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Best Free WordPress Plugins for Bots

15 plugins compared · Updated August 2026 · Bots

All 15 Free only Premium only

Choosing a WordPress plugin for bots comes down to a few things: whether it is still actively maintained, whether real users rate it well, and whether it does the specific job you need without dragging the rest of the site down.

We ranked 15 plugins using our WPScore, which weighs the user rating (adjusted for how many people actually rated it), how many sites run it, how recently it was updated, and which WordPress version it is tested against. 15 of them have enough public data to be scored; the rest are listed below the ranked block, clearly marked, rather than being given a number we cannot justify.

How this list is funded. Some links here earn us a commission if you buy. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not move anything up the list — the order comes from the WPScore, which is calculated from public ratings, install counts and update history. See the method.

At a glance

  1. 1. BBQ Firewall Best overall 89/100
  2. 2. Shield Security 86/100
  3. 3. Blackhole for Bad Bots 86/100
  4. 4. Login No Captcha reCAPTCHA 84/100
  5. 5. BotBlocker Security 84/100
  6. 6. Booter 83/100
  7. 7. Geeky Bot 83/100
  8. 8. Better Robots.txt 82/100
  9. 9. Quttera ThreatSign 81/100
  10. 10. WP-Ban 80/100
  11. 11. Magic robots.txt 80/100
  12. 12. Banhammer 79/100
  13. 13. LLMagnet 79/100
  14. 14. Bot Traffic Shield 79/100
  15. 15. BitFire Security 79/100
1 BBQ Firewall
Best overall Free by Jeff Starr

BBQ Firewall

The fastest firewall plugin for WordPress. Protect against a wide range of threats with minimal performance impact.

4.9★
from 160 ratings
100k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
89

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
2 Shield Security
Free by Paul

Shield Security

Smart WordPress security that blocks bots automatically, guides you to what matters, and repairs problems — without drowning you in noise.

4.8★
from 1,038 ratings
30k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
86

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
3 Blackhole for Bad Bots
Free by Jeff Starr

Blackhole for Bad Bots

Blackhole is a WordPress security plugin that detects and traps bad bots in a virtual black hole, where they are denied access to your entire site.

4.7★
from 148 ratings
30k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
86

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
4 Login No Captcha reCAPTCHA
Free by Robert Peake

Login No Captcha reCAPTCHA

Adds a Google No Captcha ReCaptcha checkbox to your Wordpress and Woocommerce login, forgot password, and user registration pages.

4.5★
from 63 ratings
60k+
active installs
Updated
May 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
5 BotBlocker Security
Free by Yevhen Leonidov

BotBlocker Security

Complete security platform for everyday protection against bots, brute-force attacks, viruses, spam, and fake crawlers. Includes a firewall, 9 CAPTCHA …

5★
from 10 ratings
3k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
84

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
6 Booter
Free by uPress

Booter

Booter - Bots & Crawlers Manager is a preventative measure (treatment in advance) and treatment of damages caused by crawlers and bots.

4.7★
from 12 ratings
7k+
active installs
Updated
Jun 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
83

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
7 Geeky Bot
Free by ahmadgb

Geeky Bot

WooCommerce AI sales assistant for natural product discovery, grounded answers, recommendations, and guided shopping.

5★
from 4 ratings
6k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
83

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
8 Better Robots.txt
Free by Pagup

Better Robots.txt

Replace the default WordPress robots.txt workflow with a smarter, structured version you can preview before publishing, with Free, Pro, and Premium ed …

4.5★
from 102 ratings
5k+
active installs
Updated
Jul 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
82

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
9 Quttera ThreatSign
Free by quttera

Quttera ThreatSign

WordPress multi-level security scanner detecting malware, 0-day threats, brute-force attacks, bot attacks, and unauthorized admin changes.

3.9★
from 47 ratings
10k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
81

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
10 WP-Ban
Free by Lester Chan

WP-Ban

Ban users by IP, IP range, host name, user agent and referrer URL from visiting your WordPress blog.

3.7★
from 27 ratings
8k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
11 Magic robots.txt
Free by ABCdatos

Magic robots.txt

This plugin automatically creates a robots.txt analyzing your site to improve your Google ranking and site performance.

5★
from 1 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
80

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
12 Banhammer
Free by Jeff Starr

Banhammer

Monitor traffic and ban unwanted visitors. Block any user or IP address so they can't access your site.

4.4★
from 19 ratings
1k+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
13 LLMagnet
Free by llmagnet

LLMagnet

Make your WordPress site visible to AI. Auto-generate llms.txt, track AI bot traffic, and optimize your content for answer engines.

5★
from 6 ratings
500+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
14 Bot Traffic Shield
Free by Delower Hossain

Bot Traffic Shield

A powerful and user-friendly plugin to block AI crawlers and malicious data scraper bots, protecting your content and server resources.

5★
from 2 ratings
500+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.1
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org
15 BitFire Security
Free by Cory Marsh

BitFire Security

Stop hackers, bots, and malware before they touch your site. AI-powered security with real human support when you need it.

5★
from 8 ratings
300+
active installs
Updated
Aug 2026
Tested to
WP 7.0.4
79

WPScore

Read review View on WordPress.org