Best WordPress Security Plugins for Shared Hosting

WordPress is the most popular software for blogging and small business websites. With a large audience, it’s no surprise that people want to make sure that their content is as safe and reliable as possible. This article will explore the various WordPress security plugins available, highlighting the functions and features that you should look out for. We’ll delve into the various pros and cons of each plugin so that you can pick the one that’s right for your needs. Let’s get writing.

Security in Depth With WP Security Plus

If you’re looking for the basic form of WordPress security, you don’t need to go any further than the free version of WP Security Plus. This is a great choice for anyone who’s looking to keep their WordPress installation secure and up to date. It comes with a handful of features that make it easy to keep an eye on your content from the perspective of web security. Let’s have a quick look at what this plugin has to offer.

• Basic Permissions – The Basic Permissions plugin gives you the ability to control what types of actions other users can take on your WordPress installation. For instance, you can prevent them from editing any content on your site or deleting your posts. With this option, you can guarantee that your content is always available for your readers. This is perfect for bloggers who want to maintain full control over their content and don’t want to share their WordPress installation with any third parties.
• Multi-Factor Authentication – Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is a type of security system that demands a user login with a username and password plus an optional verification question or code sent to their phone. With MFA, a user needs to respond to a security question or enter a code that’s been sent to their phone via text message or email. This is a more advanced approach to login verification and adds an extra layer of protection against brute-force attacks. If someone tries to guess your login details, they’ll need to get these items in advance:
• A Hacker Playbook – A Hacker Playbook is a book that teaches you the fundamentals of computer security and hacking. It’s a great choice for anyone who’s looking to learn more about the topic or protect their WordPress installation from outside intruders. If you’re reading this and interested in learning more, we highly recommend this resource. You can also check out the free 12-lesson course that accompanies it if you want to learn more.
• Advanced Permissions – The Advanced Permissions plugin gives you the ability to control what types of actions other users can take on your WordPress installation. The options are pretty self-explanatory; you can prevent them from editing or deleting your content or limiting the amount of content they can view. This can be useful for bloggers who want to keep a certain level of privacy and don’t want others to see their complete blog post while they’re still working on it. It also makes it harder for spammers to make comments on your blog posts since they have to verify their email address first.
• Account Permanence – The Account Permanence plugin makes it very easy to set up and use multiple user accounts on your WordPress installation. When you install this plugin, you’ll be prompted to create a user with the username “admin” and a password. This account will be your master user and will have complete control over your WordPress installation. The options in this section let you control how long new user accounts are supposed to be active before they need to be updated with a new password.
• Two-Step Authentication – The Two-Step Authentication plugin is pretty self-explanatory; it adds another layer of security by requiring users to login with their username and password PLUS an extra code sent to their phone via text message or email. This can be useful for people who want to keep a second layer of protection on their WordPress installation. If you’re reading this and interested in adding that extra layer of security, you can also try the YubiKey security token which will ask you to login with your YubiKey and then enter a code sent to your phone. YubiKey is a free, open source hardware security token that can be used with many websites and services, including WordPress.
• Password Strength Checker – The Password Strength Checker plugin gives you the ability to test the strength of your passwords using random words generated by the plugin. When you create a new user account or visit the dashboard of an existing user account, you’ll be presented with a small preview of generated passwords. This is great for people who want to keep their login credentials safe and don’t want to use the same simple password across different sites. When registering a new user account with this plugin, you’ll see a short message stating whether or not the password you’ve chosen is strong enough to secure your WordPress installation. If you want to keep your passwords safe and don’t want to use easy-to-guess options, this is one of the best WordPress security plugins available.

WordPress Security Checklist

Keeping your WordPress installation safe and up to date can be a lot of work, which is why we’ve compiled this short list of essential security plugins that you should run alongside WP Security Plus. These plugins will help you stay on top of important security details for your WordPress installation and make it easier to keep an eye on things when you’re not actively working on your site. Let’s have a quick look at what each of these plugins do.

• CAPTCHAs – To protect your WordPress installation, you’ll need to use the Captcha plugin to generate images with random characters and words that are displayed as captchas to visitors. The more complicated and difficult they are to solve, the better. This adds another layer of security by forcing your visitors to prove that they’re human and not a bot or spammer. It also encourages spam comments to be flagged and removed since they’re more difficult to post due to the Captcha.
• HTTP Status Caching – The HTTP Status Caching plugin allows you to store the HTTP status code for each resource, image, or file on your WordPress installation. This plugin helps speed up your site by storing previously downloaded content in a way that makes it faster and easier for users to access. For example, if a user lands on a page with an image, rather than having to request that image from the server every time it loads, the HTTP Status Caching plugin will store it in a way that makes it immediately available for users without having to go through the login process again.
• Login Form Validation – The Login Form Validation plugin verifies that users submitting their login details to your site are human and not robots or spammers. This plugin makes it easier for you to keep your WordPress installation secure by adding an extra layer of security checking in the background while you work. When users submit their login details to your site, they’ll be presented with a message stating whether or not their login was successful.
• Login Required Functionality – The Login Required Functionality plugin asks for a user’s login before allowing them to access certain areas of your site. This can be useful for people who want a certain area of their site restricted to logged-in users only or for bloggers who want to keep an eye on who’s commenting on their articles. This plugin makes it easier for you to control access to sensitive areas of your WordPress installation and keep track of who’s commenting regardless of whether or not they’re logged in.
• Restricted Area Access – The Restricted Area Access plugin allows you to create different tiers of user access for different areas of your site. For example, you can restrict access to the About Us page for all but the admin user. This can be useful for bloggers who want to keep a certain part of their site restricted to a select group of users.

While these plugins will make it easier for you to keep an eye on your WordPress installation’s security, it’s still not exactly easy. The amount of work that goes into keeping a secure and stable WordPress installation can be a lot, so make sure that you have the time to do this. If you’re looking for the basic form of WordPress security, the free version of the plugin will do just fine. However, if you’re looking for something a little more robust, we recommend that you look into the various premium plugins that can be found on the WordPress plugin directory.