Hi @niallasd
I hope you’re well today!
They do cover some of the same areas (e.g. malware scanning, some of the firewall features), though not exactly all of them. Things like malware scanning won’t get themselves in a way provided that they are not run at the very same time in both plugins.
The recommendations (security recommendations in Defender) or audit logging shouldn’t be conflicting issues as well but if it comes to other options – mostly related to firewall and/or login security (two factor authentication, login masking etc), it’s highly recommended to make sure that only one plugin is used for them.
What I mean is that, for example:
– if you have configured Two Factor Authentication in any way in Defender, you should keep all related options in Wordfence disabled
– if you use login masking in Defender, then also all other login security related options should only be enabled in Defender as ones from Wordfence can be conflicting
– it’s better to review firewall options in both plugins and avoid “overlapping” configuration.
Of course this works both ways (if you decide e.g. for Two Factor Auth in Wordfence, then don’t use the one from Defender).
In general though: we don’t recommend using both at the same time unless they are really carefully configured to avoid any “overlaps” in configuration that may lead to potential conflicts.
Kind regards,
Adam
