9 Best WordPress Firewall Plugins

9 Best WordPress Firewall Plugins In 2021Are you searching for the best WordPress firewall plugin? If you care about the security of your site, then this should be a priority.

Managing a WordPress site comes with challenges, and one very common challenge is securing your site from hackers and malware.

Although the platform is secure by itself, it is not impenetrable (no system is).

Thus, you need to add an extra layer of security to your website. Fortunately, WordPress has many firewall plugins that do just that. This means your real issue is selecting the right WordPress firewall plugin and setting it up correctly.

In this guide, we will make this decision easy by comparing the 9 best WordPress firewall plugins. We will give you the low-down on the features each plugin provides to help you choose the right plugin for your site.

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Why Use a Firewall Plugin?

Simply put, they secure your WordPress website by shielding it against attacks from hackers and malware. Some firewall plugins also scan your website for security issues. Then it makes it possible to fix any issue it detects on your sites’ files such as plugin and theme files.

Brute force attack protection is one of the core functions of firewall systems. They provide this protection by reducing the number of attempts on your WordPress login page. This will save your server resources and prevent server overload (which can take down your site).

In addition, some firewall plugins can improve the loading speed of your website. If the plugin you use handles incoming requests, your server only receives genuine traffic.

This relieves your server from handling invalid traffic requests from bots. Therefore, this translates to an increase in your sites’ loading speed.

How Firewall Plugins Work

A firewall plugin adds an extra layer of security to your WordPress site. They protect against brute-force and DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.

Brute force attacks occur when a user makes several attempts to access the admin dashboard of a website. The hacking attempts are usually automated using scripts so that it runs infinitely. This may slow down your website or even break the website completely.

Firewall plugins for WordPress provide two levels of protection. It is either DNS-level protection or Application-level protection.

DNS Level Protection

In this level of protection, the firewall plugin handles all incoming traffic. It will filter out wrong traffic and only send genuine users to your server.

Application Level Protection

With this method, all incoming traffic will go through your WordPress hosting server. Your server then takes care of filtering bad requests before showing the web page to the users.

Features to Consider When Choosing a Firewall Plugin

Firstly, you should consider the level of protection the plugin provides. Ideally, you should go for one that provides DNS level protection.

Using such plugins saves your server resources. This is because traffic will be filtered by the plugins’ servers before reaching your hosting server.

Another factor to consider is the pricing of the plugin, although some of these plugins are free to use. To unlock the entire features you may need to buy a premium license. You would want to cut costs while ensuring the plugin of choice offers the features you need on your site.

9 Best WordPress Firewall Plugins Compared

There are several firewall plugins available to WordPress users. We’re going to take you through our top selection as well as the features that make them good.

    1. Wordfence Security
    2. All In One WP Security & Firewall
    3. Sucuri Security
    4. iThemes Security
    5. Jetpack
    6. Cloudflare
    7. BulletProof Security
    8. Security Ninja
    9. SecuPress

 

Wordfence Security

With over 4 million active users, Wordfence Security ranks as the most popular WordPress firewall and security scanner plugin.

Wordfence security - WordPress firewall plugin

It offers WAF (Web Application Firewall) protection which identifies and blocks malicious traffic. Wordfence also features a malware scanner that blocks requests that include harmful content. Such content will often be entered in your comments and forms.

This plugin is effective against brute forces attacks. It protects against this by limiting the number of login attempts from an IP address.

The free version of the plugin offers firewall protection which is enough for most WP users. But you can upgrade to the pro version of the plugin for more protection and support.

It also gives you access to an API that presents real-time reports on firewall rules. Also, there is access to advanced malware protection, and IP blocking analysis.

The pricing for the premium subscription starts at $99/year for a single site license.

 

All In One WP Security & Firewall

This plugin is amongst the best free firewall plugins for WordPress websites. All in One WP Security is fully packed with the features you need to protect your website.

All In One WP Security & Firewall - WordPress plugin

The plugin is easy to use and offers three levels of firewall protection which are; Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced firewall protection.

The basic protection will have little effect on your site’s performance. But the higher you go with the level of protection, the more the impact on your website.

Below are some of the additional features of the All in One WP Security plugin.

  • It protects your login page from brute-force attacks.
  • The plugin lets you backup and restore your .htaccess and wp-config.php file.
  • It provides file permission protection.
  • A security scanner is also added to detect weaknesses on your website.
  • You can blacklist IP addresses using this plugin.

With this plugin, you can also disable right-click on your website. This is also a good feature to protect your content from those who want to steal it.

For the pricing, well, it is 100% free to use. This means you get all the support and features available on the plugin.

Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner, and Security Hardening

This plugin is one of the leading plugins when it comes to WordPress security. Sucuri improves your site security with its suite of features.

Sucuri Security

You can install the Sucuri Security plugin right from your dashboard. But this will be the free version, with basic security.

So to get firewall protection, you will need to get a premium license.

