Stop Paying Extra to Keep Your Site Safe

By Ian Stewart on October 22, 2026

Your site gets hacked. Then you find out cleanup costs extra. Some hosts work exactly like that.

Some hosts sell malware help separately. Finding that out when your site’s been hacked is a really awful experience.

What your hosting should already cover

Meanwhile, WordPress.com scans sites daily for malware and cleans up what it finds on all paid plans. That’s Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce.

Even better, our migration services act like a filtration system. Bring us an infected site. After your migration, we scan it, and our team cleans it up at no extra cost.

It’s like other hosting companies are saying the following:

Other hosts: “You’ve been hacked. Pay up or go fix it yourself.”

Meanwhile, here at WordPress.com:

WordPress.com: “If you’re on WordPress.com, we’re always watching – we’ll watch for malware and clean it up when we find it. If you’re not on WordPress.com, c’mon over. We’ll clean up the infection after migration and keep watching for trouble. ”

“Volume” hosts sell security or emergency cleanup separately. “Emergency malware” can cost upwards of US$160 as a one-time purchase, including a year of scanning. You’ll see hosts selling separate security plans, with cleanup limits on their lower tiers.

Cleaning up a hacked site shouldn’t cost extra. Malware scanning and cleanup are included in your paid WordPress.com plan.

Meanwhile, premium managed hosts include cleanup, but it’s worth looking at what else costs extra. You’ll see offers for “advanced DDoS protection” and a “managed web application firewall” as optional add-ons. A web application firewall and DDoS protection are already included in our paid plans. Together, they help filter malicious requests and traffic designed to overwhelm your site.

That disparity seems totally off to me. Security and cleanup should be part of what you’re paying your host to do.

Not just migrations, not just security. Yes to those, but also how both work together. How everything works together on WordPress.com: Jetpack, WooCommerce, hosting, security, and support.

Your next host should have your back

If you’re getting your site ready for Black Friday, now’s a good time to look at what your hosting includes. Security shouldn’t be another thing you have to worry about when customers start arriving.

If you want your site to be protected without paying more, come on over. We’ll be happy to do the migration for you and get you set up in your new web home.

Our team at WordPress.com keeps your site safe every day, so you can keep building what matters to you.