11 WordPress Security Services and Tools That Protect Your Website
TL;DR: WordPress security services are an excellent way to protect your WordPress website. Wordfence wants to help you secure your WordPress website in every way possible.
Installing Wordfence is the fastest way to ensure that all the services listed in this blog are taken care of on your website.
In addition to providing the most comprehensive and robust free security plugin for WordPress, Wordfence also provides Care and Response plans that offer more white-glove services for users who need more hands-on security support and proactive monitoring.
Up to 78% of organizations surveyed by CompTIA listed cybersecurity as a high priority, ranking it above employee productivity, data analytics, and even artificial intelligence (AI). And for businesses that use WordPress to power their websites (which are many, considering WordPress powers over 43% of the web), the question becomes, “What steps do I need to take to protect my website?”
The first step is understanding today’s most common website threats and the unique vulnerabilities WordPress users face. From there, you can explore solutions to mitigate these risks.
That’s why this blog will briefly walk you through the dangers of WordPress vulnerabilities (what they are and the risks they pose) and explore 11 WordPress security services that’ll help your WordPress website stay secure. These include different components and service levels that you can choose from based on your needs.
Article Contents:
- Why Is WordPress Security Important?
- Common WordPress Security Issues
- WordPress Security Services To Protect Your Website
- Do You Need WordPress Security Services?
- The Best WordPress Security Services for Your Website
Why Is WordPress Security Important?
The open-source nature of WordPress provides many benefits, making the platform flexible and cost-effective. However, as an open-source platform whose functionality is based on third-party plugins, WordPress presents some security risks, especially when themes and plugins aren’t kept up to date.
Cyberattackers can exploit these risks, resulting in devastating consequences that range from severe financial loss to data theft, service interruption, and reputational damage.
For instance, in January 2024, Loan Depot experienced a data breach that exposed the information of 17 million customers and prevented people from accessing accounts and paying their loans.
On top of the loss of trust, failure to fulfill its services, and negative press coverage, Loan Depot faced significant financial consequences. The company later reported paying $27 million due to a class-action lawsuit following the breach.
And even if your services aren’t impacted, the threat of exposing customer data is real. One study by IBM found that 46% of breaches involved information that malicious actors can use to identify customers, such as email addresses and even home addresses.
As more transactions and tasks move online, securing your WordPress website is crucial. In doing so, you can protect your company’s information and the sensitive visitor data and customers you work hard to attract and retain.
Common WordPress Security Issues
To better understand which WordPress security services you need, it’s helpful to familiarize yourself with the risks most relevant to you.
Here are the most common types of attacks WordPress users face:
| Type of Attack | How It Works | Potential Impacts |
| Virus or malware infection | Malicious code injects malware (virus, worm, trojan) into WordPress plugins, files, or databases. |
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| SQL injection | Malicious code gets injected into form fields or URL query strings. |
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| Brute force attack | Using bots or automated tools to repeatedly guess login information to your website until attackers gain access. |
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| DDoS attack | Sending overwhelming amounts of traffic to your website. |
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| Cross-site scripting (XSS) | Malicious code is injected into your website (often through input fields or comment sections) and then executed in your visitors’ browsers. Malicious actors use your website as the gateway to your visitors’ browsers. |
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| Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) | Attackers trick users into clicking on links or loading a page once they have logged into a page. |
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| Malicious redirects | This attack is difficult to detect and uses malicious code within WordPress themes, plugins, and files to redirect visitors to malicious websites. |
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| File inclusion attacks | When attackers include unauthorized files in WordPress code. |
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As shared here, there are a variety of ways malicious hackers can access and tamper with your website. That’s why it’s crucial to look for a comprehensive security solution.
WordPress Security Services To Protect Your Website
You want to make sure you’re covered from all angles. For many WordPress users without a cybersecurity background, it’s even more helpful to work with a team of experts familiar with the latest threats.
Below are 11 tools and services you can use to secure your WordPress website.
1. WordPress Security Hardening
WordPress security hardening is the process of enacting security best practices beyond the default WordPress settings. It involves taking actions such as installing a comprehensive and effective security plugin like Wordfence, which protects over 5 million websites worldwide.
In addition to installing a security plugin, security hardening includes actions like:
- Using strong passwords
- Scheduling backups
- Getting an SSL certificate
You can take these actions on your own, especially if you’re running a personal or DIY WordPress website.
That said, opting for security services is helpful for businesses with mission-critical websites that want more robust protection without spending so much time configuring settings. Plans like Wordfence Care and Response give you access to a team of WordPress security experts who can tailor security based on your website’s unique needs.
2. Web Application Firewall (WAF)
A firewall is essential for protecting your WordPress website. It filters out malicious requests while allowing legitimate traffic. There are different types of firewalls, but two of the most popular options are cloud and web application firewalls (WAF).
Cloud firewalls can protect against some threats, like DDoS attacks, but they’re not as effective as a WAF. Specifically, cloud firewalls are good at blocking attackers who target your website’s domain name. However, if a malicious hacker finds and targets your IP address, they can essentially bypass the cloud firewall.
