Description
ContentShield Lite is a comprehensive, zero-dependency content protection plugin for WordPress. It stops casual content theft with a full suite of frontend and server-side protection tools — all completely free.
Unlike other similar plugins, ContentShield Lite is:
- 🚫 Ad-free — no upsell banners inside your admin panel
- ⚡ Zero-dependency — pure vanilla JavaScript, no jQuery needed
- 🪶 Lightweight — assets load only on the frontend, never in admin
- 🔒 Admin-safe — scripts never load inside the WordPress dashboard
- 🎨 Beautiful UI — modern dark/light theme admin panel with tabbed navigation
Tier 1 Features (Frontend Protection)
- ✅ Disable right-click context menu
- ✅ Disable copy (Ctrl+C / Cmd+C)
- ✅ Disable cut (Ctrl+X / Cmd+X)
- ✅ Disable paste (Ctrl+V)
- ✅ Disable text selection
- ✅ Disable image dragging
- ✅ Disable image Save-As
- ✅ Disable keyboard shortcuts (F12, Ctrl+U, Ctrl+S, Ctrl+A, DevTools)
- ✅ Disable print (Ctrl+P, @media print CSS)
- ✅ Optional CSS image overlay
- ✅ Custom protection popup (fully design-customisable)
- ✅ Per-page/post protection toggle (editor sidebar)
- ✅ Skip protection for logged-in users
- ✅ Bypass by user role
- ✅ URL Exclusion Manager (search and exclude pages)
- ✅ Attempt counter with dashboard widget
Tier 2 Features (Advanced Protection)
- 🖼️ Image Watermarking — PHP/GD server-side text or logo watermarks. Original files never modified.
- 📡 RSS Feed Protection — Disable feeds, truncate to N words, or strip all HTML
- 🔗 Hotlink Protection — Apache .htaccess rules to block image embedding from external sites
- ⏰ Content Expiry — Set expiry dates per post/page. Auto-unpublish, redirect, or show expiry message
- 🔌 REST API Protection — Block scraping via WordPress REST API (4 modes)
- 📧 Weekly Email Reports — Beautiful HTML summary every Monday
Privacy
ContentShield Lite does not collect, store, or transmit any personal user data. It makes no external HTTP requests.
Screenshots
Admin settings — modern dark theme with tabbed navigation and two-column layout. 
Admin settings — light theme option. 
Protection tiles — visual grid of all protection toggles. 
URL Exclusion Manager — search and exclude pages from protection. 
Popup Design — live preview while customising colours and layout. 
Advanced features — accordion sections for Tier 2 features. 
Protection Stats — bar chart of attempts by type. 
Editor sidebar — per-page protection toggle and content expiry panel. 
Dashboard widget — live protection attempt statistics.
Installation
- Upload the
contentshield-litefolder to/wp-content/plugins/, or install via Plugins Add New Upload Plugin. - Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu.
- Go to ContentShield in your WordPress admin sidebar to configure.
FAQ
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Does this affect the WordPress admin panel?
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No. All frontend scripts are enqueued via
wp_enqueue_scriptswhich never fires in the admin area. -
Can I exclude specific pages from protection?
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Yes. Use the URL Exclusion Manager in the settings page, or toggle the option in each post/page editor sidebar.
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Does this plugin use jQuery?
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No. ContentShield Lite uses pure vanilla JavaScript.
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Does this plugin track users or collect any data?
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Absolutely not. No data is collected, stored, or transmitted anywhere.
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Will this stop 100% of content theft?
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Right-click and copy blocking deters casual copying but not technically sophisticated users. It is a useful first layer of content protection alongside proper copyright notices.
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Does image watermarking require anything special?
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Yes — it requires the PHP GD extension, which is installed on most hosting platforms. The plugin will notify you if GD is not available.
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Does hotlink protection work on all hosting?
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Hotlink protection uses Apache mod_rewrite via .htaccess and only works on Apache-based hosting. The plugin will notify you if your .htaccess file is not writable.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“ContentShield Lite” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “ContentShield Lite” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
2.0.0
- Added: Image watermarking (PHP/GD text and logo)
- Added: RSS feed protection (disable, truncate, strip HTML)
- Added: Hotlink protection via .htaccess
- Added: Content expiry per post/page with auto-unpublish cron
- Added: REST API protection (4 modes)
- Added: Weekly HTML email reports with test send
- Added: Full admin UI redesign with dark/light theme toggle
- Added: Tabbed navigation and two-column layout
- Added: URL Exclusion Manager
- Added: Attempt counter with dashboard widget
1.3.0
- Added: Per-page/post protection toggle (editor sidebar)
- Added: Skip logged-in users
- Added: Bypass by user role
- Added: Print protection (Ctrl+P + @media print CSS)
- Added: Image save-as blocking
- Added: CSS image overlay
- Added: Attempt counter with AJAX logging
1.2.0
- Added: Custom popup modal with full design customisation
- Added: Live popup preview in settings
1.1.0
- Added: Disable copy, cut, paste, text selection, image dragging, keyboard shortcuts
1.0.0
- Initial release — vanilla JS right-click disable, no jQuery.