Stepping into the shoes of a WordPress administrator is no small feat, especially when juggling a bustling, multi-user WordPress website. A WordPress tracker plugin can be your trusty sidekick, helping you keep track of every move your fellow contributors make.
While WordPress might play coy and not spill the beans about your users’ activities, the right tracker plugin can be your secret detective, letting you see what every user does while logged in.
In this post, I’ll share the 10 best plugins designed to record and report activity on your WordPress website, all from the comfort of your administrator dashboard.
Table of Contents:
- Why should you track user activity in WordPress?
- Best Plugins for Tracking User Activity in WordPress
Why should you track user activity in WordPress?
Keeping a close eye on your users is a good thing. There are a handful of valid reasons to do this. First, and perhaps most importantly, you can detect security threats from unauthorized logins, file modification, and spam accounts. WordPress tracking tools often emphasize this benefit in their descriptions.
Second, if you run a WordPress membership site or e-commerce site that assigns user roles to visitors, tracking activity tells you how visitors interact with your content so that you can optimize these aspects of your website. For example, you can track if customers know about discount codes, promotions, and content offers.
Finally, tracking user activity keeps your contributors, authors, editors, and fellow administrators accountable for their actions on your site. You’ll know wherever someone creates, alters, or deletes a page, post, plugin, or theme. If such a change results in an error, your audit tool can help revert to your old settings and understand why the issue occurred.
Best Plugins for Tracking User Activity in WordPress
- HubSpot WordPress Plugin
- Activity Log
- WP Activity Log
- Simple History
- Stream
- Sucuri Security
- User Activity Log
- Jetpack
- Formidable Forms
- MonsterInsights
1. HubSpot WordPress Plugin
The HubSpot WordPress Plugin is an essential tool for online businesses. This powerful integration offers an amalgamation of CRM and analytics tools, enabling businesses to capture and monitor their contacts efficiently.
As visitors interact with your website, whether it’s through form submissions, email exchanges, or chat interactions, the plugin meticulously logs their activity. It’s designed to offer a macro-level dashboard of your overall marketing endeavors and micro-level insight into individual user interactions.
What we like: We’re particularly impressed by the ease with which HubSpot integrates with WordPress. You can embed its forms directly onto your site or link to pre-existing WordPress forms.
This ensures a streamlined process for tracking user navigation across your website. Another standout feature is its ability to present an expansive record detailing your contacts’ page views, form submissions, email exchanges, chat dialogues, and more.
Best for: The HubSpot WordPress Plugin is ideally suited for online businesses looking for an all-inclusive solution to understand their audience’s behavior and engagement. From startups to established enterprises, if granular insights and enhanced customer relationship management are what you’re after, HubSpot has you covered.
Pricing:
- Free: Basic features include page views, form submissions, email interactions, chat conversations, lead generation, CRM, and marketing automation.
- Starter ($50/month): Includes free features and a way to track user activity, manage custom forms, email campaigns, landing pages, and social media interactions.
- Professional ($890/month): Includes starter features, plus CRM lead tracking, marketing automation tasks, campaign management, and sales opportunity tracking.
- Enterprise ($3,600/month): Includes Professional features, plus complex user behavior tracking, custom reports, integrations (e.g., Salesforce, Oracle), and personalized support.
Pro tip: The plugin’s prowess doesn’t stop at tracking and monitoring. Consider delving into its live chat feature, email marketing utilities, and invaluable WooCommerce integration.
What’s even better? You can access these features at no additional cost, ensuring your online business remains ahead of the curve.
2. Activity Log
The Activity Log is your all-in-one solution to keeping an eye on everything happening within your WordPress website. Think of it as the digital “black box” for your site, meticulously recording alterations ranging from post modifications and media changes to user login alterations and WordPress settings tweaks.
Whether running a WooCommerce online store, a bbPress membership site, or just a simple blog, Activity Log has been tailored to ensure you’re always aware of your website’s operations.
What we like: Its comprehensive and user-friendly dashboard sets the Activity Log apart. It provides a crystal-clear view of all user interactions, making it easy to detect anything amiss.
We’re also fans of its custom email notifications. It’s not just about recording — it’s about proactively alerting you of specific events, such as suspicious login activities or unauthorized changes to your plugins and themes.
Moreover, its data export capabilities, particularly to CSV, show a forward-thinking design catering to both general users and developers.
Best for: If you’re managing a WordPress website with multiple users or are simply keen on ensuring top-notch security and clear accountability, Activity Log is the way to go.
Its tools, particularly for data privacy and GDPR compliance, make it indispensable for websites operating within European Union boundaries or dealing with EU citizens’ data.
Pricing: Free. Basic tracking of changes to posts, pages, user profiles, and more; custom email notifications.
