htaccess protect — WordPress Security Plugin
by zoltanlaczko · WordPress.org page · Website
htaccess protect has 800+ active installs on WordPress.org and 11,179 downloads all time. We have tracked it since September 4, 2026; download trends appear after 30 days of data. The last update was on January 23, 2022, tested up to WordPress 5.9.16.
htaccess protect at a glance
Is htaccess protect well maintained?
Features
The feature list from the plugin's own readme on WordPress.org, trimmed to the essentials.
- Enabling/disabling the password protection to wp-login.php, WordPress admin pages
- Modifying the existing users: you can change any .htaccess user’s password and remove the users
- Create/modify an unlimited number of .htaccess users
- Protect your whole site, making it accessible to only those who have the .htaccess user
htaccess protect reviews and ratings
6 reviews on WordPress.org, with the most recent ones as their authors posted them.
6 reviews
- 5★
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4
- 4★
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0
- 3★
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0
- 2★
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0
- 1★
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2
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it works
i dont know others but it works fine for me i just tried with wordpress 6.0 I recommend people to use this plugin if you have and know how to edit your ftp files ! if your server configuration has issues this plugin will have too... it is a simple but powerfull plugin.
sinanisler -
It doesn't work
the plugin used to work, not anymore.
reverseflash -
Does what it says on the tin
This is the first http pass plugin of several I had to sift through which actually does what you'd expect from a http password plugin. Provides simple, complete site-wide password protection. For me this is a very helpful tool to quickly block public access to staging and dev sites without having to manually create a pass file which I have to remember to delete before migration etc... Thank you to the dev for keeping it straight forward, the way tools should be.
BigupJeff -
Sorry, but problematic!
When working on websites, I like to add a site-wide password to stop user and search engines accessing the site during that period. I normally use another plugin for this, but it had not been updated for 6 months and on WP5.7 was causing the (known) issue of misreporting that there was an https issue with the site when doing a health check. So I decided to go with this one. At first I thought it would do the job, but when I went to check the site health, I got into the loop of it constantly asking for user/password. I enabled the (supposed) fix for this and then tried again - but same issue. At this point I decided to deactivate/uninstall the plugin - that did not help and the site was still asking for the password, but least at this point I could still access the site. I reinstalled - disabled everything and removed the user thinking that would fix it - now it was even worse. I was still asked for user/pw but now it was not recognised - basically I had been locked out of the site completely. The only fix was to ftp in, download the .htaccess file and manually remove the authentication section added by this plugin and re-upload it. Not sure what has been left in the file structure / db, but at least I am back in and have gone back to the original plugin. What is even worse, is that this plugin also causes the same https error when checking on site health. So it was all for nothing anyway... Needs some more work guys! Cheers, Mark. PS. If you do fix these issues and want me to give it another go - of course I will be happy to do so and will happily up the grading accordingly :-)
markc369 -
Simple enough! :)
Thanks for keeping it simple.
Manoj Kumar -
Great
Simple and great. Thank you for your work
szaboi
Details
htaccess protect - Protect your wordpress login or admin pages with password.
The full description, screenshots and every review live on the WordPress.org page.
Rankings htaccess protect competes in
Tags
- htaccess
- htpasswd
- protect
- protection
- security
- Version
- 0.7.0
- Last updated
- Jan 23, 2022
- First published
- May 29, 2020
- Requires WordPress
- 5.0
- Tested up to
- 5.9.16
- Requires PHP
- 5.6
- Pricing
- Free on WordPress.org
htaccess protect FAQ
What does htaccess protect do?
According to its WordPress.org readme, htaccess protect offers Enabling/disabling the password protection to wp-login.php, WordPress admin pages, Modifying the existing users: you can change any .htaccess user’s password and remove the users, Create/modify an unlimited number of .htaccess users and Protect your whole site, making it accessible to only those who have the .htaccess user.
How many active installs does htaccess protect have?
WordPress.org reports 800+ active installs for htaccess protect as of September 7, 2026.
Is htaccess protect still maintained?
The last release was on January 23, 2022, more than a year ago. WordPress.org shows a warning on plugins that go this long without an update.
Is htaccess protect free?
htaccess protect is free to install from WordPress.org. Many plugins also sell a paid version or add-ons.