This is why a WAF that provides endpoint security, like the Wordfence WAF, is a more secure option than a cloud firewall. With a WAF, you get protection from DDoS attacks and are secured against direct threats to your origin server, including SQL injections, cross-site scripting, and cross-site request forgery.
Wordfence also constantly updates its malware signatures, protecting you from the latest attacks, even with the free plugin. Free plan users receive malware signatures 30 days after detection, and premium users receive them in real time.
3. Comprehensive Website Security Scanner
Early detection of cyberattacks and malicious code is vital to preventing issues like downtime or data breaches. For WordPress websites, you want a security scanner to help check if anyone has made unsanctioned changes to your code.
Several WordPress plugins, like Sucuri and MalCare, have malware-scanning features. However, Wordfence goes beyond the standard malware-scanning features to provide a comprehensive WordPress website security scanner that checks for malware, password strength, vulnerabilities, such as out-of-date themes and plugins, and more.
And remember, with Wordfence, you get access to signatures based on data that is constantly being updated, through our own vulnerability research and the research funded through our Bug Bounty Program.
This means we get data before anyone else and offer protections even before vulnerabilities are released to the public — and often even before developers can fix the flaws in their own code. The free plugin receives signatures after 30 days; premium users get them in real time.
4. Malware Removal and Investigation
Finding malware is only half the battle when it comes to protecting your WordPress website. If you have a scanner that identifies potential threats, it’s crucial to remedy the issues by cleaning or deleting the impacted files.
Many plugins require you to use their paid services to clean your website, but Wordfence supports DIY site cleaning for free and provides the information you need in its scan results.
While you can take advantage of auto-clean functions or clean the files yourself, working with a security service allows for faster, more thorough cleaning while reducing the risk of deleting essential parts of your code.
If you want help with a hacked WordPress site or want a credentialed security team to handle a site cleaning for you, our Wordfence Care and Response plans offer site cleaning services to remove the malware for you. In addition to cleaning the site, the Wordfence team provides you with a complete report of the issues and actions to take to ensure incidents don’t negatively impact your search engine optimization efforts.
5. Brute Force Protection
Because of its wide use and standardized login structures, the WordPress platform is a straightforward target for brute force attacks.
Most login URLs are /wp-admin or /wp-login.php, which makes it easy for attackers to find the entry point for a WordPress website. Beyond that, “admin” is often the username for administrative accounts, so brute force programs can easily guess the right login combination, especially if you don’t enforce strong passwords.
Simply changing the URL of your login page (the “security through obscurity” approach) isn’t enough to safeguard your data. To learn more about why, watch the following video:
Wordfence provides strong brute force protection against these types of attacks. The plugin actively monitors for and blocks suspicious and repeated login attempts. In addition to limiting repeated failed login attempts from one IP address, brute force protection may automatically block IP addresses that have been blocklisted.
To learn more, you can explore our post on the different methods you can use to protect against brute force attacks.
6. Robust Login Security
In addition to brute force protection, opting for login security beyond the WordPress basics can help keep your website secure. Wordfence and many other popular security plugins like MalCare offer basic login security features.
Wordfence offers the most robust login security for free, including:
- Two-factor authentication (2FA)
- XML-RPC Protection
- reCAPTCHA
Two-factor authentication (2FA)
2FA requires another layer of authentication on top of the username and password. For example, users may need to enter a code sent to the email or phone number associated with the account.
This way, you can still block bots that correctly enter a username and password. Check out this tutorial video to learn more about adding 2FA to your WordPress website:
XML-RPC Protection
This protects your WordPress website in cases where XML-RPC is used to connect it to other applications.
XML-RPC is a popular target for attackers but is often overlooked by users. Most attempts blocked by Wordfence happen at this layer. With Wordfence, you can protect your website by turning off this login type or enforcing 2FA.
reCAPTCHA
Wordfence uses Google’s reCAPTCHA v3, an advanced security feature that helps block spam and other abusive traffic from your website without interrupting service for legitimate visitors.
With reCAPTCHA v3, Google calculates a score that indicates the suspicion level of a user visit or login attempt. From there, you can set up the feature so that low suspicion scores can log in seamlessly while higher suspicion ones might need to go through another verification method, such as 2FA.
Together, these tools do an excellent job of fortifying your WordPress login page and ensuring that only authorized users can access your website’s content and data.
7. Real-Time IP and Country Blocking
In addition to scanning for malware and protecting your login pages, leveraging real-time IP blocklists adds another layer of protection for your WordPress website. With this feature, you can automatically block traffic from IP addresses associated with malicious activity.
Country blocking is another effective way to guard against cyber attacks, especially if you own a website that operates primarily in one country. With Wordfence’s Premium, Care, and Response plans, users can leverage IP and country blocking for more targeted threat protection that still allows legitimate traffic through, so it won’t affect the user or customer experience.
