70
NinjaScanner – Virus & Malware scan
It finds the bad guys but often gets stuck at the finish line.
HealthyDeclining
70/100
Useful security features are frequently undermined by technical issues that cause scans to hang.
Active installs
~35,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 30k+
Rating
4.1★
35 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
-8%
Declining
233 → 215 installs/day
What to watch out for
- MINORreviews unevenly distributed over time
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 · -8% in the last year
233/day a year ago→215/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayNinjaScanner is a well-regarded free malware scanner that pairs naturally with NinjaFirewall, but it is significantly undermined by a persistent and widespread issue where scans hang or fail to complete at various steps.
What people like
- +Effectively detects injected/malicious files and helped users clean hacked sites×4
- +Free version is considered genuinely useful and not artificially crippled compared to Pro×2
- +Works well alongside NinjaFirewall as a complementary security stack×4
- +Low false-positive rate on core files, with accurate file-integrity comparison against repo
- +Considered easy to use and configure×2
Common complaints
- −Scans frequently hang or get stuck mid-process at various steps (e.g. step 7/14, 12/14, 13/14), often never completing×8
- −Scan performance is slow even when it does run
- −Plugin failed to detect obvious malware on a visibly compromised site
- −Support topics are closed without resolution, leaving users with no recourse×3
- −Reliability has degraded over time — users who previously liked it report it no longer works
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.06★Verified rating — holds steady vs the raw 4.10★
- 6%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-09-182025-02-092026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 35 total
Latest reviews · 35 analyzed
- 2026-05-08★★★★★Never completesBlogCampExperience
- 2026-03-31★★★★★Doesn't workGennady Kurushin
- 2025-10-15★★★★★Scan stucks….malthead
- 2025-10-01★★★★★Helped me a lot with malware scanatmadja
- 2025-09-05★★★★★gets stuck at step 13jupiter8
- 2025-08-27★★★★★NinjaScanner Gets Stuck at Step 12/14 – Cannot Complete Scansplanetoid
- 2025-02-20★★★★★Must havesysstem
- 2025-02-10★★★★★Plugin RatingKrzysztof
- 2024-08-02★★★★★This plugin never workscodetoons
- 2024-05-22★★★★★Used to be great, no longer workseverythingred
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNAlternatives to NinjaScanner
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.
277
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
215
Prior 7-day baseline
200
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
712
Mean release-day peak (30d)
262
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
+28.8%
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.
15%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
1.68
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
74%
5★ share in analyzed sample
6%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
-50%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.11 → 4.06★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered