Patchstack – WordPress & Plugins Security vs Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL)

Patchstack is a powerful tool that helps identify security vulnerabilities within your websites’ plugins, themes, and WordPress core. It is powered by the WordPress ecosystem’s most active community of ethical hackers. Patchstack is trusted by leading WordPress experts such as Pagely, Cloudways, GridPane, Plesk, and others! Patchstack is a security plugin for WordPress that finds WP core, plugin and theme vulnerabilities in your websites. The free version includes up to 48-hour early warning for new vulnerabilities found by our security research community. It also allows you to automatically update vulnerable software, manage updates remotely, and get snapshot reports on your sites’ security status. The paid version includes automatic vulnerability protection. Patchstack deploys highly targeted rules on a per-site basis, only when a specific vulnerability is detected on a site. This prevents vulnerable components from being exploited without modifying website code, or impacting site performance or functionality. Patchstack’s paid version includes access to 12,000+ individual protection rules (vPatches). Patchstack paid version also includes other preventive security features, such as 2 factor authentication, WordPress specific hardening rules, a Community IP blocklist for malicious IP addresses, advanced security settings, and custom protection rules. Post-hack cleanups vs attack prevention in WordPress security Unlike the standard approach to WordPress security (malware scanning and infection cleanups), Patchstack is focused on preventing infections in the first place. Thanks to its big WordPress security research community and partnerships with nearly one thousand plugin vendors and developers, Patchstack is regularly among the first to identify new vulnerabilities. Who is Patchstack’s WordPress security plugin for? Patchstack’s vulnerability management works extremely well for: Agencies with WordPress care/maintenance plans for their customers’ websites WooCommerce websites to protect their revenue and customers from attacks Hosting companies that want to deliver highly targeted vulnerability protection easily and at scale Website owners You don’t have to be highly technical to use it. Install the plugin, connect it with the Patchstack App, and stay safe! What features are included in the Patchstack Personal (Free) plan? Patchstack’s Personal plan is a free security service for WordPress that lets you find and manage vulnerabilities in your websites. It includes access to a central security dashboard via the Patchstack web App for more visibility and control over your sites’ security: Be the first to know about new vulnerabilities. Receive notifications if any installed plugins or themes have security issues. Detect the latest security vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins. Detect the latest security vulnerabilities in WordPress themes. Detect the latest security vulnerabilities in WordPress core. Receive real-time alerts via email if any security vulnerabilities are found. Manage core, plugin and theme updates from a single dashboard. [Optional] Enable automatic updates for vulnerable plugins only. Generate snapshot reports about the security status of your website. What features do Patchstack paid subscriptions have? Patchstack’s paid subscriptions include automatic protection for WordPress vulnerabilities, as well as other protection modules. Virtual patching to prevent vulnerable components from being exploited Advanced hardening module for added WordPress security Remote hardening settings (including .httacess, login protection and reCAPTCHA) Community IP Blocklist of known attacker IP addresses All of these features are included in the Developer and Enterprise plans. Additionally, Developer and Enterprise plan users have access to custom protection rule creation, periodical security reports and report scheduling. Personal (Free) plan users can enable these features on a per-site basis for $5 / site per month. Important Resources Patchstack website Help Center Changelog Patchstack Vulnerability Database See what our customers say about our paid plans: “An excellent and valuable service that’s backed by a company that contributes a significant number of resources and money directly back to the WordPress ecosystem.” – John Blackbourn “Patchstack is like CrowdStrike, but for websites!” – Ryan McCue, HumanMade “The service here is superb! And they are always right on it with the best solution to solve the problem or question at hand. The tool itself speaks for itself. I am very satisfied with this project and the service they offer.” – Daniel Canup “This is a security plugin everyone needs to install. The Patchstack team are incredible at what they do. We have been using them for years and have not been disappointed!” – @craniumstudio “We’ve been with Patchstack for a LONG time (even before they were Patchstack). It has always done its job seamlessly and without fail. Ongoing innovation and updates to the Patchstack product mean this plugin is a winner. 5 stars all the way.” – @guapx (*Comparisons are made by evaluating paid versions.) Sucuri vs. Patchstack Wordfence vs. Patchstack Malcare vs. Patchstack Sitelock vs. Patchstack

