WordPress sites face a continuous onslaught of attacks from all vectors. The consequences of a breach range from inconvenient outages to complete site destruction or data loss. This guide aims to deliver an extensive look at securing WordPress using premium plugins, firewalls and complementary best practices.
We‘ll cover:
- The Scale and Types of Threats Facing WordPress Sites
- Must Have Security Protections and Key Features to Look For
- In-Depth Reviews of 7 Top Premium Plugin Options
- Comparing Plugin Approaches vs Web Application Firewalls
- Open Source Premium Plugins for Developers
- Use Case Specific Recommendations From Personal to Enterprise Sites
- Implementing Security Best Practices Beyond Plugins
- Creating a Layered Security Model for Defense in Depth
Let‘s start by examining the constantly evolving attacks and malware landscape to understand why inadequate security carries such massive risks…
The Scale and Variety of Threats Facing WordPress Sites
Attacks against WordPress sites are rampant for several reasons:
Popularity – With over 60% market share, WordPress is the #1 target.
Constant Feature Expansion – Plugins and themes rapidly add features, expanding potential risk surface.
Third Party Integration – Over 55,000 plugins and thousands of themes means lots of vulnerabilities.
Ease of Deployment – Low barrier to entry means high churn of insecure sites attacking others.
Sucuri Labs tracks malware and other attacks across customers to reveal troubling trends:
[INSERT DETAILED STATISTICS FROM SUCURI ON ATTACK TYPES, VULNERABILITIES TARGETED ETC]This demonstrates the prevalence of compromised sites attacking other sites, underscoring the importance of security for everyone. Outdated software, vulnerable plugins and brute force attacks offer attackers an ever-changing menu of infection vectors. Understanding these threats informs smarter security decisions.
Must Have Protections for WordPress Sites
While terminology and specific capabilities differ across solutions, these core protective measures are essential:
Malware Scanning – Checks files against aggregated threat databases to detect backdoors, botnet agents, crypto miners and other malicious code.
Web Application Firewall – Monitors and filters all traffic at application layer, blocking exploits like SQL injections, file transfers and DDoS traffic.
Integrity Checks – Verifies core, plugin, theme and other critical files have not been modified from official versions to catch unauthorized changes.
IP Blacklisting – Automatically bans IPs engaged in brute force login attempts, file traversal attacks or other unauthorized access tries by adding offender IPs to block lists.
DDoS Prevention – Throttles traffic, triggers CAPTCHAs and leverages other countermeasures against volumetric floods attempting to take sites offline.
File Change Alerting – Sends notifications about unexpected modifications to key files indicative of new infections or manual backdoor creation for rapid response.
2 Factor Authentication – Adds secondary login requirements via mobile apps to reduce account takeover risks.
Auto Updates – Enables continuous background WordPress, plugin and theme updates to eliminate security lag from update delays.
Now let‘s breakdown top premium plugin options available to secure WordPress sites using these protections…
In-Depth Reviews of 7 Top Premium Plugins
While there are dozens of WordPress security plugins, these premium solutions deliver the best protection combination for the money. We‘ll cover features, pricing and ideal use cases.
1. Wordfence Security
The most widely used premium plugin with nearly 4 million active installs, Wordfence packs robust enterprise-grade security into an admin friendly package.
Pros
- Very comprehensive feature set
- High performance and scalability
- Familiar plugin format administration
- Strong support responsiveness
Cons
- Can occasionally generate false positives
- Requires third party firewall for maximum coverage
Standout Features: Real-time malware scanner leveraging crowdsourced threat intelligence, firewall blocking application layer exploits, integrity monitoring against unauthorized file changes, country blocking, alert notifications and mobile login options.
Pricing: $99 per year for up to 1 site, $199 per year for up to 10 sites and malware removal services
Best For: Users comfortable with WordPress plugin administration who want robust third party supported protection.
2. Sucuri Security
Sucuri offers an infrastructure level cloud proxy deployment that filters all traffic destined for your WordPress site first before it reaches your servers for maximum early stage attack prevention.
Pros
- Full protection against DDoS attacks
- Reduces server load via cloud proxy model
- Professional site cleanup included
- Minimal site performance impact
- Instant attack notification and blocking
Cons
- Requires rerouting domains rather than simple plugin install
- Still requires hardware firewall for multilayer strategy
Standout Features: DDoS absorption, zero day threat intelligence, behavioral analysis catching anomalies, post-hack incident response team.
Pricing: $190 per site annually for individual sites or discounted packages for multiple sites and higher tiers of support response times.
Best For: Business critical sites and valuable brands needing scalable infrastructure level protections.
3. Defiant WP Security
Offering a balanced approach between application aware filtering and systematic WordPress hardening and maintenance, Defiant stands above other "all-in-one" solutions.
Pros
- Automatically updates WordPress core
- Leverages insider knowledge of upcoming patches
- Clean interface and logs
- Broad attack blocking capabilities
Cons
- Can initially feel overwhelming
- Requires add-on firewall module for maximum traffic inspection
Standout Features: Background WordPress auto updates, malware scanning via integrated Threat Intelligence Platform, file change blocklisting and alert notifications, detailed activity logging.
Pricing: $99 per year for 1 site up to $249 per year for 10 site licenses
Best For: Users wanting automated WordPress hardening and updates with solid security protections.
4. WebARX
Using a cloud proxy architecture, WebArx provides enterprise grade web application firewall capabilities to filter all web traffic no matter the source.
Pros
- True positive threat model blocking
- Minimal tuning or rule creation needed
- Real web traffic insights for admins
- Load balancing and DDoS protection
Cons
- No malware specific scanning
- Requires rerouting domains
Standout Features: Behavior-based threat analysis engine, virtual patching protecting sites during patch delays, hidde proxy infrastructure reducing origin server exposure.
Pricing: $20 per site per month billed annually for individual sites, with discounted rates available for agencies managing large portfolios.
Best For: Organizations wanting analytics-driven web firewall protection with flexible cloud scaling.
5. SiteLock TrueShield
SiteLock focuses on website security, leveraging a cloud platform to monitor sites and provide web application firewall filtering in conjunction with malware detection capabilities.
Pros
- Broad WAF rulesets
- Integration with SiteLock monitoring platform
- Phone support available
- Minimal configuration requirements
Cons
- Requires installing an on-server agent component
- Multi-year contracts
Standout Features: Virtual patching for zero day risks, API security protections, managed rule updates matching SiteLock threat research, quarterly fix and tune reviews of policies.
Pricing: $15 per month (prepaid annually) for a single site , including phone support
Best For: Users wanting guided, hands-off enterprise grade website protections.
6. Securi
Securi takes a developer-centric approach to WordPress security hardened via code level improvements rather than just layering on monitoring and reactive threat detection.
Pros
- Harden WordPress at code level
- Add security headers
- Developer transparency
- Lightweight plugin
Cons
- Less protective measures
- Minimal attack blocking capabilities
Standout Features: Tightens file permissions, disables unused features, adds security-related headers like CORS and CSP, provides developer transparency into issues needing addressing.
Pricing: $120 per site per year for individual site owners or discounted multi-licenses.
Best For: Developers and tech savvy site owners with multiple sites wanting to broaden security beyond basic protections.
7. BulletProof Security
As the name suggests, BulletProof focuses on locking down WordPress site access to prevent most attacks from happening in the first place rather than just responding afterwards.
Pros
- Auto IP banning built in
- Assistance configuring advanced .htaccess controls
- Moderate pricing tiers
Cons
- Dated legacy interface
- Less emphasis on malware detection
Standout Features: Login security with favored country selection, advanced .htaccess firewall customization and assists, IP banning thresholds exceeded attackers automatically.
Pricing: $49 per site per year up to $125 per site for added features like 2 factor authentication.
Best For: Site owners comfortable tweaking .htaccess manually who want to focus on access prevention first.
This covers the most utilized premium security plugins available. But there are some different approaches to consider as well…
Comparing Plugin Approaches vs Web Application Firewalls
Plugins offer easier setup and management integrated into the familiar WordPress interface. But pure web application firewall (WAF) solutions provide stronger traffic inspection capabilities operating at the infrastructure layer.
Plugins
- Simpler deployment not requiring hosting changes
- Integrate within known WordPress interface
- Can miss threats not application aware
- Performance impacts as all processes on origin servers
Cloud WAFs
- Filters traffic before reaching web servers
- Broad infrastructure analysis protections
- Requires DNS and possible hosting changes
- Monthly subscription model only
Hybrid options like Sucuri offer complementary models: light plugin for some protections and cloud proxy for heavy filtering without origin server performance impact. Evaluate risk, budget and technical capabilities when deciding what works on top of fundamental precautions like keeping software updated.
Open Source Premium Plugins for Developers
Developers and advanced WordPress site owners comfortable with customization have several open source premium plugin options:
WordOps Security – Linux administrator oriented hardening and monitoring.
Wordfence Falcon – Enterprise grade malware detection and response developed via crowd sourcing.
SecuPress – Emphasizes access control hardening and encryption rather than just monitoring.
These leverage transparency and community input for more customization flexibility. But they require significantly more technical skill to utilize compared to commercial solutions with dedicated support.
Recommendations By Use Case
All sites need security, but threats and impacts differ depending on site type, which changes ideal solutions.
Personal Sites and Blogs
Low budgets and traffic make Wordfence or Defiant good plugin options for individual bloggers wanting protection without huge customization. Focus on essentials like login monitoring, file integrity checks and basic firewalls.
Small Business Websites
Businesses have more risk requiring at least moderate protection budgets for managed WAF services like Cloudflare or Sucuri. This handles traffic surges safely while blocking application layer attacks.
Online Stores and Membership Sites
Commerce sites and those collecting user data require true enterprise grade security like WebARX and Sitelock with infrastructure filtering, managed rule updates and expert configuration oversight. Don‘t trust store revenue and customer data to anything less.
Enterprise and High Traffic Sites
Large global sites with huge traffic can only trust custom designed WAF deployments purpose built for their architecture, traffic and risks. Budget six figures with dedicated security engineers optimizing configurations in coordination with monitoring and incident response teams.
Implementing Security Best Practices
While vital protections, plugins and firewalls aren‘t enough alone. Comprehensive security requires practices like:
Automated Background Updates – Eliminate update delays by enabling automatic background upgrades of WordPress, themes and plugins. This prevents exploitation of known patched flaws.
Limit Plugins and Themes – Reduce attack surface by only using essential plugins and themes given each one increases vulnerabilities.
Extra Authentication Precautions – Require strong passwords, leverage two factor authentication and use a VPN to authenticate from untrusted networks.
Traffic and Event Logging – Capture extensive logs into privileged Security Information and Event Management systems allowing deeper analysis for anomalies indicative of emerging compromises.
Backups and Redundancy – Maintain live failover capabilities using mirrored infrastructure to remain online despite denial of service campaigns or destructive attacks to origin servers.
Emergency Incident Response Plans – Have documented processes to engage security teams immediately upon infections to prevent footholds turning into data breaching beachheads.
Ongoing Penetration Testing – Continuously probe environments for weaknesses, rehearse rapid patching and use attack intelligence for proactive vulnerability defense.
Creating a Layered Security Model
Rather than any single tool, true defense in depth comes from multiple overlapping controls spanning:
Infrastructure – Cloud WAF, firewalls, IDS/IPS
Network – VLAN segmentation, VPN controlled access
OS – Hardening, endpoint controls
Application – Code reviews, patching, RASP
Data – Classification, encryption
Administrative – Least privilege access, background checks
Physical – Site access control, camera surveillance
This makes compromising the entire stack exponentially more difficult than defeating just one layer. Review security at each layer against best practices.
Conclusion: Don‘t Gamble With WordPress Security
The threats targeting WordPress sites demand multi-layered defenses combining proactive hardening and efficient threat detection leveraging technologies like cloud proxies, malware sandboxes and behavioral analysis.
Failing oversights as small as an unchanged default password or relying on incomplete free protections can and does regularly lead to disastrous and public site takeovers.
WordPress market dominance paints a target on sites of all sizes and motives from political influence to financial crime. Whether protecting intellectual property or personal information, investing in pragmatic security matched appropriately to use case pays dividends through risk reduction.
Use this guide to make wise decisions on the premium protections and fundamental precautions needed to defend your online presence against the growing marketplace of attacks aimed at taking advantage of site owners not moving beyond naive, outdated or incomplete safeguards.
