Free and Paid Ways to Secure WordPress: Essential Tips for Securing Your WordPress Site

WordPress is by far the world’s most popular content management system, CMS. With this overarching popularity, more than 40% of all websites on the internet run on WordPress, and this presents a huge target for malicious entities and bots. To ensure you keep your site safe, there is the need for effective approaches to securing WordPress, to not only keep your data and content safe but also to protect the data and information of your users. In this article, we’ll look into free and paid ways to secure WordPress, giving you essential tips for securing your WordPress site.

Essential Tips for a Secure WordPress: Free and Paid Ways to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure

Understanding WordPress Security Basics

• Why Security is Important for WordPress Sites:

Security is crucial for your WordPress site, and to ensure you succeed and achieve the goals you’ve set out with your site, you must put in place measures to ensure security. By implementing some or all of the approaches in this guide, you will not only secure your site’s data, files, and content but also the data and info of your audience.

When a user arrives at your site, they will need to know that their information is safe, and if they go on to make a purchase or share other sensitive data, then they can rest assured that security measures are in place to ensure that data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

#WordPressSecurity is also essential for business credibility. The credibility and reputation of your site (and brand) rely on how well users feel that they are safe while interacting with (and on) your site. By ensuring you keep your WordPress secure, you will not only solidify your site’s credibility but also build a reputation for a safety-first approach. Over time, this translates to more users, increased customer satisfaction, and even more purchases and conversions for your business.

• Common WordPress Security Threats:

There are numerous common WordPress security threats, and these include outdated plugin/theme vulnerabilities, backdoors and malware, and brute force attacks.

A brute force attack is an attack on your site in which a malicious entity uses trial and error to guess your passwords, logins, or access credentials. In today’s automated world, malicious programs or malware can quickly constitute and execute brute force attacks.

Malware can also work in tandem with backdoor attacks, where the malicious software can be used to bypass the normal security mechanisms of your site and gain access to your site’s data and information. An example of this is malicious entities using a plugin vulnerability to infiltrate your server.

Additionally, when you have outdated or inactive themes and plugins on your site, these may pose a security risk as outdated themes and plugins are known to likely have security vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities can be likened to security weak points in the code or structure of their codes, and thus it is essential to always keep everything updated. Newer and more recent versions of plugins and themes will often include security fixes and updates to mitigate said vulnerabilities.

Free Ways to Secure Your WordPress Site

1. Keeping WordPress Core, Themes, and Plugins Updated:

As we have noted above, one of the free and easiest ways to keep your WordPress site secure is to keep WordPress core, plugins, and themes updated. Simply updating these to the latest versions ensures that if the version you currently have on your site has security vulnerabilities, then these will likely get fixes as part of newer or updated versions.

It is also essential to avoid using any rarely updated plugins or themes, as these plugins/themes (especially the older ones) that are not maintained can pose a security risk. You should avoid any plugin or theme that has not been tested with your version of WordPress also, as an added security measure and to avoid compatibility issues. Even more, it is also advisable to always delete any unused themes and plugins for added security.

How to Automate WordPress Updates

To ensure timely updates for the plugins and themes on your site, you can automate WordPress updates safely by enabling automatic updates, using an (update-automation) plugin, or by scheduling updates.

You can enable WordPress automatic updates by heading to the WP Dashboard > Plugins > Automatic Updates Disabled, selecting all the plugins there using the bulk selector, and choosing ‘Enable Automatic Updates’ from the drop-down. You can then go ahead and select ‘Apply’, and all plugins will now be updated automatically.

This process uses wp-cron and can lead to a slower site if not done carefully. Read our tips for speeding up your WordPress site for approaches on how to mitigate such slowdowns.

2. Using Strong Passwords and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA):

Using strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA) is another free approach to securing WordPress. Weak passwords are perhaps the largest risk to WordPress security across the board. The reason for this is that most people often use text-only passwords and also the same passwords across various apps and services.

Consequently, when their passwords appear in a data leak from one app, then everything else is put at risk as they have weak passwords and ones they’ve repeated across the board.

As such, it is super important that you not only create a strong password for your WordPress site but also educate other team members and your site’s users to do the same.

Characteristics of a Strong Password

For a password to be strong, it should entail the following:

• Be at least 8 characters long.
• Entail a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.
• Include a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters.

How to Create a Super-Strong WordPress Password

Passwords with the following characteristics can be considered super-strong:

• Be unique to that service alone, i.e., not replicated or reused elsewhere.
• Not legible in normal discourse, i.e., doesn’t represent an understood word, name, or reference. Brute force attacks rely on easily guessable passwords to determine the likely password.
• Stored in a password management service or a locked and protected vault (digital or physical).

