5 Best WordPress Firewall Plugins Tested & Reviewed

The best way to keep your WordPress site secure is to protect it from hackers. For that, you need a great firewall plugin.

But how to choose? You can’t tell how good they are just by looking at their features. A WordPress firewall works well only if it stops threats, but it’s hard to know that before you pick one.

We recommend: MalCare’s firewall. It is best defence for your WordPress site.

We have tested the most popular WordPress firewall plugins, to check if a firewall blocks bad traffic correctly, while letting good traffic come through.

TL;DR: MalCare is the best firewall for your WordPress site. It is custom-built for WordPress, and it protects your site from attacks, even if it has vulnerabilities. It is the only proactive defence against attacks, hackers, bots, bad IPs, and more.

What is a WordPress firewall?

A WordPress firewall is a force field around your site.

It protects your WordPress site, by monitoring traffic requests to your site. If the firewall detects any bad or suspicious behaviour, like hacking request or a request with malware, it blocks it.

While there are different kinds of firewalls, what you need for your WordPress site is a WordPress WAF (Web Application Firewall).

🔥 MalCare’s firewall is the best WordPress WAF you can find.

How does a firewall protect WordPress sites?

A firewall protects WordPress by monitoring and filtering incoming site traffic. This means it does the following:

Having said that, it is hard to test firewalls. That’s why, we have done the testing for you. This list has the best WordPress firewall plugins available.

1. MalCare

Verdict [5/5]: MalCare’s firewall is immensely powerful. It also includes has a malware scanner and cleaner in the same plugin, on the same plan. The login protection and bot protection are also topnotch. The clincher was that we saw a visible improvement in site performance once the firewall was installed.

MalCare Security isn’t just a firewall, but a full-featured security plugin for WordPress.

The firewall isn’t the run-of-mill, generic website firewall, but one that is custom-built for WordPress. This means that the firewall protects sites from attacks, even if it has active vulnerabilities on it.

This means, you don’t have to rush into updates because of a massive zero-day attack, but can take a little more time (not too much!) to test it out on staging first. It becomes the best of both worlds—security and site consistency.

Apart from blocking attacks, the firewall keeps out brute force attacks with login protection. This is powered by the bot protection feature of the firewall, which distinguishes between

Apart from an advanced firewall, it packs in a malware scanner and one-click cleaner as well, rounding out site security.

The user interface has detailed firewall logs, which can be filtered at will. Whitelist IPs—or blacklist them—for granular access control to your site. You can also choose to block traffic from entire countries, without messing about with the .htaccess file.

Features

• Atomic Security, a WordPress-specific firewall
• Protection against all kinds of threats
• Brute force protection
• Global IP protection
• Intelligent learning system
• Bot protection
• Login protection
• Firewall rules updated every 5 minutes
• Whitelisting options
• Geoblocking capabilities
• Vulnerability protection
• Traffic logs
• Minimal alerts
• Excellent support

Pros

Cons

Price: Free/Starting at $149 a year

Cloudflare comes up a lot in the WordPress world—often compared to Sucuri. It’s a popular web application firewall for websites, including WordPress, and offers a range of features.

Cloudflare also blocks harmful traffic and spam bots, which some firewalls can’t do well.

Our main concern with Cloudflare is that it only blocks major threats, not all threats. While major threats are important, ignoring less common threats can be risky. Additionally, false positives and negatives are issues too. False positives block real visitors, which is annoying. False negatives let threats in, putting your site at risk.

Although Cloudflare is labeled as simple to set up, it still takes longer than installing a plugin. However, these were mostly resolved by adjusting the settings.

On the plus side, Cloudflare is flexible and can be tailored beyond just WordPress. Its free tier is strong enough on its own. If you have an existing security plugin, Cloudflare might be a good addition.

How to choose the best WordPress firewall

When looking for a WordPress firewall, consider the following points:

By considering these factors, you can choose a WordPress firewall that meets your security needs, provides effective protection against threats, and is user-friendly and resource-efficient.

