Solid Security vs Wordfence

Solid Security and Wordfence are both WordPress security plugins, but they lean toward different jobs: Solid Security focuses on hardening a site - two-factor authentication, backups, and closing common attack vectors - while Wordfence centers on a firewall and malware scanning aimed at catching and blocking attacks as they happen. Wordfence holds a much larger install base - an estimated 5.45 million active installs against Solid Security's 758,000 - and a slightly higher rating, 4.7 stars against 4.6.

Support resolution tells its own story here: Wordfence resolves 74% of support threads against Solid Security's 40%, a meaningful gap for a security plugin, where an unresolved support question can mean a real vulnerability sitting open longer than it should.

Quick verdict: Choose Wordfence if you want an active firewall and malware scanning as your primary defense, backed by a larger user base and better support resolution. Choose Solid Security if hardening (2FA, backups, brute-force protection) matters more to you than real-time firewall scanning.

Solid Security vs Wordfence at a glance

Numbers above are StatWP's own estimates, derived from WordPress.org's bucketed reporting rather than an exact figure the directory publishes, and update automatically rather than reflecting a fixed snapshot.

Feature and starting price at a glance

Both vendors' current pricing pages weren't reachable at the time of writing - confirm the latest figures directly before treating either as a fixed number.

What does Solid Security actually do?

Solid Security (formerly iThemes Security / Better WP Security) is built around hardening a site against common attack patterns rather than watching live traffic:

• Two-factor authentication and login-attempt limiting.

• Automated backups with restore capability.

• File-change detection and known-vulnerability checks.

• Brute-force protection and user-permission auditing.

It's now part of StellarWP's product family, positioned alongside site-management tools rather than as a pure firewall product.

What does Wordfence actually do?

Wordfence is built around a web application firewall and continuous malware scanning:

• A firewall that inspects traffic and blocks known attack patterns before they reach WordPress.

• Malware scanning against a signature database maintained by Wordfence's own threat intelligence team.

• Live traffic monitoring and IP blocking for repeated attack attempts.

• Two-factor authentication as a supporting feature, not the core focus.

Its scale - over 5 million installs feeding attack data back to its threat intelligence - is itself part of the product's pitch: more sites running it means faster detection of new attack patterns across the whole network.

What features does each one have that the other doesn't?

Wordfence's network-scale threat intelligence is the one thing Solid Security's smaller install base structurally can't replicate - a firewall that gets smarter from millions of sites' worth of attack data.

Solid Security's advantage is treating backups and hardening as first-class, built-in features rather than something you'd pair with a separate backup plugin, which Wordfence generally assumes you already have.

Which should you actually use?

If your bigger concern is active attacks - bots probing for vulnerabilities, brute-force login attempts, malware injection - Wordfence's firewall-first approach and larger threat-intelligence network make it the stronger primary defense. If you're more focused on reducing your attack surface in the first place and want backups bundled in, Solid Security's hardening focus covers that ground directly. Many site owners run a hardening plugin and a firewall together rather than treating this as strictly either/or.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Solid Security and Wordfence?

Solid Security focuses on hardening a site - two-factor authentication, backups, brute-force protection. Wordfence focuses on a firewall and real-time malware scanning to catch attacks as they happen.

Is Wordfence better than Solid Security?

For active attack detection and blocking, Wordfence's larger install base and higher support resolution rate make it the stronger pick. For built-in hardening and backups, Solid Security covers ground Wordfence doesn't focus on by default.

Do I need both a firewall plugin and a hardening plugin?

Many site owners run both, since they address different parts of the security picture - though running two full security suites together can occasionally conflict, so test carefully after adding a second one.

Does Solid Security include backups?

Yes - automated backups with restore capability are a core part of Solid Security, unlike Wordfence, which centers on firewall and scanning rather than backup management.

See the live, current numbers for either plugin any time on StatWP's Solid Security page or StatWP's Wordfence page, or run this comparison yourself with StatWP's compare tool.