Best WordPress Security Tools for Agencies (2026)

Key takeaway: for an agency, Glow is the best way to secure a whole client fleet from one place. It auto-patches vulnerable plugins and themes through Safe Updates, protects logins, scans files daily against WordPress.org checksums, applies hardening, reviews every admin account with WordPress Access and alerts you when something changes, all included in every plan. Glow is not a web application firewall and does not clean malware, so for sites that need those, add one alongside it: Sucuri for a cloud firewall with unlimited human cleanup, or MalCare for automated malware removal.

Disclosure: Glow is our product. Competitor details are from their own websites, checked November 2026.

• Agencies securing many client sites from one dashboard: Glow, with patching, login protection, file scans, hardening and alerts included; add a firewall or cleanup service where a site needs one.
• Need a strong free firewall and a free multi-site console: Wordfence.
• Need a cloud firewall in front of the site plus unlimited human cleanup: Sucuri.
• Need automated malware removal in a per-site plan: MalCare.
• Need virtual patching across a large portfolio: Patchstack.
• Already building on Kadence: Kadence Security.
• Already on Automattic tooling and want backups too: Jetpack.
• Tight budget, unlimited sites: All-In-One Security.

How do the main WordPress security tools compare?

Prices below are in US dollars, as of November 2026, taken from each vendor's own pricing page. "Central dashboard" means one console that shows security status across many sites.

Tool	Type	Starting price (as of November 2026)	Central multi-site dashboard	Malware cleanup	Best for
Glow	Management platform	First site free; $1.95 per site per month	Yes	No	Securing a client fleet
Wordfence	Plugin WAF + scanner	Free; Premium $149/year per site	Yes (Wordfence Central, free)	Paid (Care, Response)	Free firewall and console
Sucuri	Cloud WAF + scanner + cleanup	Basic Platform $229/year per site; Basic Firewall $9.99/month	Yes (agency plans)	Yes (unlimited on Platform)	Edge firewall and human cleanup
MalCare	Plugin WAF + scanner + cleanup	Free; Protect $99/year per site	Yes	Paid (Repair, Fortify)	Automated cleanup
Jetpack Scan / Security	Plugin WAF + scanner	Free (Jetpack Protect); Scan $119.40/year per site	Yes (Automattic for Agencies, formerly Jetpack Manage)	Partial (one-click fixes)	Automattic-based agencies
Kadence Security	Plugin firewall + login security	Free plugin; paid only in Kadence bundles from $350/year	Kadence Central (Elite only)	No	Kadence agencies
All-In-One Security	Plugin firewall + hardening	Free; Personal $89/year (2 sites)	Varies (UpdraftCentral is separate)	No	Low cost, many sites
Patchstack	Virtual patching + vulnerability monitoring	Developer $69/month billed annually	Yes	No	Virtual patching at scale

Glow: best for agencies securing many client sites

Glow is a different category from the other tools in this list. It is support and maintenance software for WordPress agencies: updates, backups, uptime, performance, client support tickets and white-label reports in one dashboard. Glow Security is built into it and handles security at the management level for every connected site.

Price, as of November 2026: first site free; then $1.95 per site per month for sites 2 to 100, falling to $1.65 from site 401. Every feature, including security, is on every plan, with unlimited team seats and no contract. See pricing.

What it does well: vulnerability alerts using Wordfence vulnerability data, automatic patching of vulnerable plugins and themes through Safe Updates (backup, before and after screenshots, automatic rollback), login lockouts, a daily file scan against WordPress.org checksums, hardening switches, alerts for new admins or a security plugin being switched off, and WordPress Access to review every login and require admin 2FA. Security starts in Passive mode, which only counts and reports, until you turn it On for one site or all of them.

Honest limitation: Glow is not a web application firewall and does not clean malware. It patches a vulnerability once a fix exists; it does not block exploits before then. It is also hosted only, and a newer, smaller brand than ManageWP or MainWP.

Wordfence: best for a free firewall and free multi-site console

Wordfence has over 5 million active installs, the most of any plugin in this list. It combines an endpoint firewall, a malware scanner that compares core, theme and plugin files with the WordPress.org originals, login protection and free two-factor authentication. Wordfence Central is a free console that shows scan status across your sites, applies configuration templates and sends alerts by email, SMS or Slack, with no limit on the number of sites.

Price, as of November 2026: Free; Premium $149/year; Care $590/year; Response $1,250/year, each per site. Wordfence has announced new prices from 3 December 2026: Premium $199/year, Care $890/year, Response $1,900/year. Licences bought or renewed before 3 December keep the current price.

What it does well: a large threat intelligence team, a free console with no site cap, and real-time firewall rules on paid plans. Care and Response add human incident response, including malware removal, with Response promising a 1-hour response time.

Honest limitation: on the free plan, firewall rules and malware signatures arrive 30 days late, and the human cleanup plans are priced per site, which adds up quickly across a client portfolio.

Sucuri: best for a cloud firewall plus human cleanup

Sucuri (owned by GoDaddy) is the only tool in this list whose firewall sits in front of the site as a cloud proxy, with a CDN and DDoS mitigation, so attacks are filtered before they reach the server. Its Website Security Platform adds remote malware scanning, blocklist and uptime monitoring, and unlimited manual malware cleanups. A free plugin offers remote scanning, auditing and file integrity monitoring.

Price, as of November 2026: Basic Platform $229/year, Pro Platform $339/year, Business Platform $549/year, each for 1 site. Firewall only: Basic $9.99/month, Pro $19.98/month. One-time cleanup: $98 for 1 site. Agency and multi-site plans (10 sites and up) are quoted on request.

What it does well: the edge firewall includes virtual patching for outdated software, every Platform plan includes unlimited cleanups with a stated response time (30 hours on Basic down to 6 hours on Business), and it is not limited to WordPress.

Honest limitation: it needs a DNS change on every site, per-site pricing gets expensive for large fleets, and agency pricing is not public.

MalCare: best for automated malware removal

MalCare scans sites in the cloud, so the heavy work does not run on the client's server. It includes a plugin firewall, login protection, vulnerability alerts and virtual patching, and its higher plans clean malware automatically. MalCare comes from the same company as BlogVault.

Price, as of November 2026, billed yearly: Free; Protect $99/year; Repair $299/year; Fortify $499/year for 1 site. For 5 sites: Protect $299/year, Repair $899/year, Fortify $1,499/year. Agency pricing is on request.

What it does well: automated cleanup with a report on Repair, plus unlimited manual fixes on Fortify. Virtual patching is included even on the free plan, after a 7-day delay, and paid firewall rules update every 5 minutes.

Honest limitation: malware cleanup only starts at the $299 per site Repair plan, and white-label and agency pricing are not published.

Jetpack Security / Scan: best for agencies on Automattic tooling

Jetpack from Automattic bundles a firewall, malware scanning with one-click fixes, real-time backups, an activity log and downtime monitoring. The free Jetpack Protect plugin runs a daily vulnerability scan. Agencies can manage sites through the Automattic for Agencies programme (formerly Jetpack Manage), which advertises discounts of up to 80% for 5 or more sites.

Price, as of November 2026, per site: Jetpack Protect free; Jetpack Scan $119.40/year; Jetpack Pro $348/year; Jetpack Complete $588/year. Prices shown at checkout can differ with introductory discounts and local currency.

What it does well: backups, scanning and a firewall from one vendor, free vulnerability scanning, and downtime monitoring on every plan, including free.

Honest limitation: it needs a WordPress.com connection, and Jetpack's own FAQ says the scanner is not designed to fully clean a site that was infected before Jetpack was active.

Kadence Security (formerly Solid Security): best for Kadence-based agencies

Kadence Security is the plugin many agencies still know as iThemes Security, then Solid Security. It has 700,000+ active installs and a strong login feature set: local and network brute force protection, free two-factor authentication, passkeys in Pro, file change detection and a vulnerability scanner that runs hourly on Pro. Pro adds a real-time firewall and automated virtual patching of some vulnerabilities through Patchstack.

Price, as of November 2026: the free plugin remains on WordPress.org. Security is no longer sold on its own: it is included in Kadence Pro and Elite, and Kadence Central (the multi-site console, formerly Solid Central) is Elite only. Liquid Web's Kadence page lists bundles from $350/year for 1 site to $999/year for 100 sites, but does not say which of those include Kadence Central.

What it does well: Patchstack virtual patching bundled in, solid login and 2FA options, and Kadence Central adds bulk updates, one-click rollback and white-label client logins.

Honest limitation: there is no standalone security price, so you buy it as part of a wider plugin bundle, and there is no malware cleanup service.

All-In-One Security: best for a tight budget

All-In-One Security (AIOS) comes from Team Updraft, the makers of UpdraftPlus, and has over 1 million active installs. The free plugin covers a rule-based firewall, login lockouts, login page renaming, user enumeration blocking, file change detection and basic 2FA. Premium adds weekly malware scanning and uptime monitoring every 5 minutes.

Price, as of November 2026: Free; Personal $89/year (up to 2 sites); Business $149/year (up to 10); Agency $249/year (up to 35); Enterprise $349/year (unlimited sites). First-year prices are currently 50% off.

What it does well: unlimited sites for $349/year, every premium feature on every plan, and a capable free hardening and login toolset.

Honest limitation: the firewall uses fixed rules rather than a real-time threat feed, malware scans are weekly, and there is no cleanup service or virtual patching.

Patchstack: best for virtual patching across a portfolio

Patchstack focuses on one problem: the gap between a vulnerability being published and a plugin update being installed. It monitors sites for known vulnerabilities and applies targeted virtual patches (it calls this RapidMitigate) that block the exploit even before the plugin author ships a fix. Its research also powers the virtual patching in Kadence Security Pro.

Price, as of November 2026: Developer $69/month billed annually ($828/year), or $79/month billed monthly. Patchstack's documentation says this covers 25 sites, with 5 more sites for $12.50/month. Enterprise and agency plans are custom.

What it does well: targeted patches, a multi-site dashboard, white-label reports and an API.

Honest limitation: it is not a general-purpose firewall and does not scan for or remove malware, and the entry price is steep for a handful of sites.

Why do agencies combine security tools?

Because the tools solve different problems. A firewall, a virtual patch or a cleanup service protects a single site at the moment of attack. A management platform makes sure the basics are done on all of them: plugins are current, logins are locked down, files are checked and somebody is told when something changes.

Here is how the split works with Glow:

• Glow covers: auto-patching of vulnerable plugins and themes via Safe Updates, login protection, daily file scans, hardening, security alerts, WordPress Access and 2FA for admins, plus the security section in client reports. All included in every plan.
• Glow does not cover: a web application firewall, virtual patching before a fix exists, or malware cleanup.

So a common, sensible stack is Glow for the whole fleet, plus Sucuri or MalCare on the sites where a firewall and cleanup cover are worth paying for (shops, membership sites, anything high-traffic). Agencies that want exploit blocking before updates exist can add Patchstack, and those who want a free firewall can keep Wordfence on each site.

How should an agency choose?

• Under 10 sites, small budget: Wordfence free or AIOS free on each site, plus a management tool to keep them patched. Glow's first site is free; add Sucuri's $98 one-time cleanup to your plan for the day something goes wrong.
• 10 to 50 sites: a management platform becomes essential, because nobody checks 30 plugin dashboards. Pair it with MalCare Repair or Sucuri Platform on the client sites that sell online or hold customer data.
• 50 sites and up: per-site security plans get expensive. Use a management platform for patching, logins and alerts everywhere, then add Patchstack for virtual patching across the portfolio and a cleanup service on the highest-risk sites. Ask Sucuri and MalCare for agency pricing.
• Already committed to a vendor: Kadence agencies get Kadence Security in their bundle; Automattic for Agencies members get Jetpack discounts. Keep what you have and fill the gaps.

What changed in WordPress security tools in 2026?

• Solid Security became Kadence Security. In May 2026 it was reported that Liquid Web had dissolved the StellarWP and SolidWP brands and folded SolidWP into Kadence. The WordPress.org plugin is now titled Kadence Security, solidwp.com redirects to Liquid Web, and Solid Central is now Kadence Central. Existing active and lifetime licences are grandfathered.
• Wordfence prices rise on 3 December 2026. Premium goes from $149 to $199 per year, Care from $590 to $890, and Response from $1,250 to $1,900, per site. Wordfence Central stays free.
• Jetpack restructured its bundles. As of November 2026, Jetpack's pricing page leads with Jetpack Pro and Jetpack Complete, and the former Jetpack Security bundle is no longer shown there. Jetpack Scan is still sold on its own.
• BlogVault security now sits under MalCare. As of November 2026, BlogVault's pricing page presents it as a backup, staging and migration product, and its sister product MalCare carries the security features.

Frequently asked questions

Is Wordfence free enough for client sites?

For many brochure sites, yes: the free plan includes a firewall, malware scanner, login protection and 2FA, and Wordfence Central is free. The catch is that free firewall rules and malware signatures arrive 30 days after paid users get them, and there is no cleanup included. For shops and sites holding customer data, consider a paid plan or a separate cleanup service.

Do I need a WAF if my host has one?

Not always. A host-level firewall is a good first layer, so check what it covers before adding a second one. What a host firewall will not do is update vulnerable plugins, review admin accounts or tell you when a client switches off security.

What is virtual patching?

Virtual patching is a firewall rule that blocks attempts to exploit one specific known vulnerability, so the site is protected even before the plugin author releases a fix. Patchstack is built around it, Kadence Security Pro uses Patchstack's patches, and MalCare and Sucuri's firewall include it. It buys time; installing the real update is still the fix.

What is the difference between a security plugin and a management platform?

A security plugin protects one site from inside it. A management platform like Glow works across all your sites: it applies updates, watches logins and files, sends alerts and reports to clients. Agencies usually need both kinds of cover.

Which tools include malware cleanup?

From this list: Sucuri (unlimited on Platform plans, or $98 one-time), Wordfence Care and Response, and MalCare Repair and Fortify. Jetpack offers one-click fixes but says it is not designed to fully clean an existing infection. Glow, Patchstack, Kadence Security and AIOS do not clean malware.

Can I run Glow alongside Wordfence or Sucuri?

Yes. Glow handles patching, logins, file scans and alerts, and leaves the firewall to Wordfence or Sucuri.

Start free with Glow: free for your first site, no credit card.