Activity Log – Monitor & Record User Changes vs Activity Guard – Security Scanner, Activity Log with IP blocking

An easy to use, fully supported WordPress activity log plugin. Want to know exactly who does what on your WordPress site? Activity Log works like an airplane’s black box: it quietly records every action in the WordPress admin — and now every request made through the REST API, WP-CLI, WP-Cron, and more — so you always know: If someone is trying to hack your site When a post was published, and who published it If a plugin/theme was activated/deactivated Suspicious admin activity The plugin doesn’t require any setup; it works right out of the box, runs on its own database table so it doesn’t slow down your site, and stays out of your way until you need it. What’s New Request Source Tracking – See exactly where each change came from: the WP Admin, the REST API, WP-CLI, WP-Cron, XML-RPC, or the WP Abilities API, including which Application Password was used. Filter the log by source to quickly spot automated or API-driven changes alongside manual admin activity. Email Logging – Capture all emails sent from your WordPress site for streamlined debugging and compliance. Especially useful for WooCommerce stores tracking order emails alongside other site events. Export to CSV – Export your Activity Log data to CSV, or build support for your own format with our dedicated Export API. Data Privacy and GDPR Compliance – Export or erase log data directly through the WordPress Privacy Tools. If you have more than a handful of users, keeping track of who did what by hand is virtually impossible. Activity Log solves that by tying every action back to the user who triggered it, in an easy-to-filter view right on your WordPress dashboard. With the Activity Log you can record: WordPress – Core updates Posts – Created, updated, deleted Pages – Created, updated, deleted Custom Post Type – Created, updated, deleted Tags – Created, updated, deleted Categories – Created, updated, deleted Taxonomies – Created, updated, deleted Menus – Created, updated, deleted Media – Created, updated, deleted Comments – Created, approved, unapproved, trashed, untrashed, spammed, unspammed, deleted Users – Login, logout, login failed, update profile, registered, deleted Plugins – Installed, updated, activated, deactivated, changed Themes – Installed, updated, deleted, activated, changed (Editor and Customizer) Widgets – Added to sidebar, deleted from sidebar, order widgets Setting – General, writing, reading, discussion, media, permalinks Options – Extended custom settings for 3rd party plugins Export – Exported activity log file Request Source – WP Admin, REST API, WP-CLI, WP-Cron, XML-RPC, WP Abilities, and Application Password name when used WooCommerce – Track products, orders, customers, and more bbPress – Forums, topics, replies, taxonomies, and other actions Emails sent from WordPress site – Sending successful, sending failed There’s more, of course, but you get the point… For each event recorded by the activity log, the following details are also logged: Date and time of occurrence User and user role responsible for the change Source IP address from which the change originated Request source — WP Admin, REST API, WP-CLI, WP-Cron, XML-RPC, or WP Abilities Affected object where the change occurred Data Storage and Performance All events are stored in a dedicated custom database table, keeping the impact on your site’s performance to a minimum — even under heavy traffic. Uninstall Clean-up Uninstalling the plugin removes all of its data from your database automatically, leaving nothing behind. What users have to say “Its tools, particularly for data privacy and GDPR compliance, make it indispensable for websites operating within European Union boundaries or dealing with EU citizens’ data” – HubSpot.com “If you’re after a competent WP security audit log plugin with all the basic features you need, Activity Log is it!” – WPAstra.com “Activity Log features a remarkably straightforward dashboard interface, providing administrators with an at-a-glance understanding of site interactions” – Malcare.com “Thanks to this step, we’ve discovered that our site was undergoing a brute force attack” – Artdriver.com “Activity Log lets you track a huge range of activities. Overall, very easy to use and setup” – ElegantThemes.com Contributions: Would you like to contribute to this plugin? You’re more than welcome to submit your pull requests on the GitHub repo. And, if you have any notes about the code, please open a ticket on the issue tracker.