Pro tip: Beyond its surface capabilities, Activity Log has been architecturally designed to operate seamlessly behind the scenes.
Running on a separate database table guarantees optimal website performance, ensuring that admin tasks and site speeds remain unaffected. If you’re in the developmental realm, use the Export API to introduce custom data formats, amplifying the plugin’s versatility.
3. WP Activity Log
The WP Activity Log plugin stands out as a top-tier audit tool for WordPress websites, boasting over 100,000 active installations. It serves as the virtual watchdog of your site, meticulously logging various changes ranging from posts and user profiles to critical site-wide settings.
The plugin paints a clear picture of all the actions, enabling WordPress administrators and security professionals to monitor every corner of their website. With its vast coverage, it goes beyond just informing that a change occurred; it details precisely what was altered.
What we like: We’re impressed by the plugin’s comprehensive logging capabilities, which ensure user accountability and simplify troubleshooting. What’s particularly noteworthy is its detailed insight into changes within posts, user profiles, plugins, themes, and more, down to the microscopic level.
It doesn’t just tell you that a change happened; it narrates the entire story. Moreover, its endorsements by WordPress giants like WPBeginner, GoDaddy, and Kinsta further cement its reputation.
Best for: WP Activity Log shines for large websites or multisite networks where user accountability and precise tracking are paramount. It’s equally beneficial for security professionals, administrators, or businesses wanting a tighter grip on their site’s activity.
The plugin is especially useful for websites with multiple users or complex configurations, where oversight can be challenging.
Pricing:
- Starter Plan ($99/year): Includes comprehensive activity log, email notifications, free-text-based search, and search filters.
- Professional Plan ($139/year): Includes everything in starter, SMS Notifications, WordPress reports, automated email reports, and see logged-in users in real-time.
- Business Plan ($149/year): Includes everything in professional, user sessions management, save logs in the external database, activity log archiving, mirror logs to third-party solutions, mirrors logs to a log file and deletes specific activity log data.
- Enterprise Plan ($199/year): Incorporates all professional features, expanded with unlimited notifications, advanced search capabilities, more software integrations, and priority support.
Pro tip: Integrate WP Activity Log with third-party tools and services such as AWS CloudWatch, Slack, or Loggly to streamline your site’s monitoring. By harnessing its full capabilities, you can maintain a detailed log and proactively respond to potential threats or anomalies in real time.
4. Simple History
Simple History is an efficient WordPress tracking tool that provides an insightful log right within your WordPress dashboard. It gives users a bird’s eye view of the recent changes, making it an essential tool for websites where multiple individuals are responsible for content editing.
By showcasing these changes directly on your dashboard or a dedicated page, this plugin becomes integral to maintaining transparency and accountability.
What we like: Its strength lies in the perfect balance between simplicity and versatility. Simple History doesn’t just track basic elements like posts or page edits; it goes beyond.
You can see who’s editing or deleting comments, manipulating widgets, changing settings, and even getting a log of failed login attempts — an invaluable feature for recognizing potential brute-force attacks. Moreover, the activity log is user-friendly, making it easy to filter and search.
Best for: Websites that have a team behind them. Simple History keeps everyone accountable, whether it’s a collaborative blog, a company website, or a shared platform. It’s particularly useful for administrators who want to monitor user activity, changes to site settings, or even potential security threats like repeated failed login attempts.
Pricing: Free. Basic tracking for posts, pages, and other WordPress elements with custom email notifications.
Pro tip: Take advantage of Simple History’s expansive third-party plugin support. It seamlessly integrates with popular plugins such as Jetpack, Advanced Custom Fields, and Beaver Builder. This ensures you have a comprehensive log, including activities like user switches, cron events, media replacements, and URL redirections.
Plus, if you’re using legacy plugins like Limit Login Attempts, Simple History has covered you by logging its activities despite the outdated plugin.
5. Stream
Stream is a WordPress plugin crafted to display a real-time chronological overview of community activity on your site. It’s more than just tracking; it’s about understanding user behaviors, optimizing workflow, and ensuring your site’s security.
With seamless integrations with popular plugins such as WooCommerce, Jetpack, and Yoast SEO, Stream is an essential tool for every WordPress administrator.
What we like: Stream stands out for its user-friendly interface, allowing admins to effortlessly filter activity by user, role, or IP address. With its capability to provide live reporting and instant notifications, Stream ensures you are always in the loop.
Moreover, its ability to integrate with third-party platforms like Slack and IFTTT amplifies its versatility, ensuring you’re notified of the platforms you use the most. And if you’re looking to dive deep into the data, the export feature allows you to shift your site’s stream to either CSV or JSON format, making analysis a breeze.
