Site Add-on Watchdog vs SiteSignal

Site Add-on Watchdog keeps an eye on your site’s plugins and warns you when: Your installed version is two or more minor releases behind the directory build. The official changelog mentions security or vulnerability fixes. (Optional) WPScan lists open CVEs for the plugin when you provide your own API key. The plugin runs on a schedule you control—choose daily, weekly, a twenty-minute testing cadence, or rely on manual scans—and stores results locally. To compare public versions and changelogs, Watchdog sends one plugin slug at a time to WordPress.org and caches the response. WPScan lookups and outgoing notifications remain opt-in. Privacy first Risk processing and storage stay on your site; Watchdog does not send telemetry, site content, or user data. WordPress.org receives one request for each installed plugin slug so Watchdog can retrieve public version and changelog data. WPScan receives one plugin-slug lookup at a time only when you add your personal API token. Notification channels are opt-in and send the detected plugin risks to the destinations you configure. External services Watchdog uses the following external services under the stated conditions: WordPress.org Plugin API (required for directory comparisons): During a scan, Watchdog sends each installed plugin slug separately to retrieve its public version and changelog. No site content or user data is included. See the WordPress.org service and privacy policy. WPScan API (optional): When you save a WPScan API token, Watchdog sends that token as authorization and submits one plugin slug at a time to retrieve vulnerability records. See WPScan, its terms, and the applicable Automattic privacy policy. Notification destinations (optional): When you enable Email, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or a custom webhook, Watchdog sends the alert to the address you configure. Alerts can include plugin names, installed and available versions, risk or vulnerability details, and links back to your WordPress administration area. Those transmissions are governed by your mail provider or destination service; review the applicable policies for Discord (privacy), Slack (privacy), or Microsoft (privacy). Admin tools Focused dashboard with risk summaries, searchable history, delivery health, and manual actions. Ignore list to suppress noisy plugins. Validated notification settings with a save-and-test action for every channel. Notifications Email: send to one or more recipients separated by commas, semicolons, or spaces; site administrators are always included. Discord: post to a channel via webhook. Slack: connect via an incoming webhook to post alerts into any workspace channel. Microsoft Teams: send notices through Teams Workflows or an existing Incoming Webhook connector. Generic webhook: post JSON payload to any endpoint you control, with optional HMAC signatures. Failed deliveries are logged and highlighted on the Watchdog admin screen so you can reconfigure or resend manually. Troubleshooting Scheduled scans are not running Watchdog relies on WP-Cron to trigger scheduled scans and notifications. If you have set DISABLE_WP_CRON to true or your site receives very little traffic (so WP-Cron rarely runs), configure a system cron job to call either wp-cron.php or the plugin’s REST endpoint. The admin Delivery health panel shows the endpoint and generated secret. Send the secret in an HTTP header so it does not appear in access logs; a typical example looks like this: curl -X POST -H "X-Watchdog-Cron-Key: YOUR_GENERATED_SECRET" https://example.com/wp-json/site-add-on-watchdog/v1/cron Testing-mode notifications also rely on this trigger, so be sure your cron job is running when validating delivery. CLI Usage Watchdog bundles a WP-CLI command so you can run scans outside of the WordPress admin. All examples below assume the command is executed from a shell where wp (WP-CLI) is available. wp watchdog scan [--notify= ] --notify (optional): Accepts true or false (defaults to true). When set to false, Watchdog will skip any configured email or webhook notifications and only record the scan locally. Examples: Run a scan and send notifications (default): wp watchdog scan Run a scan silently (skip notifications): wp watchdog scan --notify=false Recommended workflow: on CI/CD platforms, add a job step that boots your WordPress/WP-CLI container, runs pending database migrations if needed, and then calls wp watchdog scan --notify=false to verify the plugin state without spamming production channels. Promote to production by rerunning the same command with notifications enabled when you are ready to alert your team. Development The development repository is available on GitHub: https://github.com/happyloa/site-add-on-watchdog. Clone it locally to review the source or run the test suite.

SiteSignal is an AI Visibility & Website Health Platform designed to help organisations understand how their brand is represented by AI systems and maintain the technical clarity, stability, and reliability those systems rely on. SiteSignal unifies five core areas: – AI Visibility — how often and how accurately AI systems mention your brand – AI Visibility Strategy — insights and recommendations for improving visibility – Website Health — foundational structural and technical signals – Website Performance — speed, stability, and reliability – Technical Audits — continuous assessment of clarity, structure, metadata, and discoverability factors The SiteSignal WordPress plugin acts as a secure data connection between your website and the SiteSignal platform. It collects verified technical, structural, security, and performance signals from your site and transmits them to your SiteSignal dashboard for continuous analysis and monitoring. Through this plugin, SiteSignal is able to: – Monitor foundational website health signals – Track performance stability and availability – Validate structural clarity and technical integrity – Support continuous technical audits – Ensure accurate and consistent data for AI visibility analysis The plugin does not perform optimisation, marketing actions, or visibility manipulation. Its role is strictly to provide reliable technical data that powers analysis inside the SiteSignal platform. External Services: This plugin connects to external services including ip-api.com for IP geolocation, api.wordpress.org for WordPress core information, and api.github.com for enhanced plugin analysis. See the “External Services” section below for complete details about data transmission and privacy. Key Features Login Monitoring – Track successful and failed login attempts with detailed information including IP addresses, user agents, and geographic data WordPress Core Status – Monitor WordPress version and check for available updates Plugin Monitoring – Track active plugins, their versions, and available updates with intermediate version information Theme Monitoring – Monitor active theme status and available updates File Integrity Checking – Verify WordPress core files against official checksums to detect unauthorized modifications WooCommerce Integration – Monitor recent orders when WooCommerce is active REST API Support – External access to monitoring data via secure API endpoints Sync Functionality – Incremental data synchronization with external monitoring systems Security Features API key verification with external monitoring systems Secure authentication for REST API endpoints Input sanitization and validation File integrity monitoring with checksum verification Login attempt tracking with geographic information Nonce protection for form submissions REST API Endpoints When an API key is configured, the following endpoints are available: /wp-site-monitor/v1/site-info – General site information /wp-site-monitor/v1/logins – Login attempt logs /wp-site-monitor/v1/logins/sync – Incremental login data sync /wp-site-monitor/v1/core-version – WordPress core version status /wp-site-monitor/v1/plugins – Active plugins information /wp-site-monitor/v1/themes – Theme information /wp-site-monitor/v1/integrity – File integrity check results /wp-site-monitor/v1/orders – WooCommerce orders (if WooCommerce is active) Use Cases Website Security Monitoring – Track login attempts and detect suspicious activity Maintenance Management – Monitor WordPress core, plugin, and theme updates across multiple sites File Integrity Verification – Detect unauthorized changes to WordPress core files External Monitoring Integration – Connect with external monitoring systems via REST API WooCommerce Store Monitoring – Keep track of recent orders and store activity Requirements WordPress 5.0 or higher PHP 7.4 or higher Optional: WooCommerce plugin for order monitoring features External Services This plugin connects to the following external services to provide its functionality: IP Geolocation Service (ip-api.com) Purpose: Obtain geographical location information for login monitoring and security analysis Data sent: User’s IP address only When: Each time a user logs in to your WordPress site (if geolocation is enabled) Frequency: Once per login attempt Data retention: This plugin does not store data from this service permanently Privacy Policy: http://ip-api.com/docs/legal Terms of Service: http://ip-api.com/docs/legal User Control: Site administrators can disable geolocation in plugin settings WordPress Core API (api.wordpress.org) Purpose: Check for available WordPress core updates, plugin information, and core file checksums Data sent: Current WordPress version, site URL (as User-Agent header), plugin slugs, and locale information When: During scheduled update checks and plugin analysis (typically daily) Frequency: Multiple times per day during normal plugin operation Data retention: This plugin does not store data from this service permanently Privacy Policy: https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/ Terms of Service: https://wordpress.org/about/gpl/ User Control: This is essential for plugin functionality and cannot be disabled GitHub API (api.github.com) Purpose: Analyze plugin update information from GitHub repositories for enhanced update type detection Data sent: Repository information and release data requests When: During plugin update analysis (when available) Frequency: During plugin update checks (typically daily) Data retention: This plugin caches repository information temporarily (24 hours) Privacy Policy: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies/github-privacy-statement Terms of Service: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service User Control: This is part of the enhanced plugin analysis feature Data Handling and Privacy Local Storage: All monitoring data is stored locally in your WordPress database No Personal Data: The plugin does not collect personal user information beyond what’s necessary for monitoring Data Retention: Login logs are automatically deleted based on your configured retention period (default: 90 days) External Transmission: Data is only sent to external services as described above User Rights: Site administrators can clear all plugin data at any time GDPR Compliance This plugin respects user privacy and GDPR guidelines: * IP address geolocation is optional and can be disabled * Login monitoring data is stored locally and automatically purged * No personal data is transmitted to external services beyond IP addresses for geolocation * Users can request deletion of their monitoring data through the site administrator Disabling External Services Geolocation: Can be disabled in plugin settings (Settings > Geolocation) WordPress API: Cannot be disabled as it’s essential for core functionality GitHub API: Used automatically when available, no separate disable option Privacy Policy Data Collection SiteSignal collects and stores the following information locally in your WordPress database: Login Attempts: Usernames, IP addresses, user agents, timestamps, and login success/failure status System Information: WordPress version, plugin/theme information, file checksums WooCommerce Data: Order information if WooCommerce is active (order IDs, customer names, amounts, status) External Services This plugin connects to external services as detailed in the “External Services” section above: * IP geolocation via ip-api.com (optional) * WordPress core information via api.wordpress.org (required) * GitHub repository analysis via api.github.com (automatic) Data Retention Login logs are automatically deleted based on your configured retention period (default: 90 days) System monitoring data is refreshed during each check External service data is not stored permanently User Rights Site administrators can clear all plugin data at any time Geolocation can be disabled in plugin settings Users can request deletion of their login attempt data through the site administrator GDPR Compliance This plugin respects user privacy and follows GDPR guidelines. No personal data is transmitted to external services except IP addresses for optional geolocation purposes.