WP Activity Log vs Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning

Monitor activity on your WordPress sites and get clear insights into what’s happening with detailed user and event logging. Keep WordPress logs of everything that happens on your sites and multisite networks with WP Activity Log instantly, without writing a line of code. Easily detect suspicious activity on your WordPress site before it escalates Record failed login attempts to detect potential security breaches and strengthen site protection Track user logins and logouts to ensure SLAs are consistently met Monitor user activity and productivity to boost accountability Know exactly what all your users are doing in real time Know what happened before an outage for faster, easier troubleshooting Ensure compliance with regulations and standards like GDPR and PCI DSS Better manage & organize your site and users for smoother operations Simple setup ensures you start benefiting quickly and easily WP Activity Log is a complete logging solution, helping hundreds of thousands of administrators and security professionals track changes on their websites thanks to real-time user activity monitoring. 💎 Need more extensive features? Unlock advanced reporting, exports/mirroring, session management, and real-time alerts with WP Activity Log premium or enterprise. What WordPress changes WP Activity Log tracks A website activity log is important for improving troubleshooting, compliance, user management, and security. Get WP Activity Log and keep track of events on your site. The log not only tells you that a post, a user profile, or an object was updated, it also lets you know exactly what changed, when, and includes a user log (by whom), so you always have the information you need. Below is a summary of the changes that the plugin can keep a record of: Post, page, and custom post type changes: Status, content changes, title, URL, custom field, and other metadata changes Tags and category changes: Creating, modifying, deleting, and adding/removing them from posts Widget and menu changes: Creating, modifying, or deleting them User changes: User created or registered, deleted, or added to a site on multisite network User profile changes: Password, email, display name, and role changes Access logging: User login, logout, failed logins, and terminating other sessions WordPress core and settings changes: Installed updates, permalinks, default role, URL, and other site-wide changes WordPress multisite network changes: Adding, deleting, or archiving sites, adding or removing users from sites, etc. Plugin and Theme changes: Installing, activating, deactivating, uninstalling, and updating WordPress database changes: When a plugin adds or removes a table Third-party plugin changes: WooCommerce Stores & products, Yoast SEO, RankMath, Termly, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), MainWP, ManageWP, WP Umbrella, and other popular WordPress plugins WordPress site file changes: New files added, or existing files modified or deleted. Event details recorded Detailed event logging ensures that for every event that the plugin records, it reports the: Date & time (and milliseconds) of when it happened User & role of the user who did the change Source IP address from where the change happened The object on which the change has taken place Refer to WordPress activity log event IDs for a complete list of all the changes WP Activity Log can keep a record of and a detailed explanation of what change every event ID represents. 💎 Upgrade to WP Activity Log Premium and get even more The premium edition of WP Activity Log takes WordPress user activity tracking to the next level. It comes bundled with even more features, including log mirroring, enterprise-grade support, user session management, and much more! Premium features list See who is logged in and monitor their current activities in real-time Log off any user at the click of a button Generate fully-configurable HTML and CSV reports for easy data analysis Receive email, SMS, and Slack notifications for important changes (fully configurable) Use search filters to fine-tune results and find what you need in seconds Store the activity logs in an external database to enhance security and scalability Mirror the activity log to log management systems such as AWS CloudWatch, Loggly, Papertrail, and others in real-time Mirror the logs to business communication systems like Slack Send a copy of your website’s activity log to a log file on your web server Archive old activity log data to another database for improved storage and log management Add notes to activity log entries for better context and internal documentation Refer to the WP Activity Log plugin features and benefits page to learn more about the benefits of upgrading to WP Activity Log Premium. 🔌 WP Activity Log third-party plugin support All WP Activity Log editions include activity tracking for third-party plugins, including (in alphabetical order): Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) – Log changes to post types, taxonomies, and taxonomy terms bbPress – Track changes to forums, topics, and bbPress settings Gravity Forms – Track changes to Gravity Forms settings, forms, and entries (leads) LearnDash – Track changes to courses, lessons, and other system changes, as well as student activity such as course, lesson, and quiz enrollments and completions. MemberPress – Log changes to plugin settings, memberships, payments, subscriptions, and other actions Multisite & management tools – Track changes across your network for MainWP, ManageWP, Modular DS, Infinite WP, WP Umbrella, WP Remote, and other multisite management plugins Paid Membership Pro – Log changes to membership levels, user assignments, and more. Premium users can also track order and checkout activity, and access a Members Activity panel inside each member’s profile for instant visibility into recent actions. RankMath – Log changes to RankMath settings, SEO configurations, and on-page SEO edits Redirection – Keep a log of changes to redirections and redirection groups Termly – Log changes to Termly settings and configurations WooCommerce – Keep a log of changes to store settings, orders, products, coupons, and more WPForms – Log changes to WPForms settings, forms, form files, and entries (leads) Yoast SEO – Track changes to Yoast SEO settings and on-page SEO in the Yoast SEO meta box Extra Features for Enhanced Monitoring and Management Both free and premium editions of WP Activity Log include a number of non-logging specific features that make the plugin a complete WordPress monitoring solution. Here is what is included: Free Built-in support for reverse proxies and web application firewalls Integration with WhatIsMyIpAddress.com – get all information about an IP address with a single click Limit who can view the WordPress activity log by users or roles Enable or disable individual event IDs from the activity log Configurable dashboard widget highlighting the most recent critical activity Configurable WordPress activity log retention policies Display user avatars in events for better recognizability And much more! Premium Everything that’s included in the Free edition, plus: Full WordPress multisite support Create custom alerts & notifications to monitor additional functionality Import and export plugin settings Real-time activity log visible in the WordPress admin toolbar And much more! 