WP Author Slug

77 Quality Score

Active Installs

15/30

With roughly 2,000 active installs, the plugin has a niche but dedicated audience, well below mainstream security plugins but appropriate for a single-purpose utility.

Update Freshness

25/25

The plugin was last updated on 2026-05-28 and is tested against WordPress 6.9.4, signalling a very actively maintained codebase for its small footprint.

User Rating

14/15

A 96 out of 100 score from 19 ratings is excellent, though the small sample size means a few strong opinions can swing the result.

Support Health

8/15

Zero support threads opened is unusual and suggests the plugin is stable enough that users rarely need help, or simply that the user base is too small to surface issues.

WP Compatibility

15/15

It works back to WordPress 3.0 and is confirmed against 6.9.4, giving a near-universal compatibility range across modern WordPress installs.

Scores higher than 53% of indexed plugins

About

Add a layer of security and prevent your login name from being shown in the author archive's URL.

Active Installs 2k+

Rating ★★★★½ 4.8/5

Last Updated 2026-08-21 2:28am GMT

Requires WordPress 3.0+

Tested Up To 6.9.7

✓ No known vulnerabilities

What It Does

WP Author Slug replaces the default WordPress author archive URL (which typically includes the username) with a custom display name, nickname, or a fully custom slug. This prevents your login name from being exposed in archive URLs, which is a common username enumeration vector. It also lets you set per-user or bulk-default slugs to clean up author permalinks.

Who It's For

This plugin is best for multi-author blogs, magazines, news sites, and publishing platforms where editors and contributors may have exposed usernames in author archive URLs. It is also a good fit for security-conscious site owners who want to remove one easy avenue of username enumeration without overhauling the site. Freelance writers running a portfolio site where author identity should match a public name rather than a login handle will also benefit.

Who Should Skip It

Single-author sites, or any site already running a broader security suite like Wordfence or Really Simple Security that includes username protection features, probably do not need this plugin. If you are already comfortable manually setting display names and using a security plugin to block author enumeration, this is a small, redundant utility.

The Bottom Line

WP Author Slug is a small, well-maintained utility that does exactly one thing: hide usernames from author archive URLs. Its tiny install base and 19 ratings are the main reasons to pause, but the recent update and 96 percent rating are reassuring. Install it if username enumeration via /author/ URLs is a real concern, but if you already run a full security stack you likely do not need it.

Pick this if you want broad site-wide hardening, not just author URL cleanup, and prefer a widely audited plugin with 3,000,000 installs.

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 97/100

Pick this if you need a full firewall, malware scanning, and login throttling along with username enumeration protection.

Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth 94/100

Pick this if you want security bundled with backups, performance, and growth tools from the Automattic ecosystem.

All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 91/100

Pick this if you want a free, full-featured security suite that also covers brute force and database hardening.

Safe SVG 89/100

Pick this only if your actual concern is SVG sanitization, as it is unrelated to author URL hardening despite appearing in the alternatives list.