10 Best Free Security Plugins For WordPress in 2023

WordPress is the most popular website platform and might be the best CMS (Content Management System) around, but it’s not perfect.

You need to take care of your website by adding extra security layers.

Unfortunately, many website owners think that hackers only target big companies or popular blogs.

The answer is “no”. It’s easy to hack new websites than the older ones.

The only reason behind this is – Professional bloggers are aware of security and beginners are not.

WordPress is considered one of the most popular software for websites.

There are millions of companies that use WordPress to manage their websites.

So using WordPress for their company website management make hacker more interested in hacking WordPress websites. 

WordPress generally tries to make an update to make it a venerable software but their third-party themes and features will make it unvenerable.

That’s why it is recommended to use a premium theme developed by professional developers who provide regular updates like Themify Ultra.

This invulnerability will allow the hacker to hack the whole system very easily.

In some years there were more than 2 major cases that happen in WordPress in which the whole system got hacked and the companies bear a lot of loss of their important data.

There are thousands of websites that got hacked because of this loophole in WordPress.

There are a lot of examples in which this loophole will help the hacker to hack the whole system in one go.

A few years ago a dangerous malware named SoakSoak affected about 100k websites and caused them data loss.

This malware took place because of the venerability of WordPress.

So if you are using or planning to use it to manage your website then make sure that you will update its security systems from time to time.

Also make sure to use the best hosting (Cloudways), a well-coded theme (Themify Ultra) and avoid using nulled plugins/themes.

So, in this article, I am going to share the best free security plugins for WordPress.

NOTE : don’t use two types of security plugins at the same time, it may cause some problems.

Best Free Security Plugins For WordPress:

There are a lot of plugins available in WordPress that will protect your website and your blog.

These plugins are very updated and have a lot of security features in them.

These plugins will keep updating their security patches and add up more and more security levels.

Let’s take a look at the best free security plugins for WordPress:

1. Wordfence

Wordfence is the most downloaded WordPress security plugin with 3+ million active installations.

It is one of the most powerful free security plugin that prevents you from hacking, viruses, and many more.

WordFence is one of the most efficient and powerful security plugins of WordPress. It will provide you with time to time security checks.

The best part about it is that it will take your permission before taking any type of action.

Whenever it found any virus or malware in its checking it will notify you about it.

Now it is your choice whether the malware affected your important data or you want to remove it.

It will scan the whole aspects of your website like themes and plugins.

This plugin will assure you about 50 percent more security and lighting speed performance.

The program that it will use is Falcom Catching Engine which is quite faster than others catching engines.

This plugin is available for free but if you want to upgrade it for some additional features then you have to purchase the premium version of it.

You can upgrade it if you afford the premium version.

This plugin also protects your website from brute force attacks and also adds two-factor authentication to your website.

This will also give you the feature to block some particular audience of a particular country.

It will also contain protection from hacking firewalls and block all fake traffics.

It will also make checks on your hostings like C99, R57, and all others.

If it will find anything suspicious then it will immediately send you an alert notification via mail.

Free Features

• WordPress Firewall.
• Security Scanner.
• Login Security.
• Multiple sites security.

Premium Features

• Country blocking.
• Scheduled scans.
• Two-factor authentication and many more.

2. iThemes Security

It is a good security plugin. They will assure you that their plugin will have 30 plus different ways to protect your website.

With a single click, your website will be protected fully.

It will not only protects your website but also fixes out all the loopholes of your website which makes it a more premium plugin.

It will monitor all the logins and traffic on your website and even adds up two-factor authentication.

Some additional features of this plugin are importing and exporting settings, password expiration, malware protection, and other amazing security features.

After you install it will scan your whole website and let you know about the loopholes of your website.

Free Features

• stop automated attacks.
• fix common security holes.
• helps choose strong passwords.
• Prevents brute attacks and many more.

Premium Features

• Two-factor authentication.
• Scheduled scans.
• Password expiration.
• Google ReCaptcha.
• User logging action.

3. All In One WP Security & Firewall

For beginners, All In One WP Security & Firewall is the best, most preferred, and recommended security plugin.

This plugin is designed for beginners as well as advanced users and it does not slow down your website.

It is one of the most popular WordPress plugins and it is famous for its vulnerabilities.

It will have a lot of features that will reduce the risk to the security of your website.

It will protect you from brute-force attacks. It will lock down the user if someone tries to ask your website.

Features

• Password strength tool.
• Protects from brute force attacks.
• Force logout of all users.
• Display failed login attempts.
• Google ReCaptcha.
• Schedule automatic backups.
• The option of the blacklist.
• Comment spam security.

Premium Features

No premium plans are included, it’s totally free.

4. Sucuri Security

Sucuri Security is again a very important plugin for security reasons.

