Going forward, WordPress backups allow you to restore your site quickly in case something goes wrong. However, there are a lot of free and paid WordPress backup solution that you can use.

The best thing you should know is that you can save full-site backups on regular basis to a remote location, not your hosting accounts.

We suggest storing your backup on a cloud service such as Dropbox, Amazon, or private cloud like stash.

There are some of the best plugins like VaultPress or BackupBuddy that you can use to take entire backup of your site. They both are reliable, secure and easy to use. After that;

Install the best WordPress security plugin

After backups process, you need to go for Sucuri Scanner – The best WordPress security plugin that includes additional features such as failed login attempts, malware scanning, integrity monitoring, and much more.

Install and activate this WordPress Sucuri Security plugin. After the activation process, go to the Sucuri menu in your WordPress dashboard.

Here, Sucuri plugin asked you to generate a free API key. It activates integrity, audit logging, email alerts, etc.

Thereafter, click on the Hardening tab from the sucuri menu and go throughout each & every option. Thereafter, press the “Harden” button.

These options allow you to lock down the key points that hackers use in their hacking attacks. However, there is the best-paid upgrade WordPress security hardening option -“Web Application Firewall” is available that we will discuss in our next step.

After the hardening part, you don’t need to change any default settings of this plugin because most of them are good settings. We suggest just customize Email Alerts.

The default alert settings inform you time-to-time about each & every key action like new user registration, changes in plugins, etc. Therefore, go to the Sucuri Settings>>Alerts and configure the alerts.

Enable Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Using the Web Application Firewall (WAF) means to secure your entire site in each & every aspect. It blocks all malicious traffic before it reaches your site.

Hence, we suggest using sucuri as it is the best web-application firewall. And it also comes with malware clean up and blacklists removal guarantee. There are also many other WordPress security firewall providers available in the market.

That’s All! Now lets times to suggest you some other best WordPress security plugins that will help you to make more secure your site.

Some other best WordPress security plugins

As you all are aware that – By default, WordPress comes with some in-built security features, but that’s not enough to protect your site. You will have to do something more to make your site more secure.

Keeping this in mind we brought several WordPress plugins, each & every has its own distinct features which are as follows:

Firewalls

File scanning

Post-hack actions

Malware scanning

Security hardening

Blacklist monitoring

Active security monitoring

WordPress Security Alerts

Brute force attack protection and much more

Let’s get cracked in details:

1. iThemes Security

iThemes Security is a WordPress Security plugin that claims to provide 30+ ways to secure and protect your WordPress website from hackers attacks. It strengthens user credentials by fixing common vulnerabilities and automated attacks. The plugin is available in both free and premium versions.

However, in its free version, there are several features included. But it’s pro version provide a lot of advanced features such as strong password enforcement, database backups, lockout bad users, two-factor authentication and much more.

This plugin is available in $80 per year in which ticketed support, one year of plugin updates, two website support are included.

Key Features of iThemes Security

It provides file change detection which is important when a file messed with and most webmasters don’t notice that.

By using Google reCAPTCHA integration, it adds an additional protection layer to your login screen.

iThemes security compares your WordPress core files with the current WordPress version that helps you to understand if anything malicious is kept in those files.

To add an additional complexity layer to your authentication keys, it updates your WordPress salts and keys.

If you are not updating your site on regular basis and want to lock your dashboard entirely from all users. So by using iTheme security plugin, you can set an “Away Mode”.

Other crucial security functionality such as 404 detection, strong password enforcement, brute force attack protection, etc.

2. All In One WP Security & Firewall

All In One WP Security & Firewall is a user-friendly interface for those who are not familiar with advanced security settings. The latest techniques and security measures for checking vulnerabilities to protects your website.

However, the useful feature for WP Security & Firewall is a meter on your dashboard that shows how secure your site is?

It also has a security scanner that keeps track of all files and notifies you of all the changes in your WordPress system. It can also detect malicious code on your WordPress website.

However, this plugin’s features are divided into three categories such as; Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. You can take the benefit of any feature as per your choice. Furthermore, it works in a native manner like by protecting your user accounts, blocking powerful attacks, and increasing the user registration security.

Key Features of All In One WP Security & Firewall

You can set some requirements for this plugin’s blacklist tool to block a user.

There is also a tool, by using it you can restore and backup .htaccess and .wp-config files in case something goes wrong.

The best feature of this plugin is it shows a WordPress security checker meter to analyze how secure your site is?

3. BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security is another popular plugin that helps to secure your WordPress website. This plugin provides a single click security solution. It secures your website against RFI, XSS, CRLF, SQL injection, and code injection hackings.

