How many security plugins are too many? [closed]

This isn’t a question of quantity. You have to understand what each plugin does to say whether it is necessary or not.

Let’s say we have three “security” plugins:

1. One enforces strong passwords.
2. One blocks aggressive log-in attempts.
3. One sends you an email when your PHP version is behind the latest security release.

Having these three plugin running in parallel is fine.

But having three plugins active that do all of these things (and usually a lot of nonsense for their feature list) is bad.

Do not install plugins with overlapping responsibilities. It doesn’t matter whether for security, SEO or performance.

Read the code, understand what it does, then select the most specific and best written solution.

Every plugin adds complexity to the whole system and makes it more fragile. You have to get something essential for that price.