Remember to research and compare different firewalls to find the one that best suits your requirements.

What are the different types of firewalls? 

For WordPress sites, there are typically three key types of firewalls you can use, based on their location. 

1. WordPress-integrated firewall

These are installed as a plugin directly on your WordPress site. They monitor your website’s traffic and block anything suspicious. This kind of firewall is easy to use and often comes with additional security features that are beneficial for WordPress users. 

Since it’s built specifically for WordPress, it’s designed to protect against WordPress-specific vulnerabilities. It knows which requests are normal for a WordPress site and which are suspicious. This comes in handy, as some threats exploit WordPress’s very own functions, and the WordPress-integrated firewall can recognize and block these.

It can also recognize familiar patterns of malicious behaviour in WordPress sites. For example, it knows which files in a WordPress installation should never be accessed directly and can block these requests.

2. Plugin-based firewall

These firewalls operate via a plugin that you install on your WordPress site. They filter and monitor incoming traffic directly from your site, providing a good level of security. Being integrated into WordPress, they’re able to provide specific protections against WordPress-targeted attacks. They are similar to WordPress-Integrated firewalls, often the terms are used interchangeably. However, its effectiveness might be dependent on other plugins you have installed.

3. Cloud-based firewall

Also known as a proxy firewall, a cloud-based firewall stands between your website and incoming traffic. All your website’s traffic is routed through it. This means it can analyse and block malicious traffic before it reaches your site. 

You may choose a cloud-based firewall if you’re looking for a solution that blocks the threats before they reach your server, reducing the load on your server. However, they are usually more complex to set up and could possibly slow down your site if the firewall’s servers are slow or too far away geographically.

Bonus: What is a WAF for WordPress?

A WAF for WordPress identifies and blocks web-based threats before they reach your site. WAF just means Web Application Firewall, and it’s built to protect websites like WordPress from hackers. Think of it as a smarter type of firewall that actually understands what’s normal for a website and what looks suspicious.

Here’s how it works: when someone visits your site or tries to do something on it, the WAF checks if that action is safe first. If a hacker tries to break into your login page or upload bad files through a contact form, the WAF spots this and stops them right away. It’s really good at catching WordPress-specific attacks that go after your plugins or themes. The best part is that it does all this automatically, so you don’t have to worry about it.

MalCare’s firewall is a WordPress-integrated firewall and a WAF; i.e. the best of both worlds.

Do I need a firewall for WordPress?

A firewall for WordPress reduces the risk of attacks by blocking malicious activity.

Without a firewall, your website is like a house with no front door lock – anyone or anything, including hackers and bots, could potentially walk right in. Firewalls act as a protective barrier, examining the traffic coming to your website and deciding whether it’s safe or harmful. So, without a firewall, even a tiny vulnerability could be exploited, compromising your site’s security. 

Here are the primary cases where a firewall becomes the only defence for your site:

How to know if a firewall is really protecting a site

A well-functioning firewall, along with a well-maintained site, forms a strong defence against WordPress attacks, but no defence is impenetrable. It’s all about strengthening your barriers and reducing the chances of a breach as much as possible.

It can be a bit tricky to know if your firewall is working just by using your website since it works behind the scenes. However, a good firewall will have a dashboard or an alert system where you can see what it’s been doing, like how many attacks it has blocked. This gives you an idea of its activity and effectiveness.

If your site is well-architected and kept updated, that’s great! It certainly helps in maintaining security. But remember, even the most well-managed sites can have vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit.

If your site gets hacked, it doesn’t mean your firewall has failed completely. Remember, a firewall is like a security guard, and even the best security guard can’t prevent every conceivable threat. 

How to know if a firewall is not working as it should

There are several signs that indicate a firewall might not be doing its job effectively. If a user knows where to look for these clues, they can assess the functionality of their firewall. 