Further, it comes in both free and paid versions. The free version of this plugin offers login security and monitoring, database backup & restoring, hidden plugin folder, maintenance mode, MScan malware scanner, etc.

The premium version is available for one-time payment of $69.95. In the paid version, it is actively developed, updated and provides advanced features such as quarantines, email alerting, auto-restore, anti-spam, auto restore, and more. The good is they offer 30 days money back guarantee.

Key features of BulletProof security plugin

An easy single-click setup.

Email alerts for a variety of user actions.

A record of the number of login attempts.

File monitoring and quarantining of uploaded files.

Alerts when suspected malicious activity affects your site.

It comes with some in-built security tools with most unique features such as BPS Pro ARQ Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (ARQ IDPS) encrypting solution and cURLs scan, schedule crons, folder locking and more.

4. Wordfence Security

Wordfence security is also the most popular plugin to secure your site. It comes with powerful protection tools like robust login security and security incident recovery tools. The best feature is you can get insight on overall traffic trends and hack attempts.

Its free version covers everything from firewall blocks to brute force attacks protection. And the paid are available at $99/year for a single site that contains advanced features. But they give $29/year for each site discount if you signup for multiple site keys.

Key features of WordFence Security

You can save a lot of money if you buy for multiple site keys.

It comes with several tools for manual blocking, country blocking, real-time threat defense, and web application firewall.

This plugin’s WordPress Security scan portion control malware, real-time threats, and spam.

It monitors live traffic with the help of Google crawl activity, logouts, logins, human visitors, and bots.

You can get access with some unique tools like an option comes to sign in with your mobile phone and password auditing.

5. WP fail2ban

WP fail2ban is a WordPress security plugin provide various approaches to protect your site. This plugin is completely free so you don’t need to spend any money.

However, it comes with three fail2ban filters such as wordpress-hard.conf, wordpress-soft.conf, and wordpress-extra.conf. More so these filters are created to allow a split between immediate banning (hard), more amazing approach (soft), and with extra rules for custom configurations.

The best feature of this WP fail2ban plugin is protection from brute force attacks. As per users opinions, this plugin is really a standout that works flawlessly.

Key features of WP fail2ban

Choose between soft and hard blocks.

Easily connect with CloudFlare and proxy servers.

It protects your site from spam or malicious comments.

WP fail2ban save information about pingbacks, spam, and user enumeration.

You can create a shortcode that blocks users before access the login process.

6. Jetpack

Jetpack is also one of the best WordPress security plugins. A lot of WordPress users are familiar with this because it fully-filled with various features. The plus point is it is made by people from WordPress.com.

Further, it comes with modules to make strong your social media, site speed, and spam protection. Next, it also has some security tools from which you can save your money. For example, the protect module of this plugin is free and blocks doubtful activities from happening. However, its basic security functionality supports whitelisting and brute force attack protection.

Apart from this, the premium versions of this plugin include advanced features. It has two plans: $99/year and $299/year. When it comes to $99 plan, so it provides various features like malware scanning, scheduled site backups, and restoration in case of something goes wrong.

Next, in $299 plan advanced features are included such as on-demand malware scans, real-time backups for the ultimate protection, etc.

Key features of the Jetpack plugin

You can also get downtime monitoring.

Its free plan enough for a small website.

This plugin updates is automatically managed.

It has features for email marketing, site customization, social media, site optimization, and customization.

Its paid plan can convert this plugin into a security tool that comes with several features like spam protection, backups, and security scanning.

7. SecuPress

SecuPress is a new WordPress plugin developed by Julio Potier (original co-founder of WP Media, who also develop WP Rocket and Imagify ). Basically, it was released in 2016 as a freemium.

It comes with both free and paid versions which include a lot of extra features. The free version of this plugin provides features like anti-brute force login, blocked IPs, firewall, and security keys protection. It also blocks visits from bad bots (which you have to pay for in other security plugins).

SecuPress premium version is available at the $59/per year that offers advanced features like alerts, notifications, two-factor authentication, GeoIP blocking, PHP malware scans, and PDF reports.

Key features of SecuPress

It is very easy to use for beginners.

You can harden your security with the premium version. Check 35 security points within 5 minutes and get good reports.

Using this you can change your WordPress login URL so that Googlebot can’t search it.

It detects vulnerable plugins and themes.

8. VaultPress

VaultPress is also one of the security plugins works similar to iThemes Security Pro and Sucuri scanner plugins. This is the paid plugin available at $39/year. It provides advanced protection.

