75
Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files
Solid media protection that feels a bit stingy in its free form.
HealthyGrowing
75/100
The plugin offers useful media protection but suffers from a limited free tier and compatibility issues.
Active installs
~15,000
our estimate · wp.org shows 10k+
Rating
4.7★
292 ratings
Trend · vs a year ago
+60%
Growing fast
89 → 142 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 · +60% in the last year
89/day a year ago→142/day today
Reviews
what people actually sayPrevent Direct Access is seen as a useful tool for protecting media files with responsive support, but users frequently criticize its limited free features, broken protection, compatibility problems, and poor UI.
What people like
- +Responsive and helpful support team×2
- +Enables bulk redirection and protection of media files for developers
Common complaints
- −Many core features are locked behind paid upgrades, limiting functionality in the free version
- −Does not work with Nginx and can cause 404 errors for editors
- −Protection fails to block access to uploaded files; files remain publicly reachable
- −User interface is unintuitive and protection settings do not persist after saving×2
- −Conflicts with WooCommerce payment plugins, leading to 500 server errors
- −Only protects media files; does not protect pages or posts without additional paid extension
- −License activation for extensions fails and support response is slow
- −Onboarding and refund processes are cumbersome and time-consuming
Review trustReviews look organic
- 4.25★Verified rating — drops from 4.70★ once one-shot reviewers are removed
- 26%One-shot reviewers — most reviewers are active community members
Reviews per month · 5★ vs lower
2023-10-182025-02-092026-06-04
5★ reviews1–4★ reviews
All-time ratings · 292 total
Latest reviews · 90 analyzed
- 2026-02-17★★★★★Great protectionWild
- 2026-02-11★★★★★Free Version barely usablexsonic
- 2025-11-27★★★★★I'm completely impressed…rycreat101-shot
- 2025-09-26★★★★★Great supportmorrischapman
- 2025-07-29★★★★★Excellent Support for a Custom Solutionsasha49
- 2025-07-23★★★★★團隊的後續技術支持很到位danfor1-shot
- 2025-05-09★★★★★Avoid free versionSimon Pollard
- 2025-02-05★★★★★not working here :(hmich
- 2025-01-11★★★★★Plugin fantasticobaritono
- 2025-01-08★★★★★Great support and works superbly!Design CoCreative
Releases
recent versions from WordPress.org SVNFor 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.
141
Baseline · median of last 7 organic days
184
Prior 7-day baseline
95
Floor · 25th percentile over 14 days
1,420
Mean release-day peak (30d)
120
Latest day · 2026-06-03(organic)
-23.4%
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.
13%
Max month share · biggest single 30-day window
1.25
Distribution CV · <0.6 even, >1.5 bursty
83%
5★ share in analyzed sample
26%
Solo reviewers · only this one wp.org activity
-50%
Volume velocity · last 6mo vs prior 6mo
4.44 → 4.25★
Sample avg · raw → solo-filtered