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Secure HTTP Headers icon
Possibly abandoned Tested up to 5.7.20 #35 in cookies

Secure HTTP Headers

HTTP header fields are components of the header section of request and response messages. The headers define the operating parameters of an HTTP transaction.

Active installs100+100+ tier
Downloads · 30d90▲ +50% vs prev. 30d
Rating3/52 reviews
Health score26/100At risk
All-time downloads2.9KSince Apr 2021
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 5.3PHP 7.2+
Downloads · 7d21▲ +16.7% week over week
Our verdict

Consider an alternative

Secure HTTP Headers shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 3/5 and was last updated 5 years ago, and scores 26/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (100+ active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far
  • No update in 5 years
  • Only tested up to WordPress 5.7 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

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

Daily downloads

369Jul 11Aug 24Oct 8
Yesterday0
Daily average (1y)2
Peak day12Sep 14, 2026
Last 12 months568

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

Rankings

Where Secure HTTP Headers stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
cookies >100 3,373 Best cookies plugins →
hardening >100 2,197 Best hardening plugins →
headers >100 10,000 Best headers plugins →
security >100 10,000 Best security plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 1.0100.0%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 3 from 2 reviews

  • 5★50.0%
  • 4★0.00%
  • 3★0.00%
  • 2★0.00%
  • 1★50.0%

About Secure HTTP Headers

From the official readme · v1.0

Description

Harden your web applications.

HTTP header fields are components of the header section of request and response messages. The headers define the operating parameters of an HTTP transaction.

Securing HTTP headers will improve the resilience of your web application against many common attacks including those that are on the OWASP top 10 list.

Securing headers can also improve your SEO rank and in addition to preventing websites from being marked as dangerous by browsers and antivirus applications.

Protect sensitive user information and be compliant with privacy regulations. Defend users from stealing private data by protecting website cookies. Use the proper directive such as “secure”, “httponly” and “samesite”, all of those will be applied automatically by “Secure HTTP Headers” plugin.

Secure HTTP Headers will automatically analyze any website and will build up secure headers directives, by the latest best practice.

In addition, Secure HTTP Headers offers fully configurable options, apply or skip any header directive as needed.

Install and activate Secure HTTP Headers with full confidence, the deactivation of this plugin will return your website header directives to their original state.

Main plugin functionality

  1. HTTP Strict Transport Security – helps to protect websites against man-in-the-middle attacks and cookie hijacking

  2. X-Frame-Options – helps to protect users against ClickJacking attacks

  3. X-Content-Type-Options – helps to prevent the browser from MIME-sniffing

  4. Referrer-Policy – helps to control how much referrer information should be included with requests

  5. Clear-Site-Data – helps to ensure that data is deleted from the browser if the user logs out

  6. X-Download-Options – helps to control how IE 8 will handle downloaded HTML files

  7. Access-Control-Allow-Origin – helps to ensure whether the response can be shared with requesting code from the given origin

  8. Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy – helps to prevent a document from loading any cross-origin resources that don’t explicitly grant the document permission

  9. Permissions-Policy – helps to allow and deny the use of browser features in its own frame, and in content within any iframe elements in the document

  10. Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy – helps to protect websites against a set of cross-origin attacks dubbed XS-Leaks

  11. Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy – helps to protect websites against speculative side-channel attacks, like Spectre, as well as Cross-Site Script Inclusion attacks

  12. X-Permitted-Cross-Domain-Policies – helps to control how cross-domain requests from Flash and PDF documents are handled

  13. Cookie Http-Only flag – helps to protect websites against Cross-Site Scripting, or XSS attacks

  14. Cookie Secure flag – helps to ensure that cookie is sent over a secure connection

  15. Cookie Samesite Lax flag – helps to protect websites against CSRF and XSSI attacks

  16. Expect-CT – helps to prevent the use of misissued certificates for a website. Note: The Expect-CT will likely become obsolete in June 2021

What are the optional extras?

Magnisec is offering “Secure HTTP Headers enhanced”

A plugin that contains, in addition, an engine that watches and builds in any website changes a CSP – Content Security Policy that is best practice and recommended by all professional securities experts, that mitigate XSS -Cross site Scripting, one of the most common and destructive attacks.