Further, it comes with an upgrade option to make your site more secure that is available at either $99/year or $299/year. According to users, this plugin is enough for small business and bloggers.

Its features include daily and real-time backups. You can restore the entire site with a few clicks. More so restore files are logged in the dashboard and some are saved so that you can opt that you want. The best is in aspects of backups is they are incremental.

However, it also has primary security tools that monitor doubtful activity on your site. By using this you can also check stats and arrange your complete security from a clean dashboard.

Key features of VaultPress

It comes with the best price in comparison to others.

It is easy to understand for all users.

Using a calendar you can take real-time or manual backups.

The stats tab show information on that visiting time when threat occurred on your site.

With the help of this plugin, you can contact the experts.

9. Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication

Google Authenticator is one of the best plugins in comparison to others. That’s why you can typically go for this to harden your login security.

Further, this plugin adds additional layer security to your login system that is most important when a number of hacking attempts happen with your login. Apart from your regular password, it asks some form of authentication like asking a security question, using a QR code. The good is it also send a push notification to your phone.

Likewise, your login module becomes less accessible as the additional layer is a layer that can be known by you or your any person (like your phone).

It comes with a WordPress security certificate. It is completely free and easy to understand interface. The more best feature of this plugin is that – it allows you to specify which user role should have to go throughout the authentication. But remember that your author and other users should go throughout the two-factor process.

There is a problem the 2-factor authentication makes it hard to log in to your backend via a mobile device.

Key features of Google Authenticator

It removes your login area’s vulnerabilities.

Using this you can choose which two-factor authentication method is best for you.

Choose which user types require to go throughout the authentication process.

It has a shortcode that you can use with the custom login page.

10. Defender

The defender is an additional layered plugin that makes WordPress security easy. This plugin also comes in a free and paid version. Both versions come with the most effective hardening techniques.

With the help of this plugin, you can check your WordPress site for doubtful code. However, by using it’s scan tools, this plugin test WordPress security and compares your WordPress install with the directory. Thereafter, change the reports and allow you to restore the original file with a click.

Further, there are a lot of advanced features are included in its premium version such as cloud backups with 10 GB remote storage, automated security scans, blacklists monitoring, audit logs for monitoring changes. More so it provides experts to fix your hacked site.

Key features of Defender

Unlimited file scans.

Login Screen Masking.

IP Blacklist manager and logging.

Google verification within 2-steps.

IP lockout notifications and reports.

WordPress core file scanning and repair.

404 limiter to block WordPress vulnerability scans.

Times lockout brute-force attempt for shield WordPress security.

11. Anti-Malware Security

This is another WordPress anti-malware security plugin. next, it comes with a lot of additional features that helps you to catch the most common WordPress security threats.

The best thing is there is a malware scanner in this plugin that scans all folder and files and cleans your site from malicious code, malware, backdoors, and other types of malicious attacks.

You need to sign up a free account on the plugin site to get the plugin. There is also a premium version that has additional features like brute force prevention. However, it also notifies the site owner for updation. During its testing phase, it shows a lot of false positives which is quite difficult to match with the source of the file.

Now let’s discuss on which plugins is best for you:

Which WordPress security plugin you should use?

As you have seen that we have covered a complete guide on WordPress security and WordPress security plugins. This makes it easier for you to choose which one is best. Remember that you need security plugins or not that depends on what your host already offers.

But still, we recommend some plugins for that situation where you need to choose WordPress security plugins: Let’s have a look?

For the best value: Sucuri Security, Jetpack, iThemes Security, and SecuPress.

For the free WordPress security plugin: Sucuri Security (free version,) All In One WP Security & Firewall, and Wordfence Security.

WordPress Security plugins for beginners: Security Ninja, Defender, and All In One WP Security & Firewall.

For advanced brute force protection plugin: WP fail2ban, Anti-Malware Security

Security plugins for two-factor authentication: Google Authenticator – Two Factor Authentication.

For amazing interface: SecuPress or VaultPress.

That’s All!

Summing Up

With an increasing number of hacking attempts, site security is mandatory. As you should know that a few protection features such as malware scanning, exploit scanning, and brute force protection, etc. must have in your site. Because to keep secure your site is one of the most important tasks.

That’s why we have covered up above both methods via WordPress security plugins as well as how to do it manually. These strategies make it easier to secure your site.

If you have a good budget, don’t think about technicalities, go for premium plugins which provide advanced security features. Wrapping this all end! You can share your experience with us. If you have any suggestion let us know in the comments box.

If you need any kind of help specifically related to WordPress security issues of your site; Feel free to dial our WordPress tech support phone number +1-855-945-3219.