Should You Set Up Two-Factor Authentication for Your WordPress Website?

Ensuring your WordPress site remains safe also necessitates considering setting up two-factor authentication, or 2FA. Two-factor authentication goes beyond requiring a password alone (when signing in) and also requires a code sent to a registered number via SMS or to an authenticator app you have set up.

2FA provides an additional layer to WordPress security, ensuring that if anything happens and your password is leaked in a data breach, there would be an additional layer of security for anyone trying to sign in.

You can set up two-factor authentication on your WordPress site for free, using a plugin such as WP-2FA.

Using strong passwords and 2FA isn’t absolute in terms of security, but is one of the free and easiest ways to get started with bolstering security for your WP site.

3. Implementing Security Plugins:

For additional security, you can implement a WordPress security plugin. There are free and paid options. For the free options, you can get features like malware scans; where the plugin scans your entire site and its files for any malware or security vulnerabilities and then gives you the option to either remove any found malware or recommendations for mitigating vulnerabilities.

Unfortunately, most free WordPress security plugins will have limitations; either for advanced features or limits to the number (or frequency) of malware scans you can undertake on their free versions.

Even so, plugins such as WordFence and Sucuri Security come highly recommended and offer a good enough set of features for free. These plugins will do a good job in ensuring that your site remains secure, and even give you recommendations on how to improve WordPress security.

4. Setting File Permissions Correctly:

Setting file permissions correctly is another approach to effectively securing your WordPress site. It is often easy to neglect security mechanisms for your site’s files and FTP folders, and having the wrong permissions can pose a significant security risk.

All files and scripts on your site’s server have permissions set and depending on the combination of permissions, they can either be read-only or rewritable (either by all users or by authorized users or ‘owners’). These permissions are denoted by either 3-digit numbers or combinations of the letters r, x, and w and are mostly easy to change via ftp access.

What are the Best File Permissions and Settings for WordPress Security?

Here are recommended file permissions for WordPress:

Directories should be set to 755, which means the ‘owner’ (the account or person who created the file) can read, write, and execute while ‘others’ (other accounts or everyone else) can only read and execute.

Files, on the other hand, should be set to 644, which means they are readable and writable by the ‘owner’ but only readable by ‘others’.

The wp-config.php file, which is essentially the configuration file for the entire site, should be set to 600 or 440 for maximum security. Setting the file to 600 means that the file is readable and writable by only the ‘owner’ and is inaccessible by ‘others’. Setting wp-config.php to 440 means that the file is readable by both the ‘owner’ and ‘others’ but not writable or executable. ‘Others’ can also not access the file at all.

Ensuring you have the right permissions for critical files such as wp-config.php, .htaccess, and php.ini can make a huge difference in securing your site by preventing unauthorized access.

5. Using Default Features and Settings:

Another free way to secure your WordPress site is to change the default login URLs. By default, the login page is accessible via /wp-login.php or /wp-admin, or /login, and you can improve the security of your site by changing this to something else. The easiest way to do this is using a plugin such as WPS Hide Login. It is a free and easy approach to improving security and restricting unauthorized access.

Disabling XML-RPC to Improve WordPress Security

You can also tweak another default setting to improve WordPress security, the XML Remote Procedure Call, or XML-RPC.

What is XML-RPC?

XML-RPC is a mechanism that allows remote communication between your site and external systems. It is the functionality of WordPress that supports remote publishing via apps, pingbacks, and also remote WP multisite management. By disabling this, if not disabled by default, you can further bolster your site’s security. You can use the REST API to access some of these functionalities in a more modern and secure infrastructure.

What is SSH Access and Why It Should Be Disabled if Unusued

Even more, ensuring you restrict SSH access on your WP server, if it is not something you use, can also prevent unauthorized access and possible malicious use. SSH, or Secure Shell protocol, is a server-side protocol used to securely connect to a server over an encrypted connection.

SSH is a WordPress feature that advanced users can use to manipulate their WordPress install at the server level. For example, to monitor server logs, manage files, plugins and themes, and create backups. For the average WordPress user, however, SSH is quite technical and if you are not expressly using it, you should switch it off to avoid it being used maliciously against your site.

6. Backing Up Regularly:

Backing up your WordPress site regularly is another free approach to ensuring your site remains secure. Regular backups ensure security by allowing you to restore your site in case it falls victim to a security breach or cyberattack.

In most instances, your WordPress host should provide mechanisms to back up your entire site and database, and to restore your site using previously saved backups when you need to. You should always back up your site often, but do it in a way that doesn’t weigh heavily on your server’s storage space.

