WordPress Firewalls Compared: Wordfence, NinjaFirewall, Sucuri and More

WordPress itself is well secured. The risk almost always lies in its extensions. According to Patchstack's security report, 11,334 new vulnerabilities were reported in the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, 42% more than the year before. 91% of them were in plugins, 9% in themes and only a handful in WordPress core. And things move fast: from the moment a vulnerability becomes known, it takes a median of only about five hours until it is exploited at scale.

Nobody can install every update at that pace. That is exactly what firewalls are for: they recognize typical attack patterns and block them before a vulnerable plugin is even reached. In this article, I show which solutions exist, how they differ and which one suits which site.

Three types of firewalls

Before we look at individual products, it helps to understand where a firewall operates. That determines its protective effect, server load and data protection implications.

1. Inside WordPress (plugin level)

The firewall starts together with WordPress. It is easy to set up and knows WordPress inside out. The downside: it only runs once WordPress is already loading, and it uses your server's computing power. Some attacks aimed directly at individual plugin files never reach it.

2. In front of WordPress

A PHP setting (auto_prepend_file) loads the firewall before any other PHP code. It therefore checks every request before WordPress or any plugin sees it. That is faster and more thorough, but requires your host to allow this setting.

3. In the cloud, in front of the server

With Sucuri or Cloudflare, all visitor traffic runs through the provider's servers, which filter out attacks before they reach your hosting. This takes load off the server and also protects against overload attacks (DDoS). In return, all visitor data, including IP addresses, passes through a third party.

The solutions in detail

All prices as of October 2026, according to the vendors, usually plus taxes.

Wordfence

The market leader with more than 5 million active installations. Wordfence combines a firewall, malware scanner and login protection in one plugin. In "Extended Protection" mode, the firewall loads before WordPress, and you should definitely enable it.

• Free: firewall, malware scanner, two-factor authentication, limits on login attempts. But: free users receive new firewall rules and malware signatures 30 days later than paying customers.
• Premium: real-time rules, a real-time blocklist of known attacker IPs, country blocking. $149 per year per site. With malware cleanup by Wordfence ("Care"), $590.
• Keep in mind: on weak shared hosting, Wordfence can slow things down noticeably, especially during scans. The vendor is based in the US. Participation in the shared attack-data network can be switched off.

Good for: Sites that want an all-in-one solution from a single vendor. For stores, Premium is worth it, because 30 days is an eternity when exploitation starts within five hours.

NinjaFirewall

Less well known, but highly regarded by developers: 4.9 out of 5 stars on wordpress.org. NinjaFirewall was built from the ground up as a firewall in front of WordPress and filters all requests locally on your server.

• Free (WP Edition): a full-featured firewall, protection against brute-force attacks on the login and XML-RPC, file change monitoring and a live log.
• WP+ Edition: adds country and bot blocking, per-IP rate limiting and spam protection. $99 per domain per year, without automatic renewal.
• Keep in mind: no classic malware scanner, only a check for modified files. The interface is technical. With some hosts, the full mode cannot be enabled.

Good for: Anyone who wants a lean, fast firewall without sending data to third parties. My recommendation for most business websites.

Sucuri

Sucuri belongs to GoDaddy and is a pure cloud firewall. You change your domain's DNS records, and from then on your traffic runs through Sucuri, including a CDN and DDoS protection.

• Important: the free "Sucuri Security" plugin is not a firewall. It offers an activity log, file integrity checks and an external scan.
• Paid: firewall from $9.99 per month, full package with unlimited malware cleanup from $229 per year.
• Keep in mind: the server must be configured to accept requests only from Sucuri, otherwise the firewall can be bypassed. US-based vendor, with servers in Frankfurt among other locations.

Good for: High-traffic sites or sites under frequent attack, and anyone who wants malware cleanup included.

