by Jeff Starr
4.9 (155 reviews)
BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security
The fastest firewall plugin for WordPress. Protect against a wide range of threats with minimal performance impact.
Compatible with WP 6.9
v20251120
Current Version v20251120
Updated 1 month ago
Last Update on 20 Nov, 2025
Synced 16 hours ago
Last Synced on
Rank
#333
—
No change
Active Installs
100K+
—
No change
KW Avg Position
83
—
No change
Downloads
3.2M
+88 today
Support Resolved
0%
—
No change
Rating
98%
Review 4.9 out of 5
4.9
(155 reviews)
Next Milestone 200K
100K+
200K+
51
Ranks to Climb
-
Growth Needed
8,000,000
Active Installs
Pro
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Rank Changes
Current
#333
Change
Best
#
Downloads Growth
Downloads
Growth
Peak
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Upgrade NowReviews & Ratings
4.9
155 reviews
Overall
98%
5
152
(98%)
4
1
(1%)
3
0
(0%)
2
0
(0%)
1
2
(1%)
Tracked Keywords
Showing 2 of 2| Keyword | Position | Change | Type | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| web application firewall | 38 | — | Tag | 16 hours ago |
| firewall | 128 | — | Tag | 16 hours ago |
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Start Tracking FreePlugin Details
- Version
- 20251120
- Last Updated
- Nov 20, 2025
- Requires WP
- 4.7+
- Tested Up To
- 6.9
- PHP Version
- 7.1 or higher
- Author
- Jeff Starr
Support & Rating
- Rating
- ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.9
- Reviews
- 155
- Support Threads
- 0
- Resolved
- 0%
Keywords
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Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security
To test that the plugin is working, you can request any of the blocked patterns. For example, visit your site's homepage and enter the following URL: https://example.com/eval( Replace example.com with your site's actual domain. If BBQ is active, the request for that URL will be blocked (with a "403 Forbidden" status). This means the plugin is working properly. You can test other patterns as well. To view all the patterns blocked by BBQ, look at the function bbq_core() located in block-bad-queries.php.
Yes, three of them: BBQ Firewall for blazing-fast firewall security Blackhole for Bad Bots to protect your site against bad bots Banhammer to monitor and ban any user or IP address Pro versions with more features available at Plugin Planet.
Nope, just install and relax knowing that BBQ is protecting your site from bad URL requests.
No settings needed for BBQ! Everything is done automatically behind the scenes. Zero configuration required. The free version of BBQ is strictly plug-n-play, set-it-and-forget-it, with no settings to configure whatsoever. Just install, activate, and enjoy better security and robust protection against malicious requests. The Pro version of BBQ is just as fast and simple to use, but is much more powerful and includes robust settings to customize and fine-tune your firewall.
Does it makes sense to use both? Yes BBQ free and BBQ Pro are both compatible with any plugin written according to the WP API. And yes, there is benefit to using BBQ with any other security plugin, including Wordfence. They protect against different threats, so using both means you are extra secure.
Absolutely not. Unlike other security/firewall plugins, neither BBQ (free version) nor BBQ Pro make any changes to any .htaccess file.
No, the free version of BBQ operates as each page is loaded; it does not make any changes whatsoever to the WP database.
Yes, BBQ scans any arrays that are included in the URI request. If any matching patterns are found, the request is blocked.
For example, if your PHP/plugin scanner reports something like, "found 0x3c62723e which is bad." Normally you would not want to find such bad strings of code, but there is an exception for security plugins. Think about it: in order to block some nasty string, BBQ must know about it. So each bad string that is blocked by BBQ is included in the plugin "blacklist". That means, when some PHP scanner looks at BBQ and finds some known bad strings, it just means that the scanner has discovered BBQ's list of blocked terms. In other words, BBQ contains static strings of non-functional text, in order to match and block malicious requests to your site. I hope this makes sense, feel free to contact me if I may provide any further infos.
Nope! BBQ is available in the following flavors: BBQ Free - WordPress Plugin BBQ Pro - WordPress Plugin BBQ Standalone PHP Script So you can check out the Standalone PHP Script for sites that are not running WordPress.