5 Top WordPress Malware Removal Plugins to Instantly Clean Your Site

Have you found malware on your WordPress site?

Malware on your site is a cause to panic, but you don’t need to. The right WordPress malware removal plugin will address the issue, and set your site on the path to recovery fast.

Remove malware in minutes with MalCare Security. It is the best option, without a doubt.

We’ve tested the top popular WordPress malware removal plugins available, pitting them against malware, file scripts, vulnerabilities, backdoors, bots and much more to find the one that works the best.

Our list is a compilation of the testing reports. You’ll find our honest feedback on what is good, what is bad, and what is a downright sham.

TL;DR: MalCare Security is the best plugin for malware removal. You can remove hidden threats from your site within seconds with MalCare’s auto-clean feature, and for more complex malware, get unlimited expert support.

What to look for in a WordPress malware removal plugin

A good WordPress malware removal plugin needs to remove malware from your compromised site perfectly every time.

This is painfully obvious, but surprisingly not a given. While lots of plugins claim to do this, they often leave behind cleverly hidden traces, which then lead to reinfection.

So how do you pick the right one for your WordPress site? Look for a malware removal plugin that:

In addition to malware removal, we tested other critical WordPress security features as well: firewall protection, thorough scanning, and ability to mitigate bot attacks effectively.

1. MalCare

MalCare Security removed every instance of malware on our test sites.

Our test sites had malware hidden in every corner of the site. Some were easy to find, like in public folders that online scanners can access. But others were hidden in core folders, and lots in the database. We even replicated the malware for the infamous WordPress redirect hack, and made the wp-admin page inaccessible.

In short, we were skirting dangerously close to getting our site blacklisted by Google and suspended by our web host.

And MalCare found every bit of the malware, and removed it in minutes.

What to expect

• Thorough malware scanning
• Automated scheduled scans
• One-click auto cleanups
• Emergency cleanup service
• Quick and reliable support
• Proactive WordPress-specific firewall
• Vulnerability detection
• Bot protection

Pros

Cons

Price: Free/ Starting at $99 a year

Summary

Another reason we love MalCare Security is that the free version itself offers a lot of value. You can scan your WordPress site for free, and upgrade only if MalCare’s scanner detects any malware.

The firewall comes packed with features such as bot protection, geoblocking, login security and more, so you are also getting great malware protection in the same package.

Critically, MalCare does not make you choose between security and performance. Since MalCare does not run the scans on your website’s server, it does not slow your site down. This is in stark contrast to a fair few other malware scanners for WordPress. It is often the reason why people look askance at WordPress security; much to their detriment.

What we really love about MalCare is that an alert is serious. Quite often, you can get bombarded with so-called alerts, all of which can look important but aren’t in reality. Too many alerts lead to alert fatigue, and missing the important ones.

2. Wordfence

Wordfence is our second choice for WordPress malware removal service to consider if your website is infected. It has earned its place in website security canon, and for good reason.

Wordfence security has a feature-rich free version, but you need to upgrade for the heavy hitters of WordPress security. They track malware and vulnerabilities diligently, and invest a considerable amount in bug bounties and their malware signature database.

But that’s where it falls apart for us.

Malware is constantly evolving, and a signature-matching database like the one Wordfence uses cannot catch every bit of malware as a result. It is like any pattern-matching system; if the pattern isn’t in the database, it will not be recognised.

As a result, Wordfence wasn’t able to detect the newer malware we had on our test sites. If it can’t detect the malware, it certainly cannot remove the malware.

What to expect

• Malware scanner
• End-point firewall
• Login protection
• Country blocking
• Reputation checks
• Two-factor authentication
• Brute force protection

Pros

Cons

Price: Starts at $99/year, Premium cleanups at $490 per site

Summary

Wordfence does not offer automatic malware removal. They allow you to repair certain files and delete others; and you assume all the risk of choosing those operations.

These operations can be effective, if the malware is simple and therefore straightforward to remove, like a recurring piece of spam code in every page and post. However, malware is often much more complex than that, and is cleverly hidden by hackers in seemingly legitimate files, folders, and even plugins.

If something looks like an image file, is stored with other image files, and has the file extension of an image file… it is still not necessarily an image file. Could be favicon malware, for example. Or could be a real favicon.

This is a real game of roulette, but the stakes are your site.

On the other hand, Wordfence does have a premium cleanup service that can remove malware from your site manually. We haven’t tested it, but it is largely known to be effective. However, manual cleanups take some time, and in the case of hacks on WordPress sites, the more time that it is left on the website, the more damage it can cause. It is also an extremely expensive exercise, with a one-year guarantee, and only if you follow their post-cleanup list religiously. 

Overall, Wordfence is a good option for malware removal, but only if you can afford it. 

3. Sucuri

Sucuri is the ageing former heavyweight of the WordPress security world. Thus we see more people looking for alternatives to Sucuri, rather than a review of its security features.

They have good reason.

If Sucuri isn’t blocking your out of your own site, it is missing malware with its less-than-great malware scanner.

How will it remove malware if it can’t detect it in the first place? Spoiler alert: it can’t.

Even though the automated malware scanner detected only 30% of the site’s malware, we powered through and asked their cleaning service to review the rest. They did clean all the malware, but as we said before, if the scanner misses malware, we wouldn’t know to escalate.

What to expect:

If you ask us just about malware removal, Sucuri’s manual cleanup service is excellent. They cleaned up our site within 10 hours and it came back squeaky clean.