• Scanner detects malware: If a malware scanner consistently identifies malware or other malicious software on the user’s system, it suggests that the firewall is not efficiently blocking harmful traffic.
• Alerts for login attempts: Frequent alerts about unauthorised login attempts or suspicious activity on the user’s accounts could indicate that the firewall is allowing these attempts, potentially compromising the user’s security.
• Increased requests to the site without corresponding analytics traffic: Suppose there is a sudden surge in incoming requests to the user’s website without a proportional increase in legitimate traffic tracked by analytics tools. In that case, it may imply that the firewall is failing to filter out unnecessary or malicious requests.
• Spike in server resource usage: If the user notices a sudden and significant increase in server resource consumption, such as CPU or memory usage, it could signify that the firewall is struggling to handle and block excessive malicious traffic.
• Metrics like bounce rate go up: A high bounce rate, indicating many visitors leaving the user’s website without engagement, may suggest that the firewall is not effectively preventing malicious bots from accessing the site. Bots can artificially inflate traffic and skew engagement metrics, leading to an increase in bounce rate.
• Malicious bot activity becomes more visible: If the user starts noticing an increase in spam comments, fake registrations, abandoned shopping carts, or website scraping, it indicates that the firewall is failing to block malicious bot activity. These activities are often perpetrated by automated bots.

It’s important to note that these signs alone may not conclusively indicate firewall inefficiency, as they can also be influenced by other factors. However, if a user consistently observes multiple signs pointing towards compromised security or increased malicious activity, it is crucial to investigate further and consider whether the firewall is adequately fulfilling its protective role.

Potential issues with a firewall 

Firewalls have been known to cause issues, however the right firewall should be flexible enough to course-correct and mitigate these issues

False positives

• Legitimate traffic and users: Firewalls may mistakenly block legitimate traffic or users, preventing them from accessing the site or its services. This can occur if the firewall is too strict or if it misidentifies legitimate traffic as malicious.
• Locking out administrators: In some cases, firewalls can inadvertently lock out administrators, preventing them from accessing the site’s admin area or specific functionalities. This can happen due to misconfigurations or false positives in the firewall’s rules.

False negatives

Similarly, a firewall may also produce false negatives, failing to detect and block actual threats. This can occur if the firewall’s rules or algorithms are not updated to recognize new attack vectors or if the firewall is unable to keep pace with evolving threat landscapes. False negatives can expose the site to potential security vulnerabilities.

Performance impact

Depending on the complexity and resource demands of the firewall implementation, it may have an impact on the performance of the WordPress site. Firewalls that require extensive processing or consume significant server resources can slow down the site’s loading times or cause delays in request handling, affecting user experience.

Firewall bot protection and good bots

Firewall bot protection measures are designed to block malicious bots. However, there is a risk that these measures may also block good bots that serve legitimate purposes such as search engine crawlers or content indexing bots. It is important for firewalls to differentiate between malicious bots and beneficial bots to avoid blocking important services or hindering the site’s visibility in search engines.

To address this issue, firewalls should incorporate mechanisms to accurately identify and allow access to good bots while still effectively blocking malicious ones. This can include utilising whitelists, user agent identification, or IP reputation databases to ensure that legitimate bots are not mistakenly blocked.

Conflicts with other services and plugins

Firewalls can conflict with other services or plugins installed on a site. This can result in various issues such as breaking the site, causing errors, or blocking essential functionalities provided by certain plugins.

To mitigate these conflicts, personalised firewall rules specific to the site’s architecture and requirements are essential. This ensures that the firewall protection is tailored to the site’s particular needs, avoiding potential conflicts with other services or plugins. A one-size-fits-all approach may lead to compatibility issues and unintended consequences.

Final thoughts

Picking a WordPress firewall plugin can be tough. You often won’t know if it works well until it fails to block malware.

Also, a firewall is just one piece of your site’s security. You’ll also need a malware scanner and cleaner. It’s easier to use one plugin that handles everything. MalCare is the best security plugin for this all-in-one solution.

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