How to Hide Your WordPress Login Page From Hackers

If you have used WordPress at least once, you know exactly how to access the admin login of any WordPress website, you just add /wp-admin/ at the end of the URL and there you go. Bots and hackers also know this of course, so we recommend changing the wp-admin URL to something else, something that only you know.

In this post, I will guide you through one of the easiest way to change the wp-admin URL, we will be using the plugin WPS Hide Login.

WPS Hide Login Description:

WPS Hide Login is a super light plugin that lets you easily and safely change the url of the login form page to anything you want. It doesn’t literally rename or change files in core, nor does it add rewrite rules. It simply intercepts page requests and works on any WordPress website. The wp-admin directory and wp-login.php page become inaccessible, so you should bookmark or remember the url. Deactivating this plugin brings your site back exactly to the state it was before.

COMPATIBILITY

Requires WordPress 4.1 or higher. All login related things such as the registration form, lost password form, login widget and expired sessions just keep working.

It’s also compatible with any plugin that hooks in the login form, including:

• BuddyPress,
• bbPress,
• Limit Login Attempts,
• and User Switching.

It doesn’t work with plugins or themes that hardcoded wp-login.php. It works with multisite, but not tested with subdomains. Activating it for a network allows you to set a networkwide default. Individual sites can still rename their login page to something else.

If you’re using a page caching plugin other than WP Rocket, you should add the slug of the new login url to the list of pages not to cache. WP Rocket is already fully compatible with the plugin.

For W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache this plugin will give you a message with a link to the field you should update.

Installation Steps:

1. Open your WordPress site and login to WP Admin
2. Click Plugins then “Add New”
3. Search for Install WPS Hide Login and install and activate the plugin
4. The page will redirect you to the settings. Change your login url there.
5. You can change this option any time you want, just go back to Settings › General › WPS Hide Login.

The WP Admin URL is now changed from example.com/wp-admin/ to example.com/secretlogin/

Write down the new login URL somewhere safe.

What if I forget my login URL?

Either go to your MySQL database and look for the value of whl_page in the options table, or remove the wps-hide-login folder from your plugins folder, log in through wp-login.php and reinstall the plugin.