Easily improve site security with WordPress Hardening, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Login Protection, Vulnerability Detection and SSL certificate. Really simple, Effective and Performant WordPress Security Really Simple Security is the most lightweight and easy-to-use security plugin for WordPress. It secures your WordPress website with SSL certificate generation, including proper 301 https redirection and SSL enforcement, scanning for possible vulnerabilities, Login Protection and implementing essential WordPress hardening features. We believe that security should have the absolute minimum effect on website performance, user experience and maintainability. Therefore, Really Simple Security is: Lightweight: Every security feature is developed with a modular approach and with performance in mind. Disabled features won’t load any redundant code. Easy-to-use: 1-minute configuration with short onboarding setup. Security Features Easy SSL Migration Migrates your website to HTTPS and enforces SSL in just one click. 301 redirect via PHP or .htaccess Secure cookies Let’s Encrypt: Install an SSL Certificate if your hosting provider supports manual installation. Server Health Check: Your server configuration is every bit as important for your website security. WordPress Hardening Tweak your configuration and keep WordPress fortified and safe by tackling potential weaknesses. Prevent code execution in the uploads folder Prevent login feedback and disable user enumeration Disable XML-RPC Disable directory browsing Username restrictions (block ‘admin’ and public names) and much more.. Vulnerability Detection Get notified when plugins, themes or WP core contain vulnerabilities and need appropriate action. Login Protection Allow or enforce Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for specific user roles. Users receive a two-factor code via Email. Improve Security with Really Simple Security Pro Protect your site with all essential security features by upgrading to Really Simple Security Pro. Advanced SSL enforcement Mixed Content Scan & Fixer. Detect files that are requested over HTTP and fix them to HTTPS, both Front- and Back-end. Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security and configure your site for the HSTS Preload list. Firewall Really Simple Security Pro includes a performant and efficient WordPress firewall, to stop bots, crawlers and bad actors with IP and username blocks. 404 blocking – Blocks crawlers as they trigger unusual numbers of 404 errors. Region blocking – Only allow/block access to your site from specific regions. Automated and customisable Firewall rules. IP blocklist and allowlist. Security Headers Security headers protect your site visitors against the risk of clickjacking, cross-site-forgery attacks, stealing login credentials and malware. Independent of your Server Configuration, works on Apache, LiteSpeed, NGINX, etc. Protect your website visitors with X-XSS Protection, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, a Referrer Policy and CORS headers. Automatically generate your WordPress-tailored Content Security Policy. Vulnerability Measures When a vulnerability is detected in a plugin, theme or WordPress core you will get notified accordingly. With Vulnerability Measures, you can configure simple but effective measures to make sure that a critical vulnerability won’t remain unattended. Force update: An update process will be tried multiple times until it can be assumed development of a theme or plugin is abandoned. You will be notified during these steps. Quarantine: When a plugin or theme can’t be updated to solve a vulnerability, Really Simple Security can quarantine the plugin. Advanced Site Hardening Choose a custom login URL Automated File Permissions check and fixer Rename and randomize your database prefix Change the debug.log file location to a non-public folder Disable application passwords Control admin creation Disable HTTP methods, reducing HTTP requests Login Protection Secure your website’s login process and user accounts with powerful security measures. Two-Step verification (Email login) 2FA (two factor authentication) with TOTP Passwordless login with passkey login Enforce strong passwords and frequent password change Limit Login Attempts With Limit Login Attempts you can configure a threshold to temporarily or permanently block IP addresses or (non-existing) usernames. You can also throw a CAPTCHA after a failed login (hCaptcha or Google reCaptcha) Access Control Restrict access to your site for specific regions. Add specific IP addresses or IP ranges to the Blocklist or Allowlist. Useful Links Documentation Security Definitions Translate Really Simple Security Issues & pull requests Feature requests Love Really Simple Security? If you want to support the continuing development of this plugin, please consider buying Really Simple Security Pro, which includes some excellent security features and premium support. About Really Simple Plugins Our mission is to make complex WordPress requirements really easy. Really Simple Security is developed by Really Simple Plugins. For generating SSL certificates, Really Simple Security uses the le acme2 PHP Let’s Encrypt client library, thanks to ‘fbett’ for providing it. Vulnerability Detection uses WP Vulnerability, an open-source initiative by Javier Casares. Want to join as a collaborator? We’re on GitHub as well!