78
Headers Security Advanced & HSTS WP
Easy security headers and a developer who actually cares about your site.
HealthyDeclining
78/100
Users appreciate the easy setup and helpful developer support despite concerns about extra headers and page speed.
Active installs
~95,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 90k+
Rating
4.9★
78 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-39%
Declining fast
654 → 402 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORdownloads down 39% vs a year ago
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
Declining fast · -39% in the last year
654/day a year ago→402/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayHeaders Security Advanced & HSTS WP is a well-regarded security headers plugin praised for its simplicity and responsive developer support, though at least one critic argues it adds unnecessary headers and may slow page load compared to a lean manual approach.
What people like
- +Easy to install and works out of the box with minimal configuration required×7
- +Effectively sets security headers and helps achieve high security scores (e.g. A+)×4
- +Saves time compared to manually editing .htaccess for security headers×3
- +Developer (Andrea) is praised for being fast, friendly, and helpful with support×5
- +Configurable enough to fine-tune individual header parameters
Common complaints
- −Critic argues the plugin adds unnecessary headers that serve no real purpose
- −Reported to slow down page load
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.85★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.90★
- 5%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-07-202025-01-102026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 78 total
Latest reviews · 78 analyzed
- 2026-04-14★★★★★Adds too much and slows the pageloadmesmer7
- 2026-01-09★★★★★Fantastic!Ben
- 2025-11-28★★★★★AwesomeElsBer
- 2025-11-28★★★★★Great plugin and supportFantou
- 2025-11-25★★★★★Great plugin and even better developer!boxhamster
- 2025-11-19★★★★★Great plugin, a must havepikapower
- 2025-11-06★★★★★A must for all WP sitese_guardia
- 2025-09-20★★★★★Awesome!openitmvergara1-shot
- 2025-08-27★★★★★PerfectPirenko
- 2025-08-24★★★★★Excellent PluginAussiesj
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to Headers Security Advanced & HSTS WP
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.
335
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
406
Prior 7-day baseline
216
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
1,446
Mean release-day peak (30d)
354
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-17.5%
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.
10%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
0.93
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
92%
5★ share in analyzed sample
5%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
-75%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.86 → 4.85★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered