Falcon – Cache, Performance, Security, Cleanup, and Tweaks
A lightweight WordPress plugin for performance, security, cleanup, and everyday tweaks.
Solid choice
Falcon is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 2K+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 1 month ago, and scores 74/100 on our health check.
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Falcon stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| admin | >100 |
| Optimize | >100 |
| performance | #34 |
| speed | >100 |
| tweaks | #5 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 10 reviews
About Falcon
From the official readme · v2.11.2Description
Falcon is a lightweight WordPress plugin that helps you speed up your site, harden security, clean up bloat, and fine-tune how WordPress works — without a heavy stack of separate tools.
Toggle only what you need from a clear settings UI. Export and import settings to reuse the same setup across sites.
Features
Performance
Make pages load faster and cut unnecessary front-end work.
- HTML page cache — serve static HTML and skip WordPress, themes, and plugins on cache hits
- Disable Heartbeat to reduce server load
- Remove
?ver=query strings from CSS/JS for better browser caching - Disable emoji scripts and styles
- Remove jQuery Migrate on the front end
- Load selected CSS files asynchronously to reduce render-blocking
Security
Reduce common attack surfaces and protect your content.
- Limit login attempts (block an IP after 3 failed tries for 1 hour)
- Hide detailed login error messages
- Force login to view the site
- Disable the REST API for unauthenticated requests
- Disable XML-RPC
- Restrict upload file types (including WebP and AVIF when enabled)
- Comment spam protection with a simple honeypot
- Block common AI crawlers via
robots.txt - Use scheme-less asset URLs to avoid mixed content warnings
Cleanup
Strip unused markup and keep the database lean.
- Hide WordPress version
- Remove shortlink, REST API link, adjacent posts links, feed links, RSD link, and WLW manifest link
- Use the site icon on the login screen
- Hide update nags
- Remove default dashboard widgets
- Remove admin footer text and the WordPress admin bar logo
- Disable embeds
- Clean up menu item classes and IDs
- Remove Recent Comments widget CSS
- Clean revisions, auto drafts, trashed posts, spam/trashed comments, expired transients, orphaned meta, unused terms, and optimize tables
Content
Control the editor, comments, media, and publishing behavior.
- Disable the block editor (Gutenberg) and use the classic editor
- Disable post revisions
- Disable texturize (smart quotes and auto formatting)
- Disable comments site-wide
- Remove the website field from the comment form
- Disable thumbnail generation
- Disable big image scaling
- Disable EXIF-based image rotation
- Limit front-end search to posts only
- Disable self pingbacks
System
Site-wide controls for maintenance and WordPress internals.
- Maintenance mode (customize the message with
maintenance.phpin the active theme) - Block external HTTP requests
- Disable application passwords
- Disable auto-updates
- Disable WP-Cron (use a real server cron instead)
- Remove privacy tools from the admin menu
Cut noisy notifications and send mail reliably.
- Disable admin email verification prompts
- Disable update notification emails
- Disable new user emails to admins
- Disable password change/reset emails
- Change the default from name and email address
- Send WordPress email via SMTP
You might also like
If you like this plugin, you might also like our other WordPress products:
- Meta Box – A powerful WordPress plugin for creating custom post types and custom fields.
- Slim SEO – A fast, lightweight and full-featured SEO plugin for WordPress with minimal configuration.
- GretaThemes – Free and premium WordPress themes that clean, simple and just work.
- Auto Listings – A car sale and dealership plugin for WordPress.
Installation
Go to Dashboard | Plugins | Add New and search for Falcon. Then install and activate the plugin.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?
Please report security bugs found in the source code of the Falcon – WordPress Optimizations & Tweaks plugin through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.
Changelog
2.11.2 – 2026-08-17
- Skip page cache for Markdown requests (Slim SEO Pro’s Markdown for AI) so AI bots always get Markdown, not cached HTML.
2.11.1 – 2026-08-10
- Stop direct access to PHP files.
- Replace short echo tags with PHP echo.
- Add option to keep latest N revisions when cleaning database.
2.11.0 – 2026-07-12
Highlight
- Database cleanup: Clean revisions, drafts, trash, spam, expired transients, orphaned meta, unused terms, and optimize tables. (#26)
- Limit login attempts: Block an IP after 3 failed logins for 1 hour. (#25)
- Allow
.avifuploads when restricting file types. (#24) - Customize maintenance mode via
maintenance.phpin the active theme.
Other changes
- Reorganize settings into grouped tabs with sub-tabs.
- Polish settings copy and option descriptions.
- Add a documentation link in the settings tabs bar.
- Fix cache clearing when an approved comment is inserted.
- Harden cache cleanup and request URI handling on PHP 8.
2.10.1 – 2026-05-12
- Fix serving the same cache for URL with and without query string
- Clear cache only when a comment is approve
2.10.0 – 2026-04-18
- Add new security module: Comment spam protection. Enable it under Security tab.
2.9.3 – 2026-01-21
- Improve check for not caching search result pages
2.9.2 – 2025-12-23
- Allow to upload WEBP images if enable restrict upload file types module
- Fix PHP warning when deleting cache dir
2.9.1 – 2025-12-19
- Fix not creating cache dir after cleaning
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Falcon alternatives
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FAQ
Falcon: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 28, 2026
Is Falcon free?
Yes. Falcon is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Falcon safe to use in 2026?
Falcon is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 2K+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 1 month ago, and scores 74/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Falcon?
Falcon is active on 2K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 74,886 times since it launched in December 2015. It was downloaded 1,967 times in the last 30 days.
Does Falcon work with WordPress 7.1?
Falcon is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.6, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Falcon need?
Falcon requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Falcon last updated?
The latest version, 2.11.2, was released on August 17, 2026 (1 month ago).
Who makes Falcon?
Falcon is developed and maintained by Anh Tran.
What are the best alternatives to Falcon?
The most popular alternatives to Falcon are Loginizer (1M+ installs), Redux Framework (900K+ installs) and Admin Menu Editor (300K+ installs).
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