We use Cloudways, for instance, and their platform allows users to take backups at both the server and application levels. Users can also schedule automatic backups for the server (and backup all its apps) or do manual backups and restores. Even more, you can choose to take local backups (stored on your server) or foreign backups, which they take care of at no additional cost.

You can also use free WordPress backup plugins such as UpdraftPlus, and these will provide mechanisms to schedule, store, and restore backups for your WordPress site.

There are also paid/premium backup plugins for WordPress, such as BlogVault. Premium backup plugins will often have additional features, but mostly require a paid subscription to get access.

7. Using Secure Hosting Providers:

One of the best ways to secure your WordPress site at no additional cost is to use a secure hosting provider or web host. A secure host for WordPress will have the following:

• A server-level web application firewall or WAF
• Requirements for strong passwords and 2FA when signing in
• Server-level malware/security vulnerability checks and security facilitation to remove malware and mitigate vulnerabilities
• Provides intuitive site backup and restore infrastructure, features, and options
• A robust customer support team around-the-clock, ready to assist users facing security issues
• A status page informing users of any downtime, bugs, security breaches, or maintenance schedules and bug fixes
• Support for and integration with popular WordPress security solutions such as Cloudflare WAF

We recommend Cloudways, as the most secure WordPress host in the market, out of our experience using their service. Cloudways has a web application firewall, WAF, provides easy site back up and restore functionality, controls for FTP and database access, integration with and support for Cloudflare, a free-to-use and pre-installed security plugin, and a robust customer support team that is eager to assist users who might be facing any security (or general server) issues.

Get a Cloudways Plan

Having the right WordPress host can make a huge difference, not only in securing your WP, but also in ensuring a seamless experience. And needless to say, a good host won’t remove WordPress features as WP Engine did. You can read more about the WordPress vs. WP Engine Feud and how WP Engine ‘broke WordPress’ for its users.

8. Configuring a Web Application Firewall (WAF):

Last but not least, one of the most effective ways to secure your WordPress site is to configure a web application firewall. There are free and paid options.

Cloudflare offers both, and their free web application firewall is very robust, even as it lacks more advanced features as compared to Cloudflare Pro. Cloudflare also allows you to easily set up the free firewall, constantly monitors security for your site, informs you in case of any security issues, and even blocks any malicious bots automatically.

Intuitively, you can also set your site to “Under Attack Mode” in Cloudflare, and all users trying to access your site will be prompted with a challenge to ascertain they are human, further improving security.

Paid Ways to Secure Your WordPress Site

1. Premium Security Plugins and Services:

One of the best paid ways to secure your WP site is to use premium security plugins and services. Good examples include MalCare, WordFence Premium, and Sucuri Pro. Premium security plugins have additional features (on top of their free versions) such as a dedicated firewall, additional login protections, more in-depth malware scans, and no usage limitations.

How to Choose The Right WordPress Security Plugin For Your Site

To enable you to make the right choice on which premium WP security plugin to go for, do a cost-benefit analysis of the premium plans of the plugins you are already using. To do this, compare your security needs, the cost of a plugin’s plan, and the likely cost of a security breach to your business.

If you are running an e-commerce site on WooCommerce, for instance, you can consider going for a high-cost premium security plugin, as you may incur higher costs if there was a security breach on your site.

In your particular use case, you’d be doing this considering the security of your customers’ payment details, and your brand’s reputational and financial losses if users do not feel safe shopping at your site.

We use and recommend the MalCare Pro plugin, and gladly it comes pre-installed with every WordPress or WooCommerce apps users start on our host, Cloudways. To ensure website speed, as well as security, read on why you should install WooCommerce separately from WordPress content sites.

2. Managed WordPress Hosting Services:

Going for managed WordPress hosting services is another excellent way to secure your WordPress site. Managed WordPress hosts inculcate additional benefits for their users such as server-level firewalls, periodic and automated malware scans, updates for any pre-included security plugins, and automated backups.

As mentioned earlier, a host such as Cloudways will provide all these, while proactively monitoring your site’s security. The beauty of Cloudways is that it also allows you numerous security controls and functionality to tweak important features such as: site backup schedules, backup storage location, and your site’s access controls. They also provide a robust MalCare Pro plugin installation that is provided at no additional cost.

You can get a 20% Cloudways Discount by using our promo code ‘MANIAINC‘. We may get a commission when you do or when you get a Cloudways plan via one of our links.

On top of all that, Cloudways have in place a server-level firewall and allow security reporting at both the server and application level.

