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Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth

By Automattic

Security & Privacy / Security Scanning & Malware Protection

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth Review - In-Depth Analysis

Jetpack is a powerful WordPress plugin that enhances security, performance, and growth. It offers features like backups, malware scans, and a content delivery network, all designed to keep your site safe and fast.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

7.67/10

User Rating

3.7/5 (based on 2407+ reviews)

Active Installations

3,000,000+

Update Frequency

Outstanding It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

6.33 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

Jetpack is a comprehensive WordPress plugin that helps you improve your website's security, performance, and growth. With Jetpack, you can easily manage backups, perform malware scans, and utilize a content delivery network to enhance your site's speed.

Installation is quick and free, allowing you to set up essential features in minutes. For more advanced tools, you can upgrade to a paid plan that offers robust security and design options.

Jetpack provides 24/7 site security, including automatic backups, malware protection, and spam filtering. It also features a powerful CDN to optimize your images and improve load times, making your site faster and more efficient.

Additionally, Jetpack includes tools for growing your audience, such as social media integration, SEO features, and analytics to track your site's performance. With Jetpack, you can create beautiful content and engage with your audience effectively.

Comparing to Alternatives

Jetpack sits in a crowded field of security, backup, and performance plugins, but it's unique in bundling all three (plus stats and social sharing) into a single suite tied to a WordPress.com account. Dedicated alternatives below tend to specialize in one area and often do it with less overhead.

Top alternatives

Strengths

All-in-one convenience: stats, backups, security, and speed tools in one plugin
Backed by Automattic with frequent updates and long-term development
Free tier offers genuinely useful stats and spam protection out of the box
Cloud-based backups and downtime monitoring reduce reliance on local server resources

Weaknesses

Requires a WordPress.com account connection, which some users find unnecessary friction
Heavier on server resources than single-purpose alternatives, especially on smaller sites
Long history of security patches suggests a larger attack surface than more focused plugins
Increasingly pushes paid tiers for features that used to feel more accessible for free

User Sentiment Analysis

With 2,406 ratings, Jetpack shows a polarized distribution: 60.3% five-star reviews sit alongside a notable 24.2% one-star share, pushing the 1-2 star total to nearly 29%. This split suggests a plugin that delights long-term users who value its convenience, while frustrating others hit by breaking updates or unwanted feature bloat.

Positive highlights

"Jetpack made managing my site easier. Stats, security, backup — all in one place... Saves time & gives peace of mind" — julisazavala3
"the stats & security stuff is actually rly useful" — leighton30
"Jetpack has provided great features and very helpful for me, especially the Spam blocker and Stats" — hyangiu
"Thank to Jetpack brilliant support to get my stats back to my site!" — supportzst
"It keeps spam away. Notifies me when my website goes down. Gives me traffic stats" — larkresearch

Common complaints

Unwanted AI writing prompts added to the dashboard with no clear opt-out short of uninstalling
Update-related breakage, including app reconnection loops and invalid application password errors after version 16.1
Jetpack Boost causing site crashes and requiring hours of manual recovery to fix
Forms module updates breaking existing filters/workflows without warning or rollback option
Social media sharing frequently losing connection to networks
Concerns that Jetpack slows down sites significantly, with some blaming it for spam bot activity
Frustration at stats and other previously free features increasingly being gated behind paid plans

Weaknesses

A long track record of 18 recorded vulnerabilities, including a high-severity reflected XSS fixed only recently (2026)
Multiple contributor/author-level privilege escalation and stored XSS issues over the plugin's history
Feature bloat and resource weight are recurring themes, particularly for smaller or lower-resource sites
Update stability appears to be a genuine pain point, with recent versions causing functional breakage for some users

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Site owners who want a convenient, all-in-one solution for stats, spam protection, backups, and basic security without juggling multiple plugins, and who are comfortable connecting their site to a WordPress.com account. It suits users who value Automattic's backing and don't mind occasional feature pushes toward paid tiers.

Not ideal for

Performance-sensitive or resource-constrained sites, users wary of an extensive historical vulnerability record, or anyone who wants a lean, single-purpose security or backup tool without added bloat or cloud account dependencies. Those who've experienced update-related breakage may also want to proceed cautiously and test updates on staging first.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes basic stats, spam protection (via Akismet integration), downtime monitoring, and some backup/security scanning capabilities, offering solid value for smaller sites with modest needs.

