Shield Security Review 2026: Pricing, Pros & Cons

Overview

Shield Security is a WordPress security plugin listed on WordPress.org since July 2013 under the slug wp-simple-firewall; it reported 30,000+ active installations in November 2026.^[13]

Shield emphasises automation. Each visitor is scored as they interact with the site, with failed logins, firewall blocks and failed silentCAPTCHA checks accumulating into a reputation score; visitors who cross the threshold are blocked automatically.^[13] When a file-integrity scan finds a modified WordPress core file, Shield restores the original from WordPress.org without waiting for the administrator, and it recognises legitimate crawlers and services such as Google, Bing, ManageWP, Stripe and Cloudflare so that they are not blocked.^[13] The interface is organised into Queue, Investigate, Configure and Reports areas to direct attention to the most important issues first.^[13]

Shield Plus, the paid tier, adds backups, malware scanning and stronger login protection, and an agency tier was marked as coming soon at review.^[12] Shield’s user base is small compared with the market leaders.

Shield Security features

Automatic IP blocking by reputation score
silentCAPTCHA bot detection
Automatic core-file repair
Recognition of legitimate crawlers and services
Prioritised action queue
Backups and malware scanning (Plus)

Shield Security pricing

US dollars, Plus for 1 site: $29 per month or $149 per year; larger site packs priced higher (annual billing saves up to 57%). Free plan available. Agency tier listed as coming soon.