92
BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security
A tiny shield that punches way above its weight class.
HealthyGrowing
92/100
Users appreciate this lightweight firewall for its simplicity and effective bot blocking.
Active installs
~150,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 100k+
Rating
4.9★
158 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+49%
Growing fast
368 → 547 installs/day
Downloads over time
real new installs per day · release spikes shown separately from the trend2025-04-302025-08-082025-11-162026-02-232026-06-03
organicrelease spikerelease tailorganic trend · 14d rolling median
Growing fast · +49% in the last year
368/day a year ago→547/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayBBQ Firewall is well-regarded as a lightweight, effective WordPress firewall that users find easy to install and genuinely capable of stopping bot attacks, with no notable recurring complaints surfaced in current reviews.
What people like
- +Effective at blocking bots and malicious traffic, even stopping attacks that other security plugins like WordFence did not fully resolve×3
- +Simple and quick to install with minimal configuration required×4
- +Fast, responsive support from the developer×3
- +Unique, lightweight design approach suited specifically to WordPress×2
- +Free version is functional and the developer still provides attentive support to free users
Common complaints
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.91★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.90★
- 2%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-08-192025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 158 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-05-29★★★★★Outstandling Plugingroggy72
- 2026-04-23★★★★★Best firewall for WordPressQuentin Le Duff
- 2026-02-04★★★★★Top PlugInemd37
- 2025-12-26★★★★★Easy to use, not complicatedmikapin
- 2025-11-27★★★★★The Most Powerful Security Plugin – BBQ Pronebuldu
- 2025-11-24★★★★★5 stars. A fast, lightweight and highly effective firewall.pgmachtweb
- 2025-11-15★★★★★BBQ Firewall for many years on crucial sitetherinjfoundation
- 2025-08-27★★★★★Simple and efficient. “Just Works”.Ashutosh
- 2025-08-25★★★★★Outstanding supportBernhard Leube
- 2025-05-19★★★★★One of the best FREE plugins on wordpress [bonus — super PRO dev]Mihail Bogatov
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to BBQ Firewall
Top Security plugins, ranked by score.For developers & the curious
the raw signals behind the grade — none of this is on the friendly summary aboveDownload signals
Baselines are computed on organic days only — release spikes and their tails are excluded, so they're not inflated by the auto-update wave.
533
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
566
Prior 7-day baseline
398
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
533
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-5.8%
Week-over-week organic trend
Review signals
Concentration and drive-by metrics drive the review-burst and fake-review flags. 30–40% solo reviewers is normal; we only flag the extremes.
8%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
0.85
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
98%
5★ share in analyzed sample
2%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
-20%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.91 → 4.91★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered