To decide which is the best WordPress security plugin for your website, you first have to understand what options you have out there. There are thousands of plugins available for WordPress, and hundreds of them have security functions. Hence, it’s common for you to find it overwhelming to decide which one is best for your website.
In this WordPress security plugins comparison, you will learn about all the security plugins available on wordpress.org that have 100,000+ active installations and sufficient reviews. We focus on these plugins because with over a hundred thousand active installations, we have enough sample size to interpret their data pretty accurately.
All-In-One-Security (AIOS), is the best security plugin in the world. And in the analysis below, you will see why.
There are several security plugins, but not all of them have racked up 100,000 active installs. If anything, hundreds of thousands of active users show that they are doing something right. Examples include AIOS, Wordfence, Securi, iThemes, JetPack, Malcare, WP Cerber, Hide My WP Ghost, Anti-Malware, and SiteGround.
However, in a world where WordPress sees nearly 100,000 hacking attacks per minute, the bare minimum won’t cut it. It has to be only the best or nothing.
And that’s where All-In-One-Security comes in.
All-In-One-Security is the best security plugin for your WordPress site. Owned and run by the reputable creators of the world’s foremost WordPress backup plugin UpdraftPlus, it provides the most complete WordPress security possible.
AIOS has been 100% free of charge for years and offered protection to almost a million websites. Today, it offers 5 additional premium features as seen below.
Malware, short for MALicious SoftWARE, consists of undesirable programs that hackers try to inject into your website to bring it down or gain unauthorized access. To forestall it, you first of all have to detect it. That’s what this Malware Scanner does for your website.
The first casualty of a hacking attack is usually users’ username and password. But the 2FA feature protects against this. Using it on your WordPress site will require your users for whom it is enabled to input a one-time pin (OTP) before they can sign in. TFA provides that much-needed extra layer of security.
A 404 error occurs when there is a request for a page that doesn’t exist on your website. Sometimes, the request is innocent, but at other times, frequent occurrences of 404 events could be as a result of hackers trying to find weaknesses on your website. AIOS Smart 404 blocking feature identifies events and blocks the IP addresses responsible.
With AIOS’s extremely accurate country and IP identifying tool, you can identify and block IP addresses that originate from specific countries. Country blocking becomes necessary when you notice a string of malicious hacking attempts originating from a specific country.
All-In-One-Security premium opens you up to exclusive support and customer care. In addition to that, you get technical support if you encounter any technical difficulties.
The other security plugins are as follow:
Like all security plugins, WordFence security provides defense for your site by checking malware, filtering spam, blocking vulnerable bots, and implementing two-factor verification for users. While there’s a free version, you have to pay a substantial fee every month before you can access the premium version.
Designed and managed by the website auditing company Sucuri, this security plugin offers both basic (free) and premium (paid) packages. The former only monitors files, audits security activity, and defends against malware, which isn’t much compared to the threats your website will face. You only start to enjoy some decent security features when you pay for the premium package. And even then, it doesn’t quite measure up to All-In-One-Security.
Much like Sucuri Security, iThemes offers both free and premium packages. The basic or free version comes with a malware scanner and bot checking, which as you know, by now, offers no real defense against hundreds of thousands of hacking attacks. Even the premium version with additional features is less effective than AIOS—the best WordPress security plugin by a mile.
On the very basic level, that is to say free, JetPack provides security for your site by monitoring your site’s activities and notifying you as soon as it flags an attack. It then proceeds to prevent brute force, spam, and malware. The premium version gives you backup privileges and a 1-click restore.
The drawback though is that JetPack is not solely a WordPress security plugin, it has other functions like web design and marketing. This makes it less efficient than All-In-One-Security, which is dedicated absolutely to WordPress security. Similarly, JetPack has been known by users to slow down websites.
The basic design of MalCare allows it to function primarily as a security plugin that scans and eliminates malware. Although it now also features a rudimentary firewall, it’s not nearly as efficient as AIOS that was built for it. Another drawback is that before you can use the 1-click feature to resolve your malware situation, you need to have activated the premium version.
The good thing about WP Cerber is that, like AIOS, it provides a comprehensive approach to handling WordPress security. But unlike AIOS whose free package is indefinite, WP Cerber is only free for a short time before you have to pay yearly.
The job of Hide My WP as a security plugin is simple: to make your WordPress invisible to hackers and spammers by changing plugin names, crushing directory links, and masking WP themes. Hide My WP is cheap even though it’s neither free nor as feature-complete as All-In-One-Security.
Officially known as the Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall, it performs the general functions of a WordPress security plugin. In addition, it features the capacity to erase malware and SQL injections. But you have to use the paid version to get the functional benefits.
Developed and managed by Siteground company, this security plugin protects your WordPress website from common threats like data leaks, brute-force attacks, login data thievery. It’s the poster security plugin, but it doesn’t hold up against compelling hack attacks. Also, it’s not free.
One thing is clear throughout this WordPress security plugin comparison and it’s this; All-In-One-Security, is the best WordPress security plugin in the world.
Here are further reasons why:
All-In-One-Security and Firewall was 100% free of charge, no catch, no drawbacks, and no hidden charges. Yet, it offered very competitive packages that allowed it to rise to the top of the security plugins list on WordPress.org.
Today, it still offers all the free features and much more. While it now has a premium version that offers advanced features and provides the opportunity to upgrade your security, it still boasts of the most extensive features on its free version.
The best way to know if a product works is to ask the users. But to confirm how well it works, look at the users who are returning. You will agree that with over 900,000+ active installations and a 5-star rating, All-In-One-Security doesn’t only just work, but it works better than the rest.
It’s all there on WP.org. No security plugin racking that number of active installations can maintain such peak performance that will keep their rating at 5 stars.
Another thing that puts All-In-One-Security above other security plugins on WP.org is how its firewall feature is classified into basic, intermediate, and advanced tools. This way, you can clearly see which one most suits your site thereby preventing you from breaking your website. No other security plugin offers this feature.
This means that there is a security power meter present on your dashboard so that at every point you are informed on how secure your website is. Only All-In-One-Security has this feature.
Here, we have discussed how much you stand to benefit by choosing All-In-One-Security.
For one, we saw that AIOS has the most extensive free features, unrivaled by any other plugin in the market. It’s exclusive premium features also come at almost half the price of the top competitors.
At almost a million active installations and 5 star rated, AIOS is currently the highest performing WordPress security plugin in the world. You can start by downloading for free.