Patchstack

Patchstack takes a different approach: instead of filtering for general attack patterns, it delivers targeted virtual patches for known vulnerabilities in exactly the plugins you have installed. The hole is closed before the plugin vendor ships an update.

• Free: email alerts about known vulnerabilities, but no active protection.
• Paid: virtual patches from $5 per site per month, for agencies from $69 per month for 25 sites.
• Keep in mind: no malware scanner and no broad firewall. Data is stored at AWS in the US.

Good for: Stores and sites with many plugins, as a targeted complement to your host's security measures.

All-In-One Security (AIOS)

From Team Updraft, the makers of UpdraftPlus, with more than one million installations. Since version 5, its PHP firewall also loads before WordPress.

• Free: firewall rules, two-factor authentication, login lockout, protection against username enumeration, spam protection and checks for modified files.
• Premium: country blocking, weekly malware scan, uptime monitoring. From $89 per year for two sites, half price in the first year.
• Keep in mind: many features rely on .htaccess rules, which have no effect on Nginx servers.

Good for: Beginners who want many protective features in a clear interface.

Solid Security

Formerly iThemes Security, with around 700,000 installations. The free version offers two-factor authentication, password rules, brute-force protection and a vulnerability scan. The Pro version with virtual patches from Patchstack has since been folded into Liquid Web's Kadence bundle (from $299 per year). Since the 2026 rebrand, its future is less clear than that of the others.

Good for: Existing users. For new installations, I would currently choose one of the other solutions.

Cloudflare

Not a WordPress plugin but a network in front of your server, similar to Sucuri. Many people know Cloudflare as a CDN, but its firewall is a strong argument too.

• Free: unmetered DDoS protection, a basic ruleset against widespread critical vulnerabilities and five custom rules, for example to lock down the login area.
• Pro: extensive managed rulesets including OWASP, $20 per month billed annually.
• Keep in mind: the free protection is not tailored to WordPress. US-based provider, and all traffic runs through Cloudflare.

Good for: An additional layer in front of a plugin firewall, especially during waves of attacks.

The overview

The most important rule: only one plugin firewall

Two security plugins with firewalls at the same time don't protect you twice, they get in each other's way. Only one application can hook in before WordPress, and duplicate login lockouts or rules lead to locked-out administrators and hard-to-find errors.

What does make sense is combining one cloud firewall such as Cloudflare or Sucuri with one plugin firewall. The cloud catches mass attacks, the plugin knows WordPress in detail.

Don't forget data protection

For companies in the German-speaking region, the firewall belongs in your privacy policy as soon as data leaves your own hosting. With cloud firewalls, all traffic runs through the provider; with Wordfence and Patchstack, data goes to the US. In these cases, sign the data processing agreement that all the vendors mentioned provide. NinjaFirewall filters entirely on your own server and is the most straightforward solution here.

A firewall alone is not enough

A firewall is a seatbelt, not a substitute for careful driving. These points always belong with it:

1. Install updates promptly, ideally automatically for plugins.
2. Clear out plugins. Every plugin is a potential vulnerability. What isn't needed gets deleted, not just deactivated.
3. Two-factor authentication for every account with administrator or editor rights.
4. Daily backups, stored off the server and tested regularly.
5. Good hosting with a server-side firewall and malware scanner. More on this in my article Hostinger in practice.

My recommendation

• Business website with few plugins: NinjaFirewall for free, plus two-factor authentication and automatic updates.
• Online store or site with many plugins: Wordfence Premium or Patchstack's virtual patches, so new vulnerabilities are closed without delay.
• High traffic or repeated attacks: additionally Cloudflare or Sucuri in front of the server.

Whichever solution you choose: set it up carefully, then test the login, contact form and checkout. A firewall that locks out real customers costs more than it protects.

Has your site already been hacked?

I check WordPress sites for malware, clean up hacked installations and set up firewall, updates and backups so that it doesn't get that far next time. Get in touch and you will hear back within 24 hours.