Side by side
A summary of each plugin's WordPress.org listing, checked on 25 September 2026. “—” means the listing doesn't describe the feature, not that it can't be done with an add-on. Pricing is deliberately left out: it changes, and each vendor's own site is the place to check it.
| WP Activity Log | Simple History | Stream | Activity Log | Who Changed It | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active installs | 300,000+ | 300,000+ | 70,000+ | 200,000+ | ~90 (new) |
| Multisite | Yes | — | Yes | — | No |
| Instant alerts in the free plugin | Premium | Premium (free weekly report) | Email + webhooks | — | Email, Slack, Discord, Telegram |
| Context-based escalation with a written reason | Fixed severity per event | — | Manual highlighting | — | Yes |
| Tamper-evident (hash-chained) log | — | — | — | — | Yes, with signed exports |
| File integrity / file changes | Yes | Core checksums | Theme editor | Theme editor | File editor use only |
| WP-CLI or REST API access | — | Both | WP-CLI | — | No |
| Records the request source (admin, REST, WP-CLI, cron) | — | — | — | Yes | No |
| Comments, menus, widgets | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not yet |
How to choose
- Multisite, file monitoring or the widest integration list: WP Activity Log.
- The most readable history, WP-CLI and a REST API: Simple History.
- Fully open source with webhooks you configure yourself: Stream.
- Knowing whether a change came from the admin, REST, WP-CLI or cron: Activity Log.
- A log that flags the odd events for you, alerts you in Slack, Discord or Telegram for free, and can be proven untouched: Who Changed It.
Who Changed It is the newest and smallest of the five. It covers fewer kinds of events than the others, and it says so; what it adds is grading by context and a hash-chained log. Any of these plugins can run alongside another if you want both sets of strengths.