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Sucuri vs Wordfence Comparison 2024 (with Installation Guide)

Sucuri vs Wordfence is an interesting comparison.

Today, let us understand each of these and walk through a comparison about both.

Let us first understand Sucuri.

Sucuri:

Sucuri is specialized in WordPress security. It is a free plugin available for all the WordPress users.

It is a complete security suite which can be integrated with your existing security features.

It well embellishes your existing security by providing features such as Security Activity auditing, File integrity monitoring, Remote malware scanning, Blacklist monitoring, security hardening, post-hack security actions, security notifications, website firewall.

This plugin is well tested for major security vulnerabilities such as DDoS, malware, brute force attacks, cross-site scripting.

Additionally, Sucuri protects from further hacks, boosts performance and instantly provides security alerts.

How to install Sucuri in WordPress:

In order to install Sucuri, log in to your WordPress administration site and in the sidebar click on plugins. Select Plugins -> Add new and search for Sucuri Security and install it. Activate the plugin.

Here is video that shows plugin installation steps:

Once activated, you will be able to see the Sucuri security entry in the sidebar.

This completes our initial setup. Click on Dashboard option. The list of options is as shown below-

Sucuri_in_sidebar

Once this is installed, you will be able to receive email notifications about any major event. This includes alerts about page updates, blog changes and any other relevant activity on the website.

Basic Sucuri scanning:

While we have seen the installation of the plugin, let us check how this exactly works. The plugin has an inbuilt scanner.

From within the WordPress, you can review the modifications to the files. The Sucuri dashboard provides you a comprehensive report of your WordPress driven website integrity.

To start using all the features, you need to activate the API key by clicking on the option provided for the same. This will enable audit logs, integrity checks, email alerts and many other tools.

sucuri-api-key

Once this is completed, you can modify your settings. In the API key, you will be able to see the value of the generated API key.

sucuri-dashboard

Once these changes are saved, you will receive notifications about any modifications to the files. Within this, you can review the files and check audit logs.

It provides a list of options such as Malware Scan, Firewall(WAF), Hardening, Post-attack, Last-Login.

Sucuri vs Wordfence: sucuri-dashboard-for-firewall and more

Along with blocked users, you can also view Failed logins, currently logged-in users and many more.

You can also initiate a scan using the Malware Scan option. This also allows you to check the Blacklist status. Sucuri provides recommendations to remove some of these vulnerabilities.

Sucuri vs Wordfence: sucuri-malware-scan

A premium edition of the plugin supports a powerful Web Application Firewall- WAF that can prevent your site from attacks, malware infections and re-triggering of malware attacks.

It has the ability to block XSS (Cross-Site Scripting), Brute-force attack, SQL injection attempts, and several other vulnerabilities.

To use this feature, you need to first signup with any Sucuri.

Once you sign up, you will get API key that you need to enter in Firewall Settings.

firewall-settings

Sucuri Plans and Pricing

Sucuri vs Wordfence: Sucuri Website Security Platform

(30-Day Money Back Guarantee)

Next, let us move to the next plugin which is Wordfence

WordFence:

Wordfence provides one of the top class security services for WordPress users. Using Wordfence, you can unleash several security mechanisms to completely protect your website.

Powered by the constantly updated Threat Defence feed, Wordfence firewall is powerful to prevent any attack.

It employs the most updated firewall rules, malware signatures, and malicious IP addresses and provides sufficient protection for your website.

Wordfence practically, shoulders the responsibility of complete due diligence, before allowing any traffic to your website.

How to install Wordfence in WordPress:

The basic Wordfence plugin is free and provides a range of security enabled features. It can also help you clean a hacked website.

Similar to the above-mentioned method, from within the WordPress administration site search for Wordfence and activate it using the generated API key.

The Wordfence options can be seen on the side tab with options for Scan, monitor live traffic, block IPs, schedule a scan and many other options-

wordfence in sidebar

Once activated, you can provide the required details in the Settings. The first time you can configure basic settings like email Id and other details.

You can also provide details about alerts, scans, and other relevant parameters.

Sucuri vs Wordfence: wordfence-basic-settings

Similarly, you can also modify the Advanced options settings to provide details about Alerts, Live traffic view, Scans to include, firewall configurations and other security options-

Sucuri vs Wordfence: wordfence-advanced-settings

Basic Wordfence scanning:

From here on, you can start exploring the Wordfence dashboard. You can start a scan by clicking the scan option.

You can manually trigger a scan by using the Start a Wordfence scan option.

Sucuri vs Wordfence: wordfence-scanning

The scan provides a detailed summary of each finding. You can also schedule a scan.

Watch entire video to setup Wordfence plugin

Wordfence Pricing

Wordfence pricing

Sucuri vs Wordfence: Which one is better?

Now that I have provided a detailed walkthrough about the two almost equally powerful WordPress security plugins, let me conclude by providing a comparative analysis about these.

The most difficult choice is to pick the best security plugin since security is a very critical parameter for any website.

Any disruptions around the security of the website can have long impending repercussions.

In this battle of Sucuri vs Wordfence, both are high reputation companies. When we compare the ease of use, Sucuri is more simplistic to use and has a very simple dashboard layout.

While I would not say Wordfence dashboard is complex, but again it is not as simple to grasp as Sucuri.

So if you are new to WordPress and plugin usages, you would have to consult the Wordfence documentation. The learning curve is more and takes more effort technically with Wordfence.

Both are good in terms of performance for small-scale websites.

However, for heavy websites, Wordfence brings down the website performance, since it scans the entire website every time.

So if you are using Wordfence, you need to ensure you use a good caching plugin for browser caching and additionally a CDN to cache.

While both the plugins have a list of latest security threats, with Wordfence the challenge is some of these are not up to date.

Wordfence has an intuitive firewall feature, however, one has to be extremely cautious; since inexperienced users might lock themselves and end up losing access to the website.

Overall to summarize, though both Sucuri and Wordfence have a long list of incorporated security features in certain aspects Sucuri scores over Wordfence.

Definitely, Sucuri is a top choice for WordPress security plugin.

Sucuri vs Wordfence FAQs


Is Wordfence free?

Wordfence plugin does have a free version with features of firewalls and protection from brute-force attacks.

How much does Wordfence cost?

The Wordfence premium starts from $99/Year for one license offering real-time protection with reputation checks and blocking attack originating from a particular geographical location.

How much does Sucuri cost?

The Basic plan costs $199.99/Year for a website that runs a hack scan every 12 hours. The Pro plan costs $299.99/Year with a hack scan frequency of 6 hours and a Business plan costs $499.99/Year with a hack frequency of 30 minutes and an additional feature to remove malware every 6 hours.

What is the best security plugin for WordPress Wordfence or Sucuri?

Sucuri is better in the free version with its features. Wordfence Premium is better than Sucuri considering their paid versions as Wordfence Premium offers real-time protection at less cost.