4.8/5
Trustpilot
406 reviews
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Should I Use Wordfence?
Firewall, malware scan, and login protection for WordPress
Worth it
Worth itIf your site runs WordPress, start with Wordfence Free — it's the category default with a real firewall and scanner.
Best free security plugin for WordPress sites; only pay for Premium if you need real-time rules.
Confidence: High
$0
Starting price
Free tier with firewall and scanner
5M+
Installs
Claimed on Wordfence pricing page
20.2%
Premium hikes
2022 increase; more announced for Dec 2024
Value for money
3
Strong free tier; Premium value debated, prices rising
Feature depth
5
Firewall, scanner, vulnerability DB, CLI, Central
Support quality
3
Real support gated to paid plans
Security posture
5
Bug bounty, own vuln DB, 1M+ exploits blocked
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- highPremium pricing has climbed repeatedly — 20.2% hike in 2022, increases again December 2024.⁴
- mediumFree tier's firewall rules lag Premium's; Reddit openly debates whether the upgrade is worth it.⁸
- mediumThird-party reviews call Premium pricing steep — compare MalCare or Sucuri before paying.10
- mediumSome server setups (OpenLiteSpeed) need extra configuration to run Wordfence properly.15
Best for
- WordPress sites of any size
- Budget bloggers (free tier)
- Agencies managing many WP sites
- Owners wanting app-level WAF
Not for
- Non-WordPress websites
- Enterprises needing server-level WAF
- Fully hands-off owners who never touch settings
- Anyone wanting human support without paying
Pricing
Free
$0
- Endpoint firewall and malware scanner
- Login protection
- Forum-based support
Premium
Paid per site (exact price not shown in reviewed sources)
- Real-time firewall rules
- Premium support
Care / Response
Not shown in reviewed sources
- Hands-on help for business owners
Security
No breaches of Wordfence found; vendor runs active vulnerability research, though CVE databases list some XSS issues under the Wordfence vendor name.
- XSS vulnerabilities listed under Wordfence vendorCVE aggregator lists cross-site scripting issues attributed to Wordfence; severity and remediation details truncated in the reviewed source.13
What users say
Reviews and Reddit broadly praise the free tier's protection, while debating Premium's value, site speed impact, and paid-only support.
“Plugin was worth leaving my 1st WP review.”
“We have been customers of WordFence”
“Wordfence Free is usually enough”
Alternatives
Compare Wordfence with each alternative.
Sucuri
Cloud WAF plus cleanup; the classic Wordfence rival.
Wordfence vs SucuriMalCare
Cloud scanning and one-click cleanup; positions itself as simpler.
Wordfence vs MalCarePatchstack
Vulnerability-focused protection for plugin risk.
Wordfence vs PatchstackCloudflare (free WAF)
Pairs well with free Wordfence for layered protection.
Full analysis
Based on ~40 public sources: reviews, Reddit threads, official pages, and security databases. Snippets were truncated, so some details are partial.
Sources
- Wordfence: WordPress Security Pluginwordfence.comofficial
official
- Wordfence Pricingwordfence.comofficial
- Wordfence Price Increases Coming December 5th, 2024wordfence.comofficial
- Wordfence Reviews — Trustpilottrustpilot.comreview
- Wordfence Reviews — G2g2.comreview
- Wordfence Reviews — Capterracapterra.comreview
review
- Wordfence Free vs Premium — MalCaremalcare.comreview
- Sucuri vs Wordfence — Kinstakinsta.comreview
security
- Wordfence CVEs and Security Vulnerabilities — OpenCVEapp.opencve.iosecurity
- Need some help with WordFence on OpenLiteSpeedcommunity.enhance.comreview
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