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Guardify Firewall icon
Slowing down Tested up to 6.8.10 #13 in brute force protection

Guardify Firewall

Guardify is a powerful WordPress firewall plugin designed to protect your website from a wide range of threats, including brute force attacks, SQL injections, malicious bots, and unauthorized access attempts. With an…

Active installs10+10+ tier
Downloads · 30d65▲ +103.1% vs prev. 30d
Rating5/52 reviews
Health score39/100At risk
All-time downloads774Since May 2025
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 5.0PHP any
Downloads · 7d18▲ +20% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Guardify Firewall shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 1 year ago, and scores 39/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (10+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in over a year
  • Only tested up to WordPress 6.8 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

246Jul 7Aug 20Oct 4
Yesterday0
Daily average (1y)1
Peak day9Sep 10, 2026
Last 12 months496

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Guardify Firewall stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
brute force protection >100 469 Best brute force protection plugins →
firewall >100 991 Best firewall plugins →
IP-blocking >100 1,149 Best IP-blocking plugins →
security >100 10,000 Best security plugins →
wordpress security >100 10,000 Best wordpress security plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.1100.0%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews

  • 5★100.0%
  • 4★0.00%
  • 3★0.00%
  • 2★0.00%
  • 1★0.00%

About Guardify Firewall

From the official readme · v1.1.2

Description

Guardify is a powerful WordPress firewall plugin designed to protect your website from a wide range of threats, including brute force attacks, SQL injections, malicious bots, and unauthorized access attempts. With an intuitive dashboard, detailed statistics, and advanced settings, Guardify empowers you to secure your site effortlessly.

🔐 Key Features:

  • Advanced Web Application Firewall (WAF)
    Intercepts and filters all incoming traffic before it reaches WordPress. Blocks SQL injection, XSS, RFI, LFI, and other attack vectors.

  • Brute Force Attack Protection
    Blocks repeated login attempts by limiting login frequency and analyzing IP reputation.

  • 2-Factor Authentication (2FA)
    Adds an extra layer of login security for admin users, using time-based one-time passwords (TOTP).

  • Real-Time Activity Logs
    Track login attempts, blocked IPs, suspicious requests, and system actions with detailed logs. View statistics by day, week, or month.

  • Custom IP Whitelisting & Blacklisting
    Control access to your site by adding IPs or IP ranges to allow or deny lists. Includes temporary blocking for failed login attempts.

  • GeoIP Blocking
    Block or allow access from specific countries using the MaxMind GeoIP2 database integration.

  • Bot Access Control
    Detect and manage access from known bots, scrapers, and fake crawlers. Option to block non-human traffic.

  • Anti-PHP Injection & File Access Blocking
    Prevents direct access to PHP files in sensitive directories such as /wp-includes/ and /wp-content/uploads/.

  • Block Plugin and Theme Installation
    Restrict installation of new plugins and themes via the WordPress dashboard — even by administrators. This helps prevent unauthorized or accidental installation of insecure components. Manual installation via FTP remains possible.

  • Block Theme Editor
    Disable access to the Theme Editor (/wp-admin/theme-editor.php) to prevent direct file editing. This minimizes the risk of malicious code injection or unintentional file corruption.

  • Forbidden Comment Words Filter
    Automatically mark comments as spam if they contain forbidden words or patterns (e.g., http, viagra, casino, porn). Helps drastically reduce comment spam by detecting common keywords and links.

  • Auto Block IPs in .htaccess
    When enabled, IPs that exceed the rate limit are automatically added to the .htaccess file for permanent blocking. This server-level block prevents any further requests. Use with care, as shared or corporate IPs may be affected.

  • Email Notifications
    Stay informed with email alerts about critical security events, such as admin login attempts or IP bans.

  • Customizable Firewall Rules
    Advanced users can fine-tune rules with regex filters, HTTP method checks, user-agent filters, and more.

  • User-Friendly Admin Interface
    Guardify features a modern and intuitive UI built using native WordPress design language.

  • Clean Uninstall
    Automatically cleans up all data, logs, and settings when uninstalled—leaving your database clean.

