This is often an issue that many WordPress website owners find themselves pondering. In the wake of state-sponsored attacks, gangland gangs, and bedroom hacktivists, getting watertight cybersecurity for your WordPress website has never been more important. 

Sucuri may be a cloud-based website security tool for securing websites. It filters all the traffic to your Website before it even reaches your hosting server.

Its core features include malware detection, integrity monitoring, and security hardening. Sucuri scans everything remotely; hence it doesn’t perform any deep scans at the server level.

Sucuri promises to guard websites, improve performance, monitor for indicators of hacks, and offer unlimited support for security incidents (for premium users only).

What is Sucuri?

When talking about how Sucuri works, it’s best to differentiate between its three tiers:

Sucuri Security may be a free plugin that comes with standard WordPress security hardening features. The free version of the plugin doesn’t include a firewall.

Sucuri Firewall (WAF) may be a paid service that you can integrate with the free Sucuri Security plugin. You’ll also use the firewall without the plugin. It includes website protection features like Website Application Firewall (WAF), CDN for performance optimization, load balancing for maximum availability, Intrusion Detection System (IDS), DDoS mitigation, and several other tools.

Sucuri Platform may be a suite of premium cloud-based security services. It includes everything included with Sucuri Firewall, plus other important features like monitoring, detection, and incident response. By signing up for the Sucuri Platform, you’ll ask the Sucuri team to “remove all malware & blacklist warnings” for your Website.

Wordfence may be a free WordPress security plugin with an endpoint firewall (WAF) and a malware scanner.

It features other security measures like login security (2FA, login page CAPTCHA, limit login attempts), Live Traffic, and advanced rules-based blocking.

Unlike Sucuri, Wordfence may be a localized firewall. It stays on your web server and isn’t a cloud service. Hence, it can perform server-side scans at a deeper level and supply full end-to-end encryption.

But this advantage comes at the value of the performance; why? 

Because your server’s resources will analyze the traffic, check for any malicious intent, and, if necessary, discard the traffic. If you host your Website on a server with fewer resources (e.g., shared hosting and cheap managed hosting plans), your site can come to a crawl fast.

In case of a DDoS attack, the sheer flood of malicious traffic can overwhelm your server’s resources. No local security plugin can get up to it. This is often Wordfence’s biggest weakness in comparison to Sucuri.

By contrast, if you’ve got Sucuri’s WAF enabled, any malicious traffic to your Website gets filtered by the Cloud before it reaches your server.

But Wordfence’s localized WAF may be a free in-built feature, while Sucuri’s Cloud WAF may be a premium offering.

What is Wordfence?

Wordfence’s firewall is powered by its Threat Defense Feed, which may be a fancy term for its collection of firewall rules, malicious IP addresses, and malware signatures.

The Threat Defense Feed is integrated with the Wordfence plugin installed on your WordPress site. It’s Your server powers it. With Wordfence Premium, you get real-time updates to the Threat Defense Feed. It includes features such as:

● Real-time IP Blacklist, Firewall Rule, and Malware Signature Updates.

● Premium Support.

● Site/IP Reputation Checks.

● Country-level Blocking.

● Free users get the mission-critical updates only after 30 days of going live. They also don’t get real-time IP blacklisting. While this looks like an honest option for private websites, it is often a deal-breaker if you’re hosting a business or an e-commerce website.

There’s one advantage an endpoint firewall has over cloud firewalls. Since it’s powered completely by your server, theoretically, it can’t leak any data, nor can it’s bypassed. In contrast, a cloud firewall can leak data or be bypassed if the attacker knows the IP address of your server.

New and more sophisticated hacks and exploits happen every single day, around the clock. After the Solar Winds breach came to light, it’s apparent that even governments and multinationals aren’t as safe as they thought. 

So, the standard WordPress site owner needs to seek out the only effective means of keeping malign intruders out. Any weaknesses are almost bound to be exploited by criminals (eventually), so it’s essential that you choose the foremost effective security plugin you’ll get your hands on to thwart nefarious actors. 

Sucuri vs. Wordfence

Both Wordfence and Sucuri are popular and reputable security plugins that will keep your WordPress website safe and secure. However, while these two solutions aim to secure your site, during this Wordfence vs. Sucuri comparison, you’ll find that there are some important differences between comparing Sucuri vs. Wordfence side by side. Our comparison is split into the following categories:

● Ease of use

● Website Application Firewall (WAF)

● Security Monitoring and notifications

● Malware scanner

● Hacked Website pack up 

Wordfence vs. Sucuri: Other features

Let’s have a glance at a number of the opposite features that these two security plugins provide…

WordPress hardening – Sucuri provides various WordPress hardening options, including blocking PHP files, blocking theme and plugin editors, and far more, all of which you’ll configure to fit your needs.

Live traffic options – The Wordfence live traffic tools show what’s happening on your site in real-time, including user logins, hack attempts, and firewall blocked requests.

Reporting – Both plugins provide you with a warning of any security breaches via email.

Support – Wordfence, and Sucuri both provide extensive knowledge bases. However, support from the developers is merely available via the WordPress repository support forums. for both free plugins

Sucuri or Wordfence: what does one have to consider?

Sucuri vs. Wordfence may be a tricky question to answer because both can keep your WordPress site safe from data breaches, bot-net infections, and other unwanted security risks. 

Sucuri vs. Wordfence: user-friendliness

It would be best if you didn’t get to skills the internal combustion engine functions to prevent your car from being stolen, so you furthermore may get to become a cybersecurity expert to keep your Website safe with Wordfence or Sucuri.