However we cannot emphasise this enough: the scanner needs to work all of the time. If the scanner misses any malware, it is a problem. A single website backdoor, hack script, or spam entry in the database is an issue.

So, on balance, we definitely believe that Sucuri is good for malware removal BUT you need to have a better malware scanner beforehand.

4. CleanTalk

CleanTalk Security is widely known as an anti-spam plugin, rather than a WordPress malware removal plugin in the traditional sense. However they do have malware removal services, so they bear mentioning in this list.

CleanTalk is a staunch advocate against automated cleanups, so we weren’t able to test this feature; as it doesn’t exist. However, you can use their malware scanner to get a report, and then escalate it to their malware removal team for resolution.

Unfortunately the malware scanner tests were a crashing failure. Very little we can do from here on out.

Price: Starting at $9 a year

CleanTalk does not offer cleanups the way most plugins do. Instead, it automatically deletes infected files that are found during the scans. Given that false positives are a common occurrence during scans, this could lead to your website breaking, data loss, or a whole host of issues that make matters worse. 

We actually prefer CleanTalk’s anti-spam features instead, and have tested it to find that it is aggressive but effective at keeping out contact form spam really well.

So while the $9 a year seems like a steal, think about what you will be trading in for the discount. 

5. BulletProof Security

BulletProof Security talks a big game about WordPress security, but we sifted through its feature carefully to see which ones have merit.

Unfortunately, quite a few were less than useful.

We have already plumbed the depths of BulletProof’s malware scanning features, and they did not fare well. There were a ton of false positives, so it was pointless checking the tiny repair checkbox.

The repair option on BulletProof security is their attempt at malware removal. When the scanner detects malware, they offer you a choice: you can either ignore, flag, or delete the files that are infected. As we have discussed previously in this article, deleting files, unless you know what you’re doing, can lead to dangerous consequences.

What to expect

• Malware scanning
• Infected file repair
• Login security
• Anti-spam features

Pros

Cons

Price: $69.95

Security plugins without malware removal

You’ll see a fair few entries missing from this list; popular WordPress security plugins often don’t have any malware removal features. We are not discounting ones with manual removal features either.

So if you were expecting to see how the following do with malware removal, we’re sorry to disappoint.

Factors to consider in choosing the best WordPress malware removal plugin

When choosing the best WordPress malware removal plugin for your WordPress site, there are several factors that you must consider. Depending on your website, and your requirements, the perfect fit might differ, but these factors should help you decide easily. 

These factors will give you a fair idea of how good the WordPress malware cleaner is, and whether you can trust it to take care of your WordPress site.

When to use plugin for WordPress malware removal 

If you are wondering whether or not to use a WordPress malware removal plugin, ask yourself: Can you afford to let malware cause havoc on your site?

The answer is obviously no.

If you don’t want to spring for a malware removal plugin before getting at least a report, try a WordPress malware scanner first.

Do not try to fix a hacked WordPress site by yourself. Many things can go wrong during a manual cleanup. We have seen many users fail, and irretrievably damage their sites.

Manual cleaning is like performing surgery on yourself. If that weren’t bad enough:

• Malware hides in unexpected places and is hard to find.
• If you miss one file, the site will get infected again.
• You might break your site by deleting the wrong file.
• Large sites take too long to check manually.
• Malware is invasive and gets worse over time.
• Malware often creates secret admin users to get back in later.

You should also avoid using a backup to fix a hack. You will lose any new work or sales made since that backup. It is also hard to know if your backup is truly clean. Even a clean backup still has the same security hole that let the hacker in.

Only use a backup if your data is already destroyed. A dedicated malware removal tool is a much safer choice. It will find the bad code and close the doors to future attacks.

Final thoughts

We hope that this article helped you understand how WordPress malware removal plugins function, and which one works the best for you. We have collated this data so that you can skip the mental exercises, and make an informed decision quickly—which is key in times of malware infection.

If you want to secure your WordPress site, a complete security solution like MalCare is the only option. MalCare is a good tool for prevention as well as cure, if need be. 

If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to us.

FAQs

Which is the best free malware removal tool?

When it comes to malware removal, free is not a good parameter to look for. Malware removal is a tedious and time-consuming process that takes several hours, even for experts. Therefore, the chances of best WordPress malware removal plugins or tools being free are slimmer than the chances of finding a unicorn in the middle of a city.

MalCare offers free scans for you to detect if your site has been infected. If it is, you can then choose to upgrade and remove the malware on your site within minutes.

How do I remove malware from a WordPress site?

The best malware removal method for a WordPress site is to use a security plugin such as MalCare. You only need to follow these steps to remove malware from your site with MalCare:

• Install MalCare on your site
• Let MalCare run the first scan and detect malware
• Upgrade your account to avail the cleanup features
• Hit ‘auto-clean’ and watch MalCare clean up your site in minutes!

How do I check my WordPress site for malware?

Use a security scanner, such as that of MalCare, to confirm whether your WordPress site has malware. MalCare offers free scans, so all you need to do is install MalCare on your site, and let it sync. MalCare will automatically scan your site and alert you if it is infected.

How to find the best malware removal plugin for WordPress?

While the definition of best may vary according to your requirements, the following factors are necessary in a WordPress malware removal plugin or service:

• Malware scanning
• Malware cleaning
• Firewall
• Vulnerability detection
• Activity log
• Active support