Wordfence Login Security
by Defiant
The two-factor and login hardening piece of Wordfence, published as a standalone free plugin.
This link may earn us a commission. It never changes our rating.
What Wordfence Login Security does
The two-factor and login hardening piece of Wordfence, published as a standalone free plugin.
It sits in the security part of a WordPress stack and is sold by Defiant on a free basis. We recommend it in our security guides because it does that one job well without asking you to rebuild the rest of the site around it.
Every plugin adds work to a page request, so treat this as a decision with a cost. Record a speed test before you install it and run the same test afterwards, on the same page, so you know exactly what it charged you.
Real user ratings
Wordfence Login Security is sold outside the WordPress.org directory, so there is no public user rating to quote. Our own editorial score is 4.7/5, based on the vendor documentation, the refund window and the measured performance cost.
Where Wordfence Login Security ranks elsewhere
Wordfence Login Security does not appear in the published "best of" lists we track from WPBeginner, TechRadar, Kinsta, Themeisle and similar sites. That is not a mark against it - those roundups are short and skew towards the biggest names.
What changed in the latest version
Wordfence Login Security does not publish a changelog we can read automatically, so check the vendor's own release notes before you update a live site.
Pros and cons
- Two-factor without the full firewall
- Free with no licence to renew
- Actively maintained and used on production sites we test
- No malware scanning included
- Support is community-led rather than guaranteed
How to use it
- 1Take a full backup before enabling any blocking feature.
- 2Turn on login protection and two-factor for administrator accounts first.
- 3Schedule scans outside peak hours to protect response times.
- 4Set alerts to a monitored inbox, not the default admin address.
- 5Re-run the speed test so you know what the protection costs you.
How it compares
Other security plugins we recommend, with their rating and pricing model.
| Plugin | Our rating | WordPress.org | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wordfence Login Security | 4.7 | n/a | Free | Two-factor without the full firewall |
| Akismet | 4.7 | 4.7 (1,186) | Freemium | Catches almost all comment spam with no tuning |
| Antispam Bee | 4.8 | 4.8 (226) | Free | Privacy friendly spam filtering with no account |
| Duo | 4.2 | 4 (1) | Freemium | Central policy control for teams |
| Jetpack Protect | 4.3 | 4.6 (123) | Freemium | Free vulnerability alerts |
| Limit Login Attempts Reloaded | 4.8 | 4.8 (1,483) | Freemium | Big protection for almost no overhead |
Guides that cover Wordfence Login Security
Alternatives
Other security plugins
Akismet
Automattic
Comment and form spam filtering run through Automattic's hosted service, checked against a global spam corpus.
1,186 reviews · 406.0M downloads · v5.7.2
Antispam Bee
pluginkollektiv
Blocks comment spam locally with no external service and no personal data leaving your server.
226 reviews · 13.0M downloads · v2.11.13
Duo
Cisco Duo
Enterprise two-factor from Cisco Duo, with push approval and device policy controls.
1 reviews · 20K downloads · v1.2.1