Pro version (4.95 - 39.95 USD / month)

Paid tiers unlock real-time backups, advanced security scanning, Jetpack Boost performance optimization, expanded stats and analytics, and priority support. Some previously free features have shifted toward requiring a paid plan, which has drawn criticism from longtime users.

Final Verdict

Jetpack remains a capable all-in-one plugin for stats, backups, and light security, and its strong 60%+ five-star base reflects real satisfaction among users who value the convenience of a single connected suite. However, the sizable 1-2 star share and recurring themes of update instability, unwanted AI additions, and performance issues show this convenience comes with real trade-offs, especially for smaller or performance-conscious sites.

The plugin's extensive historical vulnerability list, including a recent high-severity XSS issue, means security-focused users should weigh it carefully against more specialized alternatives like Wordfence or Sucuri. For those who prioritize an integrated toolset backed by Automattic and don't mind occasional paid upsells, Jetpack still delivers solid value: just go in with realistic expectations about weight and update reliability.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth plugin.

Backup

Malware

Performance

Scan

Security

Screenshots

FAQ

Yes! Jetpack’s core features are free for non-commercial sites.

These include: site stats, a high-speed CDN for images, related posts, downtime monitoring, brute force attack protection, automated sharing to social networks, sidebar customization, SEO (search engine optimization) tools, and much more.

Jetpack is the ultimate toolkit for WP for both the classic editor and the block editor, giving you everything you need for a professional site. It includes the following features:

Activity log — Monitor all site changes for debug, troubleshooting, or maintenance
Ads — Earn income by displaying high quality ads on your site.
Beautiful Math — Use the LaTeX markup language for writing complex mathematical equations, formulas, and more.
Carousel slider — Display a gorgeous full-screen photo browsing experience with comments and EXIF metadata.
CDN — Helps your pages load faster by allowing Jetpack to optimize your images and serve your images and static files (like CSS and JavaScript) from our global network of servers.
Comments — Replace your default comment form with an improved system with integrated social media login options.
Comment Likes — Allows readers to like other comments to show their agreement, approval, or appreciation.
Contact Form — Offer your readers the ability to get in touch, without giving out your personal email address.
Custom CSS — Customize the appearance of your theme without creating a child theme or worrying about updates overwriting your customizations.
Custom Content Types — Adds custom post types (CPTs) to your site.
Downtime Monitor — Alerts you via electronic mail if your site goes down to ensure you keep uptime.
Extra Sidebar Widgets — Extra widgets you can add to your blog, including RSS Links and Facebook Like Boxes.
Gravatar Hovercards — Make your Gravatar profile visible to those viewing your blog.
Google Analytics (GA) — Track your WordPress site statistics thanks to Google Analytics.
Infinite Scroll — Pulls the next posts automatically into view when the reader approaches the bottom of the page.
JSON API — Authorizes applications and services to securely connect to your blog, and allows them to use your content or offer you new functionality.
Likes — Allows readers to show their appreciation for your posts with a single click.
Markdown — Allows you to compose posts and comments with links, lists, and other styles using regular characters and punctuation marks. Markdown is used by writers and bloggers who want a quick and easy way to write rich text without having to take their hands off the keyboard.
Malware detection – automatic malware scans that help protect your WP website with an automated resolution.
Notifications — Receive notifications for new comments and Likes in your admin bar and on your mobile device.
oEmbed Support — easily embed images, posts, and links from Facebook and Instagram.
Plugin Management — Allows easy site maintenance by choosing which plugins update automatically.
Post by Email — Publish posts using any mail client.
Protect — Protect your site from traditional and distributed brute force login attacks.
Publicize — Share new posts on social media networks automatically, or schedule future shares with custom messages.
Related Posts — Show contextual posts your visitors might be interested in reading after they’re done with their current post.
Secure Auth — Secure WordPress.com powered login used by millions of sites with optional 2FA (two factor authentication) for extra protection.
Security Scanner — Anti-virus and other threat detection for your WordPress site with automated resolution.
Search — A powerful replacement for WordPress’ built-in search, powered by Elasticsearch in the WordPress.com cloud
SEO Tools — Optimize your site for search engines by taking advantage of our SEO tools.
Sharing — Adds sharing buttons to your blog posts so readers can easily share your content.
Shortcode Embeds — Embed videos from YouTube and other media across the web.
Site Backup — Automatically back up your entire site. Duplicate, clone, migrate, transfer to a new host, and easily restore. Previously known as VaultPress.
Site Stats — View site visits by date, as well as most popular Pages and Posts.
Site Verification — Verify your site for use with Google, Bing, and Pinterest and their tools.
Sitemap — Generate a list of pages to be indexed by search engines like Google or Bing.
Spam Filtering — Automatically filter out spam comments, product reviews, or contact form submissions.
Subscriptions — Allow visitors to receive notifications of your latest posts or comments.
Tiled Galleries — Display your image galleries in three different styles: a rectangular mosaic, a square mosaic, and a circular grid.
Video Hosting — Upload videos for fast, reliable hosting on WordPress.com.
WP.me Shortlinks — Generate short and simple links to your content using the wp.me domain.
Widget Visibility — Configure widgets to appear only on specific pages.
WordPress.com Toolbar — The WordPress.com Toolbar feature replaces the default admin bar and offers quick links to the Reader, all your sites, your WordPress.com profile, and notifications.