Installation

  1. Upload the guardify folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
  3. Visit the Guardify Dashboard under the admin menu to configure settings.

Frequently asked questions

How does Guardify protect my site?

Guardify uses a web application firewall to filter all incoming requests, blocking malicious activity like brute force attacks, injections, and unauthorized file access.

Does it slow down my site?

No! Guardify is optimized for performance, processing requests efficiently with minimal overhead.

Can I whitelist my IP?

Yes, under Settings, you can add IPs to the whitelist to ensure uninterrupted access.

What happens when I uninstall Guardify?

All settings, logs, and files are cleanly removed from your site, leaving no trace behind.

Changelog

1.0.0

  • Initial release with full firewall functionality, dashboard, stats, and settings.

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

Screenshots

Guardify Firewall screenshot
Guardify Firewall screenshot
Guardify Firewall screenshot
Guardify Firewall screenshot

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.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

Best Guardify Firewall alternatives

All brute force protection plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
1 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection Kadence Security Harden your site security with Login Security, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)… by Nexcess 700K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 (4K) 5 days ago 87
2 Titan Anti-spam & Security – Brute Force Protection, 2FA & Spam Filter Titan Anti-spam & Security Block spam comments, defend against login attacks, strengthen site security. Anti-spam… by Themeisle 50K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 (370) 5 days ago 89
3 Honeypot Toolkit Honeypot Toolkit Automatically insert Project Honeypot links into your pages and block IP addresses that are… by Jeff Sterup 400+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 (9) 8 months ago 40
4 Kaya Login Captcha Kaya Login Captcha Protects the WordPress login, registration and lost-password forms with a simple captcha… by Kaya Studio 400+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (1) 2 weeks ago 77
5 WPHH SECURE – AIO WordPress Security With File Locking & WP Hide Login WPHH SECURE Secure your WordPress site with one-click file locking, login path hiding, role-based… by WPHackedHelp 100+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (7) 4 months ago 58
6 Anti-Brute Force, Login Fraud Detector WordPress plugin Anti-Brute Force, Login Fraud Detector WordPress plugin Anti-Brute Force, Login Fraud Detector Wordpress plugin is a security plugin that detects… by aispera31 30+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 3 years ago 24
7 Admin Safety Guard — Login Security, Limit Logins, 2FA & Brute Force Protection Admin Safety Guard Stop brute force attacks for free. Limit login attempts, add 2FA and reCAPTCHA, hide… by Themepaste 20+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (4) 2 months ago 65
8 Project Force Field Project Force Field Save your WordPress sites and servers from certain death during brute force attacks with… by Faison 20+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 (16) 12 years ago 34
9 Nexura Security — Malware Scanner, Firewall, 2FA & WordPress Security Nexura Security Free WordPress security plugin with malware scanner, firewall, 2FA & brute force… by Nexura Security 20+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (1) 10 hours ago 69
10 Simple Login Guard – Monitor & Block Attempts Simple Login Guard – Monitor & Block Attempts Monitor failed login attempts and automatically block IPs after multiple failures… by Aman Brar 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 10 months ago 38

FAQ

Guardify Firewall: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 5, 2026

Is Guardify Firewall free?

Yes. Guardify Firewall is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Guardify Firewall safe to use in 2026?

Guardify Firewall shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 1 year ago, and scores 39/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Guardify Firewall?

Guardify Firewall is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 774 times since it launched in May 2025. It was downloaded 65 times in the last 30 days.

Does Guardify Firewall work with WordPress 7.1?

Guardify Firewall is officially tested up to WordPress 6.8.10, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Guardify Firewall last updated?

The latest version, 1.1.2, was released on June 4, 2025 (1 year ago).

Who makes Guardify Firewall?

Guardify Firewall is developed and maintained by BitCleric.

What are the best alternatives to Guardify Firewall?

The most popular alternatives to Guardify Firewall are Kadence Security (700K+ installs), Titan Anti-spam & Security (50K+ installs) and Honeypot Toolkit (400+ installs).

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