WordPress is well known for its Content Management System. At first, WordPress was developed as a tool for publishing blogs but now it is a versatile platform that helps you to build websites but you must use WordPress security plugins to keep your site safe and secure. 

WordPress is a secure platform because the development team is dedicated to maintaining its security. Despite their efforts, in 2020, WordPress sites experienced 2,800 hacking attempts every second. This has made WordPress site owners concerned about security issues.

Why WordPress Sites Get Hacked

WordPress sites are frequently targeted by hackers due to their popularity and the vast number of sites using the platform. Common reasons for these hacking attempts include:

1. Outdated Plugins and Themes: Many WordPress site owners fail to keep their plugins and themes updated, which can lead to security vulnerabilities.
2. Weak Passwords: Using weak or common passwords makes it easier for hackers to gain access to your site.
3. Unsecured Hosting: Not all hosting providers offer the same level of security, making some sites more vulnerable.
4. Malware and Vulnerabilities: Hackers often exploit known vulnerabilities in WordPress and its plugins to inject malware or gain unauthorized access.
5. Lack of Security Measures: Many site owners do not implement additional security measures such as firewalls, security plugins, and regular backups.

By addressing these issues and using reliable security plugins, you can significantly enhance the security of your WordPress site. While hosting providers offer some level of server security, it is crucial to take additional steps to protect your site. One effective measure is installing security plugins.

There are several free plugins available on the internet, and you can choose one that best fits your needs. In this article, we will discuss the five best free WordPress security plugins.

Reasons to Use WordPress Security Plugin

It is like a compulsion to have a security plugin for your site to prevent the site from having security issues. 

WordPress is easy to use so it is used by a wide range of people. Therefore, it is important to use a security plugin for your site.

There are several reasons for using security plugins. Some of them are listed below:

• Using security plugins helps to identify and protect against different vulnerabilities for your site.
• It also reduces the risk of unauthorized access and breaches of data.
• Security plugins help to detect malware as well as remove the malware.
• The plugin consists of firewall features that block malicious traffic attacks like Distributed Denial of Service attacks. 
• These plugins also prevent brute-force login attempts. 
• They limit login attempts and enforce strong requirements.
• Similarly, it provides added CAPTCHA challenges to protect against brute-force attacks.
• Several security plugins offer two-factor authentication which are additional layer of protection after a username and password.

Now let us go through the free WordPress security plugins:

Sucuri

Sucuri offers the best WordPress security plugins. It provides both free and paid plans. The free version offers a basic security plugin whereas, the paid version offers WordPress firewall protection. 

Similarly, the Sucuri plugin helps to block all brute-force and malicious attacks. Apart from the security of plugins, the firewall and CDN  give an optimized performance and speed up the site. 

They even offer free clean-up to your site if your site gets affected by any kind of malware. 

If you want a detail information. Click Here.

Wordfence

It is another popular WordPress security plugin. Wordfence is the best choice for site owners who want to stay up to date-with their site. They provide threat assessments and report regularly and also notifies users if any kind of breach is detected. 

These plugins offer all-time malware-checking, spam, bot-blocking, exploit detection as well as two-factor authentication. 

Along with this, the plugin also comes with a built-in WordPress firewall.

You can click here for complete information.

iThemes Security(Solid Security)

Formerly, iThemes security is now known as Solid Security. They offer comprehensive protection against cyber threats like brute force attacks, malware, and vulnerabilities. They are also focused on user login security. These free WordPress security plugins offer easy setup and secure their site with different security templates and also two-factor authentication.

Furthermore, iThemes/Solid Security plugin also offers a real-time security dashboard for monitoring site activities. There are both free and paid versions.

If you want to know more about these please visit site.

All-in-One WP Security

All-in-One WordPress Security is also known as AIOS. It is a powerful WordPress security. The plugin offers services like auditing, monitoring, and firewall plugins. Similarly, it allows users to apply basic WordPress security practices on your website. 

In addition, this plugin prevents the site from brute-force attacks and also features login lockdown, monitoring, and scanning for suspicious patterns of database injection.  This plugin also has a basic website-level firewall that detects patterns and blocks them.   

Please visit the site for more information

Defender

The Defender plugin is also one of the free plugins with user-friendly security features. Two-factor authentication is provided by this plugin for all users, sites, file scanning, and monitoring.

You can use the premium version of Defender for special and advanced features. The plugin sends instant notifications of email if there are any security issues.

For more information, visit the site.

Conclusion

Therefore, every site owner who owns a WordPress site must be concerned about security issues and threats. They must use WordPress security plugins to keep their site safe and secure.

Here, we discussed the five best free WordPress security plugins. Besides these, there are other many free security plugins. You can choose any of them according to your requirements and prevent your site from malicious attacks.

You can also see more about some popular WordPress Gutenberg plugin here: