Security plugins split into schools worth understanding before choosing. The scanner-and-firewall school – Wordfence Premium, MalCare, Sucuri Security, Defender, Jetpack Security – detects and blocks active threats, with the honest differences sitting in scan frequency, clean-up guarantees, and where the firewall rules come from. The hardening school – Solid Security (the plugin formerly known as iThemes), All In One WP Security Pro – locks down configuration rather than fighting live attacks. The specialists go deep: Cerber Security Pro on access control and spam, WP Brain on blocking. GDPR consent is its own job – Complianz, Cookiebot, CookieYes, Borlabs Cookie, GDPR Cookie Compliance – and it stacks with, not replaces, a firewall. One strong scanner plus one consent tool covers most sites; the reviews show which pairs conflict.

Defender is WPMU Dev’s security layer, and its design bet is integration: if you…