Price: 50$ /year for a domain.

More details and installation here

Installation

  1. Upload plugin files to your plugins folder, or install using WordPress built-in Add New Plugin installer
  2. Activate the plugin
  3. Choose a custom configuration or select recommended one.

Frequently asked questions

What will happen if I deactivate Secure HTTP Headers?

Your initial configuration will restore with no change.

Changelog

1.0

  • Initial Version.

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

Screenshots

In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Settings > Secure HTTP Headers and choose your website's server
In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Settings > Secure HTTP Headers and choose your…
Click the button "Recommended configuration" or choose your custom configuration
Click the button "Recommended configuration" or choose your custom configuration
If your server is NGINX, follow directions for securing your website
If your server is NGINX, follow directions for securing your website

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 Secure HTTP Headers alternatives

All cookies plugins →
Alternatives
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1 Cookie Compliance for WordPress – Cookie Consent, GDPR & CCPA Cookie Compliance for WordPress Consent management for WordPress — GDPR, CCPA & ePrivacy, autoblocking, Google Consent… by Humanityco 800K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 (3K) 15 hours ago 77
2 WP Consent API WP Consent API Simple Consent API to read and register the current consent category. by Rogier Lankhorst 200K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 3 weeks ago 86
3 Adapta RGPD Adapta RGPD La solución completa para el cumplimiento del RGPD y la LOPD GDD en español: Crea los… by Superadmin 40K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 (105) 1 year ago 56
4 Asesor de Cookies RGPD para normativa europea Asesor de Cookies RGPD para normativa europea Gestiona el consentimiento de cookies con banner, inventario, scripts por categoría y… by cdoral 20K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 3.9 (59) 2 months ago 65
5 Cookies for Comments Cookies for Comments Sets a cookie on a random URL that is then checked when a comment is posted. If the cookie… by Donncha O Caoimh (a11n) 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 (18) 7 years ago 42
6 Cookies and Content Security Policy Cookies and Content Security Policy Be fully GDPR and CCPA compliant through Content Security Policy. Blocks cookies and… by Johan Jonk Stenström 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 (67) 1 month ago 75
7 Pressidium Cookie Consent Pressidium Cookie Consent Lightweight, user-friendly and customizable cookie consent banner to help you comply with… by pressidium 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 (40) 10 months ago 50
8 WF Cookie Consent WF Cookie Consent The wunderfarm-way to show how your website complies with the EU Cookie Law - very easy… by wunderfarm 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (27) 3 months ago 75
9 Cookie Bar Cookie Bar Cookie Bar allows you to discreetly inform visitors that your website uses cookies. by Brontobytes 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 (23) 3 months ago 70
10 Italy Cookie Choices (for EU Cookie Law & Cookie Notice) Italy Cookie Choices (for EU Cookie Law & Cookie Notice) The most complete cookie consent to easily comply with the european cookie law, display… by overclokk 10K+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 (35) 3 years ago 45

FAQ

Secure HTTP Headers: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 9, 2026

Is Secure HTTP Headers free?

Yes. Secure HTTP Headers is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Secure HTTP Headers safe to use in 2026?

Secure HTTP Headers shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 100+ sites, is rated 3/5 and was last updated 5 years ago, and scores 26/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Secure HTTP Headers?

Secure HTTP Headers is active on 100+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,915 times since it launched in April 2021. It was downloaded 90 times in the last 30 days.

Does Secure HTTP Headers work with WordPress 7.1?

Secure HTTP Headers is officially tested up to WordPress 5.7.20, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

What PHP version does Secure HTTP Headers need?

Secure HTTP Headers requires PHP 7.2 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.

When was Secure HTTP Headers last updated?

The latest version, 1.0, was released on April 13, 2021 (5 years ago).

Who makes Secure HTTP Headers?

Secure HTTP Headers is developed and maintained by shasha310.

What are the best alternatives to Secure HTTP Headers?

The most popular alternatives to Secure HTTP Headers are Cookie Compliance for WordP… (800K+ installs), WP Consent API (200K+ installs) and Adapta RGPD (40K+ installs).

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