Wordfence vs Sucuri – Which WordPress Security Plugin is Best?
Wordfence vs Sucuri – Which WordPress Security Plugin is Best? (Pros and Cons). In this post, we will introduce both security software then explain the key differences between both tools.
Let’s start with Wordfence vs Sucuri – Which WordPress Security Plugin is Best? and to understand the security plugins individually.
What is Wordfence?
Key Features of Wordfence
Here’s a sneak peek of key features provided via the free Wordfence plugin.
- Malware scanner.
- Web application firewall (WAF).
- File repair.
- Security alerts and reporting.
- Real time user monitoring.
The malware scanner of the plugin checks WordPress core files, plugins, themes, backdoors, SEO spam and malicious redirects. Additionally Wordfence firewall identifies and blocks the malicious traffic that can hinder your smooth website operations.
Let’s review the pros and cons to understand the security plugin better.
Pros of Wordfence
- Endpoint firewall.
- Optimized for maximum performance.
- Robust dashboard for managing security for different sites in one place.
- Malware scanner with learning mode.
Cons of Wordfence
- Automated clean up tool not included.
- Malware signatures and firewall rules update every 30 days for free users.
What is Sucuri?
Second security plugin for WordPress is Sucuri. Another cloud based platform that works with content management systems. Interestingly, WordPress is a specialist area of expertise for Sucuri, and the free plugin can easily install and set up on your website.
Like Wordfence, Sucuri also provides a wide range of premium plans. Here are the top features offered in the free plugin of Sucuri:
Key Features of Sucuri
- Security notifications.
- Post hack actions.
Additionally it creates multiple layers to ensure your website is safe from security threats. With Sucuri there is a cloud proxy firewall to bypass the traffic before sending it to the hosting server.
The plugin blocks malware attacks or hacker attempts and enables genuine visitors to access your website.
Let’s understand the pros and cons of the WordPress plugin.
Pros of Sucuri
The advantages and disadvantages of using Sucuri can help you plan better about choosing the plugin for your website security.
- Instant support.
- The core plugin is free.
- Saves the business data and patches the server.
Cons of Sucuri
- No wide range of functions.
- Pricing is high on plans for small businesses.
Wordfence vs Sucuri - Key Differences
To start with both plugins offer comprehensive protection against malware infection, brute force attacks, and data theft. But as a website owner, you require a security plugin to protect your website and deliver efficient results. We have compiled an in depth comparison of Sucuri and Wordfence to analyse the plugins on different grounds.
1. Ease of use
Website security is a complex and technical field. That’s why the first comparison category is the ease of use. Here’s how easy it is to use Wordfence and Sucuri.
Wordfence
Setting up Wordfence is quite simple. After installing the plugin, you can provide an email address to receive security notifications.
The firewall, by default, operates as an effective WordPress plugin. With Wordfence, it enables you to run it in the extended mode for enhanced protection, but you’ll have to set it up manually.
You also need to agree to the Terms of service and use the onboarding wizard to become familiar with the dashboard. The plugin will also turn the application firewall into learning mode and run an automatic background scan.
You can see notifications when the scan finishes depending on website size. You can check the recommended action by clicking on the notification.
The Wordfence plugin setup is straightforward and doesn’t require much user input. But the overall user interface clutters, which increases difficulties for beginners in finding certain settings/options.
Sucuri
On the other hand, Sucuri also offers a clean user interface with no unnecessary prompts on the screen. On activation, it runs a quick scan, and you can see the notifications on the dashboard.
The website application firewall of the plugin is cloud based and does not run on your server. You also don’t need technical maintenance at your end.
In addition, Sucuri makes it easy to perform security hardening settings on your website. You can click to apply various security hardening settings. The plugin also requires your API key and the configuration of DNS settings for your domain name. It helps the plugin to catch malicious traffic from reaching your WordPress hosting server.
Sucuri’s overall interface is nice, but you need an in depth search to find different options. Also, popular domain registrars like GoDaddy, Domain.com, etc., can help you set up Sucuri’s firewall.
2. Website Application Firewall (WAF)
A web application firewall checks your website traffic and blocks common security threats. Plugins (SSO Plugin) for example, use multiple ways to implement a firewall. So, let’s check what Sucuri and Wordfence offer.
Wordfence
Wordfence offers a WAF to monitor and block malicious website traffic. An application level firewall runs on your server, making it more inefficient than a cloud based firewall.
By default, Wordfence turns on the WAF with the basic mode. The firewall operates as a WordPress plugin, so before blocking an attack, WordPress has to load. In effect, Wordfence WAF takes up a lot of server resources and is inefficient.
But you can transform the default results by manually setting the Wordfence firewall in the extended mode. It allows the Wordfence firewall to monitor traffic before it reaches the WordPress installation.
You can access the learning mode while activating Wordfence to understand the features of the firewall.
Sucuri
Sucuri offers an efficient cloud based WAF, so it blocks suspicious traffic before it reaches your hosting server. It saves server resources and improves the website speed. The CDN servers of the plugins are in different regions, which is another bonus for your increased website speed.
You can use the firewall once you change the domain name’s DNS settings. The change can help you channel website traffic through Sucuri’s servers.
Additionally, Sucuri doesn’t offer a basic or extended mode with a WAF setting. Once you set up Sucuri’s WAF protects your website from DDOS attacks, malicious requests, and password guessing attempts.
Afterwards, also Sucuri enables you to switch from high security to paranoid mode when you experience a DDoS attack. The change ensures your website server doesn’t crash.
3. Security Monitoring and notifications
As a website owner, you must know if something is wrong with your website. A security issue can cost you money and customers.
You must ensure that your WordPress site can send emails if you want to be aware of the website troubles. Use an SMTP service to send WordPress emails. Here’s how Wordfence and Sucuri handle website alerts and monitoring.
Wordfence
Basically with Wordfence, it has a great notification and alert system. Access the notifications next to the Wordfence menu. You can click on a notification to know more about it and fix it. But you must log in to the WordPress dashboard to get access.
In addition, Wordfence comes with instant notifications via email. You can configure email alerts by clicking the ‘Email Alert Preferences’ section on the All Options page.
From here, you can change email alerts. You can also select the severity level of the email alerts.
Sucuri
Oppositely, with Sucuri you can also display critical notifications on your dashboard. You can check the status of core WordPress files in the top right corner. It has a complete alert management system where you can add email addresses.
You can customize email alerts and select events you want notification for. The website application firewall of Sucuri will also send high level alerts to your email.
4. Malware scanner
Both plugins have built in security scanners to keep your WordPress site safe from malware, changed files, and malicious code. Have a look.
Wordfence
All in all, with Wordfence it has a powerful scanner that is customizable to handle your security concerns.
For the free version, the plugin decides on a scan schedule for your site, but for the premium version, users can choose their own scan schedule. Wordfence scanner can check your plugin and themes for better security..
Sucuri
Basically, Sucuri also offers a powerful Malware scanner. It uses Sucuri’s Sitecheck API to check your site.
The free scanner operates on publicly available files. It’s good at detecting malware and malicious code. The scanner is also less intrusive on your server resources.
5. Hacked website clean up
Cleaning up your hacked WordPress site is not simple. Both Wordfence and Sucuri offer site clean up features.
Wordfence
From one side, Wordfence site clean up service is available separately as an add on service. The malware clean up process is simple. It will scan your site for malware and clean up all affected files.
The Wordfence team will prepare a well vetted report of the clean up process with suggestions for future prevention.
Sucuri
On the other, Sucuri includes a website clean up service in all its paid plans. The services offer site clean up, SEO spam repair, blacklist removal, and WAF protection.
During the clean-up process, the Sucuri team keeps a log of every file and automatically backs up everything.
Thank you for reading Wordfence vs Sucuri – Which WordPress Security Plugin is Best? We shall conclude.
WordPress Security SAML SSO Plugin
Find our WP Cloud SSO WordPress hardening tool to limit login attempts to your WordPress site.
- Firstly, this WP Cloud SSO offers WordPress SSO Single Sign On to secure your WordPress logins.
- Login to WordPress (WP) using Azure AD, Azure B2C, Okta, ADFS, Keycloak, OneLogin, Salesforce, Google Apps (G Suite), Shibboleth, Ping, Auth0 and other IdPs (Identity Providers).
- A SAML SP (Service Provider) which can be configured to establish a trust between our WordPress SSO plugin and IDP to securely authenticate and enable SSO / Login for the user into the WordPress (WP) site.
Wordfence vs Sucuri - Which WordPress Security Plugin is Best? Conclusion
Concluding, both Wordfence and Sucuri are excellent WordPress security plugins. But during our comparison, Sucuri came out to be better suited with more features.
The cloud based WAF improves your website’s performance and speed. It will block malicious traffic and brute force attacks. But Wordfence is also a good free option if you can use a server side firewall and scanner.
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