Visit our website to access our official documentation which includes security feature descriptions, common solutions and comprehensive help.

How does Wordfence Security protect sites from attackers?

The WordPress security plugin provides the best protection available for your website. Powered by the constantly updated Threat Defense Feed, Wordfence Firewall stops you from getting hacked. Wordfence Scan leverages the same proprietary feed, alerting you quickly about security issues or if your site is compromised. The Live Traffic view gives you real-time visibility into traffic and hack attempts on your website. A deep set of additional tools round out the most comprehensive WordPress security solution available.

What features does Wordfence Premium enable?

We offer a Premium API key that gives you real-time updates to the Threat Defense Feed which includes a real-time IP blacklist, firewall rules, and malware signatures. Premium support, country blocking, more frequent scans, and spam and spamvertising checks are also included. Click here to sign-up for Wordfence Premium now or simply install Wordfence free and start protecting your website.

How does the Wordfence WordPress Firewall protect websites?

Web Application Firewall stops you from getting hacked by identifying malicious traffic, blocking attackers before they can access your website.

Threat Defense Feed automatically updates firewall rules that protect you from the latest threats. Premium members receive the real-time version.

Block common WordPress security threats like fake Googlebots, malicious scans from hackers and botnets.

What checks does the Wordfence Security Scanner perform?

Scans core files, themes and plugins against WordPress.org repository versions to check their integrity. Verify security of your source.

See how files have changed. Optionally repair changed files that are security threats.

Scans for signatures of over 44,000 known malware variants that are known WordPress security threats.

Scans for many known backdoors that create security holes including C99, R57, RootShell, Crystal Shell, Matamu, Cybershell, W4cking, Sniper, Predator, Jackal, Phantasma, GFS, Dive, Dx and many more.

Continuously scans for malware and phishing URL’s including all URLs on the Google Safe Browsing List in all your comments, posts and files that are security threats.

Scans for heuristics of backdoors, trojans, suspicious code and other security issues.

What security monitoring features does Wordfence include?

See all your traffic in real-time, including robots, humans, 404 errors, logins and logouts and who is consuming most of your content. Enhances your situational awareness of which security threats your site is facing.

A real-time view of all traffic including automated bots that often constitute security threats that Javascript analytics packages never show you.

Real-time traffic includes reverse DNS and city-level geolocation. Know which geographic area security threats originate from.

Monitors disk space which is related to security because many DDoS attacks attempt to consume all disk space to create denial of service.

What login security features are included

See all your traffic in real-time, including robots, humans, 404 errors, logins and logouts and who is consuming most of your content. Enhances your situational awareness of which security threats your site is facing.

A real-time view of all traffic including automated bots that often constitute security threats that Javascript analytics packages never show you.

Real-time traffic includes reverse DNS and city-level geolocation. Know which geographic area security threats originate from.

Monitors disk space which is related to security because many DDoS attacks attempt to consume all disk space to create denial of service.

How will I be alerted if my site has a security problem?

Wordfence sends security alerts via email. Once you install Wordfence, you will configure a list of email addresses where security alerts will be sent. When you receive a security alert, make sure you deal with it promptly to ensure your site stays secure.

Do I need a security plugin like Wordfence if I’m using a cloud based firewall (WAF)?

Wordfence provides true endpoint security for your WordPress website. Unlike cloud based firewalls, Wordfence executes within the WordPress environment, giving it knowledge like whether the user is signed in, their identity and what access level they have. Wordfence uses the user’s access level in more than 80% of the firewall rules it uses to protect WordPress websites. Learn more about the Cloud WAF identity problem here. Additionally, cloud based firewalls can be bypassed, leaving your site exposed to attackers. Because Wordfence is an integral part of the endpoint (your WordPress website), it can’t be bypassed. Learn more about the Cloud WAF bypass problem here. To fully protect the investment you’ve made in your website you need to employ a defense in depth approach to security. Wordfence takes this approach.

What blocking features does Wordfence include?

Real-time blocking of known attackers. If another site using Wordfence is attacked and blocks the attacker, your site is automatically protected.

Block entire malicious networks. Includes advanced IP and Domain WHOIS to report malicious IP’s or networks and block entire networks using the firewall. Report WordPress security threats to network owner.

Rate limit or block WordPress security threats like aggressive crawlers, scrapers and bots doing security scans for vulnerabilities in your site.

Choose whether you want to block or throttle users and robots who break your WordPress security rules.

Premium users can also block countries and schedule scans for specific times and a higher frequency.

What differentiates Wordfence from other WordPress Security plugins?

Wordfence Security provides a WordPress Firewall developed specifically for WordPress and blocks attackers looking for vulnerabilities on your site. The Firewall is powered by our Threat Defense Feed which is continually updated as new threats emerge. Premium customers receive updates in real-time.

Wordfence verifies your website source code integrity against the official WordPress repository and shows you the changes.

Wordfence scans check all your files, comments and posts for URLs in Google’s Safe Browsing list. We are the only plugin to offer this very important security enhancement.

Wordfence scans do not consume large amounts of your bandwidth because all security scans happen on your web server which makes them very fast.

Wordfence fully supports WordPress Multi-Site which means you can security scan every blog in your Multi-Site installation with one click.

Wordfence includes Two-Factor authentication, the most secure way to stop brute force attackers in their tracks.

Wordfence fully supports IPv6 including giving you the ability to look up the location of IPv6 addresses, block IPv6 ranges, detect IPv6 country and do a whois lookup on IPv6 addresses and more.

Will Wordfence slow down my website?

No. Wordfence Security is extremely fast and uses techniques like caching its own configuration data to avoid database lookups and blocking malicious attacks that would slow down your site.

What if my site has already been hacked?

Wordfence Security is able to repair core files, themes and plugins on sites where security is already compromised. You can follow this guide on how to clean a hacked website using Wordfence. However, please note that site security cannot be assured unless you do a full reinstall if your site has been hacked. We recommend you only use Wordfence Security to get your site into a running state in order to recover the data you need to do a full reinstall. If you need help repairing a hacked site, we offer an affordable, high-quality site cleaning service that includes a Premium key for a year.

Does Wordfence Security support IPv6?

Yes. We fully support IPv6 with all security functions including country blocking, range blocking, city lookup, whois lookup and all other security functions. If you are not running IPv6, Wordfence will work great on your site too. We are fully compatible with both IPv4 and IPv6 whether you run both or only one addressing scheme.

Does Wordfence Security support Multi-Site installations?

Yes. WordPress Multi-Site is fully supported. Using Wordfence you can scan every blog in your network for malware with one click. If one of your customers posts a page or post with a known malware URL that threatens your whole domain with being blacklisted by Google, we will alert you in the next scan.

What support options are available for Wordfence users?

Providing excellent customer service is very important to us. We offer help to all our customers whether you are using the Premium or free version of Wordfence. For help with the free version, you can post in our forum where we have dedicated staff responding to questions. If you need faster or more in-depth help, Premium customers can submit a support ticket to our Premium support team.

Where can I learn more about WordPress security?

Designed for every skill level, The WordPress Security Learning Center is dedicated to deepening users’ understanding of security best practices by providing free access to entry-level articles, in-depth articles, videos, industry survey results, graphics and more.

Where can I find the Wordfence Terms of Use and Privacy Policy?