Activity Guard is a free WordPress plugin that covers four things most plugins charge separately for: a complete activity log, an IP-based security firewall, a plugin vulnerability scanner, and WooCommerce abandoned cart analytics. Alerts go out in real time to Slack, Telegram, or email, all from one dashboard. Most activity log plugins stop at logging. Most security plugins don’t touch WooCommerce. Plugins like WP Activity Log, Simple History, and Stream do logging well — Activity Guard adds real-time Slack and Telegram alerts, an IP firewall with emergency shutdown, CVE vulnerability scanning, and WooCommerce abandoned cart recovery analytics, all at no cost. No paid tier required for any of it. No other free plugin on WordPress.org combines these four in one place: a complete audit log, an IP security firewall, a multi-database vulnerability scanner, and WooCommerce analytics with cart recovery tracking. Activity Guard Website | Documentation | Pro Support WordPress Activity Log Activity Guard records every meaningful change on your site, including the IP address, username, timestamp, and the exact change made. The audit log covers: User logins, logouts, and failed login attempts User registrations, role changes, and profile edits Pages, posts, and custom post types: create, edit, delete, status changes Plugin and theme activations, deactivations, updates, and deletions WordPress core settings and configuration changes Menu, widget, and sidebar modifications Email delivery tracking via a full email log Form submissions from Contact Form 7, SimpleForm, and others Admin settings changes and debug log events Cron job scheduling and background process tracking Script modification and file change detection Visitor traffic monitoring with an on/off toggle Visual charts summarize your audit log at a glance. No need to scroll through raw log tables to understand what’s happening on your site. Security Firewall and IP Blocking Activity Guard actively blocks threats rather than just recording them. IP blocking by manual entry, CIDR range, or conditional rule Emergency Shutdown: force-logout every active session on your site with one click Cloudflare Turnstile login protection against bots and brute force attacks Login rate limiting to stop credential-stuffing Bot detection and automatic IP blocking Restrict or fully disable XML-RPC access Core file integrity scanner to detect unauthorized file changes File integrity monitoring across plugins and themes Block TOR network access Block vulnerability scanner user agents HTTP security headers: custom, logged, and enforced WordPress version hiding 404 error tracking and suspicious HTTP request alerts Admin dashboard visitor tracking Cron job failure and site downtime monitoring The Emergency Shutdown feature is specific to Activity Guard: one click and every logged-in session on your site ends immediately — useful when you detect a breach in progress and need everyone out now. Plugin Vulnerability Scanner Activity Guard scans every installed plugin and theme against multiple vulnerability databases before problems develop: Detect plugins with known CVEs across NVD, WPVulnerability.net, and the WPAzleen private API Flag outdated plugins not compatible with your WordPress version Identify abandoned plugins not updated in over a year Warn about plugins with low install counts or poor ratings No other free activity log plugin on WordPress.org includes a built-in multi-database vulnerability scanner. WooCommerce Activity Log and Analytics Activity Guard logs every WooCommerce event and adds analytics built specifically for store owners. Order tracking covers status changes, payments, refunds, and cancellations. You also get stock level changes and low-stock events, coupon creation and usage, product pricing edits, billing and shipping address updates, customer registration changes, and real-time shipping status updates. The abandoned cart and incomplete-order analytics go further than basic logging. The dashboard shows checkout drop-off rates, recovery potential, recovery rate, and how customers interact with their carts before leaving. This tells you where revenue is being lost, not just that it was lost. WooCommerce abandoned cart analytics with recovery rate tracking is included free. No competing free activity log plugin on WordPress.org provides this. Slack and Telegram Notifications Activity Guard sends alerts the moment a critical event occurs, across four channels: Slack: route alerts to any channel, tag specific users or groups with @mentions Telegram: real-time activity and security alerts direct to your Telegram chat Email: configurable per event type Admin dashboard: in-panel notification view Events that trigger alerts include core file changes, plugin and theme updates (with the username that triggered the update), WooCommerce orders, payments, coupon usage, incomplete order follow-ups, product edits, stock changes, login and registration events, page and post changes, form submissions, and admin settings changes. A daily digest and weekly plugin download summary are also available. You can schedule notifications for specific times and control exactly which events send alerts. Admin and Developer Tools Maintenance mode toggle from the dashboard Menu and widget change tracking Plugin and theme activation and deactivation logs Script modification detection HTTP security header change logging Debug log and fatal error detection Email log: full delivery history for all outgoing WordPress emails Contact Form 7 and SimpleForm integration alerts Who Uses Activity Guard WooCommerce store owners use it to track every order, coupon, product change, and shipping event, and to recover revenue with abandoned cart analytics. Site administrators use it to know exactly who changed what, instantly log out suspicious