8. WordPress Security Audits
Conducting a yearly security audit of your WordPress website is an excellent way to proactively identify potential vulnerabilities before cyber criminals can exploit them.
For better outcomes, it’s best to get insights from WordPress security experts, which are included with annual audits in the Wordfence Care and Response plans. With these plans, users also have the option to request a second security audit each year.
The audit includes a 59-point inspection and a detailed report from a security analyst. Wordfence’s security audits are informed by its vast experience investigating and cleaning hacked sites, giving you the most up-to-date recommendations for securing your WordPress website against cyber attacks.
If the audit reveals any issues, the Wordfence team will clean the malware and provide a detailed report of the audit results and any incidents. In addition to the audit, you’ll get a follow-up Q&A with Wordfence’s security experts to ensure all your key questions are answered.
9. Proactive Site Monitoring
Conducting a malware or security scan is a great place to start when it comes to securing your WordPress website, but the results only apply to your website’s status at the time of the scan. The best way to detect threats early is to take a proactive approach to monitoring your website.
Identifying threats early allows you to clean your website and secure it again, giving you a better chance of avoiding downtime or data theft as opposed to waiting until you experience consequences to know there’s an issue.
With Wordfence Free, you have the ability to scan your website every three days. All other plans offer unlimited scans and the Audit Log feature, which records and stores security-related events on your website at an offsite location where you can review them.
For users that opt for Wordfence Care and Response, a team of WordPress security experts monitors your website’s security so you can take that off your plate.
10. Real-Time Threat Alerts
Even if you have someone monitoring your website’s security, you still want insight into security events. With Wordfence’s automated alerts, you can receive email, Discord, Slack, or SMS alerts or alert summaries for issues picked up by your automated scans.
Wordfence also allows you to customize your alert settings based on the severity of the threat detected so you don’t receive notifications for low-priority issues. Watch the video below to learn more about configuring your alert settings with Wordfence:
11. Support from WordPress Security Experts
Although cybersecurity is an evolving field that requires ongoing learning and maintenance, more than half (53%) of organizations in IBM’s Cost of Data Breach Report reported lacking skilled cybersecurity workers.
If your organization doesn’t have a dedicated cybersecurity team or individual, having access to a team of WordPress security experts can be especially valuable.
With Wordfence Care, you get hands-on assistance from a team of experts during normal business hours with a priority ticket response system. Wordfence Response offers 24/7/365 incident response with a 1-hour response time.
Do You Need WordPress Security Services?
It depends. While installing a security plugin is a significant first step towards protecting your website, opting for security services provides additional peace of mind, knowing that experienced professionals are monitoring your website’s security.
Ultimately, professional services mean faster detection, quicker incident response times, and more effective malware cleaning and removal than a DIY approach.
For personal websites, a security plugin (free or premium) may be enough to keep information secure. For businesses, security services go a long way in maintaining uptime, protecting user data, and safeguarding professional reputation.
With WordPress security services, a team of experts helps you optimize your website’s security settings and can handle certain time-consuming tasks like website monitoring and malware removal.
Several WordPress security plugin creators, like Wordfence, also offer service plans to help you get the most out of the plugin and proactively maintain WordPress security without the time investment.
The Best WordPress Security Services for Your Website
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Opting for a security plugin is a great start, especially if you want a more DIY approach. If you want to take that route, Wordfence offers comprehensive protection through the free and premium versions of the plugin.
Both Wordfence Free and Premium offer the following:
- Intrusion alerts
- File change detection
- Brute force protection
- Web application firewall
- Robust website security scanning
- Login security (2FA and reCAPTCHA)
- Audit Log (Wordfence Premium required for full feature access)
- Schedule security scans (every 3 days for Free and unlimited scans for Premium)
- Alerts for detected threats and vulnerabilities
- The latest malware signatures (released every 30 days for Free and in real time for Premium)
Free users can access support through online forums, while premium plans offer ticket-based support from a team of WordPress security experts. If you want more white-glove support, Wordfence offers two service plans that go the extra mile: Care and Response.
Wordfence Care
Wordfence Care combines the benefits of the plugin’s premium version with support from a team of experts to help you install, optimize, and manage your security features.
You get all the advanced security features included in Wordfence Premium (such as real-time signatures, audit log and IP blocking) along with the following:
- Wordfence installation and configuration
- WordPress hardening tailored to your website
- Annual security audit and recommendations
- Malware investigation, removal, and incident report
- Proactive website security monitoring
- Post-incident blocklist removal and search engine security cleanup
Wordfence Care is best for: Businesses that want a proactive security approach without taking time away from customer interactions.
Wordfence Response
Wordfence Response is the highest service level and prioritizes rapid responses. As such, it may be the best option for those with high-security needs, as it offers all of the security services provided in Wordfence Care plus round-the-clock availability for incident response.
With Wordfence Response, you get everything included in Wordfence Premium and Care along with:
- Optional additional security audit every year
- 24/7/265 incident response
- 1-hour response time
Wordfence Response is best for: Businesses that provide mission-critical solutions and need fast security response times.