Best for: This plugin is ideal for administrators who manage websites with multiple users. Whether it’s for compliance, debugging, or general oversight, Stream provides a comprehensive view of all activities.
It’s especially beneficial for larger WordPress sites or businesses that need to ensure accountability and transparency in their operations.
Pricing: Free. Access to basic real-time activity tracking.
Pro tip: Stream offers a unique network view for those managing a multisite setup, allowing for a consolidated look at all activity records across your sites. The WP‑CLI command feature is also a gem for advanced users, making querying records more efficient.
And remember, with the power of Stream’s logging, you’re not just monitoring; you’re gaining insights to refine and improve your WordPress management.
6. Sucuri Security
Sucuri Inc., now under GoDaddy, is a leading name in the cybersecurity landscape and has carved a niche for itself with its specialized focus on WordPress security. The Sucuri Security WordPress plugin is a comprehensive security suite that augments the security mechanisms of your website.
What we like: Sucuri’s free WordPress security plugin offers a meticulous activity log of all user actions and provides valuable email notifications upon detecting any suspicious activities.
The real game-changer is its capability to perform core WordPress integrity checks and scan theme and plugin files for potential malware, vulnerabilities, and unauthorized modifications. Additionally, should the unfortunate event of a security breach occur, Sucuri comes equipped with guides to navigate and address such situations.
Best for: Websites looking for an all-inclusive security tool. From novices to tech-savvy individuals, if website security concerns you, Sucuri has got you covered.
It’s particularly beneficial for those who want preventive measures, like security hardening and activity auditing, and responsive solutions, such as post-hack security actions.
Pricing:
- Sucuri Free: Basic protection, site scanner for vulnerabilities.
- Sucuri Basic ($199/year): Adds real-time malware scanning/removal, daily backups, automated hardening, and 24/7 support.
- Sucuri Pro ($299/year): Advanced firewall, bot protection, weekly scans, dedicated manager.
- Sucuri Business ($499/year): Custom firewall rules, CDN integration, white-label reports, and dedicated support.
- Sucuri Custom: Custom features and support based on business needs.
Pro tip: While the basic version offers robust features, consider upgrading to the premium version for an advanced Website Firewall. This added layer of protection can be invaluable for businesses or websites that deal with sensitive data or high traffic.
7. User Activity Log
The User Activity Log is a dynamic solution designed to monitor and record user actions on your WordPress site. This is especially useful for websites with multiple users, where tracking and security become crucial. It effortlessly logs many activities, ranging from core WordPress updates to plugin activations and media uploads.
What we like: The sheer breadth of its logging capabilities is impressive. It covers basic WordPress elements like posts, pages, and comments and dives into details such as widget adjustments and menu changes.
We’re particularly fond of its seamless integrations with major plugins like WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and Gravity Forms. This makes it an inclusive solution that integrates smoothly with your existing website setup.
Best for: Sites with numerous users or those who want a comprehensive view of all backend activities. This is a tool worth considering if you’re running an ecommerce store, a collaborative blog, or any platform where you share admin responsibilities.
Pricing:
- Free: Basic user activity tracking, including logins, logouts, and content changes. View activity by user, role, IP, or action.
- Pro ($99/year): Email/SMS notifications, third-party software integrations (Slack, Zapier, and IFTTT), detailed reports, a force-logout feature, data export, log password protection, extended customization, and more integration options.
Pro tip: Use the “Favorite/Unfavorite log” feature in the Pro version. It helps you quickly segregate crucial logs, ensuring that important events are noticed in the sea of regular updates.
8. Jetpack
Jetpack is an all-encompassing WordPress plugin made by the experts behind WordPress to ensure your website is safer, faster, and optimized for more traffic. By integrating security, performance, marketing, and design tools, Jetpack epitomizes the vision of a holistic WordPress solution.
What we like: Jetpack provides an unmatched breadth and depth of features. Its 24/7 auto site security offers real-time backups, easy restores, and rigorous malware scans. The bonus? Brute force protection and uptime/downtime monitoring come free!
Jetpack’s free CDN auto-optimizes images for those seeking peak performance, while its lazy load capability ensures mobile sites remain lightning fast. Jetpack AI Assistant, a standout feature, empowers users to produce professional content simply by feeding in a prompt, watching as AI creates engaging content tailored to their needs.
Best for: Jetpack is ideal for those seeking a comprehensive toolkit for their WordPress site. From automating social media posts to increasing site traffic or even monetizing with integrated ad networks, Jetpack caters to diverse needs.
It’s particularly advantageous for WooCommerce stores, given its seamless backup, scan, and anti-spam functionalities.
Pricing:
- Free: Includes Site Stats, Protect, Sharing, Comments, and Contact Form.
