Unfortunately, WordPress websites are often and easily attacked! What can you do about it? Along with the basic security tips everyone agrees on (secure passwords, quality web hosting, and of course adequate data backups), the best security guard for your critical WordPress sites is a professional security plugin such as Wordfence.
Here in my Wordfence Review, I’ll go over the benefits of using this plugin and cover exactly how it can protect your important WordPress websites.
The major components of the Wordfence security plugin are:
1. A WordPress Firewall that protects your site from malicious attacks, blocks out malicious IP addresses, and guards against brute force attacks.
2. A WordPress Security Scanner that checks for malware, malicious code, etc., checks for vulnerabilities, and repairs files.
3. Login Security that includes two-factor authentication, login page CAPTCHA, and blocks logins that are using compromised passwords.
Wordfence also offers security products that allow you to manage security for multiple WordPress websites and live traffic monitoring.
Wordfence is available in both a free and premium paid plans. The free plan is ideal for getting familiar and testing out Wordfence with your website. It can also be used for personal WordPress sites. However, business websites and mission-critical sites that require top-notch security are definitely better off with the Wordfence Premium, Wordfence Care, or Wordfence Response security plans.
Here are the major differences between the Wordfence Free Plan and Wordfence Premium:
As I listed above, the advantages you get with the premium version of Wordfence is real-time signatures and rules that allow your site to be protected from the latest threats. The premium version also includes spam and block checking features.
The bottom line here is that while the free version of Wordfence is a great way to get introduced to its security, if you’re really concerned about protecting your WordPress site as fully as possible, then you should consider investing in the Wordfence Premium version. If you have just a personal website that doesn’t require advanced security features, then using the free version is fine.
Click Here to See the Complete Wordfence Plan Comparisons
You can install Wordfence just like you do other plugins from the WordPress.org repository. Or, you can download it directly from the Wordfence website by clicking here.
Once you install and activate the plugin, you need to get your Wordfence license. Again, you can choose the free option or a premium version.
You’ll then receive an email with a link to your license key.
Wordfence is very easy to use and requires very little setup on your part. Once you install it from your WordPress dashboard, you can then optimize your application firewall. Wordfence will pre-select your server configuration or you can choose an alternate configuration.
When you first install Wordfence, your firewall will be set to learning mode where it can determine how best to protect your website and how best to allow visitors through. Wordfence recommends you keep it in learning mode for a week before enabling the firewall.
After installing Wordfence and letting it run on my site, I received my first security report via email. The report lists useful information including the top blocked IPs, top blocked countries, top failed logins, recently blocked attacks, and recently modified files. The failed logins section is really interesting as you can see just how many brute force attacks occur on WordPress websites.
After completing learning mode, when you login to WordPress and go to Wordfence, you’ll see an updated dashboard with scanning information and results.
I do really appreciate how Wordfence keeps you updated via email on any issues your website encounters as well as general security alerts Wordfence becomes aware of. Recently, I was alerted via email about a brute force attack attempt on one of my websites. The malicious IP was locked out of my site by Wordfence!
Overall, my experience using Wordfence has been totally positive and I believe it’s doing a great job protecting my WordPress site.
Wordfence is an excellent security tool for WordPress websites. While your web host should provide protection at the server and at network levels, utilizing a security tool such as Wordfence that works at the application level gives you the best possible protection against specific platform threats. For example, because Wordfence has a large install base and operates within the WordPress environment, they collect more data and have a clearer picture on how to block attacks on your website.
While you can start off with the free version of Wordfence, if you’re serious about protecting your WordPress site, I would recommend investing in the premium version. If you feel strongly about protecting your website, you’ll want the real-time threat intelligence to guard against the latest security threats.
Overall, I do think that Wordfence is the best WordPress security solution at the application level.
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