users, and maintain a clean audit trail. Agencies and developers use it to monitor plugin updates, configuration changes, fatal errors, and debug logs across client sites. Security-focused admins use it to block IPs, scan for CVEs, monitor file integrity, and trigger emergency shutdowns. Multi-author sites use it to hold contributors accountable with full user activity logging and role-change tracking. Join us: Facebook | YouTube | X / Twitter Competitor Analysis Search the WordPress plugin directory for an activity log plugin and a handful of names come up again and again, so it is worth being clear about where Activity Guard actually fits among them. WP Activity Log is the biggest name in the category, with the broadest event coverage of any activity log plugin and support for tracking third-party plugins like ACF, Gravity Forms, and LearnDash. It is a genuine alternative to Activity Guard for pure logging depth, but Slack and SMS alerts sit behind WP Activity Log Premium, and there is no IP firewall, no vulnerability scanner, and no WooCommerce analytics at any tier. Activity Guard includes Slack and Telegram alerts, an IP firewall, vulnerability scanning, and WooCommerce abandoned cart analytics in the free version, with a narrower focus on the WordPress admin rather than enterprise SIEM exports. Activity Log Pro is the closest match on structure. Its free tier also adds real security-adjacent value beyond plain logging, with Login Flood Guard and severity-tagged events, so anyone comparing the two is comparing like for like on ambition. Where Activity Guard pulls ahead is in what ships free versus what is gated: Activity Log Pro’s Slack and webhook routing live behind its Premium “Log Channels” feature, while Activity Guard’s Slack and Telegram alerts, IP blocking, vulnerability scanning, and WooCommerce cart recovery analytics are all included at no cost. Beyond those two, most of the other names that show up nearby are lighter tools solving a narrower slice of the same problem, or a different problem entirely. Activity Log – Monitor & Record User Changes (Aryo) is a lightweight, beginner-friendly logger with email-only notifications and no Slack, Telegram, IP firewall, or vulnerability scanning. Activity Logs, User Activity Tracking, Multisite Activity Log from Logtivity is built for agencies managing many client sites and does send Slack alerts, but it works by connecting each site to Logtivity’s hosted service with an API key rather than running standalone, and it has no IP firewall, no vulnerability scanner, and no WooCommerce analytics. Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal is a genuinely strong free WAF and malware scanner, but it is not an activity log at all: it does not track content edits, role changes, or WooCommerce events, and its alerts are email-only through the CleanTalk cloud account it requires. Error Log Viewer by BestWebSoft has nothing to do with user activity either, it is a PHP and WordPress error log reader with email notifications, useful for debugging but unrelated to security monitoring or audit trails. So of the plugins that show up in a “wordpress activity log” or “wp activity log alternative” search, only WP Activity Log, Activity Log Pro, Aryo Activity Log, and Logtivity are actually built for the same job as Activity Guard: tracking what changed on a WordPress site and who changed it. Among those four, Activity Guard’s combination of free Slack and Telegram alerts, an IP firewall with emergency shutdown, a CVE vulnerability scanner, and WooCommerce abandoned cart analytics, all in the free version with no external account required, is what sets it apart. External Services Slack Webhook Integration Activity Guard sends notifications to your Slack workspace using a Slack incoming webhook URL that you provide. To set one up: Create a Slack app or use an existing one Enable Incoming Webhooks in the app settings Add a webhook to your workspace Paste the webhook URL into Activity Guard settings No data is stored by Slack beyond what you configure in your own Slack workspace. See Slack’s privacy policy for details. Cloudflare Turnstile Activity Guard uses Cloudflare Turnstile for login bot protection. When Turnstile is enabled, your login page communicates with Cloudflare’s verification servers. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy for details. Plugin Vulnerability Scanner – Data Sources WordPress.org Plugin API: retrieves plugin metadata including latest version, last updated date, rating, and active install count. Privacy Policy WPAzleen API: private endpoint for known vulnerabilities by plugin and version. No sensitive data is transmitted. Privacy Policy WPVulnerability.net: public API for CVE-based vulnerability data. Privacy Policy National Vulnerability Database (NVD): official CVE data from NIST. Privacy Policy All scans run locally using public metadata and vulnerability feeds. Activity Guard does not collect, store, or transmit any personal information during scans. Freemius Activity Guard uses the Freemius SDK for optional telemetry. No data is collected by default. Data collection only starts after you explicitly confirm in the admin notice. See the Freemius privacy policy for details. WPAzleen Settings API Loads display settings for the Pro upgrade modal in the plugin admin area. No personal data is transmitted. WPAzleen Privacy Policy Source Code The source files for all compiled/minified JavaScript and CSS in this plugin are publicly available at: https://github.com/wpazleen/activity-guard Build instructions: Clone the repository or visit the src directory directly. Run npm install in the root to install dependencies. Run npm run build to compile JavaScript and CSS assets. Compiled files output to build/. Contributions, bug reports, and pull requests are welcome.