This plugin provides WAF which uses DNS level protection to secure your website. Sucuri security protects your site against a variety of attacks from hackers. Attacks such as;

  • Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS)
  • Brute Force Attacks that may deny you access to your website.

The pricing for the premium plugin starts at $199.99/year for a basic license. For large websites, you would want to go with their Business plan which starts at $499.99/yr.

Surcuri Security pricing plan

iThemes Security

Next on the list is the iThemes Security plugin. This plugin provides over 30 ways to help secure your WordPress site from attackers.

iThemes Security

The plugin adds extra security to your WordPress site. It protects against automated attacks and strengthens user login details.

You are assured of login protection on your site and this is thanks to its brute-force security feature.

iThemes Security also scans your site for issues and any issues found can be fixed quite easily.

The plugin is free to use but to get the full features, you need to purchase a premium license which starts at $80/year.

iThemes Security pricing plan

With the pro version, you get improved site scanning and performance optimization. You also get access to their support team.

Jetpack

If you are a regular WP user, then the name Jetpack shouldn’t be new to you. This plugin is more of an All-in-One management toolkit for WordPress websites.

Jetpack - WordPress firewall plugin

Jetpack is managed by Automattic, i.e., the company behind WordPress CMS. This means features are tested by industry experts, so the plugin is safe to use on any WordPress website.

The WordPress plugin provides automatic security scanning, firewall, and secure user authentication. It also provides spam comment filtering, brute-force attack protection, and DDOS protection.

Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin but to activate the security features, you need to upgrade to a paid plan. The pricing starts at $179/year for a single site license.

 

Cloudflare

Cloudflare is best known for the free CDN service they offer for websites. In addition to this, they have a WordPress plugin to easily integrate their services into WordPress sites.

Cloudflare - WordPress firewall plugin

The plugin improves your websites’ speed and performance using its optimization tools. These tools enable Cloudflare to serve your website from its secure servers around the world.

What’s more, Cloudflare premium plugin offers WAF protection. The firewall protection has rulesets built into it by default. Some of these rules are specifically tailored to mitigate WordPress threats.

Another plus this plugin has is that it uses DNS level protection which can speed up your website.

To use this plugin, however, you need to register for a free account on their website. After that, you generate an API key to connect your website to Cloudflare.

The firewall protection features require having a premium account. This starts at $20/month for a Pro account. They also have a business plan that starts at $200/month.

 

BulletProof Security

This is essentially a security plugin that protects your website from brute-force and DDOS attacks.

Buloletproof security

BulletProof Security plugin provides Security Firewall protection for your WP site. It uses application-level protection. This means your web server takes care of filtering genuine traffic from all requests. Note that this may slow down your web server if you are receiving a large amount of invalid traffic.

The BulletProof Security plugin is not ideal for beginners. This is because you have to add your firewall rulesets in the .htaccess file. It can be confusing for new WP users.

As for pricing, the plugin is free to use, and you get firewall protection with the free version of this plugin. But if you wish to upgrade to a premium plan, it costs a one-time payment of $59. The premium version lets you add unlimited websites to your account.

 

Security Ninja WordPress plugin – Secure Firewall & Secure Malware Scanner

Security Ninja does exactly what its name implies. It helps secure your WordPress website. This plugin features malware scanning, security testing, brute force, and firewall protection.

Security Ninja WordPress plugin - Secure Firewall & Secure Malware Scanner

The pro version of the plugin provides cloud-based firewall protection. It prevents malicious users from accessing your website. Thus, it can speed up your website because your server will only process traffic from genuine users.

Security Ninja’s Cloud Firewall protection contains a database of bad IP addresses that are updated twice daily. This database holds about 600 million malicious IPs that are known for distributing malware.

The plugin is free to use but you need one of the pro versions to enable firewall protection. Pricing for lifetime access starts at $139 for the Starter plan and $249 for the Plus plan that lets you add up to 3 sites.

 

SecuPress

SecuPress is a fast-growing security plugin that protects WordPress sites.

SecuPress

The plugin is easy to use, with advanced security that makes your site inaccessible to attackers.

Below are some of the features of the SecuPress Plugin.

  • It protects your site against brute-force attacks.
  • The plugin scans your site for weaknesses.
  • It lets you block IP addresses and also block specific regions.
  • SecuPress also provides Web Application firewall protection.

The plugin is free to use and you can install it from your WP dashboard. With the free version, you get most of the features you need to protect your website.

The pricing for the pro plugin starts at $69.99/year for single-site protection. With the premium plugin, you get extra protection such as theme and plugin scanning. It also provides advanced malware scanning & reporting.

Conclusion – WordPress Firewall Plugins

To sum up, protecting your website should be a priority for every website owner. Imagine losing access to a website you’ve worked so hard to build. That would be painful, to say the least.

Using a firewall plugin ensures your site is safe from hackers and internet bots. This guide compared the best WordPress firewall plugins available.

A firewall plugin protects your WP website. But there are other steps you can put in place to up your security game. For these, you can check our detailed guide on WordPress security for more information.