🛠️ Free and premium plugin support If you encounter any issues with the free edition of WP Activity Log, you can post and get help on the WordPress.org support forums. You can also find more technical information and plugin documentation on the Melapress knowledge base. Premium plugins include a full year of free updates and dedicated one-to-one premium email support. This means you get direct access to our support team who will assist you with any questions or issues related to the plugins. As featured on: Kinsta Pagely Shout Me Loud The Dev Couple WPKube Techwibe Tidy Repo KitPloit and many others. MAINTAINED & SUPPORTED BY MELAPRESS Melapress develops high-quality WordPress management and security plugins such as Melapress Login Security, WP 2FA, and Melapress Role Editor. Browse our list of WordPress security and administration plugins to see how our plugins can help you better manage and improve the security and administration of your WordPress websites and users. Installing WP Activity Log Install WP Activity Log from within WordPress Visit ‘Plugins > Add New’ Search for ‘WP Activity Log’ Install and activate the WP Activity Log plugin Allow or skip diagnostic tracking Install WP Activity Log manually Extract the plugin ZIP file and upload it to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory Activate the WP Activity Log plugin from the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress Allow or skip diagnostic tracking

Most security plugins hand you a dashboard full of alerts and expect you to know what to do next. Shield works differently. It blocks threats automatically, repairs what it can on its own, and then shows you exactly what still needs your attention — ranked by impact, not volume. Less noise. More action. 🤖 Security That Runs Itself The most powerful thing Shield does is what it handles without you: Automatic IP Blocking — every visitor is quietly scored as they interact with your site. Failed logins, firewall blocks, silentCAPTCHA failures, and other signals accumulate into a reputation score. When a visitor’s score crosses the threshold, Shield blocks them — automatically, without you lifting a finger Automatic File Repair — when a file integrity scan finds a changed WordPress core file, Shield pulls the original from WordPress.org and restores it. Detected and fixed, without waiting for you to act Automatic Bot Recognition — Shield identifies legitimate crawlers (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Apple) and known services (ManageWP, Pingdom, Stripe, CloudFlare) and never blocks them. Your SEO and monitoring tools keep working 🧭 Guided Security, Not Just a Dashboard Shield organises your security into four focused areas so you always know where to look: Queue — things that need your attention, ranked by priority. Not everything at once — just what matters right now Investigate — dig into blocked IPs, security events, and the specific signals that triggered each one Configure — guided setup for each protection area, with clear recommendations matched to your site Reports — a clear view of what Shield has blocked, detected, and repaired over time The goal: guide you quickly towards action, not bury you in data. 🛡️ Free Protection Bot Blocking & Firewall silentCAPTCHA — blocks bad bots on login, registration, lost password, and comment forms using passive signals invisible to real visitors. No CAPTCHA keys. No external requests. No JavaScript that breaks your forms. Everything runs on your server (GDPR friendly). Firewall rules blocking common WordPress attack patterns — SQL injection probes, known exploit signatures, suspicious request parameters XML-RPC protection — disable or restrict entirely, including pingbacks and trackbacks REST API firewall — block unauthenticated requests Fake crawler detection — identifies bots spoofing legitimate search engines Login & Account Security Two-factor authentication (2FA) — email codes, Google Authenticator, or YubiKey OTP for all users Brute force protection with configurable login attempt limits and cooldown Session locking — tie sessions to a browser or IP to stop account theft after a successful login User enumeration blocking — closes off ?author= probes used to harvest usernames before an attack Scanning & Integrity Core file scanning — compares WordPress core against official checksums and repairs changed files automatically Suspicious PHP detection — flags PHP files in locations where they have no business being Abandoned plugin detection — identifies unmaintained plugins most likely to carry unpatched vulnerabilities Visibility & Control Security Admin PIN — lock Shield’s own settings so other administrators cannot quietly weaken your configuration Security activity log — logins, user changes, plugin and theme events, post edits, and suspicious requests: Everything in one clear view IP Rules — automatic & manual block and bypass rules, CIDR range support, full per-IP request history 🤝 CrowdSec Integration Shield is the only WordPress security plugin with a native CrowdSec integration. CrowdSec aggregates threat signals from millions of sites into a shared IP reputation network — your site blocks known attackers before they ever probe you, using intelligence far beyond your own traffic history. ✨ ShieldPRO Passkeys — phishing-resistant, passwordless login for users Backup login codes — emergency 2FA access when a device is lost AI-based malware scanner — detects known and unknown PHP malware Plugin & theme file scanning — compares installed files against WordPress.org originals, flagging unauthorised changes Vulnerability scanning — active checks across all installed plugins and themes Broader spam protection — WooCommerce, EDD, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, Elementor, and more Traffic rate limiting — cap request rates per IP to absorb high-volume bot floods User suspension — manual or automatic suspension of idle accounts MainWP integration White Label — rename and rebrand Shield for client sites Who It’s For Shield suits site owners, agencies, and MSPs who want protection that runs itself — not a plugin that demands constant attention to be useful. If you have been burned by security plugins that generate more noise than protection, or dashboards that tell you everything is wrong without telling you what to fix, Shield was built to be the alternative.