A Practical Software Directory for Solo Builders
Protecting your website and spotting problems early
Keep an eye on your website’s availability, add protection against attacks and prepare for problems that may need fixing.
Tools in this category will help you to...
Filter suspicious traffic, check for malicious code, protect logins and receive alerts when your website goes offline. Backup tools also help you recover content and settings after something goes wrong. Some services work independently of your website platform, while others are designed specifically for WordPress. Choose tools that suit your site and check which protections your hosting provider already includes.
Cloudflare helps protect a website by filtering traffic before it reaches your hosting server. Its free plan includes protection against traffic-flooding attacks and a basic set of firewall rules, alongside a network that stores copies of suitable content to help pages load quickly. It works with many website platforms, including WordPress and sites built from HTML files. Setup normally involves changing your domain’s nameservers and enabling Cloudflare’s proxy for your website. Paid plans provide broader security rules and additional controls. It is an option for adding protection at the network level while keeping your existing hosting provider.
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Sucuri SiteCheck is a free online scanner for checking the publicly accessible parts of a website. Enter your address to look for known malicious code, unwanted redirects, blocklist warnings and some signs of outdated software. It works without installing a plugin or changing your hosting, so it can be used with WordPress, other website platforms and sites built from HTML files. The report can help identify issues that need further investigation. Because it scans from outside the server, it cannot inspect every file or guarantee that a site is clean. Continuous monitoring, firewall protection and malware removal are separate paid services.
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UpdraftPlus is a WordPress plugin for keeping backup copies of your website and restoring them when needed. The free version backs up your site’s files and database, supports scheduled backups and can send copies to services such as Google Drive or Dropbox. You can restore selected parts of a site through the WordPress dashboard, which can help after a failed update or accidental change. Premium adds features such as automatic backups before updates, backups that save only changed files and additional storage connections. Your chosen storage service’s capacity and charges still apply, so check where your backups will be kept.
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UptimeRobot checks whether your website is reachable and alerts you when it goes down or recovers. Add your site’s address, choose your notifications and review availability and response-time records in its dashboard. The ongoing free plan allows business use, with up to 50 monitors checked every five minutes and a basic public status page for sharing service availability. Paid plans offer faster checks, more monitoring options and warnings before security certificates or domain names expire. SMS and voice-call alerts use separately purchased credits. It works independently of your website platform and hosting, so you can monitor a site without installing a plugin or changing its code.
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Wordfence is a WordPress security plugin combining a firewall, malware scanning and login protection. It checks your installation for malicious code, suspicious changes and known vulnerabilities, while features such as two-factor authentication and limits on repeated login attempts help protect administrator accounts. The ongoing free version includes these core tools, but receives new firewall rules and malware signatures after a 30-day delay. Premium provides those updates in real time, adds a continuously updated list of malicious IP addresses and includes paid support. The plugin runs within your WordPress installation, so its scans use your hosting resources and its settings need to suit your site.
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