Get a Cloudways Plan

You can read our guide on how to choose the right web hosting provider for your WordPress site for more tips.

3. Advanced Backup Solutions:

For users in need of additional facilitation beyond what a free backup plugin would provide, they can implement advanced backup solutions. These are offered in the premium versions of backup plugins and will often require a paid subscription.

With a premium backup plugin such as BlogVault or VaultPress, you can get access to advanced backup functionality, such as daily backups, offsite backups, and one-click restore functionality, something that a good managed host should already be doing.

4. Dedicated Web Application Firewalls (WAF):

Additionally, you can configure a dedicated web application firewall for your site, to ensure better security.

What is A Dedicated Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Why You May Not Need It

A dedicated WAF is a standalone firewall, which functions to act as a protective security layer in front of your site’s server. What this means is, every time a user tries to access your site, their request first goes through the dedicated firewall, is assessed for security, and if cleared, they can then get access to what they requested from your server.

The best dedicated firewall services include Sucuri Pro and Cloudflare Pro. Standalone WAF services play an especially crucial role in preventing DDoS or distributed denial-of-service attacks.

DDoS attacks take place when malicious entities make too many requests to your server at once, essentially blocking all other requests (from other users) from accessing your site.

You may not need a dedicated WAF, however, if you use a free WAF like Cloudflare and your site does not handle sensitive user data such as payment information.

5. Security Monitoring and Malware Removal Services:

Using security monitoring and malware removal services such as SiteLock and MalCare is another way to secure WordPress. These services provide proactive protection for your site, by ensuring round the clock security monitoring. They also allow you to schedule site security audits, and provide steps or approaches to mitigate any risk or vulnerabilities.

6. SSL Certificates:

Secure Socket Layer or SSL (certificates) are a cryptographic protocol that facilitates encrypted communication between your website’s server and users’ browsers.

In essence, SSL provides a security mechanism that protects communication to and from your site’s server. SSL certificates, which contain the cryptographic keys needed, are configured at the domain level. SSLs ensure that there is no tapping of a user’s connection, when they make a DNS (domain name server) request to your domain.

How to Choose Between Free and Premium SSL Certificates for Improved WordPress Security

A free SSL certificate is often enough for most WP users, but users with specific needs or facing additional risk, such as those running e-commerce sites, could benefit from premium SSL certificates.

Premium SSLs provide stronger encryption, can have financial guarantees in case of a breach, last longer, and have stricter request validation requirements.

Best Practices for an Ongoing Secure WordPress Environment

Beyond the solutions we have covered in this guide for securing your WordPress site, you can implement several best practices for an ongoing secure WordPress environment. These include regularly auditing website security, maintaining a list of trusted developers and vendors, and educating team members on cybersecurity awareness.

It is particularly important that you educate your team members and site users on the importance of safety-first approaches such as creating strong passwords, using 2FA, undertaking regular malware checks on their devices, using unique passwords, and reporting any unusual behavior in terms of site security.

Summing Up: How To Effectively Secure Your WordPress Website

Securing WordPress is crucial to your business and brand. By employing a safety-first approach to securing your WordPress site, you protect both the integrity and credibility of your site, and more importantly, users’ data and sensitive information.

You should assess your security needs often, as per your use case, and implement a mix of free and paid approaches to securing your WordPress site. This can include requiring strong passwords and 2FA for your users, configuring a web application firewall, disabling any unused access features and functionalities, and ensuring all your plugins, themes, and core WP installations are up-to-date.

How Choosing the Right Managed WordPress Hosting Provider Can be Crucial to Securing Your WordPress Site

Choosing a managed and security-forward WordPress host, such as Cloudways, can also play a big role in ensuring a secure WordPress environment for your site.

Cloudways will provide most, if not all, of the security approaches we’ve covered in this article at both the server and application levels, at no additional cost. You also get the functionality and controls to tweak the security setup of your WP site, as per your use case.

A major standout feature of Cloudways Managed Hosting is their robust site backup and restore functionality, and the fact that all new sites you start come with MalCare Pro installed by default, at no additional cost. Read more on why we recommend Cloudways and get a glimpse into its functionalities.

Get a Cloudways Plan

Start securing your site today, and forget worrying about security breaches and the costs your business would have to incur as a result.

Cloudways have a Black Friday Offer where you can get 40% OFF for the First 4 Months, and 40 FREE Website Migrations. Hurry! The offer ends on December 6th 2024.

By following the essential tips for securing your WordPress site we have shared in this article, you will have a good head start in your security-first WordPress journey and the peace of mind to keep growing.

You can find more ways to optimize your WordPress site in our WordPress Guides and Tutorials 2025 series.