Plugin Pulse
← Pulse
.

.htaccess Site Access Control

by Miina Sikk · Security

Also makes 7 other plugins · 7.0K+ installs across the portfolio →

Using the password protection will give you extra security layer of protection from brute force hacking attacks. Additionally, it's also an easy …

⚠ Stale⚠ Likely abandoned⚠ Few reviews
How scoring works →
44 Health · D
Maintenance 3/100
Rating quality 73/100
Support 70/100

44 health vs 64 average across 997 Security plugins

High removal-risk signals

63/100

Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.

  • Long abandoned. No update in 10+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
  • Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.4.34, well behind 6.8.

Directory ranking optimization

How it's scored →

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

37 / 100

Under-optimized

Biggest win: Update recency

Update recency 0/100
WP compatibility 5/100
Rating quality 53/100
Listing tuning 100/100

To rank higher: Last updated 3762 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.

Get the full rank-higher report →

Daily downloads

Since 2022-10-05 · 1,425 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive

+53% vs prior 30d
0Downloads · Aug 26

30-day downloads

Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges

132

now · peak 180

13230d downloads · Aug 26

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

.htaccess Site Acces · #7587 you htaccess protect · #7571 Wordfence Security · #11 Hostinger Tools · #20

Rating trend

Star average over time · dips mark rough releases

4Stars · Aug 26

Update activity

How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.

165per 1k installs · Aug 26

What its installed base runs

via wordpress.org

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

v1.0 100%

Estimated active installs

The public count shows “800+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.

tracked estimate
800–900 ≈890

Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.

Install history · since 2016-01-30 · 1,422 observations

800Installs · Aug 26

Estimated value

What this plugin might earn a year, and what it might sell for. Modeled from public signals; we don't see anyone's books.

Est. annual revenue

N/A

Est. acquisition value

N/A

No paid tier is visible, so we don't put a figure on revenue or sale value: that would be guessing. The install base is a real asset to an acquirer, just not one public data lets us price. A small install base leaves thin data to model from.

Details

Version
1.0
Last updated
10.3y ago
Added
2016-01-29 · 10 yrs old
Requires WP
3.0.1
Tested up to
4.4.34
Requires PHP

Recent reviews

All reviews on wp.org ↗
  1. pcgardner
    9.8y ago

    The purpose of this plugin is to create additional password protection for the wp-login page, or the wp-admin folder, or even your entire site. It does this by the standard method of adding code to the .htaccess file that gets an additional username and password from a .htpasswd file (in which the MD5 hash of the password is used rather than the password itself). So far so good: it works, but it could be better – hence four stars. When you open the plugin’s settings page, it asks you to enter a new user. At first I thought I had to enter my WordPress username, but in fact it wants the new username that you want to use for the additional login box. I realised that when I thought about it, but it should be made clearer. More seriously, it puts the .htpasswd file in the same directory as the .htaccess file that it has modified. That is within the webroot, and so is accessible via http – although the plugin author has attempted to mitigate this by adding some more code to .htaccess preventing Apache from serving .ht* files. Much better is to put the .htpasswd file into the private folder, which is outside the webroot. I did that manually by moving the file and altering the location in .htaccess, both of which can be done using FTP, but it’s not convenient. Conclusion: using the plugin is quicker than doing the whole thing manually. It would be quicker still if the settings page allowed you to choose where .htpasswd should be placed. The main advantage of the plugin is that it creates the .htpasswd file automatically; otherwise you would need console access to the server in order to run a script to create the file, or the ability to calculate the MD5 hash of the password if you want to create the file in a text editor.

    Read on wp.org ↗
  2. bill57
    10.2y ago

    Ce plugin fait sont travail, protéger l’admin, créer des htaccess et htpasswd et en plus ça fonctionne

    Read on wp.org ↗
  3. hendsiyas
    10.2y ago

    I try to manually set password on the wp-admin page but did not work, this plugins work, but with some bugs. First GUI bug, if I disable some option, it ask for password even when the user and password form not showed. And 2nd bug is with woocommerce. If I enable Protection for wp-login, when buyer logoff their account, this plugin ask for password. The only solution is disabled wp-login protection and only enable it on wp-admin page. Not perfect but this plugins work. Hope you fix the bug and get more download.

    Read on wp.org ↗

Behavioral tests

via WP Hive

Automated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3

Low memory footprint
Low page-speed impact
Runs on latest PHP + WP
No PHP errors
No JS errors
Activates cleanly
No resource errors
No external HTTP errors
Optimized database use
Frequently updated

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

  1. 2024-12-31 900+ → 800+ down after 291 days in tier
  2. 2024-03-15 1K+ → 900+ down after 1 days in tier
  3. 2024-03-14 900+ → 1K+ up after 1 days in tier
  4. 2024-03-13 1K+ → 900+ down after 1 days in tier
  5. 2024-03-12 900+ → 1K+ up after 1 days in tier
  6. 2024-03-11 1K+ → 900+ down after 1 days in tier
  7. 2024-03-10 900+ → 1K+ up after 2 days in tier
  8. 2024-03-08 1K+ → 900+ down

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

Compare head to head →

Embed this report card

Drop a live Pulse card for .htaccess Site Access Control into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/htaccess-site-access-control" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title=".htaccess Site Access Control — Plugin Pulse"></iframe>
Preview card ↗

.htaccess Site Access Control: 800+ active installs, 4.0★ (3 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-08-29. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/htaccess-site-access-control