This plugin was developed by a very popular company that is famous for its security systems Sucuri.

This plugin contains various security features like file integrity monitoring, security activity auditing, blacklist auditing, malware scanning, and protection from the website Firewall.

This plugin will incorporate some very popular blacklisted search engines like Google safe browsing, Sucuri Labs, McAfee Site Advisor, Norton, and a lot of other security plugins.

If it will find anything suspicious then it will immediately send you the alert through the mail.

It will also protect your site from DOS attacks, BruteForce attacks, Zero Day Disclosure Patches, and a lot of other scanning attacks.

It will also monitor the logs of your activity and keep it safe with the Sucuri cloud.

This will add up a layer of security even if the hacker will surpass your security system and hack your website,

he will not get the activity logs because they are in a safe place.

This plugin is available for free but if you want to increase the security features then you can also purchase the premium version.

You can easily purchase its premium version as a lot of customers believe in its products and services.

They have a whole team of experts who are working to make your security a bit tougher.

So you can leave your website security on them and they will take care of it.

Features

• Malware/Virus Scanning.
• File Integrity Monitoring.
• Blacklist option.
• Post hack Security actions.
• Security Notifications.

Premium Features

• Website Firewall.

5. Cerber Security

Another good security plugin for WordPress with over 200,000+ active installations.

It protects your website from hackers, spam, Trojans, and malware.

Defends WordPress in opposition to hacker assaults, unsolicited mail, trojans, and malware.

Mitigates brute-force assaults by using restricting the number of login attempts thru the login form, XML-RPC / rest API requests, or the use of auth cookies.

Tracks person and terrible actor’s hobby with flexible email, mobile and computer notifications.

Stops spammers by the use of a specialized anti-unsolicited mail engine.

Makes use of Google reCAPTCHA to shield registration, contact, and comments paperwork.

Restricts get admission to with IP get entry to Lists.

Video display units the website’s integrity with a sophisticated malware scanner and integrity checker.

Reinforces the security of WordPress with a hard and fast of flexible safety regulations and sophisticated safety algorithms.

Features

• Limit Login Attempts.
• Prevents spam comments.
• Two-factor authentication.
• Security Scanner.
• Authorized users only mode.
• Block a user account.
• ReCaptcha for comment forms.
• Protects from DoS attacks.

6. WP Scan

The WPscan falls among one of the best security plugins for WordPress available in the market because it makes use of its own manually curated WordPress vulnerability database.

Its vulnerability database is updated on a daily basis by dedicated WordPress security specialists and the WordPress community members at large.

The database features more than 21000 known security vulnerabilities which are used to scan your site’s vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins, themes, and core software.

The plugin allows you to schedule a daily automated scan after which the result is sent to your mail once the scan is completed.

Lastly, they have a free security API plan that is suitable for most WordPress sites, however, you can subscribe to their paid plan to unlock more features.

7. Anti-Malware security

Anti-Malware Security is another unique WordPress anti-malware and security plugin.

The plugin includes maintained definition updates that protect your site against common threats.

Also, its malware scanner scans your site’s folder and pages for security threats, back doors, and other known attacks.

The plugin requires that you create a free account on the plugin website where you get access to updated definitions and some premium features like the brute force attack.

it’s free.

8. Jetpack Security

The Jetpack plugin is an all-in-one solution plugin created by Automattic.

With this plugin, you can easily scan your site for security vulnerabilities.

You can also schedule automated backups on your site with just a click.

Its malware scanner scans your folders and files for malware attacks or code threats.

The plugin also features brute force attack protection that protects your WordPress login page from attacks.

In conclusion, the plugin automatically blocks spammy comments from your site via its anti-spam features.

It’s free, but to unlock more features, you can subscribe to its premium version.

It cost $8 yearly

9. Google Authenticator

The Google Authenticator is a security plugin that allows you to set up two-factor authentication on your site to enhance tight security.

The plugin verifies users’ login and registration via different authentication methods such as the Google authenticator, easy OTP, Microsoft authenticator, and much more.

The plugin is free, but its premium version costs $5 yearly

10. Cloudways Bot protection

Cloudways is one of the best hosting providers available in the market. I already recommend using them.

With cloudways, you can get a free plugin named Cloudways Bot Protection and Malware security.

Bot protection plugin will block bad bots, brute force, login attacks and more which you can check below link for more information.

You can also check logs, block reports etc.

Bot Protection not only improves the security of your WordPress websites but also provides better value on smaller servers by reducing server resource usage by malicious bots.

Conclusion

So, these are the best free security plugins for WordPress.

But, don’t depend only on the security plugins for your website safety. Update plugins and WordPress regularly.

I recommend using CDN (Content Delivery Network), SSL certificate, Cloudways hosting and Themify Ultra theme.

Because being updated makes your site more secure.