Wordfence

After installation, you’ll have to confirm that you accept the terms and conditions, then you’ll be asked for the email address where you would like your security updates to be sent. 

The setup wizard that follows will walk you thru the fundamentals of the appliance, including where to seek out notifications and, therefore, the results of scans.

Wordfence opens your web app firewall in learning mode and performs a scan within the background. This might take a short time if you’ve got an outsized website, but it’ll allow you to know as soon as it’s finished.

Click the dialogue box when it’s needed to the top, and you’ll see what the scan discovered alongside suggestions for what to try to do with any positive hits. If you’re lucky, it won’t find any threats, but it still might recommend useful security-related suggestions, like that you update to the most recent version of your chosen theme.

Sucuri

There’s no such trouble with Sucuri’s GUI., Unnecessary notifications don’t clutter it, and your scan results will appear within the plugin panel. It’s also worth mentioning that its website application firewall (WAF) is predicated within the Cloud. It doesn’t require any horsepower from your server that might slow it down as a foreign resource.

To set up your hosting server behind the firewall, you’ll have to provide it with your API key and configure the DNS settings for your name. Once you’ve installed it, you’re done. It’s a case of “set it and forget it” because updates and maintenance are all taken care of. Also, when Sucuri gives you security recommendations, you have to click once to use all of them. 

The UI is certainly intensified from Wordfence’s design, but some options are still buried within its guts and can require some digging.

Sucuri vs. Wordfence: Web Application Firewall (WAF) 

It’s possible to run a firewall in one of two ways. You’ll run it as an application on your server or use a cloud-based WAF solution. 

WAFs are useful for blocking website threats, and we believe that cloud-based ones are the superior option for efficiency and reliability. They constantly keep an eye fixed on incoming web traffic, flagging and blocking issues as they seem. Within the case of Wordfence vs. Sucuri, both have this capability.

Wordfence

Wordfence features a WAF that keeps an eye fixed on malicious web traffic. The very fact that it’s application-based, running as a WordPress plugin, are some things of an obstacle because it means WordPress must load before it can detect and answer malicious activity. 

You’ll have to configure Wordfence’s firewall manually in expansion mode so that it can monitor traffic before it’s an opportunity to urge your WordPress installation. 

Wordfence’s endpoint firewall only filters bad traffic once it’s reached the hosting server, and once it does, all of its resources are going to be stretched because it responds to the attack.

Sucuri

Sucuri’s firewall may be a remote cloud resource. Meaning that it can trip up malicious traffic before it gets anywhere near your hosting server. Sucuri also has content delivery network (CDN) servers distributed across various regions, so this could also help extend the response speed.

To use a firewall, you’ll have to change the DNS settings of the name. This may route your traffic through Sucuri’s server. 

Sucuri doesn’t have a basic or extended mode. As soon as the installation has finished, Sucuri’s WAF starts protecting your site straightaway.

Sucuri or Wordfence – Scanning for malware

Both of our contenders feature malware detection. They will also search for changed and snippets of code that will be up to no good. Out of Wordfence vs. Sucuri, which can do the higher job here? 

Wordfence

Wordfence’s malware scanners are often tweaked to satisfy your particular hosting and security needs. Scanning has default limitations to conserve resources.

Wordfence generates your analysis schedule automatically, but you’re ready to change this. With scanning, you have access to some options if you’ve opted for advanced versions of the plugin. Wordfence’s scanner also can check your themes and plugins in line with the acceptable repository version. 

Sucuri

Sucuri’s site check API assists the Sucuri scanner in its search for unwelcome code. It’s quite clever therein. It uses secure browsing APIs to make sure that your WordPress site hasn’t been blacklisted. 

Sucuri has an intuitive way of checking that your core WordPress files haven’t been tampered with, but you’ll change any of your settings by clicking on the scanner tab on the safety settings page.

The scanner isn’t specific to WordPress, which you’d think would make it less adept at handling WordPress security issues, but actually, the results can scan for any intruder. Another aspect in its favor is its relatively lightweight and doesn’t influence an excessive amount of on-your-server resources. 

Hacked Website pack up. 

Cleaning up a hacked WordPress site isn’t easy. Malware can affect several files, inject links in your content, or block you out of your Website.

Manually cleaning everything by yourself isn’t possible for many beginners.

Luckily, both Wordfence and Sucuri offer site pack-up and malware removal services. Let’s take a glance at which one does it better.

Wordfence Site packs up. 

Wordfence site cleanup service isn’t included in their free or premium plans. It’s sold separately as an add-on service.

Wordfence site cleanup service

Site pack up also will offer you a premium Wordfence license for one Website.

The malware pack-up process is pretty simple. They’re going to scan your site for malware/infections, then pack up all affected files.

Their team also will investigate how hackers got access to your site. They’re going to prepare an in-depth report of the whole pack-up process with suggestions for future prevention.

Sucuri Site pack up 

All paid Sucuri plans include a website backup service. This comes with site pack-up, blacklist removal, SEO spam repair, and WAF protection for future prevention.

Sucuri website cleanup

They are specialized at cleaning up malware, injected spam code, and backdoor access files.

The process is simple. You open a support ticket, and their team will start performing on the cleanup process.

They will use your login credentials for FTP/SSH access or cPanel. During the method, they keep a log of each file they touch and automatically backup everything.

Both Wordfence and Sucuri are excellent WordPress security plugins. However, we believe that Sucuri is the best WordPress security plugin overall.

It offers a cloud-based WAF which improves your Website’s performance and speed while blocking malicious traffic and brute force attacks.