- Freelancer ($11/month): Features from Free, Invoicing Pro, Gravity Forms, PayPal Connect, Stripe Connect, Single site license, and 12 months of support and updates.
- Reseller ($5.40/month): All 30+ CRM extensions, 10 site licenses, Rebrand CRM, 12 months of support and updates, and priority support.
- Entrepreneur ($17/month): All 30+ CRM extensions, single site license, 12 months of support and updates, and priority support.
Included in all plans:
- Contact-centric CRM
- Sales funnel management
- Contact Management
- Company Management
- Invoicing and payments
- Transaction tracking
- Integrations and API access
- Forum support
Pro tip: Combine Jetpack with WP Super Cache to achieve optimal speed. For those keen on understanding their site’s metrics in detail, Jetpack Stats offers crucial insights, ranging from top-performing content to the locations of your visitors.
9. Formidable Forms
Formidable is not just a WordPress plugin; it’s an advanced form builder tailored for diverse needs, ranging from contact forms to surveys, quizzes, and more.
What we like: The standout feature of Formidable is its focus on being a solutions-oriented plugin. It goes beyond the basic functionalities offered by typical form builders. Its drag-and-drop interface is user-friendly and optimized for speed and great server performance to ensure your website works without a hitch.
The best part? You can see what users did on your site before they submitted a form.
Best for: Businesses and individuals looking for a comprehensive form solution that integrates seamlessly with WordPress, adapts to various requirements, and can craft anything from simple contact forms to intricate quizzes or calculators.
Pricing:
- Basic ($79/year): Offers unlimited forms, essential form elements, payment collection (PayPal/Stripe), email notifications, and data export.
- Plus ($199/year): Includes everything in Personal, with added custom templates, custom CSS, conditional logic, plugin integrations, and priority support.
- Elite ($599/year): Covers Pro features and adds multi-page forms, multi-currency payments, Zapier integration, and dedicated support.
- Business ($399/year): Encompasses Elite offerings with functionalities for user login, registration, and profile creation forms, complemented by enterprise-level support.
Pro tip: Dive into Formidable’s “User Flow” feature for in-depth insights into your visitor’s journey, helping refine your lead generation tactics and enhance the overall user experience.
10. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is not just another Google Analytics plugin for WordPress; it’s a powerhouse. Boasting over 3 million active installs, it’s undeniably the most popular choice among website owners.
Whether you’re a novice at analytics or an expert, MonsterInsights makes the complex world of Google Analytics user-friendly. It transforms intricate data into concise, comprehensible reports within your WordPress dashboard.
Gone are the days of wrestling with the intricacies of Google Analytics on its platform. Now, every essential metric is just a click away on your website’s backend.
What we like: The remarkable aspect of MonsterInsights is its ability to simplify the Google Analytics setup process. No more poring over coding manuals or hiring developers. Just a few clicks and your site is integrated, enabling you to tap into insights in under 15 minutes — with zero coding.
Furthermore, it’s versatile. From logging user activity across platforms like WooCommerce and LifterLMS to monitoring video engagement on Vimeo Pro, MonsterInsights has it covered. Its enhanced ecommerce tracking is seamless, especially for platforms like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
If GDPR compliance keeps you up at night, MonsterInsights has features explicitly designed to make your Google Analytics setup more compliant.
Best for: MonsterInsights is ideal for businesses, bloggers, and website owners keen on making data-driven decisions without diving deep into traditional Google Analytics. Its user-friendly interface makes it suitable for both beginners and pros.
E-commerce websites, in particular, can benefit massively from their specialized tracking features.
Pricing:
- Free: Basic traffic data, top pages/posts, referrers, country/device breakdown, and active times.
- Plus ($199/year): Lite features include ecommerce tracking, form data, affiliate data, social media data, custom reports, advanced monitoring, and priority support.
- Pro ($399/year): Pro features include multi-site tracking, white-label reports, API access, and dedicated support.
- Agency ($799/year): Agency features include custom onboarding, beta access, and priority support.
Pro tip: Don’t just stop at the basic setup. Explore the Custom Dimensions add-on. It allows for more advanced tracking, like understanding traffic based on authors, post types, or Yoast’s SEO scores. This kind of granular data can be a game-changer for content-driven websites.
Tracking Down the Right WordPress Tracking Plugin
As we’ve seen, some tracking plugins are free, some are premium, and others are freemium. Smaller sites should start with free options from this list, then upgrade to a paid subscription if necessary.
However, more extensive online businesses will likely benefit from a premium plugin with more fine-tuned, personalized tracking features.
Either way, a tracking plugin on your WordPress site will provide peace of mind and control over your robust but fragile web infrastructure. If something goes wrong on your multi-user site, you won’t have to grasp at straws for the solution — the right add-on will remember it all for you.