Blocks are the individual sections that make up a page. There are many block types for you to use. Each block can be edited or moved independently of other blocks. The following is a list of all blocks currently available in Jetpack.

Ad Block – The Ad block allows you to insert a Jetpack Ad unit anywhere within the content of any post or page.
Business Hours Block – The Business Hours block allows you to display your business’s opening hours on your site.
Calendly Block – Jetpack’s Calendly block allows your visitors to schedule one-on-one appointments, group events, and team meetings directly from your website.
Contact Info Block – The Contact Info block lets you add your contact information (email address, physical address, phone number) to any post or page.
Donations Block – The Donations block lets you add a payment button to any post or page for a donation, tips, and other contributions, using Stripe as the payment gateway.
Eventbrite Block – With the Eventbrite block you can embed events on posts or pages.
Form Block – The Form block lets you add a form to your post or page.
GIF Block – The GIF block allows you to easily search for and embed an animated GIF image from Giphy directly into a post or page on your WordPress site.
Google Calendar Block – The Google Calendar block allows you to easily embed a Google Calendar into your post or page
Image Compare Block – The Image Compare Block allows you to display and compare the differences between two images side by side (or above and below) thanks to a slider.
Latest Instagram Posts Block – The Latest Instagram Posts Block lets you display your most recent images from Instagram on your site. The block update automatically updates when you post new images to Instagram.
Mailchimp Block – The Mailchimp block allows visitors to join your Mailchimp list.
Map Block – The Map Block allows you to add a map to any post or page on your site.
Markdown Block – With the Markdown block you can create formatted content using only regular characters and some punctuation marks.
OpenTable Block – With the OpenTable block, you can add a reservation form on posts or pages.
Pay with PayPal Block – Pay with PayPal lets you add a payment button to any post or page, and immediately start taking PayPal payments for physical products, digital goods, or a donation.
Payments Block – The Payments Block lets you add a payment button using Stripe as the payment gateway. It works for one-time and recurring payments.
Pinterest Block – The Pinterest block is the easiest way to embed Pinterest content to your site: it allows you to embed boards, profiles, and pins.
Podcast Player Block – Jetpack’s Podcast Player block allows you to easily show your visitors a listing of recent episodes from a podcast and play them on your website.
Related Posts Block – The Related Posts feature scans all of your posts’ contents, analyzes it, and uses that to display contextual posts your visitors might be interested in reading after they’re finished with the current post.
Repeat Visitor Block – The Repeat Visitor block enables the author to control the visibility of its nested block(s) depending on how many times a visitor has previously visited the page.
Revue Block – The Revue block creates a simple signup form for readers to opt-in to receive your newsletter.
Slideshow Block – The Slideshow block lets you insert an image slideshow into a post or page.
Star Rating Block – The Ratings block allows any site author to add reviews to the site.
Subscription Form Block – The Subscription Form Block allows you to insert a subscription form within the content area of any post or page, enabling your readers to get notifications when you publish new posts.
Tiled Gallery Block – With Tiled Galleries you can display your image galleries in four styles: tiled mosaic, circular grid, square tiles, and tiled columns.
Video Block – The Video block enhances the existing WordPress Video block and allows you to upload videos from your computer to be hosted on WordPress.com, rather than on your host’s servers.
WhatsApp Button Block – The WhatsAPP Button block will allow your customers to send them a message to enquire about their product or services, or ask for support. Clicking on the button will open WhatsApp and pre-fill the phone number and initial message.