SiteLock is a security service that started in 2008 and It’s sold by a lot of popular website hosts companies. These web hosting companies partner with Sitelock and have licensing deals with them, offering the service as an up-sell to secure your website or blog from known malware scripts, viruses and hackers.
You may not have heard of Sitelock before but if your site is hacked, or your account has been suspended then you may be looking into Sitelock reviews to find out if it’s worth it. SiteLock can help safeguard your files. So is it an essential security purchase? Or is it just a waste of time and money? In this guide I hope to give you the information you need to know if Sitelock is right for your website. So let’s get started, here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of Sitelock…
The Good And Bad of SiteLock
The Good Points
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- Malware scans which check your website daily
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- Malware removal (helps clean up your files after being hacked)
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- Web Application Firewall (WAF).
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- Remove your site from blacklists
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- DDoS attack protection
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- Site lock can help add trust between your website readers and your site
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- Spam Scan
- Increase website speed
The bad
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- Fees which add up (Monthly or yearly).
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- SiteLock doesn’t really add anything you can’t do on your own
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- Escalated billing
- Some of negative feedback review online
How Does SiteLock Work?
You sign up through their website, or your web hosting company will send you a link to sign up with them. The process of integrating to SiteLock on your website can take up to 24 hours to install. You will get a notification whenever they scan your site and find a problem. Notifications will be emailed to you direct. But you are paying for site scans, backups, DDoS protection, malware removal, and a seal to build trust between your website and your customers. You can view your sites traffic by country. So if you’re getting a to of hack attempts from a certain country then you block all incoming requests from a whole country. It also can tell the difference between real human traffic and bot (robot) traffic.
Removing Malware
Your website is scanned once a day automatically. Think of it as an anti-virus service for your web server. SiteLock uses something called “SiteLock911 scans.” What this does is scan all your files on your server to see if there is any malware injected into them. If any files are corrupted SiteLock will download them and reupload your data. It sounds like a simple process for safeguarding your data, but as you will see it isn’t that black and white.
Been Hacked?
Websites getting hacked can cause a lot of headaches. I know from personal experience that getting hacked sucks and takes a lot of time to fix the issue. Some shared web hosting companies get hacked more often than others. Sometimes webmasters don’t even know that they are hacked until they get a message in their Google Search Console or someone points it out to them.
Does SiteLock Work?
Yes, SiteLock does work. Over 5 million websites have installed SiteLock on their websites or blogs.
How much is SiteLock?
SiteLock Domain Security is $14.99/year. On their official website the basic plan cost $9.99/month. The Enterprise plan cost is $49.99/month.
There are 3 different levels available from SiteLock. You can just display a simple badge on your website which is designed to scare hackers away from your website. SiteLock also states that having their badge on your site increases trust and conversions will be increased by 15%. There are no commitments with SiteLock. You can even get a 30-day risk-free trial. Here’s a quick look at the current plans they offer:
However, webmasters have reported that it can cost an extra $30 to $300 to repair single pages on their website. So, basically what I am stating is your paying SiteLock for a monthly fee for security, and then your website ends up getting hacked. There is some malware installed on the site and then you will need to pay more money to fix the problematic pages. It doesn’t seem fair to me. In fact, there have been a lot of webmasters that are always complaining about SiteLock’s business practices.
SiteLock Reviews
Not everyone loves SiteLock. Some users warn that SiteLock hooks you in with a 30-day FREE trial but then makes it hard to cancel.
There are various complaints on consumeraffairs.com, webmastertalk.net, ripoffreport.com, etc. from webmasters that feel they were conned by SiteLock.
Final SiteLock Review
I do not recommend that you sign up with SiteLock. This is because you can still get hacked even if you pay them every month. You end up having to pay more money to fix the problem if you do get hacked. The price to fix problems are high and don’t seem to be worth it. Be careful because they are partnered with because some web hosts that have partnered with SiteLock are pushy and try to hard sell their customers into purchasing.
There are some really good FREE WordPress plugins that you protect your website and help prevent them from getting hacked in the first place. I fully recommend the FREE version of a plugin called Wordfence. I don’t feel SiteLock is worth the money they charge every month. I’ve been using Wordfence for a few years now and it’s not let me down.