All In One WP Security & Firewall Review

If you’re running a WordPress site and want real security without spending a dime, let me introduce you to the All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin. I’ve used it across multiple sites—personal blogs, business portfolios, even client projects—and every time, I’m impressed by how much it offers for free.

You don’t need to be a security expert or developer to use this plugin. You install it, turn on a few smart features, and instantly lock down the weak points of your WordPress site. The best part? It doesn’t overwhelm you or slow down your site like some bloated plugins.

This is a complete, honest, and detailed review—exactly what you need to decide if All In One WP Security & Firewall deserves a place on your site.

Why I Chose All In One WP Security & Firewall

I’ve tried many popular security plugins: Wordfence, iThemes Security (now Solid Security), Sucuri—you name it. But when I wanted a powerful free plugin that didn’t hide all the key features behind a paywall, All In One WP Security stood out immediately.

It focuses on site hardening, brute force protection, firewall rules, login security, and everything else you’d expect from a professional-grade plugin—without asking for your credit card.

Installation and Setup: Surprisingly Smooth

You’ll find the plugin in the WordPress repository. Just install it, activate it, and you’re good to go. From there, it adds a new “WP Security” menu to your dashboard with over a dozen tabs, each focusing on a key security area.

What I love? The Security Strength Meter. It scores your current security setup and guides you step-by-step on what to enable to improve your protection. It’s perfect if you’re not a developer but still want to feel confident managing your site’s security.

No third-party accounts. No activation codes. Just install and start protecting.

The Features That Make This Plugin Worth It

The All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin breaks down its tools into Low, Medium, and High risk features. This classification is brilliant—it helps beginners ease into more advanced protection without accidentally breaking their site.

Here’s a breakdown of the core features that stood out for me:

🔐 1. Login Security

This is one of the most targeted parts of any WordPress site—and this plugin handles it flawlessly.

Login Lockdown – Automatically blocks IPs that attempt too many failed logins.
Force Logout – Automatically logs out inactive users.
Display Login Activity – Shows who logged in, when, and from where.
Rename Login Page – Hides the default /wp-login.php to stop brute force bots.

These features alone have blocked hundreds of malicious login attempts on my sites.

🔒 2. User Account Security

This section lets you:

Detect and remove usernames like “admin”
Enforce strong passwords across user roles
Force password resets for existing users

I’ve used this to tighten security for client sites with multiple authors. One-click enforcement—no coding required.

🧱 3. Firewall Protection

Yes, this plugin has a full firewall rules system—and you control it.

Block fake Googlebots
Prevent access to readme.html, license.txt, and other risky files
Block bad query strings and suspicious user agents
Disable file editing in wp-admin
Protect against XML-RPC and REST API abuse

You can enable all these settings with simple toggles. If anything breaks, just roll it back.

🗂️ 4. File System Security

Here’s where things get serious.

It scans your file permissions and shows you which ones are too open (e.g., 777)
Lets you fix permissions with one click
Monitors for unauthorized file changes

You don’t need to use FTP or cPanel—it’s all built into the dashboard. You can even schedule file change scans to get alerts when something suspicious happens.

🔎 5. WHOIS & Blacklist Tools

Want to check where an attack is coming from? Use the built-in WHOIS lookup tool. I’ve used this to trace suspicious IPs and even block entire countries on a few occasions.

You can also manually blacklist IPs and user agents. This works beautifully for blocking known attackers or spam bots.

📜 6. Security Logs

All actions—logins, lockouts, file changes, firewall blocks—are logged and timestamped. It’s super helpful when something goes wrong, or if you want to review your site’s recent security history.

🧰 7. Database and .htaccess Backups

The plugin lets you easily back up your WordPress database and your .htaccess file. These are critical files, and having automatic backups means you’re always a step ahead of potential disasters.

You can download them locally or schedule regular backups.

💣 8. SPAM Prevention

Want to keep bots out of your comments and forms? All In One WP Security comes with:

Honeypots for comment spam
Captcha integration on login, registration, and comment forms
Disable trackbacks and pingbacks

This has helped me significantly reduce spam, especially on client blogs and content-heavy sites.

Performance Impact: Light as a Feather

One of my biggest concerns with any plugin—especially security ones—is how it affects site speed.

All In One WP Security surprised me here. It doesn’t load external services or real-time scanning (which can hog CPU). Everything it does is local, rule-based, and fast. I haven’t noticed any performance hit on shared hosting or VPS environments.

If you’re hosting on a low-resource server, this is the ideal plugin.

Pros and Cons

✅ Pros

100% free—no upsells or premium version
Beginner-friendly with Low/Medium/High risk labels
Strong login and user account security
Full firewall and .htaccess control
Regular updates and active community
No third-party API dependency
Lightweight and resource-efficient

❌ Cons

No real-time malware scanner (like Wordfence)
No cloud firewall or CDN integration
Interface could be more modern
Some features may conflict with certain themes/plugins if misconfigured

Ideal Use Cases

I’ve personally used this plugin for:

Personal blogs
WooCommerce stores
Freelance portfolios
Small business sites
Agency-managed client sites

It shines on any site where you want tight security control without paying for it. It’s especially useful if you want to avoid adding heavy plugins like Wordfence that include constant scanning and server strain.

How It Compares to Other Security Plugins

Let’s put it side by side with popular options.

🆚 Wordfence

Wordfence includes a malware scanner and firewall, but uses server resources.
All In One WP Security is lighter and more customizable via .htaccess.
Wordfence feels more hands-off; All In One gives you full control.

🆚 iThemes Security (Solid Security)

iThemes has a slicker UI and great Pro features like 2FA.
All In One WP Security includes more for free but doesn’t have 2FA or trusted device features.
iThemes is ideal for managed sites; All In One is perfect for DIY users.

🆚 Sucuri

Sucuri focuses on CDN + firewall-based protection (paid).
All In One works on your local WordPress installation, with no external APIs.
Sucuri is better for malware clean-up; All In One is better for prevention.

Final Verdict

After using the All In One WP Security & Firewall plugin on dozens of sites, here’s my honest takeaway:

If you want a free, full-featured, reliable WordPress security plugin that gives you total control, this is the one. It doesn’t nag you for upgrades. It doesn’t bloat your dashboard. It just works.

You can scale it up as your confidence grows—from basic protections to advanced firewall tweaks and login controls. It’s like having a security team in a plugin form, and you don’t pay a dime for it.

Rating: 9/10 – The best free WordPress security plugin, hands down.