Have you ever wondered why it’s important to have solid information and knowledge about the best WordPress firewall plugin? By knowing what a firewall is and the characteristics of each provider, you can choose the most suitable one for you. All firewall plugins are designed to deliver safety and protection, but then again, each one is different from one another. Every plugin has their own strength as well as possible downsides. That’s why it is crucial to make your own research and pick the one that just fits your needs.
Best WordPress Firewall Plugins Functions
What is a firewall, anyway? It is a security device (it can be software or hardware) that will protect your network. Its main function is to filter the traffic and block outsiders from getting illegal and unauthorized access to your website, computer, and also precious data.
Basically, a website application firewall will create rules sets that protect your website. It includes blocking any unwanted (web) traffic from entering or accessing the site and protecting against many variants of attacks (such as SQL injection, zero-day exploits, cross-site scripting, DDoS attack, brute force attack, and hacks).
So, when we are talking about the WordPress firewall plugin, we are talking about the protective shield between your own site and the digital world out there, especially the incoming traffic. The plugin is also referred to as WAF or Web Application Firewall. It monitors the (website) traffic and perform blockage whenever necessary so your WordPress website will stay secure. In most cases, the firewall can also affect the performance of your site. It boosts the site’s performance as well as speeding it up to the maximum level.
The Best WordPress Plugins Candidates
No need to worry. If you want to enhance your website’s safety and protection, there are several plugins to consider. Some of them are free, while some are paid services with various packages or plans to meet your security demands. We’re going to dig into them one by one.
SecuPress
This is actually a new plugin that offers freemium security protection. Despite its new existence in the industry, the plugin gains popularity quite fast. The plugin itself has free as well as paid type – both of them come with impressive features and easy to use nature. Even with the free service, you can still enjoy the blocked IPs, robust firewall, and login anti-brute force feature. No need to worry of bad bots as the plugin will ward them off.
Naturally, if you access the Pro version, you will get more access to premium features. You can enjoy vulnerable plugin and themes detection, geolocation blockage, security notification and alerts, PHP malware scan, and also security reports (in pdf format). There are still more to expect from them, so check their details out!
Sucuri
If you are an avid user of the internet or you have dealt with many WordPress websites, you’d know this name. This is one of the most popular firewall plugins that can efficiently fix hacks, provide solid security, and also prevent attacks.
The plugin has its own intrusion prevention system that will detect any possible risk or threats. This feature can also increase the site’s performance quite drastically. Many online users have stated that Sucuri does offer very solid and tough system, but it does come with a price. When compared to other plugins, Sucuri’s plan is pricey, although many people claim that it is totally worth their spending.
BBQ Firewall
This is the lightest and also simplest plugin that can offer maximum protection to your website. Don’t underestimate its size or weight. Despite its lightweight nature, it can deal with many threats quite efficiently and impressively. Because of its lightweight nature, the plugin is also said as the quickest WAF ever existed, and it won’t affect your website’s speed or whatsoever.
The plugin comes with both free version as well as the paid one. Naturally, the features in the free version are quite limited, but if you don’t want anything fancy or complicated, they should be enough. If you want stronger protection, you need to upgrade it to the Pro package.
Cloudflare
This is another reliable WordPress plugin that will safe-guard your website. Not only it will protect your devices, teams, application, and resources, but it will also protect your apps and APIs. Cloudflare is considered ideal for online business because it can deal with spambots, malicious threats, annoying malware, and DDoS attacks effectively.
In short, this plugin is able to offer comprehensive and complete safety suite to protect your online activities and presence. When compared to Sucuri, the price tag for this service is lower – and yet it won’t affect their performance, strength, or efficiency. At all.
MaxCDN (StackPath)
If you are familiar with StackPath, then you should know that MaxCDN is a part of it. It is a solid web app security and firewall provider that will add Layer 4 and 3 DDoS protection within all plans. Their WAF would add Layer 7 of DDoS protection.
Just like Sucuri, this plugin offers DNS-type firewall that will protect the website as well as boosting its speed. This MaxCDN is often compared to Sucuri because of its strength. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have application level firewall. But in terms of performance and price, they won’t let you down. This is a paid plugin that has a month of free trial. Quite a great bargain, eh?
Bulletproof Security
This plugin also offers robust and super solid protection. They have plenty of features that you can tweak as your heart desires. As one of the paid services, rest assured that they only offer premium quality. Unfortunately, the plugin isn’t user-friendly. Many beginner users are confused of what to do. Despite its (many) benefits, the plugin is more ideal for advanced users or those who are already familiar with WordPress operation.
Conclusion
If you do your ‘homework’, you will see that there are still many powerful and handy firewall plugins out there. You just have to do your research thoroughly and carefully. All these lists of some promising plugins are just the best candidates to make your job easier, but feel free to find other best WordPress firewall plugin that is more suitable to your needs.
