Banhammer — WordPress Security Plugin
Banhammer – Monitor Site Traffic, Block Bad Users and Bots
by Jeff Starr · WordPress.org page · Website
Banhammer has 1,000+ active installs on WordPress.org and 52,961 downloads all time. We have tracked it since September 4, 2026; download trends appear after 30 days of data. The last update was on August 9, 2026, tested up to WordPress 7.1.
Banhammer at a glance
Is Banhammer well maintained?
Features
The feature list from the plugin's own readme on WordPress.org, trimmed to the essentials.
- Ban or Warn any WP user or IP address
- Restore access to any banned targets
- Monitor site traffic in the Armory
- Monitor logged users in the Admin Area
- Monitor all visitors on the front-end
- Manage banned targets in the Tower
- Complete Ajax-powered navigation
- Useful tools like jump, sort, search
- Complete documentation via Help tab
- Automatically clear logged data
- Sound effects for Ban, Warn, et al
- NEW: manually block any IP address
Banhammer reviews and ratings
19 reviews on WordPress.org, with the most recent ones as their authors posted them.
19 reviews
- 5★
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13
- 4★
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1
- 3★
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5
- 2★
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0
- 1★
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0
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Support is on their game.
I contacted support (Jeff) when my site was attacked by bots. He responded in a timely manner, which I really appreciated.
countdavid -
Awesome Sauce!
Installs and configures very easy. Works like a champ! Love the way it's broken down between the Armory and the Tower! Easy to monitor and see what's happening or to look back at who's banned and easily change their status if needed. Very pleased and would highly recommend this plugin to anyone needing the extra security.
sadduck -
Free version is excellent, Pro is not very good
The free version is very good. It is more fun than processing your server logs on command line. The Pro version is difficult to work with because it doesn't have a search on the Tower. It also over whitelist many IPs that can be bad bots. I caught already a couple in less than one day. Also you cannot block useragents if they come under a proxy, the best you can do is copy and paste to something else that can block any useragent, like the excellent BBQ Pro. Manage on Tower sends you to the Tower but not the specific item, which you can't find because no search on Tower.But free version is very very good.
90demi -
Excellent plugin
I use this plugin daily - it works FLAWLESSLY!
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Love this & all Jeff’s plugins
This is an awesome plugin, and like all Jeff’s plugins, beautifully crafted. But I do agree that a version that works with full-page caching would be awesome—as things stand, I can’t use it with my site. But it fulfills a big need, so I am looking forward to Jeff figuring out how to make this possible :)
ericbonetti2017 -
Not compatible with cache plugins
I bought the multi-site pro version. I think that Banhammer should be improved to be fully compatible with all cache plugins. Everybody use cache plugins for wordpress.
zepolo
Banhammer alternatives
Plugins that solve the same problem, ranked by how closely they overlap with Banhammer.
-
APCu Manager 10,000+ installs · 4.6 -
Shield Security 30,000+ installs · 4.8 -
Login No Captcha reCAPTCHA 60,000+ installs · 4.5
Details
Monitor traffic and ban unwanted visitors. Block any user or IP address so they can't access your site.
The full description, screenshots and every review live on the WordPress.org page.
Rankings Banhammer competes in
Tags
- ban
- block
- bots
- monitor
- security
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- Version
- 3.5.3
- Last updated
- Aug 9, 2026
- First published
- Jan 19, 2018
- Requires WordPress
- 4.7
- Tested up to
- 7.1
- Requires PHP
- 5.6.20
- Pricing
- Free on WordPress.org
Banhammer FAQ
What does Banhammer do?
According to its WordPress.org readme, Banhammer offers Ban or Warn any WP user or IP address, Restore access to any banned targets, Monitor site traffic in the Armory, Monitor logged users in the Admin Area and Monitor all visitors on the front-end.
How many active installs does Banhammer have?
WordPress.org reports 1,000+ active installs for Banhammer as of September 7, 2026.
Is Banhammer still maintained?
Yes. The last release was on August 9, 2026 and it is tested up to WordPress 7.1.
Is Banhammer free?
Banhammer is free to install from WordPress.org. Many plugins also sell a paid version or add-ons.